Chapter XII: The Miraculous Birth of Christ Jesus (2)

The Jewish Christians then--the congregation of Jerusalem, and their immediate successors, the Ebionites or Nazarenes--saw in their master nothing more than _a man_. From this, and the other facts which we have seen in this chapter, it is evident that the man Jesus of Nazareth was deified long after his death, just as many other men had been deified centuries before his time, and even _after_. Until it had been settled by a council of bishops that Jesus was not only _a God_, but "_God himself in human form_," who appeared on earth, as did Crishna of old, to redeem and save mankind, there were many theories concerning his nature.

Among the early Christians there were a certain class called by the later Christians _Heretics_. Among these may be mentioned the "_Carpocratians_," named after one Carpocrates. They maintained that Jesus was a _mere man_, born of Joseph and Mary, _like other men_, but that he was good and virtuous. "Some of them have the vanity," says _Irenæus_, "to think that they may equal, or in some respects exceed, Jesus himself."[135:2]

These are called by the general name of _Gnostics, and comprehend almost all the sects of the first two ages_.[135:3] They said that "all the ancients, and even the Apostles themselves, received and taught the same things which they held; and that the truth of the Gospel had been preserved till the time of _Victor_, the thirteenth Bishop of Rome, but by his successor, _Zephyrinus_, the truth had been corrupted."[135:4]

Eusebius, speaking of _Artemon_ and his followers, who denied the divinity of Christ, says:

"They affirm that all our ancestors, yea, and the Apostles
themselves, were of the same opinion, and taught the same with
them, and that this their true doctrine (for so they call it)
was preached and embraced unto the time of Victor, the
thirteenth Bishop of Rome after Peter, and corrupted by his
successor Zephyrinus."[136:1]

There were also the "_Cerinthians_," named after one Cerinthus, who maintained that Jesus was _not_ born of a virgin, which to them appeared impossible, but that he was the son of Joseph and Mary, _born altogether as other men are_; but he excelled all men in virtue, knowledge and wisdom. At the time of his baptism, "_the Christ_" came down upon him in the shape of a dove, and _left him_ at the time of his crucifixion.[136:2]

Irenæus, speaking of Cerinthus and his doctrines, says:

"He represents Jesus as the son of Joseph and Mary, according
to the ordinary course of human generation, and _not_ as
having been born of a virgin. He believed nevertheless that he
was more righteous, prudent and wise than most men, and that
_the Christ_ descended upon, and entered into him, at the time
of his baptism."[136:3]

The _Docetes_ were a numerous and learned sect of Asiatic Christians who invented the _Phantastic_ system, which was afterwards promulgated by the Marcionites, the Manicheans, and various other sects.

They denied the truth and authenticity of the Gospels, as far as they related to the conception of Mary, the birth of Jesus, and the thirty years that preceded the exercise of his ministry.

Bordering upon the Jewish and Gentile world, the _Cerinthians_ labored to reconcile the _Gnostic_ and the _Ebionite_, by confessing in the _same Messiah_ the supernatural union of a man and a god; and this _mystic_ doctrine was adopted, with many fanciful improvements, by many sects. The hypothesis was this: that Jesus of Nazareth was a mere mortal, the legitimate son of Joseph and Mary, but he was _the best_ and wisest of the human race, selected as the worthy instrument to restore upon earth the worship of the true and supreme Deity. When he was baptized in the Jordan, _and not till then_, he became _more than man_. At that time, _the Christ_, the first of the _Æons_, the Son of God himself, descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, _to inhabit his mind_, and direct his actions during the allotted period of _his ministry_. When he was delivered into the hands of the Jews, _the Christ_ forsook him, flew back to the world of spirits, and left the _solitary Jesus_ to suffer, to complain, and to die. This is why he said, while hanging on the cross: "My God! My God! why hast thou forsaken me?"[137:1]

Here, then, we see the _first_ budding out of--what was termed by the _true_ followers of Jesus--_heretical doctrines_. The time had not yet come to make Jesus _a god_, to claim that he had been born of a virgin. As he _must_, however, have been different from other mortals--throughout the period of his ministry, at least--the Christ _must_ have entered into him at the time of his baptism, and _as mysteriously_ disappeared when he was delivered into the hands of the Jews.

