Truth
The Three Imposters 1
Abstract
Happy the man who, studying Nature’s laws,
Through known effects can trace the secret cause;
His mind possessing in a quiet state,
Fearless of Fortune, and resigned to Fate.Dryden’s Virgil. Georgics Book II, l. 700
© Dr M D Magee
Contents Updated: Sunday, July 25, 1999
Moses
People with an ambition to rule have always been grand masters of the art of trickery. To oblige the people to submit to their laws, historically they have persuaded them that a God or a Goddess had given them the laws.
There were many gods worshipped by pagans who had no common system of religion. Each republic, each state and city, indeed each particular place had its own rites and thought of the Divinity as fancy dictated. More cunning legislators than these first tricksters later used the culture of ceremonies and fanaticism to establish and spread their laws.
Arabia and its frontiers has given birth to three religions, distinguished by the kind of laws and worship they established, the idea of God they have given to their followers, and their means of getting this idea to be received and their laws to be approved.
Moses is the most ancient. Jesus, coming after, laboured to preserve his choice of laws while abolishing the remainder. Mahomet appearing last on the scene has taken from one and the other religion to compose his own, and is declared the enemy of all the Gods.
Let us examine the character and conduct of these three legislators and thence judge who are correct—those who revered them as Holy men and Gods or those who treated them as schemers and impostors.
The celebrated Moses, grandson of a great magician—a skilful charlatan whose art was dexterity and skill—by the account of Justin Martyr, had all the advantages necessary for what he afterwards became.
The legend is that the Hebrews, of whom he became the Chief, were a nation of shepherds whom King Pharaoh Orus I received in his country in consideration of services that he had received from one of them in the time of a great famine. He gave them some lands in the east of Egypt in a country fertile in pasturage suitable for their flocks.
In 200 years they rapidly increased because, as foreigners they did not have to serve in the armies of Pharaoh and because of the natural advantages of the lands which Orus had granted them. Some bands of Arabs came to join them as brothers, for they were of a similar race, and they increased so astonishingly that, the land of Goshen not being able to contain them, they spread all over Egypt. Pharaoh Memnon II feared that they might be capable of some dangerous attempt if Egypt was attacked by their active enemies, the Ethiopians, as happened soon after.
Defence of the realm compelled this Prince to curtail their privileges, and to seek means to weaken and enslave them. Pharaoh Orus II, who succeeded Memnon and was surnamed Busiris because of his cruelty, followed his plan regarding the Jews. Wishing to perpetuate his memory by the erection of the Pyramids and building the city of Thebes, he condemned the Hebrews to labour at making bricks, the material in the earth of their country being adapted for this purpose. Moses was born during this servitude, in the same year that the King issued an edict to cast all the male Hebrew children into the Nile, as the best way of exterminating this rabble of foreigners.
Moses was exposed to perish in the waters in a basket covered with pitch, which his mother placed in the rushes on the banks of the river. It chanced that Thermitis, daughter of Orus, was walking near the shore and hearing the cries of the child, the natural compassion of her sex inspired her to save it.
When Orus soon died, Thermitis succeeded him, and she caused Moses to be educated in a manner befitting the son of a Queen of the wisest and most polished nation of the universe. He was taught all the science of the Egyptians. Moses became the greatest politician, the wisest philosopher and the most famous magician of his time. He was admitted to the order of Priesthood, which was in Egypt what the Druids were in Gaul—everything.
In Egypt the famous dynasties had come to an end. The country was dependent upon one Sovereign but he divided it into several provinces of no great extent. The governors of these countries, ordinarily of the powerful order of Priests, the king named monarchs and possessed nearly one-third of Egypt. From the authors who have written of Moses and what Moses himself has supposedly written, he was monarch of the land of Goshen and owed his elevation to Thermitis, who had saved his life.
Moses was in Egypt, where he had both time and means to study the manners of the Egyptians, and those of his nation, their governing passions, their inclinations, and all that would be of service to him in his effort to excite the revolution of which he was the promoter.
