Ancient Faiths And Modern. Thomas Inman
successors racked, roasted, and tormented their opponents, with a malignancy and cruelty as great as that which they themselves had execrated when practised upon their predecessors. From the moment that Christianity became a political power, its history resembled that of any tyrant or other ruler, and it is filled with misrepresentation, lying, fraud, the records of fighting and slaughter, of brutal passions, frightful laws, and horrible punishments; in fact, the record of political Christianity is that of a Devil in sheep's clothing. Even Calvin, one of our cherished reformers, burnt another Protestant almost in the same year as the Papists burnt Ridley and Latimer. The English Episcopalians in Scotland, and the Cromwellian Puritans in Ireland, showed more of the ravening wolf in their actions than of the amiable shepherd, who "gently leads" the weak ones of his flock. In fact, the more loud the proclamation of a pure Christianity, the more devilish is the practice of its heralds.
When I turned to the consideration of the life of Jesus, it was clear that the ground was already fully occupied. In 1799 a Mr. Houston published a work entitled Ecce Homo; or, a Critical Inquiry into the History of Jesus Christ: being an Analysis of the Gospels, a second edition of which was made public fourteen years afterwards, and, as a result, its publisher (D. J. Eaton) was prosecuted, and such of the impressions as could be collected were publicly burned in St. George's Fields, London, by the common hangman, whose business it was to strangle truth as well as murderers. This book, which is little known to modern readers, is strictly what it professes to be—a critical inquiry into the history of Jesus Christ, and it may, to a great extent, be considered as the progenitor of more modern treatises. It does not materially differ from the Ecce Homo of to-day, or from the other works which we shall name, except in its style and composition. Having been written when all were in the habit of expressing their views in strong language, and when opponents were abused in terms of coarse invective, the author has expressed himself in a manner calculated to offend rather than to convince, and to stir up anger rather than to encourage thought. Yet his arguments are unanswerable, and his deductions unimpeachable, by those who know the value of evidence and exercise their power of ratiocination. I have been unable to find that any work was written in refutation of the author's views, and the only opposition to it was from the usual agent of the weak-minded, but strong-bodied—persecution.
In more recent times, and within a very short period of each other—so short, indeed, that we may say that the books were composed simultaneously in Hindostan, Germany, France, and England—there have appeared A Voice from the Ganges, Strauss' New Life of Jesus, Kenan's Life of Jesus, The English Life of Jesus, by Mr. Thomas Scott, of Norwood, a second Ecce Homo, from a modern Professor, and The Prophet of Nazareth, by Owen Meredith.* In these volumes, the historical value of the Gospel narratives closely and critically examined, and a just appreciation of the character, preaching, and practice of the Prophet of Nazareth are honestly sought after, and, in the opinion of impartial readers, they must be held to have been attained. Throughout the series which we have mentioned nothing that is capable of demonstration, or of approximate proof, is taken for granted. The scholarship of the critical philosopher everywhere overbears the prejudice of the Christian bigot. Since the appearance of these another author has treated upon the same subject, but only cursorily, and as bearing upon other matters, in a work entitled The Book of God; or, The Apocalypse of Adam Oannes, which was published anonymously, 1868.
* Whilst this sheet was in the printer's hands, a most
remarkable book was published anonymously, entitled,
Supernatural Religion, in two volumes. In it there is a most scholarly account of the origin of the New Testament writings, one which every thoughtful person should peruse.
Between the publication of the first Ecce Homo and the second, viz., in 1836, there was printed, for private circulation, a very remarkable work, entitled Anacalypsis; or, an Attempt to draw aside the Veil of the Saitic Isis, by Godfrey Higgins. His two volumes are replete with learning, and with deductions more startling than any which had appeared prior to his own time; but the subject matter is so badly arranged, that it is with very great difficulty that the trains of thought which occupied the author's mind can be dis-. covered. His main idea is, that very nearly everything in religion which appears to be mythical or mysterious enfolds certain astronomical facts—such as the precession of equinoxes, the duration of cycles of time—such as are necessary to reproduce exactly a concordance between certain terrestrial and celestial phenomena. With this theory he interweaves an amazing number of facts which seem to favour the opinion enunciated in the book of Ecclesiastes—i.e., that there is nothing new under the sun. He shows that the idea of "incarnations," the birth of a heavenly child from a pure virgin, and a variety of so-called Christian dogmas, have existed in every age of which we have historical accounts.
He gives a vivid sketch of the nature of Christianity and its progress from century to century, and he expresses himself respecting its modern developments much in the same strain, though in a far more gentlemanlike style, as did his contemporary, the Rev. R. Taylor, to whom was given, or who assumed for himself, the title of the Devil's chaplain.
In the estimation of some of these writers, Jesus, the son of Mary, is quite as mythical a being as Hercules, the son of Alcmena. This view has been more recently adopted by some freethinkers of the present day. The main support on which such individuals rely is the fact that there is no mention of Jesus by any contemporary historian; and that, although there are extant Jewish records of current history, at the time in which Christ is said to have lived, they make no mention of him who is now called the Saviour and of his wonderful history. It is pointed out that the histories of the Gospels came out with marvellous rapidity, from Alexandria, about the end of the first century, at a time when all contemporaries of Jesus were dead.
To this work of Higgins it is probable that we shall have repeatedly to refer, for his language is frequently so forcible that it cannot be improved, and, moreover, he very often quotes from books, copies of which I have been unable to obtain.
When I found that the ground which I intended to occupy had already been so well and so ably cultivated, it occurred to me that it would be advisable to take a wider flight than was originally contemplated, and, instead of examining the Christian faith alone, to associate with it an account of the faiths of those nations of whom we have some knowledge. By this means it appeared to me, that we should be enabled to see clearly, how far the current belief and practice of Christendom differs from the doctrines and practices of those to whom Christianity could never, by any possibility, have come, and we can examine, incidentally, into the teachings of Jesus, and compare them with that of his predecessor, Sakya Muni, or Buddha. We may also investigate impartially such doctrines as the immaculate conception, and the existence of angels.
When treating, however, a subject like the religions of the ancient and modern world, it is difficult to frame the history so as to bring out the salient points, in a manner satisfactory to the reader or to the writer. The latter is tempted to begin, as he believes, at the beginning, and to trace the development of religious thought from its simplest expression up to its highest aspiration. This temptation becomes all the stronger if, in the course of his study, he has investigated the animal and vegetable creations. In those vast kingdoms he sees that the philosopher is able to lead his disciples onwards from the minute monad, or the simplest mass of matter, to the gigantic mastodon, without any very conspicuous flaw or break in continuity; but, on closely observing his method of proceeding, the student finds that links which connect genera or species together are found in countries so wide apart, that no direct communication can be supposed between the one type and the other. Thus the gap between mammals and birds is said to be filled by the "ornithorhynchus paradoxus," an animal living in a vast island, in which scarcely one quadruped mammalian is known to have existed, and where the aboriginal birds form a class peculiar to Australia, and have no resemblance to the creature referred to.
Yet, though the temptation is great, and although we feel justified in reasoning from the known to the unknown, and in supplying missing links from analogy, or from our own imagination, still, we consider that it will be our best plan to confine ourselves, as far as possible, to that which is written, and to describe first, the religious ideas and practices of some so-called savages; secondly, the ideas and practices of some ancient races, whose histories, more