In the course of time, the seeds of the faith, which had slowly arisen in the rocky and ungrateful soil of Judea, were transplanted, in full maturity, to the happier climes of the _Gentiles_; and the strangers of _Rome_ and _Alexandria, who had never beheld the manhood_, were more ready to embrace the _divinity_ of Jesus.

The polytheist and the philosopher, the Greek and the barbarian, were alike accustomed to receive--as we have seen in this chapter--a long succession and infinite chain of angels, or deities, or _æons_, or emanations, issuing from the throne of light. Nor could it seem strange and incredible _to them_, that the first of the _æons_, the Logos, or Word of God, of the same substance with the Father, should descend upon earth, to deliver the human race from vice and error. The histories of their countries, their odes, and their religions were teeming with such ideas, as happening in the past, and they were also _looking for and expecting an Angel-Messiah_.[137:2]

Centuries rolled by, however, before the doctrine of Christ Jesus, the Angel-Messiah, became a settled question, an established tenet in the Christian faith. The dignity of Christ Jesus was measured by _private judgment_, according to the indefinite _rule of Scripture_, or _tradition_ or _reason_. But when his pure and proper divinity had been established _on the ruins of Arianism_, the faith of the Catholics trembled _on the edge of a precipice_ where it was impossible to recede, dangerous to stand, dreadful to fall; and the _manifold inconveniences of their creed_ were aggravated by the sublime character of their theology. They hesitated to pronounce that _God himself_, the second person of an equal and consubstantial Trinity, was _manifested in the flesh_,[137:3] that the Being who pervades the universe _had been confined in the womb of Mary_; that his eternal duration had been marked by the days, and months, and years of human existence; _that the Almighty God had been scourged and crucified_; that his impassible essence _had felt pain and anguish_; that his omniscience was _not exempt from ignorance_; and that _the source of life and immortality expired on Mount Calvary_.

These alarming consequences were affirmed with unblushing simplicity by Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea, and one of the luminaries of the Church. The son of a learned grammarian, he was skilled in all the sciences of Greece; eloquence, erudition, and philosophy, conspicuous in the volumes of Apollinaris, were humbly devoted to the service of religion.

The worthy friend of Athanasius, the worthy antagonist of Julian, he bravely wrestled with the Arians and polytheists, _and though he affected the rigor of geometrical demonstration_, his commentaries revealed the literal and allegorical sense of the Scriptures.

_A mystery_, which had long floated in the looseness of popular belief, was defined by his perverse diligence in a technical form, _and he first proclaimed the memorable words, "One incarnate nature of Christ._"[138:1]

This was about A. D. 362, he being Bishop of Laodicea, in Syria, at that time.[138:2]

The recent zeal against the errors of Apollinaris reduced the Catholics to a seeming agreement with the _double-nature_ of Cerinthus. But instead of a temporary and occasional alliance, they established, and Christians _still embrace_, the substantial, indissoluble, and everlasting _union of a perfect God with a perfect man_, of the second person of the Trinity with a reasonable soul and human flesh. In the beginning of the _fifth century_, the unity of the two natures was the prevailing doctrine of the church.[138:3] From that time, until a comparatively recent period, the cry was: "_May those who divide Christ[138:4] be divided with the sword; may they be hewn in pieces, may they be burned alive!_" These were actually the words of a _Christian_ synod.[139:1] Is it any wonder that after this came the _dark ages_? How appropriate is the name which has been applied to the centuries which followed! _Dark_ indeed they were. Now and then, however, a ray of light was seen, which gave evidence of the coming _morn_, whose glorious light we now enjoy. But what a grand light is yet to come from the noon-day sun, which must shed its glorious rays over the whole earth, ere it sets.