When Thermitis died, her successor renewed the persecution against the Hebrews. Moses lost his previous favour and, fearing that he could not justify several homicides he had committed, took the precaution to flee.
He retired to Arabia Petraea, on the confines of Egypt, and chance brought him to the home of a tribal chief of the country. His services, and the talents that his master remarked in him, merited his good graces and one of his daughters in marriage. Note that Moses was such a bad Jew, and knew so little of the redoubtable God whom he invented later, that be wedded an idolatress, and did not even think of having his children circumcised.
In the Arabian deserts, while guarding the flocks of his father-in-law and brother-in-law, he conceived a way of avenging the injustice which had been done him by the King of Egypt—by bringing trouble and sedition in the court of his states. He flattered himself that he could easily succeed in this by reason of his talents, and by the resentment which he knew he would find in his nation already incensed against the government by reason of the bad treatment that they had been caused to suffer.
From the history which Moses, or the author of the books attributed to him, has given of this revolution, also in the conspiracy were Jethro, his brother-in-law, his brother Aaron and his sister Mary, who had remained in Egypt and with whom he could hold correspondence. He had formed a vast plan in good politics, and he could put in service against Egypt all the science he had learned there, and the pretended magic in which he was more subtle and skilful than all those at the Court of Pharaoh with the same accomplishments.
By these pretended miracles he gained the confidence of those of his nation that he caused to rebel. He joined to them thousands of mutinous Egyptians, Ethiopians and Arabs. He boasted he spoke frequently with God whose power he could call upon in all the measures he took with the chiefs of the revolt. His influence was such that they followed him to the number of 600,000 combatants—besides the women and children—across the deserts of Arabia, of which he knew all the windings.
After a six days march on a laborious retreat, he commanded his followers to consecrate the seventh to his God by a public rest, to make them believe that this God favoured him, that he approved his sway, and that no one could have the audacity to contradict him.
No people were more ignorant than these primitive Hebrews, and consequently none more credulous. To be convinced of this profound ignorance, it is only necessary to recall the condition of these people in Egypt when Moses made them revolt. They were hated by the Egyptians because of their pastoral life, persecuted by the Sovereign and employed in the vilest labour.
Among such a populace it was not very difficult for Moses to avail himself of his talents. He made them believe that his God—whom he sometimes simply called an angel—was the God of their Fathers. This God appeared to him, ordered him to lead them, chose him for Governor, and declared that they would be His favoured people if they believed what Moses said on his behalf.
He added to his exhortations on the part of his God, the adroit use of his prestige, and the knowledge that he had of nature. He confirmed what he said to them by what might be called miracles, always easy to perform, and which made a great impression on an imbecile populace.
He also found a sure method for holding this people submissive to his orders, ancillary to persuading them God himself was their leader—the conjuring by night of a column of fire and by day a cloud. This was the grossest trick of this impostor.
He had learned during his travels in Arabia, a country vast and uninhabited, the custom of those who travelled in caravans. Guides were hired to conduct them in the night by means of a brazier, the flame of which they followed, and in the day time by the smoke of the same brazier which all the members of the caravan could see, and consequently not go astray. This custom prevailed among the Medes and Assyrians, and it is quite natural that Moses used it, and made it pass for a miracle, and a mark of the protection of his God.
If anyone thinks it was not a trick, let Moses himself be believed. In Numbers, 10:29-33, he asks his brother-in-law, Hobab, to come with the Israelites, that he may show them the roads, because he knew the country. God marched before Israel night and day in the cloud and the column of fire. Could they have a better guide? But here is Moses exhorting his brother-in-law by the most pressing motives of interest to serve him as a guide. The cloud or the column of fire was God only for the people, not for Moses, who knew what it was.
These poor unfortunates thus seduced, charmed at being adopted by the Master of God, as they were told, emerging from a hard and cruel bondage, applauded Moses and swore to obey him. His authority was thus confirmed. He sought to perpetuate it. Under pretext of establishing divine worship, or of a supreme God of whom he said he was the lieutenant, he made his brother and his children chiefs of the Royal Palace, the place where miracles were performed out of the sight and presence of the people.
