earth (he being one of the supreme powers of earth), and each of the powers might exercise their peculiar jurisdiction over the soul and body of the guilty.

The decrees of the Council of Constantinople had ascertained the true standard of the faith, and the ecclesiastics, who governed the conscience of Theodosius, suggested the most effectual methods of persecution. In the space of fifteen years he promulgated at least fifteen severe edicts against the heretics, more especially against those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity.'

Arius (the presbyter of whom we have spoken in Chapter XXXV., as declaring that, in the nature of things, a father must be older than his son) was excommunicated for his so-called heretical notions concerning the Trinity. His followers, who were very numerous, were called Arians. Their writings, if they had been permitted to exist,' would undoubtedly contain the lamentable story of the persecution which affected the church under the reign of the impious Emperor Theodosius.

In Asia Minor the people were persecuted by orders of Constantius, and these orders were more than obeyed by Macedonius. The civil and military powers were ordered to obey his commands; the consequence was, he disgraced the reign of Constantius. "The rites of baptism were conferred on women and children, who, for that purpose, had been torn from the arms of their friends and parents; the mouths of the communicants were held open by a wooden engine, while the consecrated bread was forced down their throats; the breasts of tender virgins were either burned with redhot egg-shells, or inhumanly compressed between sharp and heavy boards." The principal assistants of Macedonius - the tool of Constantius in the work of persecution, were the two bishops of Nicomedia and Cyzicus, who were esteemed for their virtues, and especially for their charity.*

Julian, the successor of Constantius, has described some of the theological calamities which afflicted the empire, and more especially in the East, in the reign of a prince who was the slave of his own passions, and of those of his eunuchs: "Many were imprisoned, and persecuted, and driven into exile. Whole troops of those who are styled heretics were massacred, particularly at Cyzicus, and at Samosata. In Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Gallatia, and in many

1 Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. pp. 91, 92. All their writings were ordered to be destroyed.

Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 359.
Ibid. note 154.

other provinces, towns and villages were laid waste, and utterly destroyed."

Persecutions in the name of Christ Jesus were inflicted on the heathen in most every part of the then known world. Even among the Norwegians, the Christian sword was unsheathed. They clung tenaciously to the worship of their forefathers, and numbers of them died real martyrs for their faith, after suffering the most cruel torments from their persecutors. It was by sheer compulsion that the Norwegians embraced Christianity. The reign of Olaf Tryggvason, a Christian king of Norway, was in fact entirely devoted to the propagation of the new faith, by means the most revolting to humanity. His general practice was to enter a district at the head of a formidable force, summon a Thing,' and give the people the alternative of fighting with him, or of being baptized. Most of them, of course, preferred baptism to the risk of a battle with an adversary so well prepared for combat; and the recusants were tortured to death with fiend-like ferocity, and their estates confiscated.' These are some of the reasons "why Christianity prospered."

1 Julian Epistol. lii. p. 436. Quoted in Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 360.

866 'Thing"-a general assembly of the freemen, who gave their assent to a measure by

striking their shields with their drawn swords. See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 180, 351, and 470.

NOTE.-The learned Christian historian Pagi endeavors to smoothe over the crimes of Constantine. He says: "As for those few murders (which Eusebius says nothing about), had he thought it worth his while to refer to them, he would perhaps, with Baronius himself have said, that the young Licinius (his infant nephew), although the fact might not generally have been known, had most likely been an accomplice in the treason of his father. That as to the murder of his son, the Emperor is rather to be considered as unfortunate than as criminal. And with respect to his putting his wife to death, he ought to be pronounced rather a just and righteous judge. As for his numerous friends, whom Eutropius informs us he put to death one after another, we are bound to believe that most of them deserved it, and they were found out to have abused the Emperor's too great credulity, for the gratification of their own inordinate wickedness, and insatiable avarice; and such no doubt was that SOPATER the philospher, who was at last put to death upon the accusation of Adlabius, and that by the righteous dispensation of God, for his having attempted to alienate the mind of Constantine from the true religion." (Pagi Ann. 324, quoted in Latin by Dr. Lardner, vol. iv. p. 371, in his notes for the benefit of the learned reader, but gives no rendering into English.)

29

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE ANTIQUITY OF PAGAN RELIGIONS.

We shall now compare the great antiquity of the sacred books and religions of Paganism with those of the Christian, so that there may be no doubt as to which is the original, and which the copy. Allusions to this subject have already been made throughout this work, we shall therefore devote as little space to it here as possible.

In speaking of the sacred literature of India, Prof. Monier Williams says:

"Sanskrit literature, embracing as it does nearly every branch of knowledge is entirely deficient in one department. It is wholly destitute of trustworthy historical records. Hence, little or nothing is known of the lives of ancient Indian authors, and the dates of their most celebrated works cannot be fixed with certainty. A fair conjecture, however, may be arrived at by comparing the most ancient with the more modern compositions, and estimating the period of time required to effect the changes of structure and idiom observable in the language. In this manner we may be justified in assuming that the hymns of the Veda were probably composed by a succession of poets at different dates between 1500 and 1000 years B. C."1

Prof. Wm. D. Whitney shows the great antiquity of the Vedic hymns from the fact that,

"The language of the Vedas is an older dialect, varying very considerably, both in its grammatical and lexical character, from the classical Sanscrit.” And M. de Coulanges, in his " Ancient City," says:

"We learn from the hymns of the Vedas, which are certainly very ancient, and from the laws of Manu," "what the Aryans of the east thought nearly thirty-five centuries ago."

