the most childish and foolish to all them that looked for conceit that could possibly redemption in Israel, Luke cross the mind; a knowledge ii. 36." of future events being no more possible to the human mind, than to fly in the air is to the body. We may be told sometimes of an extraordinary guess, as we may of a wonderful jump; but neither flight nor prophecy are attributes of man and no rational man will consider the pretence to such a faculty, in any other light, than as a certain evidence of imposture, by whomsoever or in what cause soever, ad vanced.* This is one of the many passages which the Unitarian editors of the improved version wish to have rejected, assigning as one among their several reasons against it, that "though found in all manuscripts and versions now extant, it was introduced with a view to elevate the crucified Jesus to the dignity of the heroes and demigods of the heathen mythology."-p. 121. The worship of Esculapius was first established in Egypt, the fruitful parent of all varieties of superstition. The name is derived from the Oriental languages. Eusebius speaks of an Asclepios, or Esculapius, an Egyptian, and a famous physician. He is well known as the God of the art of healing, and his Egyptian or Phoenician origin, leads us irresistibly to associate his name and character with that of the ancient Therapeuts, or Society of Healers, established in the vicinity of Alexandria, whose sacred writings Eusebius has ventured to acknowledge, were the first types of our four gospels. The miracles of healing and of raising the dead, recorded in those scriptures, are exactly such as these superstitious quacks would be likely to ascribe to the founder of their fraternity. *A far more specific prediction than any that theology can pretend, occurs in the Medea of Seneca, which seems in the age of Nero, to have foretold the future discovery of America, by Christopher Columbus, an event which occurred not till 1400 years after the publication of the prophecy. This it is "Venient annis sæcula seris, Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum. "The times will come in late years, when ocean may relax the chain of things, and a vast continent may open; the sea may uncover new worlds, and Thule, cease to be the last of lands. Being honoured as a god in Phoenicia and Egypt, his worship passed into Greece, and was established first at Epidaurus, a city of Peloponnesus, bordering on the sea; where probably some.colonies first settled: a circumstance sufficient to induce the Greeks to give out that this god was a native of Greece."-Bell's Pantheon, p. 27. Among the Greeks, it was believed that the god Apollo himself had represented Esculapius as his son by a voice from the oracle (Ibid.): and it is a striking coincidence of fact, if it be no more than a coincidence, that we find the Christian Father, Eusebius, attempting to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ, from an answer given by the same oracle;* while the text of the Gospel of St. Matthew iii. 17, written certainly much later than those answers, runs, "Lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." By the mother side, Esculapius was the son of Coronis, who had received the embraces of God, but for whom, unfortunately, the worshippers of her son have forgotten to claim the honour of perpetual virginity. To conceal her pregnancy from her parents, she went to Epidaurus, and was there delivered of a son, whom she exposed upon the Mount of Myrtles; when Aristhenes, the goatherd,§ in search of a goat and a dog missing from his fold, discovered the child, whom he would have carried to his home, had he not, in approaching to lift him up, perceived his head encircled with fiery rays,|| which made him to believe the child to be divine. The voice of fame soon published the birth of a miraculous infant; upon which the people flocked from all quarters to behold this heaven-born child.¶ It was believed that "Esculapius was so expert in medicine, as not only to cure the sick, but even to raise the dead." Ovid says he did this by Hyppolitus (and Julius says the same of Tyndarus); that Pluto cited him before the tribunal of Jupiter, and complained that his * Dem. Evan. quoted, translated and commented on, in the author's Syntagma, p. 116. + Mount of Myrtles-why not Mount of Olives? Aristhenes-why not. Joseph ? § Goatherd-why not Shepherd ? Thus all Christian painters have depicted the infant Jesus. THeaven-born child.Equally applicable to Esculapius as to Jesus, is the divine doggerel annexed, Veiled in flesh, the Godhead, He- empire was considerably diminished, and in danger of becoming desolate, from the cures performed by Esculapius; so that Jupiter, in wrath, slew him with a thunderbolt. Within a short time after his death, he was deified, and received divine honours. His worship was first established at