So he continued these pretended miracles, at which the simple were amazed and others stupefied, but which caused those who were wise and who saw through these impostures to pity them. However skilful Moses was, and how many clever tricks he knew how to do, he would have had much trouble to secure obedience if he had not a strong army. Deceit without force has rarely succeeded.
To have an assured means of maintaining the obedience of more discerning people, he continued to place in his own faction his own tribesmen, giving them all the important charges and exempting them from the greater part of the labours.
He knew how to create jealousies among the other tribes, some of whom took his part against the others. Finally he secured adroitly to his interest those who appeared the most likely to see through his postures, by placing them in his confidence and giving them employment of distinction.
Despite this he found some of these idiots had the courage to reproach his bad faith. Under his false pretence of justice and equity he was seizing everything. As the sovereign authority was vested in his blood in such manner that no one had a right to aspire to it, they considered finally that he was less their father than their tyrant.
On such occasions Moses by cunning policy confounded these “free-thinkers” and spared none who censured his government.
With such precautions, and cloaking his punishments under the name of Divine vengeance, he continued absolute. He knew that the memories of the patriarchs who preceded him were held in great veneration when their sepulchres were found, but that was not sufficient for an ambition like his. He must be revered as a God for whom death had no terrors, and to this end all his efforts were directed since the beginning of his reign when he said that he was established of God—to be the God of Pharaoh.
Finishing as he began, by deceit and imposture, he chose an extraordinary death. He cast himself in an abyss in a lonely place where he retired from time to time under pretext of conferring with God, and which he had long designed for his tomb. His body never having been found, it was believed that his God had taken him, and that he had become like Him.
Elijah gave his example. And Romulus, who drowned himself in the morass of Cherres, and his body, not being found, it was believed that he was raised to heaven and deified. All those who from a desire to immortalise their names, have concealed the time and place of their death so that their followers would deemed them immortal.
No law-givers having attributed their laws to Divinity, did not try to encourage the belief that they themselves were more than human.
Numa, having tasted the delights of solitude, did not wish to leave it for the throne of Rome, but being forced by public acclamation, he profited by the devotion of the Romans. He informed them that he had talked with God, and if they desired him for King they must observe the Divine laws and institutions which had been dictated to him by the nymph Egeria.
Alexander wished to be considered a son of Jupiter. Perseus pretended to be a son of the same God and the virgin Danae. Plato was the son of Apollo and a virgin which, perhaps, is the cause of the belief among the Egyptians that the Spirit of God, the Breath or inspiration of the Gods, could get a woman with child as the wind did the Iberian mares
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ, who was not unacquainted with the maxims and science of the Egyptians, among whom he dwelt several years, availed himself of this knowledge, deeming it proper for the design which he meditated.
Considering that Moses was renowned because he commanded an ignorant people, he undertook to build on a similar foundation, and his followers were only some idiots whom he persuaded that the Holy Spirit was his Father, and his Mother a Virgin.
These good people being accustomed to be satisfied with dreams and fancies, adopted this fable, believed all that he wished, and even more willingly that a birth out of the natural order was not so marvellous a circumstance for them to believe. To be born of a Virgin by the operation of the Holy Spirit, was, in their estimation, as wonderful as what the Romans said of their founder, Romulus, who owed his birth to a Vestal and a God.
This happened at a time when the Jews were tired of their God, as they had been of their judges, the sons of Samuel, when they demanded a King like other nations, and like them, a visible God. As the number of fools is infinite, Jesus found followers everywhere, but his extreme poverty was an invincible obstacle to his elevation.
