The Three Impostors 12

The Three Impostors 12

The pride-inspired contempt alone which led them to the hatred of

other nations, made them insensibly forget the gods of Egypt, and

attach themselves to that of Moses. They worshipped him for some time

with all the outward observance of the law; but with that inconstancy

which leads the vulgar to run after novelty, they deserted him at

last to follow the God of Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

§ 20.

 

The most ignorant alone of the Hebrews followed Moses--such also

were they who ran after Jesus Christ; and their name being legion,

and as they mutually supported each other, it is not to be wondered

at if this new system of error was widely circulated. The teaching of

these novelties was not without danger to those who undertook the task,

but the enthusiasm which they excited extinguished every fear. Thus,

the disciples of Christ, miserable as they were in his train, and

even dying of hunger--(as we learn from the necessity under which they

were, together with their leader, of plucking the ears of corn in the

fields to sustain their lives)--these disciples never despaired till

they saw their master in the hands of his executioners, and totally

incapable of gifting them with that wealth, and power, and grandeur,

which he had led them to expect.

 

After his death, his disciples being frustrated in their fondest hopes,

made a virtue of necessity. Banished as they were from every place,

and persecuted by the Jews, who were eager to treat them as they had

treated their master, they wandered into the neighboring countries; in

which, on the evidence of some women, they set forth the resurrection

of Christ, his divinity, and the other fables wherewith the gospels

are filled.

 

It was their want of success among the Jewish people which led to

the resolution of seeking their fortune among the Gentiles; but as

a little more knowledge than they possessed was necessary for the

accomplishment of their design--the Gentiles being philosophically

trained, and consequently too much the friends of truth and reason

to be duped by trifles--the sectaries of Jesus gained over to their

cause a young man [56] of ardent temperament and active habits,

somewhat better instructed than the illiterate fishermen of Galilee,

and more capable of drawing audiences to listen to his talk. He being

warned from heaven (miraculously of course), leagued himself with

them, and drew over some partizans by the threat of "fabled hell,"

(a plagiarism from the ancient poets), and by the hope of the joys of

paradise, into which blessed abode he was impudent enough to assert

that he had at one time been introduced.

 

These disciples then, by strength of delusion and lying, procured

for their master the honor of passing for a god--an honor at which,

in his life-time, Jesus could never have arrived. His destiny was

no better than that of Homer, nor even so good; inasmuch as seven

cities which had despised and starved the latter in his lifetime,

struggled and fought with each other, in order to ascertain to which

was due the merit of having given him birth.

 

 

 

§ 21.

 

It may be judged now, from what has been advanced, that Christianity,

like every other religion, is only a complicated imposture--the success

and progress of which would astonish the inventors themselves, could

they revisit this world. Without bewildering ourselves, however, in

a labyrinth of error and contradiction, such as we have alluded to,

we go to Mahomet, who founded his law on maxims entirely opposite to

those of Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

§ 22.

 

MAHOMET.

 

Scarcely had the disciples of Jesus Christ torn down the Mosaic fabric

for the purpose of establishing Christianity, when men, led by force

of circumstances, and influenced by their usual inconstancy, followed

the new legislator, who had elevated himself by means similar, as far

as possible, to those which Moses employed. Like the Jewish lawgiver,

Christ usurped the title of prophet, and ambassador of God; like him

he pretended to perform miracles, and took advantage of the passions of

the multitude. He soon found himself escorted by an ignorant populace,

to whom he explained the new oracles of heaven. These miserably misled

people, from the promises and fables of this new impostor, spread

his renown far and wide, as having eclipsed all his predecessors.

 

Mahomet, on the contrary, was a man who did not appear at all competent

to lay the foundation of an empire. He was distinguished neither as

a politician nor a philosopher: he could neither read nor write. [57]

At first he exhibited so little firmness, that he was frequently upon

the point of abandoning his enterprise; and he would have done so, had

it not been for the address of one his followers. When he was rising

into celebrity, Corais, a powerful Arab chief, being irritated that

a man of yesterday should have the boldness to mislead the people,

declared himself his enemy, and attempted to thwart his designs;

but the people, believing that Mahomet had continued intercourse

with God and his angels, supported him till he had an opportunity of

being avenged upon his adversary. The tribe of Corais was worsted;

and Mahomet seeing himself surrounded by a host of fanatics, thought

that he stood in no need of a coadjutor. However, lest Corais should

expose his impostures, he took the initiative; and to make sure, he

loaded him with promises, and swore that he only wished to become

great in order to share with him that power, to the establishment

of which he might so much contribute. "We can agree," said he,

"when we reach our proper elevation; we can depend, in the meantime,

on that great multitude whom we have gained over, and it only remains

that we make sure of them by the employment of that artifice which

you have so happily invented." At the same time he persuaded him to

descend into the Cave of Oracles.