FOOTNOTES:

[111:1] Matthew, i. 18-25.

[111:2] The Luke narrator tells the story in a different manner. His account is more like that recorded in the KORAN, which says that Gabriel appeared unto Mary in the shape of a perfect man, that Mary, upon seeing him, and seeming to understand his intentions, said: "If thou fearest God, thou wilt not approach me." Gabriel answering said: "Verily, I am the messenger of the Lord, and am sent to give thee a holy son." (Koran, ch. xix.)

[112:1] Instead, however, of the benevolent Jesus, the "Prince of Peace"--as Christian writers make him out to be--the Jews were expecting a daring and irresistible warrior and conqueror, who, armed with greater power than Cæsar, was to come upon earth to rend the fetters in which their hapless nation had so long groaned, to avenge them upon their haughty oppressors, and to re-establish the kingdom of Judah.

[112:2] Vol. v. p. 294.

[112:3] Moor, in his "_Pantheon_," tells us that a learned Pandit once observed to him that the English were a new people, and had only the record of one Avatara, but the Hindoos were an ancient people, and had accounts of a great many.

[112:4] This name has been spelled in many different ways, such as Krishna, Khrishna, Krishnu, Chrisna, Cristna, Christna, &c. We have followed Sir Wm. Jones's way of spelling it, and shall do so throughout.

[113:1] See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. pp. 259-275.

[113:2] Ibid. p. 260. We may say that, "In him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Colossians, ii. 9.)

[113:3] Allen's India, p. 397.

[113:4] Indian Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 45.

[113:5] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 270.

[113:6] Like Mary, the mother of Jesus, Devaki is called the "_Virgin Mother_," although she, as well as Mary, is said to have had other children.

[114:1] Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 327.

[114:2] Ibid. p. 329.

[114:3] Vishnu Purana, p. 502.

[114:4] Ibid. p. 440.

[114:5] "Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the _mystery_, which was kept secret since the world began." (Romans, xvi. 15.) "And without controversy, great is the _mystery_ of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." (1 Timothy, iii. 16.)

[114:6] Vishnu Purana, p. 492, _note_ 3.

[114:7] Geeta, ch. iv.

[115:1] Bhagavat Geeta, Lecture iv. p. 52.

[115:2] Ibid., Lecture iv. p. 79.

[115:3] It is said that there have been several Buddhas (see ch. xxix). We speak of _Gautama_. Buddha is variously pronounced and expressed Boudh, Bod, Bot, But, Bud, Budd, Buddou, Bouttu, Bota, Budso, Pot, Pout, Pota, Poti, and Pouti. The Siamese make the final _t_ or _d_ quiescent, and sound the word Po; whence the Chinese still further vary it to Pho or Fo. BUDDHA--which means _awakened_ or _enlightened_ (see Müller: Sci. of Relig., p. 308)--is the proper way in which to spell the name. We have adopted this throughout this work, regardless of the manner in which the writer from which we quote spells it.

[115:4] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 86.

[115:5] FO-PEN-HING is the life of Gautama Buddha, translated from the Chinese Sanskrit by Prof. Samuel Beal.

[115:6] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 25.

[115:7] Hardy: Manual of Buddhism, p. 141.

[115:8] A Christian sect called Collyridians believed that Mary was born of a virgin, as Christ is related to have been born of her (See _note_ to the "Gospel of the Birth of Mary" [Apocryphal]; also King: The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 91, and Gibbon's Hist. of Rome, vol. v. p. 108, _note_). This idea has been recently adopted by the Roman Catholic Church. They now claim that Mary was born as immaculate as her son. (See Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 75, and The Lily of Israel, pp. 6-15; also fig. 17, ch. xxxii.)