The Pharisees were delighted with the boldness of a man of their sect, while startled at his audacity. They elevated or depressed him according to the fickle humour of the populace, so that when it became noised about concerning his Divinity, it was impossible—he being possessed of no power—that his design could succeed. No matter how many sick he cured, nor how many dead he raised, having no money and no army, he could not fail to perish. With that outlook it appears that he had less chance of success than Moses, Mahomet, and all those who were ambitious to elevate themselves above others.
If he was more unfortunate, he was no less adroit, and several places in his history give evidence that the greatest fault in his policy was not to have sufficiently provided for his own safety. So it may be seen that he did not manage his affairs any better than those two other legislators, of whose memory exists but the remains of the belief that they established among the different nations.
Is there anything more dexterous than the manner in which he treated the subject of the woman taken in adultery (John 8)? The Jews having asked if they should stone this unfortunate, instead of replying definitely, yes or no, by which he would fall in the trap set by his enemies, the negative being directly against the law, and the affirmative proving him severe and cruel, which would have alienated the saints. Instead of replying as any ordinary person but him would have done, he said, “whoever is without sin, let him cast the first stone”, a skilful response, which shows us his presence of mind.
Another time being asked if it was lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, and seeing the image of the Prince on the coin that they showed him, he evades the difficulty by replying that they should “render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and unto God what belongs to God”. He would be guilty of lese majeste if he had said it was not permitted. Yet, by saying that it was, he would reverse the law of Moses which he always protested he would not do, either because he felt that he was too weak, or that he would be worsted in the try. So he made himself more popular, by acting with impunity after the manner of Princes, who allowed the privileges of their subjects to be confirmed while their power was not well established, but who scorned their promises when they were well enthroned.
He again skilfully avoided a trap that the Pharisees had set for him. They asked him—having in their minds thoughts which would only tend to convict him of lying—by what authority he pretended to instruct and catechise the people. Whether he replied that it was by human authority because he was not of the sacred body of Levites, or whether he boasted of preaching by the express command of God, his doctrine was contrary to the Mosaic law.
To relieve this embarrassment, he availed himself of the questioners themselves by asking them in the name of whom they thought John baptised? The Pharisees, who for policy opposed the baptism by John, would be condemned themselves in avowing that it was of God. If they had not admitted it they would have been exposed to the rage of the populace, who believed the contrary. To get out of this dilemma, they replied that they knew nothing of it, to which Jesus answered that he was neither obliged to tell them why, nor in the name of whom he preached.
Such were the skilful and witty evasions of the destroyer of the ancient law and the founder of the new. Such were the origins of the new religion which as built on the ruins of the old. There was nothing more divine in this than in the other sects which preceded it.
Its founder, who was not quite ignorant, seeing the extreme corruption of the Jewish republic, judged it as nearing its end, and believed that another should be revived from its ashes. The fear of being prevented by one more ambitious than himself, made him haste to establish it by methods quite opposed to those of Moses. The latter commenced by making himself formidable to other nations. Jesus, on the contrary, attracted them to him by the hope of the advantages of another life, which he said could be obtained by believing in him. Moses only promised temporal benefits as a recompense for the observation of his law.
Jesus Christ held out a hope which never was realised. The laws of one only regarded the exterior, while those of the other aimed at the inner man, influencing even the thoughts, and entirely the reverse of the law of Moses. Whence Jesus believed with Aristotle that religion and states, like individuals, are begotten and die, and as nothing is made except subject to dissolution, there is no law which can follow which is entirely opposed to it. Now to change from one law to another is hard, and it is hard to move the majority in matters of religion. So Jesus, in imitation of the other innovators, had recourse to miracles, the peril of the ignorant, and the sanctuary of the ambitious.
Christianity was founded by this method, and Jesus profiting by the faults of the Mosaic policy, never succeeded so happily anywhere, as in the measures which he took to render his law eternal. The Hebrew prophets thought to do honour to Moses by predicting a successor who resembled him, a Messiah, grand in virtue, powerful in wealth, and terrible to his enemies. While their prophecies have produced the contrary effect, many ambitious ones have taken occasion to proclaim themselves the promised Messiah, which has caused revolts that have endured until the entire destruction of their republic.