Epidaurus, and soon after propagated throughout all Greece. The cock* and serpent were especially consecrated to him, and his divinity was recognized and honoured in the last words of the dying Socrates, "Remember that we owe a cock to Esculapius." At a time when the Romans were infested with the plague, having consulted their sacred books, they learned that, in order to be delivered from it, they were to go in quest of Esculapius at Epidaurus; accordingly, an embassy was appointed of ten senators, at the head of whom was Quintus Ogulnius; and the worship of Esculapius was established at Rome A. U. c. 462, that is, Before Christ, 288. But the most remarkable coincidence is, that the worship of this god continued with scarcely diminished splendour, even for several hundred years after the establishment of Christianity. We have the best and most rationally attested account of a cure brought about by the influence of imagination in connection with his name, as late as the year 485 A. D. Marinus, a scholar of the philosopher Proclus, a. D. 485, in his life of his master, says, "I might relate very many theurgic operations of this blessed man: one, out of innumerable, I shall mention; and it is wonderful to hear.Asclipigenia, daughter of Archiades and Plutarcha, and wife of Theagenes, to whom we are much indebted, when she was yet but a young maiden, and lived with her parents, was seized with a grievous distemper, incurable by the physicians. All help from the physicians failing, as in other cases, so now in this also; her father applied to the sheet-anchor, that is, to the philosopher, as his good Saviour,† earnestly entreating him to pray for his daughter, whose condition was not unknown to him. He therefore, * The serpent is prime agent in the story of human redemption; and the cock really bears a very important character in the Gospel, in rebuking Peter for cursing and swearing. †The good Saviour, which was the express title of Esculapius, is given by Eusebius, in the mouth of his fabricated personage, Abgarus, to the no less fabricated Jesus: Αβγαρος τοπάρχης Εδέσσης Ιησε σωτηρι αγαθω αναφανεντι εν τοπω Ιεροσολύμων zaiosi. Lib. 1. c. 13, lit. D. Eccl. Hist. Abgarus, toparch of Edessa, to Jesus, the good Saviour, who hath shone forth in Jerusalem-greeting! taking with him Pericles of Lydia, who was also a philosopher and worthy of that name,* went to the temple of Esculapius, intending to pray for the sick young woman to the god; for the city (Athens) was at that time blessed in him, and still enjoyed the undemolished temple of THE SAVIOUR. But while he was praying according to the ancient form, a sudden change appeared in the damsel, and she immediately became convalescent; for THE SAVIOUR, as being God, easily healed her." With respect to the miracles ascribed to Esculapius, and continuing to be performed for so many ages by the efficacy of faith in his name. and in answer to prayers offered up in his temple; the power and influence of imagination, in producing changes in the animal economy to an indefinite extent, is well known to physicians; and, without intending any injurious imposture, the most benevolent and intelligent medical men at this day avail themselves of the patient's superstition, to aid and second the operations of medicine. A strongly excited expectation of relief will often produce such an improved tone of muscular action, and such a more vigorous flow of the animal spirits, as will be sufficient to throw off the obstructions in which the disease originated, and thus effect many extraordinary and otherwise unaccountable cures. A medical friend once succeeded in curing a poor man of chronic rheumatism, after he had followed the prescriptions of the ablest physicians without receiving the least benefit, by working upon his imagination to make sure of receiving a cure, by taking seven tea-spoonfuls of the decoction of a brickbat that should be found in a churchyard, the brickbat to be boiled for seven hours, in seven quarts of water; the essential conditions of the miracle being that its efficacy was not to be doubted; and the whole process to be kept an inviolable secret. This prescription he affected to translate out of the spider-leg text of a Greek folio. The cure was perfect. The primitive Christians were content never to call in question the miracles pretended by their Pagan * I preserve so much of the original text as is essential to the proof of the matter before us: Και γαρ Ανγει εις το ασκληπειον προσευξόμενος τω θεω υπερ της καμνεσης. ηυτυχει τότε η πολις τοτε και είχεν ετι απορθητον το το Σωτηρος ιερον. Ευχογενε αυτό τον αρχαιότερον τροπον, αθρόα μεταβολη περι την κορην εφαινετο, και ραστωνη εξαίφνης εγίγνετο. Ρεια γαρ ο Σωτηρ ωστε θεος ιαςατο.—Quoted in Lardner, vol. 4, p. 410. + The ancient form, forsitan; "Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven," &c. |