"The gradual _deification_ of Mary, though slower in its progress, follows, in the Romish Church, a course analogous to that which the Church of the first centuries followed, in elaborating the deity of Jesus. With almost all the Catholic writers of our day, Mary is the universal mediatrix; _all power has been given to her in heaven and upon earth_. Indeed, more than one serious attempt has been already made in the Ultramontane camp to unite Mary in some way to the _Trinity_; and if Mariolatry lasts much longer, this will probably be accomplished in the end." (Albert Réville.)

[116:1] Huc's Travels, vol. i. pp. 326, 327.

[116:2] Ibid. p. 327.

[116:3] Oriental Religions, p. 604.

[116:4] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah.

[116:5] Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 309, and King's Gnostics, p. 167.

[116:6] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, pp. 10, 25 and 44.

[117:1] See Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. 36, _note_. Ganesa, the Indian God of Wisdom, is either represented as an elephant or a man with an elephant's head. (See Moore's Hindu Pantheon, and vol. i. of Asiatic Researches.)

[117:2] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 83.

[117:3] Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 38, 39.

[117:4] Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 131.

[118:1] Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 212.

[118:2] King: The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 168, and Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 485. R. Spence Hardy says: "The body of the Queen was transparent, and the child could be distinctly seen, like a priest seated upon a throne in the act of saying bana, or like a golden image enclosed in a vase of crystal; so that it could be known how much he grew every succeeding day." (Hardy: Manual of Buddhism, p. 144.) The same thing was said of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Early art represented the infant distinctly visible in her womb. (See Inman's Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, and chap. xxix. this work.)

[118:3] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 34.

[118:4] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 185. See also Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 162 and 308.

[119:1] See Asiatic Res., vol. x., and Anac., vol. i. p. 662.

[119:2] Davis: Hist. China, vol. i. p. 161.

[119:3] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. pp. 21, 22.

[119:4] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 184.

[120:1] Semedo: Hist. China, p. 89, in Anac., vol. ii. p. 227.

[120:2] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. pp. 134-137. See also Chambers's Encyclo., art. Lao-tsze.

[120:3] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. pp. 204, 205.

[121:1] "The '_toe-print made by God_' has occasioned much speculation of the critics. We may simply draw the conclusion that the poet meant to have his readers believe with him that the conception of his hero was SUPERNATURAL." (James Legge.)

[121:2] The Shih-King, Decade ii. Ode 1.

[121:3] See Thornton's Hist. China, vol. i. pp. 199, 200, and Buckley's Cities of the Ancient World, pp. 168-170.

[121:4] "Le Dieu LA des LAMAS est né d'une _Vierge_: plusieurs princes de l'Asie, entr'autres _l'Empereur Kienlong_, aujourd'hui regnant à la Chine, et qui est de la race de ces Tartares Mandhuis, qui conquirent cet empire en 1644, croit, et assure lui-même, être descendu d'une _Vierge_." (D'Hancarville: Res. Sur l'Orig., p. 186, in Anac., vol. ii. p. 97.)

[122:1] See Mahaffy: Proleg. to Anct. Hist., p. 416, and Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 406.

[122:2] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 157.

[122:3] Renouf: Relig. Anct. Egypt, p. 162.

[122:4] See the chapter on "The Worship of the Virgin Mother."

[122:5] "O toi vengeur, Dieu fils d'un Dieu; O toi vengeur, Horus, manifesté par Osiris, engendré d'Isis déesee." (Champollion, p. 190.)

[122:6] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 406.

[122:7] Ibid. p. 247.

[122:8] Renouf: Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 161.

[122:9] See Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. pp. 67 and 147.

[122:10] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 248.

[123:1] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 407.

[123:2] Renouf: Relig. of Anct. Egypt, p. 163.

[123:3] See Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology, vol. i. p. 420.

[123:4] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 431.

[123:5] Spencer's Principles of Sociology, vol. i. p. 421.

[123:6] Malcolm: Hist. Persia, vol. i. p. 494.

[123:7] Anac. vol. i. p. 117.