To defeat the purpose of those who rose up against him, Jesus Christ, more adroit than the Mosaic prophets, predicted (Mt 24:4-5, 24-26; 2 Thes 2:3-10; Jn 2:11-18) that such a man would be a great enemy of God, the delight of the Devil, the sink of all iniquity and the desolation of the world. After these fine declarations there was no person who would dare to call himself Anti-Christ. He could have found no better way to perpetuate his law. There was nothing more fabulous than the rumours that were spread concerning this pretended Anti-Christ. Paul said (2 Thess 11:7) of his existence, that “he was already born”, consequently was present on the eve of the coming of Jesus Christ while more than twelve hundred years have expired since the prediction of this prophet was uttered, and he has not yet appeared.
Admittedly these words have been credited to Cherintus and Ebion, two great enemies of Jesus Christ, because they denied his pretended divinity. But.these words for all time designate an infinity of Anti-Christ, there being no reputable scholar who would offend by saying that the history of Jesus Christ is a fable, and that his law is but a tissue of idle fancies that ignorance has put in vogue and that interest preserves.
Nevertheless it is pretended that a Religion which rests on such frail foundations is quite divine and supernatural, as if we did not know that there were never persons more convenient to give currency to the most absurd opinions than women and idiots.
Jesus did not choose Philosophers and Scholars for his Apostles. He knew that his law and good sense were diametrically opposed. That is the reason why he declaims in so many places against the wise, and excludes them from his kingdom, where were to be admitted the poor in spirit, the silly and the crazy. Again, rational individuals did not think it unfortunate to have nothing in common with visionaries.
We see nothing more divine in his morals than in the writings of the ancients, or rather we find only what are only extracts or imitations. Augustine (Confessions, Book 7:9) even admits that he has found in some of their works nearly all of the beginning of the Gospel according to St. John. That Apostle has stolen from other authors. It was not difficult to rob the Prophets of their enigmas and visions to make his Apocalypse.
Whence comes the conformity which we find between the doctrine of the Old Testament and that of Plato? to say nothing of what the Rabbins have done, and those who have fabricated the Holy Writings from a mass of fragments stolen from this Grand Philosopher. Certainly the birth of the world has a thousand times more probibility in Plato’s Timaeus than in Genesis. Nor can that come from what Plato had read in the books of the Jews during his travels in Egypt, for according to St. Augustine himself, Ptolemy had not yet translated them.
The description of the country of which Socrates speaks to Simias in the Phaedon has infinitely more grace than the Terrestrial Paradise (Eden) and the Androgynus is without comparison, better conceived than what Genesis says of the extraction of Eve from one of the sides of Adam. Is there anything that more resembles the two accidents of Sodom and Gomorrah than that which happened to Phaeton?
Is there anything more alike than the fall of Lucifer and that of Vulcan, or that of the giants cast down by the lightnings of Jupiter? Anything more similar than Samson and Hercules, Elijah and Phaeton, Joseph and Hippolitus, Nebuchadnezzar and Lycaon, Tantalus and the tormented rich man (Luke 16:24), the manna of the Israelites and the ambrosia of the Gods? St Cyrile and Theophylactus compare Jonah with Hercules, surnamed Trinsitium (Trinoctius?), because he had dwelt three days and three nights in the belly of a whale. The river of Daniel, spoken of in the Prophets, is a visible imitation of Periphlegeton, which is mentioned by Plato in the Dialogue on the Immortality of the Soul.
Original, sin has been taken from Pandora’s box, the sacrifice of Isaac and Jephthah from the story of Iphigenia, although in the latter a hind was substituted. What is said of Lot and his Wife is quite like the tale which is told of Baucis and Philemon. The authors of the Scriptures have transcribed word for word the works of Hesiod and Homer.
Celsus proves, by the account of Origen (Book 6, against Celsus), that Jesus had taken from Plato his finest sentiments, such as that which says (Luke, 18:25), that a camel might sooner pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man should enter the Kingdom of God. It was the sect of Pharisees of which he was, and who believed in him, which gave birth to this.
