OR, A CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO THE HISTORY OF JESUS OF NAZARETH; BEING A RATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPELS. The Cross was the banner, under which madmen assembled to glut the PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETORS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL 1827. Charles & Parton of Cambridge. Southern District of New-York, ss. L. S. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the 21st day of March, A. D. 1827, in the fifty-first year of the Independence of the United States of America, George Houston, of the said Dis******** trict, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor in the words following, to wit: "Ecce Homo! Or a Critical Inquiry into the History of Jesus of Nazareth; being a Rational Analysis of the Gospels. The Cross was the banner under which madmen assembled to glut the earth with blood.-Vide Chap. 18. The first American edition, revised and corrected." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled "An Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." FRED. J. BETTS, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York. PREFACE. THE first edition of the following work was printed at Edinburgh in the year 1799; but it was not till 1813, when a second edition appeared in London, that it was publicly announced by the author. Two years imprisonment, and a fine of two hundred pounds sterling, was the consequence of this fearless act; and to justify so wanton an outrage, the pious instigators of it sheltered themselves under the fallacious plea, that the religion which the writer attacked, was 66 a part of the law of the land, and therefore must be protected:" thus tacitly acknowledging, that they were incapable of maintaining it without the assistance of the civil power Although a few fanatics have endeavored in this country, to identify what is erroneously called, "the common law of England," on our free institutions, for the purpose of suppressing this and similar works, all their efforts to accomplish their object have been defeated by the liberality of sentiment which pervades society, and which is now more conspicuous in the United States, than it was at any former period of our history. We are aware there are some who have had the courage to exercise their own judgments on religious topics, and who have in consequence, discovered the frauds practised on the minds of the credulous, but who, nevertheless, entertain the opinion, that the sentiments promulgated in the following pages, are calculated to do harm among the uninformed, who it is thought, require to be deceived in order to be governed. But we have yet to learn, that free discussion, with the view of arriving at the truth, can injure any one. It is only error iv. CHAP. XVII.-General Reflections on the Life of Jesus;-Preaching of the Apostles;-Conversion of St. Paul;-Establishment of Christianity;-Persecution it Suffers;-Causes of its Progress CHAP. XVIII.—Account of Christianity, from Constantine to the present Time 183 201 3 INTRODUCTION. ALTHOUGH the writings of the New Testament are in the hands of every one, nothing is more uncommon than to find the professors of Christianity acquainted with the history of the founder of their religion; and even among those who have perused that history, it is still more rare to find any who have ventured seriously to examine it. It must, indeed, be acknowledged, that the ignorance of the one, and the want of reflection in the other, on a subject which they, nevertheless, regard as of infinite importance, may arise from the dislike naturally occasioned by the perusal of the New Testament. In that work there is a confusion, an obscurity, and a barbarity of stile, well adapted to confound the ignorant, and to disgust enlightened minds. Scarcely is there a history, ancient or modern, which does not possess more method and clearness than that of Jesus; neither do we perceive that the Holy Spirit, its reputed author, has surpassed, or even equalled many profane historians, whose writings are not so important to mankind. The clergy confess, that the apostles were illiterate men, and of rough manners; and it does not appear that the Spirit which inspired them, troubled itself with correcting their defects. On the contrary, it seems to have adopted them; to have accommodated itself to the weak understandings of its instruments; and to have inspired them with works in which we do not find the judgment, order, or precision, that prevail in many human compositions. Hence, the gospels exhibit a |