[124:1] Roman Antiq., p. 124. Bell's Panth., i. 128. Dupuis, p. 258.

[124:2] Tales of Anct. Greece, p. 55.

[124:3] Greek and Italian Mytho., p. 81. Bell's Panth., i. 117. Roman Antiq., p. 71, and Murray's Manual Mytho., p. 118.

[124:4] L'Antiquité Expliquée, vol. i. p. 229.

[124:5] Euripides: Bacchae. Quoted by Dunlap: Spirit Hist. of Man, p. 200.

[124:6] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 58. Roman Antiquities, p. 133.

[124:7] See the chapter on "The Crucifixion of Jesus," and Bell's Pantheon, ii. 195.

[124:8] Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 170. Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 161.

[124:9] Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 171.

[125:1] Apol. 1, ch. xxii.

[125:2] Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 67. Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 19.

[125:3] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 25.

[125:4] Ibid. p. 74, and Bulfinch: p. 248.

[125:5] Tacitus: Annals, iii. lxi.

[125:6] Tales of Anct. Greece, p. 4.

[125:7] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 31.

[125:8] Ibid. p. 81.

[125:9] Ibid. p. 16.

[125:10] Bell's Pantheon, ii. p. 30.

[125:11] Cox: Aryan Mythology, ii. 45.

[125:12] The Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 3.

[126:1] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 78.

[126:2] Quoted by Lardner, vol. iii. p. 157.

[126:3] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 8.

[126:4] Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 37. In the case of _Jesus_, one _Saul_ of Tarsus, said to be of a worthy and upright character, declared most solemnly, that Jesus himself appeared to him while on his way to Damascus, and again while praying in the temple at Jerusalem. (Acts xxii.)

[126:5] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 345. Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. pp. 84, 85.

[126:6] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 611.

[126:7] Æneid, lib. iv.

[126:8] Tacitus: Annals, bk. i. ch. x.

[126:9] Ibid. bk. ii, ch. lxxxii. and bk. xiii. ch. ii.

[127:1] See Middleton's Letters from Rome, pp. 37, 38.

[127:2] See Religion of the Ancient Greeks, p. 81, and Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. pp. 84, 85.

[127:3] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 8.

[127:4] Socrates: Eccl. Hist. Lib. 3, ch. xix.

[127:5] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 17.

[127:6] See Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 418. Bunsen: Bible Chronology, p. 5, and The Angel-Messiah, pp. 80 and 298.

[127:7] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 113, and Draper: Religion and Science, p. 8.

[127:8] Hardy: Manual Budd., p. 141. Higgins: Anac., i. 618.

[128:1] Draper: Religion and Science, p. 8. Compare Luke i. 26-35.

[128:2] Philostratus, p. 5.

[128:3] See the chapter on Miracles.

[128:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 151.

[128:5] See the chapter on Miracles.

[128:6] Bell's Pantheon, i. 27. Roman Ant., 136. Taylor's Diegesis, p. 150.

[128:7] Ibid.

[129:1] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 2, ch. xiii.

[129:2] Ibid. ch. xiii.

[129:3] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities.

[129:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 32, Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. 166 and 175-6.

[129:5] Ibid.

[129:6] See Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 176.

[129:7] Ibid. p. 175.

[130:1] See Kingsborough: Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 176.

[130:2] Ibid. p. 166.

[130:3] Brinton: Myths of the New World, pp. 180, 181.

[130:4] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 187.

[130:5] Ibid. p. 188.

[130:6] Ibid.

[130:7] Ibid.

[130:8] Ibid. p. 190.

[131:1] Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 191.

[131:2] Ibid.

[131:3] Ibid.

[131:4] Ibid. p. 192.

[131:5] "If we seek, in the first three Gospels, to know what his biographers thought of Jesus, we find his _true humanity_ plainly stated, and if we possessed only the Gospel of _Mark_ and the discourses of the Apostles in the _Acts_, the whole Christology of the New Testament would be reduced to this: that Jesus of Nazareth was '_a prophet mighty in deeds and in words_, made by God Christ and Lord.'" (Albert Réville.)