What is said of the Immortality of the Soul? of the Resurrection, of Hell, and the greater part of his Morals, I see nothing more admirable than in the works of Epictetus, Epicurus and many others. The latter was cited by St. Jerome (Against Jovian Book 8:8) as a man whose virtue puts to the blush better Christians. All his works were filled with but herbs, fruits and abstinence, and his delights were so temperate that his finest repasts were but a little cheese, bread and water. With a life so frugal, this Philosopher, pagan as he was, said that it was better to be unlucky and rational, than rich and senseless. It is rare that a fortune and wisdom are found in the same individual, and that one could have no knowledge of happiness nor live with pleasure unless felicity was accompanied by prudence, justice and honesty, which are qualifications of a true and lasting delight.
As for Epictetus, no man, not excepting Jesus himself, was more austere, more firm, more equitable, or more moral. One single example of constancy puts to shame the weakness and cowardice of Jesus in the sight of death. Being a slave to a freeman named Epaphroditus, captain of the guards of Nero, it took the fancy of this brute to twist the leg of Epictetus. Epictetus perceiving that it gave him pleasure said to him, smiling, that he was well convinced that the game would not end until he had broken his leg. Soon it did break. Epictetus said with an even smiling face, “Well, did I not say that you would break my leg?” Was there ever courage equal to that? And could it have been said of Jesus Christ, had he been the victim? He who wept and trembled with fear at the least alarm, and who evinced at his death a lack of spirit that never was witnessed in the majority of his martyrs.
The ignorant remark of the virtues of the Philosophers, that vanity was their principle, and that they were not what they seemed. But these critics are people who, in the pulpit, say all that comes into their heads—good or evil—and they want the privilege of telling it all. When these babblers, sellers of air, wind and smoke, have vented all their strength against the champions of common sense they think they have well earned the revenues of their livings. They feel they have not merited a call to instruct the people unless they have declared against those who know what common sense and true virtue is.
Nothing in the world approaches so little to the manners of true scholars as the actions of the ignorant who decry them and who appear to have studied only to procure preferment which gives them bread. This preferment they worship and magnify when this height is attained, as if they had reached a condition of perfection, which, to those who succeed, is a condition of self-love, ease, pride and pleasure, following nothing less than the maxims of the religion which they profess.
After examining his policy and morals we have found nothing more divine than in the writings and conduct of the ancients. Was then the reputation which followed him after his death evidence that he was God?
Mankind is so accustomed to false reasoning that few can reach a sane conclusion from their conduct. Experience shows that the people have never abandoned folly until they have had a surfeit of it.
Moses was proud to boast himself the Lieutenant of the Lord of Lords, and to prove his mission by extraordinary signs. On those few occasions he absented himself, which he did from time to time to confer, as he said, with his God, as Numa and other lawgivers also did, he found on his return signs of the worship of the Gods which the Israelites had seen in Egypt. He held them forty years in the wilderness that they might lose the ideas of those they had abandoned, and not being yet satisfied they obeyed him who led them, and bore firmly whatever hardship they were caused to suffer in this regard.
Only the hatred which they had conceived for other nations, by an arrogance of which most idiots are susceptible, made them insensibly forget the Gods of Egypt and attach themselves to those of Moses whom they adored, and sometimes with all the circumstance marked in the laws. But when they quitted these conditions to follow those of Jesus Christ, what inconstancy caused them to run after the novelty and change?
The most ignorant Hebrews having given the most vogue to the law of Moses were the first to run after Jesus, and as their number was infinite and they encouraged each other, it is not marvellous that these errors spread so easily. It is not that novelty does not always beget suffering, but it is the glory that is expected that one hopes will smooth the difficulties.
