The Travels and Adventures of James Massey

by Simon Tyssot de Patot

This little Adventure was not the only one that happen'd to me during my Slavery, but the others were of such small Moment that I pass them over in Silence. As to the Disputes to which I was often subject, so far as to be oblig'd sometimes to proceed to Blows, the Detail of them wou'd take up too much of the Readers Time and Patience. The Turks are generally ignorant, and I cou'd hear nothing from 'em but cold Railleries against our crucify'd Jesus, which I bore with Patience; because on the one hand, they don't believe in Christ; and on the other, they were upon their own Ground, and I had no Protection to hope for from any Body. But I had much ado to contain my self when I was attack'd by Christian Renegadoes.

Among others there was a Gascon Disputant, who was really the boldest Atheist or Deist that I ever saw. He was perfectly good-natur'd; but when he was in a rallying Mood, he turn'd every thing into Ridicule, and confounded our greatest Mysteries with the Whimsies of the Jewish Talmud and the Legends of the Romish Church. My Father, said he, was assassinated one Day as he was going in Pilgrimage to our Lady of Loretto: A fine Reward this for so good a Catholick as he was! My Mother who professed the Romish Religion was dragoon'd and murder'd for her obstinate Disobedience to the Orders of the Court. And I my self in my Voyage from France to Holland, was taken by Pirates, so that in avoiding Persecution I fell into Slavery.

As I found him a young Man not only of great Wit and Learning, but also of a vast deal of Good-nature, (for all that knew him there mightily extoll'd his beneficent and friendly Temper) I very much pity'd him, and endeavour'd several times to reclaim him from his dangerous Sentiments with respect to Religion. We had frequent Conversations upon that Head, and I had great Hopes that in time I might be able to set him in the right Road of Truth; but an unhappy Accident shorten'd his Days before Heaven permitted me to perfect this charitable Work. It wou'd be too tedious to mention all the Disputes we had together, so that I shall but just glance over some of the chief Points.

When I reproach'd him with changing his Religion and professing the Mahometan, which by the way he did not believe a tittle of, he made me Answer that after a due Examination of the several Religious that had come to his Knowledge, he found nothing in any one of 'em that cou'd satisfy a rational Man, and that therefore he saw nothing which ought to hinder a wise Man from conforming at least externally to the prevailing Religion of the Country where he dwells, just as People accustom themselves to the Habits and Manners of a Country for fear of being thought ridiculous by appearing singular. And because I am like to gain more Confidence and Esteem among the People of this Country by conforming to their way of Worship, I shou'd be a great Simpleton, said he, if I depriv'd my self of that Advantage by a silly Attachment to another, which is a hundred times more impertinent and absurd. I answer'd him, that I was extremely surpriz'd to hear a Man talk at that rate who had been educated in the Christian Religion, and by his Profession ought to know it the better for having throughly study'd it. 'Tis for that very reason, reply'd he, my Friend, that I speak thus of it, because I have well examin'd it and have discover'd its Folly and Ridicule. But tho' you are so old, 'tis probable you have not yet shaken off the Yoke of the Prejudices of Education, and that you implicitly adhere to what you learnt from your Nurse or your Chaplain without farther Inquiry. I told him, that I had travell'd and seen more of the World than he thought, and that I had heard the Arguments of People of various Sentiments in the Article of Religion, but that I had never met with any System which was so worthy of God, so agreeable to Man, and which had so many Marks of Truth as the Christian Religion. That my Profession had not permitted me in my Youth to study religious Controversies so throughly as he had, but that nevertheless, I wou'd undertake to defend against all his Attacks the principal Truths of Christian Religion; as the Existence of a God; the Creation of the World; the Immortality of the Soul; the Fall of Man; the Redemption of Mankind by Jesus Christ; the Truth and Divinity of the sacred Scriptures, on which all the rest is founded; and the Necessity—

Hold, said he, there's enough, and if you can defend those Articles, I'll agree to any that you shall please to add. We will begin at the last, if you please, and so go back to the first. You know very well, said he, that Christians are not all of one Opinion with regard to the Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Some think the whole inspir'd even to the least Word; others reject this Opinion, and only maintain in the general, that with regard to the Matter, the Holy-Spirit so far guided the Writers of those sacred Books, that they cou'd not commit any Error in the Facts which they relate, nor in the Doctrine which they teach. Pray tell me which of these two Opinions you pretend to embrace?

I am not for the first, said I, and I think a Man must be quite void of Sense to maintain it, if he has read the holy Books with ever so little Attention. But as to the latter, it is supported by convincing Arguments. Not to insist upon the great Antiquity of the first Books of the Holy Scripture, which you will own to me, however, to be the oldest Monuments in the World, and which were written before the Art of Writing was known to other Nations; the marvellous Things which are contain'd in those Scriptures, the Miracles which God wrought to confirm the Revelation, and the Predictions of the holy Prophets of which we have seen a great part accomplish'd, and wait for the fulfilling of the rest, are Things which surpass all that Man can do, and which none but God can be the Author of.