[132:1] Mark, xiii. 32.

[132:2] Mark, x. 40.

[132:3] Mark, x. 18.

[132:4] Mark, xiv. 36.

[132:5] Mark, xv. 34.

[133:1] Matt. and Luke.

"The passages which appear most confirmatory of Christ's Deity, or Divine nature, are, in the first place, the narratives of the Incarnation and of the Miraculous Conception, as given by Matthew and Luke. Now, the two narratives do not harmonize with each other; they neutralize and negative the _genealogies_ on which depend so large a portion of the proof of Jesus being the Messiah--the marvellous statement they contain is not referred to in any subsequent portion of the two Gospels, and is tacitly but positively negatived by several passages--it is never mentioned in the Acts or in the Epistles, and was evidently unknown to all the Apostles--and, finally, the tone of the narrative, especially in Luke, is poetical and legendary, and bears a marked similarity to the stories contained in the Apocryphal Gospels." (W. R. Greg: The Creed of Christendom, p. 229.)

[133:2] Luke, ii. 27.

[133:3] Luke, ii. 41-48.

[133:4] Matt. xiii. 55.

[133:5] Luke, iv. 22. John, i. 46; vi. 42. Luke, iii. 23.

[133:6] Luke, ii. 50.

[133:7] Matt. xiii. 57. Mark, vi. 4.

[133:8] Matt. xii. 48-50. Mark, iii. 33-35.

[133:9] Mark, iii. 21.

[133:10] Dr. Hooykaas.

[133:11] Acts, i. 14.

[133:12] Acts, xxi. 18. Gal. ii. 19-21.

[134:1] See The Bible for Learners, vol. iii. p. 57.

[134:2] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 3, ch. xxiv.

[134:3] Mr. George Reber has thoroughly investigated this subject in his "Christ of Paul," to which the reader is referred.

[134:4] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. pp. 515-517.

[135:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. pp. 488, 489.

[135:2] See Lardner's Works, vol. viii. pp. 395, 396.

[135:3] Ibid. p. 306.

[135:4] Ibid. p. 571.

[136:1] Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 5, ch. xxv.

[136:2] Lardner: vol. viii. p. 404.

[136:3] Irenæus: Against Heresies, bk. i. c. xxiv.

[137:1] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. pp. 492-495.

[137:2] Not a _worldly Messiah_, as the Jews looked for, but an _Angel-Messiah_, such an one as always came at the end of a _cycle_. We shall treat of this subject anon, when we answer the question _why_ Jesus was believed to be an _Avatar_, by the Gentiles, and not by the Jews; why, in fact, the doctrine of _Christ incarnate_ in Jesus succeeded and prospered.

[137:3] "This strong expression might be justified by the language of St. Paul (_God_ was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, &c. I. Timothy, iii. 16), but we are deceived by our modern Bibles. The word _which_ was altered to _God_ at Constantinople in the beginning of the sixth century: the true meaning, which is visible in the Latin and Syriac versions, still exists in the reasoning of the Greek, as well as of the Latin fathers; and this fraud, with that of the _three witnesses of St. John_ (I. John, v. 7), is admirably detected by Sir Isaac Newton." (Gibbon's Rome, iv. 496, _note_.) _Dean Milman_ says: "The weight of authority is so much against the common reading of both these points (_i. e._, I. Tim. iii. 16, and I. John, v. 7), that they are no longer urged by prudent controversialists." (Note in Ibid.)

[138:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. pp. 492-497.

[138:2] See Chambers's Encyclopædia, art. "Apollinaris."

[138:3] Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. p. 498.

[138:4] That is, separate _him_ from God the Father, by saying that _he_, Jesus of Nazareth, was _not_ really and truly God Almighty himself in human form.

[139:1] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. iv. p. 516.