Again he says:
"In the second century the syncretistic sects that had sprung up in Alexandria, the very hotbed of Gnosticism, found out in Serapis a prophetic type of Christ, or the Lord and Creator of all."[502:4]
The early Christians, or worshipers of the Sun, under the name of "Christ," had, as all Sun-worshipers, a peculiar regard to the East—the quarter in which their god rose—to which point they ordinarily directed their prayers.[502:5]
The followers of Mithra always turned towards the East, when they worshiped; the same was done by the Brahmans of the East, and the Christians of the West. In the ceremony of baptism, the catechumen was placed with his face to the West, the symbolical representation of the prince of darkness, in opposition to the East, and made to spit towards it at the evil one, and renounce his works.
Tertullian says, that Christians were taken for worshipers of the Sun because they prayed towards the East, after the manner of those who adored the Sun. The Essenes—whom Eusebius calls Christians—always turned to the east to pray. The Essenes met once a week, and spent the night in singing hymns, &c., which lasted till sun-rising. As soon as dawn appeared, they retired to their cells, after saluting one another. Pliny says the Christians of Bithynia met before it was light, and sang hymns to Christ, as to a God. After their service they saluted one another. Surely the circumstances of the two classes of people meeting before daylight, is a very remarkable coincidence. It is just what the Persian Magi, who were Sun worshipers, were in the habit of doing.
When a Manichæan Christian came over to the orthodox Christians, he was required to curse his former friends in the following terms:
"I curse Zarades (Zoroaster?) who, Manes said, had appeared as a god before his time among the Indians and Persians, and whom he calls the Sun. I curse those who say Christ is the Sun, and who make prayers to the Sun, and who do not pray to the true God, only towards the East, but who turn themselves round, following the motions of the Sun with their innumerable supplications. I curse those person who say that Zarades and Budas and Christ and the Sun are all one and the same."
There are not many circumstances more striking than that of Christ Jesus being originally worshiped under the form of a Lamb—the actual "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." As we have already seen (in [Chap. XX.]), it was not till the Council of Constantinople, called In Trullo, held so late as the year 707, that pictures of Christ Jesus were ordered to be drawn in the form of a man. It was ordained that, in the place of the figure of a Lamb, the symbol used to that time, the figure of a man nailed to a cross, should in future be used.[503:1] From this decree, the identity of the worship of the Celestial Lamb and the Christian Saviour is certified beyond the possibility of doubt, and the mode by which the ancient superstitions were propagated is satisfactorily shown. Nothing can more clearly prove the general practice than the order of a council to regulate it.
The worship of the constellation of Aries was the worship of the Sun in his passage through that sign. "This constellation was called by the ancients the Lamb of God. He was also called the Saviour, and was said to save mankind from their sins. He was always honored with the appellation of Dominus or Lord. He was called The Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. The devotees addressed him in their litany, constantly repeating the words, 'O Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Grant us thy peace.'"