That the Vedas are of very high antiquity is unquestionable; but however remote we may place the period when they were written, we must necessarily presuppose that the Hindostanic race had

1 Williams' Hinduism, p. 19. See also, Prof. Max Müller's Lectures on the Origin of Religion, pp. 145-158, and p. 67, where he speaks of "the Hindus, who, thousands of years ago,

had reached in Upanishads the loftiest heights of philosophy."

a The Ancient City, p. 13.

already attained to a comparatively high degree of civilization, otherwise men capable of framing such doctrines could not have been found. Now this state of civilization must necessarily have been preceded by several centuries of barbarism, during which we cannot possibly admit a more refined faith than the popular belief in elementary deities.

We shall see in our next chapter that these very ancient Vedic hymns contain the origin of the legend of the Virgin-born God and Saviour, the great benefactor of mankind, who is finally put to death, and rises again to life and immortality on the third day.

The Geetas and Puranas, although of a comparatively modern date, are, as we have already seen, nevertheless composed of matter to be found in the two great epic poems, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which were written many centuries before the time assigned as that of the birth of Christ Jesus.'

The Pali sacred books, which contain the legend of the virginborn God and Saviour - Sommona Cadom are known to have been in existence 316 B. c.2

We have already seen that the religion known as Buddhism, and which corresponds in such a striking manner with Christianity, has now existed for upwards of twenty-four hundred years."

Prof. Rhys Davids says:

"There is every reason to believe that the Pitakas (the sacred books which contain the legend of 'The Buddha '), now extant in Ceylon, are substantially identical with the books of the Southern Canon, as settled at the Council of Patna about the year 250 B. C. As no works would have been received into the Canon which were not then believed to be very old, the Pitakas may be approximately placed in the fourth century B. C., and parts of them possibly reach back very nearly, if not quite, to the time of Gautama himself."

The religion of the ancient Persians, which corresponds in so very many respects with that of the Christians, was established by Zoroaster-who was undoubtedly a Brahman-and is contained

1 See Monier Williams' Hinduism, pp. 109, 110, and Indian Wisdom, p. 493.

2 See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 576, for the authority of Prof. Max Müller.

"The religion known as Buddhism-from the title of The Buddha,' meaning 'The Wise,' The Enlightened—has now existed for 2460 years, and may be said to be the prevailing religion of the world." (Chambers's Encyclo.)

This Council was assembled by Asoka in the eighteenth year of his reign. The name of this king is honored wherever the teachings of Buddha have spread, and is reverenced from the Volga to Japan, from Ceylon and

Siam to the borders of Mongolia and Siberia.
Like his Christian prototype Constantine, he
was converted by a miracle. After his con-
version, which took place in the tenth year of
his reign, he became a very zealous supporter
of the new religion. He himself built many
monasteries and dagabas, and provided many
monks with the necessaries of life; and he
encouraged those about his court to do the
same. He published edicts throughout his
empire, enjoining on all his subjects morality
and justice.

Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 10.
See Chapter VII.

in the Zend-Avesta, their sacred book or Bible. This book is very ancient. Prof. Max Müller speaks of "the sacred book of the Zoroastrians" as being "older in its language than the cuneiform inscriptions of Cyrus (B. c. 560), Darius (B. c. 520), and Xerxes (B. C. 485) those ancient Kings of Persia, who knew that they were kings by the grace of Auramazda, and who placed his sacred image high on the mountain-records of Behistun." That ancient book, or its fragments, at least, have survived many dynasties and kingdoms, and is still believed in by a small remnant of the Persian race, now settled at Bombay, and known all over the world by the name of Parsees.'

"The Babylonian and Phenician sacred books date back to a fabulous antiquity;" and so do the sacred books and religion of Egypt.

Prof. Mahaffy, in his "Prolegomena to Ancient History," says:

"There is indeed hardly a great and fruitful idea in the Jewish or Christian systems which has not its analogy in the Egyptian faith, and all these theological conceptions pervade the oldest religion of Egypt.”

The worship of Osiris, the Lord and Saviour, must have been of extremely ancient date, for he is represented as "Judge of the Dead," in sculptures contemporary with the building of the Pyramids, centuries before Abraham is said to have been born. Among the many hieroglyphic titles which accompany his figure in those sculptures, and in many other places on the walls of temples and tombs, are, "Lord of Life," "The Eternal Ruler," "Manifester of Good," "Revealer of Truth," "Full of Goodness and Truth," etc.

In speaking of the "Myth of Osiris," Mr. Bonwick says:

"This great mystery of the Egyptians demands serious consideration. Its antiquity-its universal hold upon the people for over five thousand years-its identification with the very life of the nation-and its marvellous likeness to the creed of modern date, unite in exciting the greatest interest.""

1 Müller: Lectures on the Science of Religion, p. 235.

2 This small tribe of Persians were driven from their native land by the Mohammedan conquerors under the Khalif Omar, in the seventh century of our era. Adhering to the ancient religion of Persia, which resembles that of the Veda, and bringing with them the records of their faith, the Zend-Avesta of their propnet Zoroaster, they settled down in the neighborhood of Surat, about one thousand one hundred years ago, and became great merchants and shipbuilders. For two or three centuries we know little of their history.

Their religion prevented them from making proselytes, and they never multiplied within themselves to any extent, nor did they amalgamate with the Hindoo population, so that even now their number only amounts to about seventy thousand. Nevertheless, from their busy, enterprising habits, in which they emulate Europeans, they form an important section of the population of Bombay and Western India.

Movers Quoted in Dunlap's Spirit Hist.,

p. 261.

• Prolegomena, p. 417.

Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 162.