the three imposters 9

the three imposters 9

8.

 

The founders of these Religions, knowing well that their impostures

were based upon the ignorance of the people, took care to keep them in

it by the adoration of images in which they feigned that the Divinities

resided. This rained gold into the coffers of the priesthood, and

their benefices were considered as sacred things because they belonged

to holy ministers; no one having the rashness or audacity to aspire

to them. The better to deceive mankind, the priests pretended to be

divinely inspired Prophets, capable of penetrating the mysteries of

futurity, boasting that they had intercourse with the Gods; and, as the

desire is natural to learn one's destiny, they by no means failed to

take advantage of it. Some were established at Delos, others at Delphi,

and in various places, where in ambiguous language they answered the

questions put to them. Even women took a part in these impostures,

and the Romans in their greatest difficulties consulted the Sybilline

books. These knaves were really considered inspired. Those who feigned

that they had familiar commerce with the dead were called Necromancers;

others pretended to ascertain the future from the flight of birds

or the entrails of beasts; in short they could draw a good or bad

augury from almost every thing, the eyes, the hands, the countenance,

or any extraordinary object. So true it is that ignorance will receive

any impression, when men know how to take advantage of it. [36]

 

 

 

§ 9.

 

The ambitious, who have always been great masters in the art of

deceiving, have followed this method in promulgating their laws;

and to induce mankind to give a voluntary submission to them, they

have persuaded them that they received them from some God or Goddess.

 

However great the multitude of Divinities, amongst those who

worshipped them, and who were denominated Pagans, there was never

any generally established system of religion. Every republic, every

kingdom, every city, and every individual had their own proper rites,

and conceived of the Divinity after their own phantasy. But afterwards

there arose legislatures more subtle than the former, and who employed

more skilful and sure plans in giving forth the laws, the worship,

and the ceremonies calculated to nourish that fanaticism which it

was their object to establish.

 

Amongst a great number, Asia has produced THREE, distinguished as

much by their laws and the worship which they established, as by

the ideas which they have given of the Divinity, and the methods

which they employed to confirm these ideas, and to render their laws

sacred.--Moses was the most ancient. After him Jesus Christ appeared,

who wrought upon his plan and kept the fundamental portion of his laws,

but abolished the remainder. Mahomet, who appeared the last upon the

scene, borrowed from each of the Religions in order to compose his

own, and thereafter declared himself the sworn enemy of both.--We

shall consider the character of the three legislators, and examine

their conduct, that afterwards we may be enabled to decide whose

opinions are best grounded--those who reverence them as inspired men,

or those who regard them as impostors.

 

 

 

§ 10.

 

MOSES.

 

The celebrated Moses, a grandson of a distinguished Magician, [37]

(according to Justin Martyr) possessed every advantage calculated

to render him that which he finally became. It is well known that

the Hebrews, of whom he became the chief, were a nation of shepherds

whom Pharaoh Osiris I. admitted into his kingdom in gratitude for the

services which one of them had rendered during a period of severe

famine. He assigned them a territory in the East of Egypt, rich in

pasturage, and admirably adapted for the rearing of cattle; where,

during two centuries, they very much increased in numbers, either,

that being regarded as strangers they were not liable to military

service, or on account of the other privileges which Osiris had

conferred upon them. Many natives of the country joined themselves

to them, among others, bands of Arabs who regarded them as brethren

and of the same origin. However this may be, they multiplied so

exceedingly, that the land of Goshen being unable to contain them,

they spread over all the land of Egypt; giving just occasion to Pharaoh

to dread that they would undertake some dangerous enterprise if his

kingdom were attacked by the Ethiopians, his inveterate enemies,

as had frequently happened. Reasons of state, therefore, compelled

this monarch to take away their privileges, and to devise some means

of weakening them and keeping them in subjection.

 

Pharaoh Orus, surnamed Busirus on account of his cruelty, succeeded

Memnon, and followed up his plans with respect to the Hebrews;

