1 The prophet Samuel, displeased with Saul, who refused to
second his cruelty, declared that he had forfeited the
crown, and raised up a rival to him in the person of David.
Elias appears to have been a seditious subject, who, finding
himself unable to succeed in his rebellious designs, thought
proper to escape due punishment by flight. Jeremiah himself
gives us to understand that he conspired with the Assyrians
against his besieged country. He seems to have employed
himself in depriving: his fellow-citizens of both the will
and the courage to defend themselves. He purchased a field
of his relations, at the very time when he informed his
countrymen that they were about to be dispersed, and led
away in captivity. The king of Assyria recommends this
prophet to his general, Nebuzaradan, whom he commands to
take great care of him.—See Jeremiah.
2 Any thing may be found in the Bible, if it be read with
the imagination of Saint Augustine, who pretended to see all
the New Testament in the Old. According to him, the death of
Abel is a type of that of Christ; the two wives of Abraham
are the synagogue and the church; a piece of red cloth held
up by an harlot, who betrayed Jericho, signifies the blood
of Christ; the lamb, goat, and lion, are figures of Jesus
Christ; the brazen serpent represents the sacrifice on the
cross. Even the mysteries of the Christian religion are
announced in the Old Testament. Manna represents the
Eucharist, &c. See S. Aug. Serm. 78. and Ep. 156. How can a
man, in his senses, see, in the Immanuel announced by
Isaiah, the Messiah, whose name is Jesus? Isaiah c. vii. v.
14. How discover, in an obscure and crucified Jew, a leader
who shall govern Israel? How see a royal deliverer and
restorer of the Jews, in one, who, far from delivering his
nation, came only to destroy their laws; and after whose
coming their land was desolated by the Romans? A man must
be sharp-sighted indeed to find the Messiah in their
predictions. Jesus himself does not seem to have been more
clear, or happy, in his prophecies. In the Gospel of Luke,
chap. xxi. he speaks of the last judgment: he mentions
angels, who, at the sound of the trumpet, assemble mankind
together before him. He adds, "Verily I say unto you, this
generation shall not pass away, until these things are
accomplished." The world, however, still stands, and
Christians have been expecting the last judgment for
eighteen hundred years.
Men are not scrupulous respecting things which accord with their desires. When we examine, without prejudice, the prophecies of the Hebrews, we find them to be a mis-shapen mass of rhapsodies, the offspring of fanaticism and delirium. We find them obscure and enigmatical, like the oracles of the Pagans. In fine, it is evident that these pretended divine oracles are the vagaries and impostures of men, who imposed on the credulity of a superstitious nation which believes in dreams, visions, apparitions, and sorceries, and received with avidity any deception, provided it were sufficiently decorated with the marvellous. Wherever mankind are ignorant, there will be found prophets and workers of miracles, and these two branches of commerce will always decay in the same proportion as mankind become enlightened.
Among the proofs of the authenticity of their religion, Christians enumerate a multitude of martyrs, who have sealed with their blood their belief of the opinions they had embraced. There is no religion destitute of ardent defenders, who would sacrifice their lives for the opinions to which they believe their eternal happiness attached. Superstitious and ignorant men are obstinate in their prejudices. Their credulity prevents them from suspecting any deception in their spiritual guides. Their vanity persuades them that they are incapable of wavering; and if, in fine, their imaginations be strong enough to see the heavens open, and a recompense prepared therein for their courage, there is no torment they will not brave and endure. In their intoxication they will despise all torments of short duration; they will smile upon their executioners; and their souls, alienated from earthly things, will become insensible to pain. In such scenes, the hearts of spectators are softened; they admire the astonishing firmness of the martyr; they catch his enthusiasm, and believe his cause just. His courage appearing to them supernatural and divine, becomes an indubitable proof of the truth of his opinions.
Thus, by a sort of contagion, enthusiasm communicates itself. Men are always interested in the fate of those who shew the greatest firmness; and tyranny always multiplies the friends of those whom it persecutes. The constancy of the first Christians must, therefore, have produced proselytes, by a natural effect of their conduct. Martyrs prove nothing, unless it be the strength of the enthusiasm, error, and obstinacy produced by superstition, and the barbarous folly of those who persecute their fellow-creatures for religious opinions.
Every violent passion has its martyrs. Pride, vanity, prejudice, love, patriotism, and even vice itself, produces martyrs; or, at least, a contempt of every kind of danger. Is it, then, surprising, that enthusiasm and fanaticism, the strongest passions of mankind, have so often enabled men, inspired with the hopes they give, to face and despise death? Besides, if Christians can boast a catalogue of martyrs, Jews can do the same. The unfortunate Jews, condemned to the flames by the Inquisition, were martyrs to their religion; and their fortitude proves as much in its favour, as that of the Christians can do in favour of Christianity. If martyrs demonstrate the truth of a religion, there is no religion or sect which may not be looked upon as true.
In fine, among the perhaps exaggerated number of martyrs, boasted by Christians, many were rather the victims of an inconsiderate zeal, a turbulent and seditious spirit, than a real love of religion. The church itself does not presume to justify some, who, transported by a volcanic zeal, have troubled the peace of the earth, and poured out flaming destruction on all who differed in opinion from themselves; until mankind, consulting their own tranquillity and safety, have destroyed them. If men of this description were to be considered as martyrs, every disturber of society, when punished, would acquire a right to this title.
CHAP. VII.—OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
To reveal any thing to a man, is to discover to him secrets of which he was before ignorant. If we ask Christians what the secrets were, the importance of which rendered it necessary that they should be revealed by God himself, we shall be told that the greatest of those secrets, and the one most necessary to mankind, is the Unity of the Godhead; a secret which, say they, human wisdom could never have discovered, of itself. But are we not at liberty to doubt the truth of this assertion? Moses, undoubtedly, declared an only God to the Hebrews, and did all in his power to render them enemies to the idolatry and polytheism of other surrounding nations, whose belief and whose modes of worship he represented as abominable in the eyes of the celestial Monarch, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. But have not many wise men among the heathens discovered, without the assistance of the Jewish revelation, one supreme God, superior to all others? Moreover, was not Fate, to which all the other gods of the heathens were subordinate, an only God, to whose sovereign law all nature was subject? As to the colours in which Moses paints his Godhead, neither Jews nor Christians have a right to pride themselves therein. He is represented as a capricious and irascible despot, full of cruelty, injustice, partiality, and malignity. What kind of being shall we contemplate, when we add to this the ineffable attributes ascribed to him in the Christian theology? Is the Godhead described when it is said that it is a spirit, an immaterial being, which resembles nothing presented to us by our senses? Is not human understanding confounded with the negative attributes of infinity, immensity, eternity, omnipotence, and omniscience, with which he has been decorated, only to render him still more incomprehensible? How can the wisdom, the goodness, justice, and other moral qualities of this God, be reconciled with that strange and often atrocious conduct, which are attributed to him in almost every page of the Old and New Testament? Would it not have been better to have left mankind in entire ignorance of the Godhead, than to reveal to him a God made up of contradictions, which lead to eternal dispute, and serve only to trouble his repose? To reveal such a God to mankind, is only to discover to them the means to embarrass and render themselves wretched, and quarrel with and injure one another.