Miserable as they were, the Disciples of Jesus, were reduced at times to nourish themselves with grains of corn which they gathered from the fields (Luke 6:1). Seeing themselves shamefully excluded from places where they thought to enter to ease their fatigue (Luke 9:52-53) they began to be discouraged with living, their Master being outside the pale of the law and unable to give them the benefits, glory and grandeur which he had promised them.
After his death his disciples, in despair at seeing their hopes frustrated, and pursued by the Jews who wished to treat them as they had treated their Master, made a virtue of necessity and scattered over the country. From a report of some women (John 20:18), they told of his resurrection, his divine affiliation and the rest of the fables with which the Gospels are filled.
The trouble which they had to make progress among the Jews made them resolve to pass among the Gentiles, and try to serve themselves better among them. Then it was necessary to have more learning for that than they possessed—the Gentiles being philosophers and too much in love with truth to resort to trifles. They gained over a young man (Saul or Paul) of an active and eager mind and a little better informed than the simple fishermen or than the greater babblers who associated with them. A stroke from Heaven made him blind, as is said (without this the trick would have been useless) and this incident for a time attracted some weak souls.
The fear of Hell, taken from some of the fables of the ancient poets, the hope of a glorious Resurrection and a Paradise which is hardly more supportable than that of Mahomet, procured for their Master the honour of passing for a God which he himself was unable to obtain while living. In this respect Jesus was no better than Homer who was driven from six cities with contempt and scorn during his life, but they disputed with each other after his death to determine which had the honour of having been his birth-place.
By this it may be seen that Christianity depends, like all other things, on the caprice of men, in whose opinion all passes either for good or bad, according as the notion strikes them. Further, if Jesus was God, nothing could resist him, for St. Paul (Romans, 5:19), is witness that nothing could overcome his will. Yet this passage is directly opposed to another in Genesis (4:7), which assigns the desires and appetites of man to him. A man is his own Master, so it is agreed to accord free-will to the master of animals, that is to say, man, for whom it is said God has created the universe.
Mahomet
Hardly had the Disciples of Jesus abandoned the Mosaic law to introduce the Christian, than mankind, with their usual caprice and ordinary inconstancy, suddenly changed their sentiments. All the East was seen embracing the sentiments of the celebrated Arius, who had the boldness to oppose the fable of Jesus, and prove that he was no more a God than any other man. Thus Christianity was almost abolished, and there appeared a new law-giver, who, in less than ten years time, formed a considerable sect. This was Mahomet.
The part of Arabia where he was born, was commonly called “The Happy” for its fertility, and being inhabited by people who formed several Republics, each Republic being a family called a tribe, and having for its head the chief of the principal family, among those which composed the tribe.
That in which Mahomet was born was named the Tribe of Koreish, of which the principal family was that of Hashem, of which the chief was then a certain Abdul Motallab, grandfather of Mahomet, whose father, eldest son of Abdul Motallab, was named Abdallah.
This tribe inhabited the shores of the Red sea, and Abdul Motallab was High Priest of the Temple of Mecca where were worshipped the Idols of the country. As Chief of his Tribe he was Prince of this country in which quality he had sustained the war against the King of Persia and the Emperor of Ethiopia, which shows that Mahomet was not of the riff-raff of the people.
His father dying before his grandfather, his tender years caused him to lose the rights he had to the Sovereignty, which one of his uncles usurped. Not being able to succeed to the title of Prince, was the reason that he was reduced to the humble condition of shop-boy in the employ of a wealthy widow for whom he became afterwards factor. Having found him to her liking she married him and made him one of the richest citizens of Mecca. He was then about 30 years of age, and seeing at hand the means to enforce his rights, his ambitions awakened, and he meditated in what manner he could re-establish himself in the dignity of his grandfather.
The correspondence he had had with Christians in Egypt and Jews in Judaea, where he had traded a long time for his wife while he was only her factor, gave him an opportunity of knowing who Moses was and also Jesus Christ. He also had remarked into how many different sects their Religion was divided, and which produced such diversity of opinions, and the zeal of each sect. By this he profited, and he believed he could better succeed in the interest of establishing a new Religion.