and wishing to eternalize his memory by building the Pyramids, and

fortifying the walls of Thebes, condemned the Hebrews to the task of

making bricks, for which purpose the earth of that country was well

adapted. During their bondage the celebrated Moses was born, the same

year in which the king commanded that all the male Hebrew children

should be thrown into the Nile, as the surest method of ridding his

country from this host of strangers. Moses was in this way exposed

to perish in the waters, his mother having placed him in a wicker

basket among the willows on the banks of the stream. It happened that

Thesmutis, the daughter of the king, was walking by the river, when,

hearing the cries of the infant, that compassion so natural to her sex,

inspired her with a wish to save it. Orus being dead she succeeded him,

and Moses having been presented to her she commanded that he should

receive the highest instruction which could be procured, as a son of

the Queen of a people at that time the most learned and civilized in

the world. "He was learned in all the learning of the Egyptians." This

implies that he was the ablest Politician, the greatest philosopher,

and the most distinguished Magician of his time; and besides, it is

very evident that he had been initiated into the Egyptian Priesthood,

which resembled those of the Druids among the Gauls. Those who are

ignorant of the nature of the Egyptian government, must learn that

the whole territory was subject to one sole sovereign, but that it

was divided into many provinces of but limited extent. The governors

of these provinces were designated Monarchs, and were generally of

the powerful order of the Priesthood, which in fact possessed almost

the third part of Egypt. The king nominated these Monarchs; and if

we compare what others have written concerning Moses, and what he has

written himself, we must conclude that he was Monarch of the Province

of Goshen, and that he owed his appointment to Thesmutis, to whom also

he owed his life. Such was the status of Moses amongst the Egyptians,

where he had full time and every opportunity of studying their manners

and those of his own nation, and of obtaining a knowledge of their

dominant inclinations and passions; a knowledge, of which he failed

not to avail himself in that revolution of which he was the originator.

 

After the death of Thesmutis, her successor renewed the persecution

against the Hebrews, and Moses having fallen from the honor in which

he had been formerly held, was afraid that he would find it difficult

to justify a homicide of which he had been guilty. He accordingly

resolved on flight, and retired into Arabia Petrea. Chance led him to

the house of the chief of some native tribe, to whom he rendered so

many services, and by whom his talents were so highly appreciated that

he gave him one of his daughters in marriage. It must here be remarked

that Moses was so little of a Jew, and had so limited a conception of

the Deity whom he afterwards imagined, that he married an idolatress,

and did not even think of circumcising his children.

 

It was in the Arabian deserts, when watching the flocks of his

father-in-law, that he formed the design of taking vengeance upon the

King of Egypt for the injuries he had met with. He flattered himself

that he would easily succeed in this, as well on account of his own

talents, as from the feeling which he knew was general amongst those

of his own nation, irritated against the government on account of

the cruel treatment which they had experienced.

 

It appears from the history which he has left us of this revolution,

or at all events, from the history which the author of the books

attributed to Moses, has left us, that Jethro, his father-in-law, was

in the plot, as were Aaron his brother, and sister Marion, who remained

in Egypt, and with whom, no doubt, he maintained a correspondence.

 

However that may be, we perceive from the result, that he had with

the utmost policy schemed out a great design; and that he knew how

to bring to bear against the Egyptians that learning which he had

acquired amongst them. I allude to magic, in the exhibition of which

he showed himself more subtle and expert than all those who attempted

the same tricks at the court of Pharaoh.

 

It was by these pretended prodigies that he gained over those of

his nation whom he wished to carry off, and to whom disaffected and

revolutionary Egyptians, Ethiopians and Arabs joined themselves. By

boasting the power of his Divinity, and the frequent communions

which he had with him; and by declaring that he had his sanction

for all the steps which he took with the leaders of the revolution,

he succeeded so well that there followed him 600,000 fighting men,

besides women and children, across the Arabian deserts, of which he

well knew the localities. After six days painful flight, he ordained

to his followers that they should consecrate the seventh day to his

God by a general and public rest, for the purpose of persuading them

that the Deity favored him and approved of his authority; and to

deter any one from having the audacity to dispute his statements.

 

There never existed a more ignorant people than the Hebrews, nor

consequently more credulous. To be assured of this we have only to look

to their condition in Egypt when Moses caused them to revolt. They

were detested by the Egyptians on account of their profession as

shepherds, they were persecuted by the sovereign, and employed in the

most degrading toil. Amongst a people thus situated it could not be

very difficult for a man with the abilities of Moses to exercise a

vast influence. He persuaded them that his God, (whom he sometimes

merely styles an angel), the God of their fathers, had appeared

to him--that it was at his command that he had taken them under his

guidance--and that they would be a people highly favored of the Deity,

provided they believed in him. The expert employment of deceit, and his

knowledge of science, and of human nature, fortified his injunctions;

and he strengthened his position by prodigies, which are always sure

to make a deep impression on the minds of an imbecile populace.

 

It must here be attended to with especial care, that he thought he

had discovered a sure method of keeping the Hebrews in subjection to

him