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Page 37
That the New Testament inculcates an excellent morality, cannot
be denied; for its best moral precepts were taken from the Old
Testament. And if the Apostles had not preached good morals, how
could they have expected to be considered by the Gentiles
as messengers from God? For if they had inculcated any
immoralities, such as rebellion, murder, adultery, robbery, revenge,
their mission would not only have been disbelieved, but they
would have undergone capital punishment by the sentence of the
judge, which it was their business to avoid. Mahomet, throughout
the Koran, inculcates all the virtues, and pointedly reprobates vice
of all kinds. His morality is merely the precepts of the Old and
New Testaments, modified a little, and expressed in Arabic. They
are good precepts, and always to be listened to with respect,
wherever, and by whomsoever, inculcated. But surely that will not
prove Islamism to be from God, nor that Mahomet was his
prophet!
That the Apostles suffered death on account of their preaching the
gospel, if allowed to be fact, as said before, proves nothing. Many
have suffered death for false and absurd doctrines. �But whether
any of the Apostles, (besides James who was slain by Herod,) died
a natural, or a violent death, the learned Christians do not certainly
know. For there is extant no authentic history of the Apostles,
besides the Acts. There are indeed many fabulous narrations
published by the Papists, called Martyrologies, stuffed with the
most extravagant lies, which no learned man now regards; and who
therefore will credit what such books say of the Apostles? Peter is
said in them to have been put to death at Rome by Nero,
nevertheless most of the learned men of the Protestants assert, that
Peter never was in Rome, and as for Paul, no one certainly knows
where, when, or how ho finished his days. So that if we were even
to allow the feeble argument of Martyrdom, all the influence and
weight given to it, it would not apply to the Apostles, who, we are
sure, derived some benefit, by preaching the gospel, and are not
sure that they came to any harm by it.
I will conclude this long chapter, by laying before my reader some
extracts from the book written by Celsus, a heathen philosopher,
against Christianity, preserved by Origen in his work against
Celsus. That the entire work of Celsus is lost, is to be regretted; as
he appears to have been a man of observation, though too sarcastic
to please a fair inquirer; and from the picture given by him of the
first Christians, their maxims, and their modes of teaching, and the
subjects they chose for converts, it appears, that they were the
exact prototypes of the Methodists and Shakers of the present day,
both sects which contain excellent people, with hardly any fault
but credulity.
�If they (i. e. the teachers of Christianity,) say �do not examine,�
and the like: it is however incumbent on them to teach what those
things are which they assert, and whence they are derived.�
�Wisdom in life is a bad thing, but folly is good.�
�Why should Jesus, when an infant, be carried into Egypt, lest he
should be murdered? God should not fear being put to death.�
�You say that God was sent to sinners: but why not to those who
are free from sin? What harm is it not to have sinned?
�You encourage sinners, because you are not able to persuade any
really good men: therefore you open the doors to the most wicked
and abandoned.�
�Some of them say �do not examine, but believe, and thy faith
shall gave thee.��
�These are our institutions, say they, let not any man of learning
come here, nor any wise man, nor any man of prudence: for these
things are reckoned evil by us. But whoever is unlearned, ignorant,
and silly, let him come without fear! Thus they own that they can
gain only the foolish, the vulgar, the stupid slaves, women, and
children.�
�At first, when they were but few, they agreed. But when they
became a multitude, they were rent, again and again, and each will
have their own factions: for factious spirits they had from the
beginning.�
�All wise men are excluded from the doctrine of their faith; they
call to it only fools, and men of a servile spirit.�
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