 

This was a dried-up sunk well, from the bottom of which Corais spoke,

in order that the people might believe that it was the voice of God

declaring himself in favour of Mahomet who was in the midst of his

proselytes. Deceived by the blandishments of the leader, his associate

regularly descended into the well, to counterfeit the oracle. Whilst

Mahomet was passing one day at the head of an infatuated multitude,

they heard a voice, which said--"I am your God, and I declare that

Mahomet is the prophet whom I have appointed for all nations; he will

instruct you in my law of truth, which the Jews and Christians have

altered." For a long time the accomplice played this game; but at last

he met with the blackest ingratitude. The voice being heard, as usual,

proclaiming him an inspired personage, Mahomet turned to the people,

and commanded them, in the name of that God who had recognised him

as his prophet, to fill up the well with stones, that it might be an

enduring witness in his favour, like that pillar which Jacob set up

to mark the place where God had appeared to him. [58] Thus perished,

miserably, the chief who had most contributed to the elevation of

Mahomet. It was upon this heap of stones that the last of the three

most celebrated impostors established his religion, and so solid

and stable is its foundation, that after the lapse of twelve hundred

years there is little appearance at present of its being overthrown.

 

 

 

§ 23.

 

In this way was the power of Mahomet established; and he was more

fortunate than Jesus, inasmuch as he lived to see the wide diffusion

of his doctrines, which Christ on account of his want of resources,

was unable to do. He was even more fortunate in this respect than

Moses, who from excess of ambition brought himself to a premature

end.--Mahomet died in peace, and loaded with blessings. He had,

moreover, a well-grounded hope that his religion would last, because

it was accommodated to the nature of a people born and brought up

in ignorance; an adaptation in which men more learned than himself,

but less accustomed to associate with the lower orders, might have

entirely failed.

 

The reader is now in possession of the most remarkable facts concerning

the three most celebrated legislators, whose religions have brought

into subjection a great part of the human race. They were such as

we have represented them; and it is for you to consider if they

are worthy of your respect, and if you are justified in allowing

yourselves to be led by those whom ambition alone conducted to power,

and whose dreams have been perpetuated by ignorance. The following

observations, if read with a free and unprejudiced mind, may lead to

the discovery of truth, by clearing away those mists wherewith you

have been blinded and beguiled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER IV.

 

TRUTHS EVIDENT AND OBVIOUS TO THE SENSES.

 

 

§ 1.

 

Moses, Jesus Christ, and Mahomet, being such as we have represented

them, it is evident that it would be useless to search in their

writings for a new idea of the Divinity. The conferences of Moses

and Mahomet with the Deity, and the miraculous conception of Jesus

Christ, are the greatest impostures that have ever met the face of day,

and you must shun their contemplation as you love the truth.

 

 

 

§ 2.

 

God, as we have seen, being only Nature, or in other words the

combination of all beings, all properties, and all energies, is

necessarily the cause from which emanates every thing, and of course

not distinct or different from its effects. He cannot be termed good,

nor evil, nor just, nor merciful nor jealous: these attributes belong

only to mankind. The Deity therefore can neither punish nor reward. The

opposite idea may lead aside the ignorant, who, conceiving the Divinity

to be an uncompounded essence, represent him to themselves under

images altogether unsuited to his nature. Those alone who exercise

their judgment without confounding its operations with those of their

imaginative faculty, and who have sufficient strength of mind to

cast away the prejudices of infancy, can form a clear and distinct

conception of the subject. They regard him as the author of every

being, producing them without distinction, and giving no preference

to one over another, and whose power is such that he created man with

as much ease as he did the meanest worm, or the humblest plant.

 

 

 

§ 3.

 

We must therefore believe that this universal Being whom we generally

name God, takes no greater care of a man than of an ant, nor pays more

attention to a lion than to a stone; neither regards the beauty or

deformity, good or evil, perfection or imperfection. He cares not to

be praised, beseeched, sought alter, or flattered; he is not affected

by what men say or do; he is not susceptible of love or hatred:

[59] in one word he is not more occupied with man than he is with the

rest of the other creatures, whatever may be their nature. All these

distinctions are merely the inventions of a limited understanding:

they originate in ignorance, and self-interest keeps them up.