You are in the right, said he, not to insist upon the Antiquity of your sacred Books, because it wou'd not be of any Advantage to you. For a Romance, or an Imposture, may be as ancient and more ancient than a true History, this is nothing to the purpose. Nevertheless, I am very far from admitting those Books to be so old as you pretend, and I defy you or any body, to prove that any of those Books was in being before the time of Esdras, that is to say, above a thousand Years after Moses, who according to you wrote the first Books. And if we attentively read the Books ascrib'd to Moses, we shall find a great many Passages which shew that they were written long after his Time. He quoted several which I pass over in Silence to avoid being tedious. Then as to your Argument, said he, which is founded upon the miraculous Things contain'd in the Scriptures, I draw a Conclusion from it quite contrary to yours. For the more a Book contains of what is marvellous and extraordinary, the more 'tis liable to Suspicion. This is the Supposition you your self wou'd form of any other Book, and if you don't think so of this, 'tis only the Effect: of your Prepossession which is very palpable, because it inclines you to admit such Evidence to prove the Truth of a Book as wou'd, if you were not prejudic'd in your Judgment, serve for the effectual Destruction of its Credit. As to the Miracles you talk of, they are only written in that Book of which you wou'd have them brought as Proofs, and therefore, as I have already said, they must tend rather to explode it. Every indifferent unprejudic'd Person receives a Relation or History of past Transactions only according to the Degrees of Probability with which it is attended, and judges it to be false or romantick by the marvellous or extraordinary Facts which it contains; for Nature was always the same at all times, and Truth was ever plain and natural. As to the Proprieties you mention'd, all the Accomplishments which are related in the same Book with the Predictions, prove nothing but that they are part of the same Romance, and were forg'd at the same time; and as for those which are pretended to have happen'd since, the Events have so little Connection with the Predictions of which they are construed to be the Accomplishment, that nothing but the Force of Prejudice can discover their Conformity. He quoted a great number of Instances to me to support what he had said, but I choose not to mention them here.

Moreover, said he, if you were well acquainted with the History of the Canon of those sacred Writings, not only of the Old Testament which you derive from the Jews, an ignorant superstitious People as ever liv'd, who were not agreed neither as to the Truth and Authority of every part of it, but also of the New Testament as it is now admitted among the generality of Christians, you wou'd find so much Ignorance, Superstition, Uncertainty and Perplexity in it, that you your self wou'd be asham'd of it. Thereupon he enter'd into the History of the Canon, and of the Manner how, and Time when it was form'd; and he talk'd to me of the Factions and Disputes among the Members of the Council of Laodicea, and some others, with regard to the several Gospels, Acts, Epistles, &c. which the several Churches or Societies of Christians had receiv'd for true, exclusive of others; of the Difficulties and Perplexities on that Head, and how some rejected what others receiv'd, together with the Reasons urg'd on both sides, insomuch that I was astonish'd to find what a Treasure of curious Things he had stor'd up in his Memory.

I reply'd, That Moses was in possession of the Credit of having written the Pentateuch, and that to destroy this there must be Proofs brought, not meer Assertions. I put him in mind that Ezra (whom he seem'd to think the Author of it) was not able, if we may judge by that undoubted Piece of His, to have compos'd what passes under Moses's Name: and that, if he were able, yet it was next to impossible for Him to have made the whole Jewish Nation believe (as they appear constantly to have done) that what he wrote, had been in being all along before the Captivity. I said that the miraculous Facts recorded in them did not, in my Judgment, take off from their Probability because they are all ascribed to a Divine Power, and are mention'd as serving some great End and Purpose: and that as to the Prophesies, some of those in Isaiah and Daniel are so visibly connected with the Accomplishment in Jesus, that a Man must be blind (I thought) not to discover their Conformity. I was going on to defend the Authority of the Books of the New Testament, and began to observe, That, notwithstanding any Disputes in the Council of Laodicea, or any other Council, yet from the Beginning some of our Gospels and Epistles had been receiv'd as of Divine Authority; and that Christianity, as to the main of it, would stand firm, if all the Pieces which had ever been doubted of by any Number of Christians, were thrown quite out of the Inquiry.

Upon this he turn'd the Discourse, and said, What Notion can you have of God, who according to you is the Sovereign Lord of the whole Universe, and can dispose of all its Parts as he pleaseth; if you believe that in order to explain his Will to Mankind, he was under a Necessity of imploying obscure, ignorant, or enthusiastical Persons to write Books, or prophesy, or preach in a remote Corner of the Earth, and to a Herd of ignorant People, without making it known to the learned and polite Nations? Do you think that was the right Method to make all Mankind sensible of so necessary a Thing as the Will of God? Has not he who created and dispos'd of every thing according to his good Pleasure, and without any Possibility of being hinder'd in it, has he not put all Things in the Condition he at first design'd them? And is not that his Will which we call the Order, Course, or Voice of Nature? To support any other particular Will in that infinitely perfect Being, is to suppose Alteration and Imperfection which is contrary to his Nature. And to imagine that he communicates to some Persons, and conceals from many others the Rules to which he wou'd have all Men conform, is to suppose him guilty of an unjust Partiality unworthy of his divine Nature. Therefore it may surely be concluded, that whatever is call'd divine Revelation in one Country or another, is really nothing but an Imposture founded upon the Weakness of Mankind in general, and invented by such as seek to impose upon them from certain Views and Designs.