The conditions of the time when he formed this design were very favourable to him, for nearly all of the Arabs, disgusted with the worship of their Idols, had fallen into a type of Atheism. Thus Mahomet began by leading a retired life, being exemplary, seeking solitude, and passing the greater part of the day in prayers and meditations. He caused himself to be admired for his modest demeanour, and commenced to speak of revelations and visions.
By such action is gained the credence of the populace, and by such methods Moses and Jesus commenced. He called himself a prophet and an envoy of God, and having as much skill as his predecessors in working miracles, he soon gained attention, then admiration, and soon after the confidence of the people. A Jew and a Christian monk who were in his conspiracy aided him in his dextrous moves, and he soon became powerful enough to resist a vigorous man named Corais, a learned Arab, who tried to expose his imposture.
During this time his uncle, the governor of Mecca, died. Not being yet strong enough to assume the authority of Sovereign, Mahomet had to yield to a kinsman who, seeing his aims, forced him to flee from Mecca and take refuge at Medina. There the Arian Christians joined him.
Then he ceased to support his authority by argument, and persuaded his disciples to plant the Mussulman faith at the point of the sword. Having strengthened his party by alliances, marrying his daughters to four of the principal citizens of Medina, he was in condition to place armies in the field who subjugated the various tribes, one after the other, and with whom he finally seized Mecca.
He did not die until after he had accomplished his purpose by the hypocrisy and imposture which raised him to the dignity of sovereign. His successors also ruled, and his faith was so well established that there has been no sign of its failure for six hundred years, and yet it may be upon the eve of its destruction.
Mahomet was not a man who appeared capable of founding an empire, as he excelled neither in polities, nor philosophy. He had so little firmness that he would often have abandoned his enterprise had he not been forced to persist in his undertaking by the skill of one of his followers. From that time he commenced to rise and become celebrated. Corais, a powerful Arab,was jealous that, a man of his birth should have the audacity to deceive the people, and declared himself his enemy. He attempted to cross his enterprise, but the people persuaded that Mahomet had continual conferences with God and his angels caused him to prevail over his enemy.
The tribe of Corais were at a disadvantage and Mahomet seeing himself followed by a crazy crowd who thought him a divine man, thought he would have no need of a companion. Fearing though that Corais might expose his impostures he tried to prevent it, and to do it more certainly he overwhelmed him with promises, and swore to him that he wished only to become great by sharing the power to which he had contributed.
"We have reached," said he, "the moment of our elevation, we are sure of the great multitude we have gained, and we must now assure ourselves by the artifice you have so happily conceived."
At the same time he induced him to aide himself in the cave of oracles. There was a dried-up well from which he made the people believe that the voice of God declared himself for Mahomet, who was in the midst of his proselytes. Deceived by the caresses of this traitor, his associate went into the well to counterfeit the oracle as usual. Mahomet then passing by at the head of an infatuated multitude a voice was heard saying:
"I who am your God, declare that I have established Mahomet as the prophet of all nations. From him you will learn my true law which has been changed by the Jews and the Christians."
For a long time this man played this game, but in the end he was paid by the greatest and blackest ingratitude. Mahomet hearing the voice which proclaimed him a divine being, turned towards the people and commanded them in the name of the God who recognized him as his prophet, to fill with stones the ditch whence had issued such authentic testimony in his favour, in memory of the stone which Jacob raised to mark the place where God appeared to him in Genesis 28:18.
Thus perished the unfortunate person who had contributed to the elevation of Mahomet; it was on this heap of stones that the last of the celebrated prophets established his law. This foundation is so stable and founded in such a way that after a thousand years of reign it has no appearance of being overthrown.
Mahomet was more fortunate than Jesus Christ. After having laboured for twenty-three years in the establishment of his Law and Religion, he saw its progress before his death. With an assurance which Jesus Christ had not, he saw it would exist a long time after his death, since he prudently accommodated the genius and passions of his followers.
Such was the last of these three impostors. Moses threw himself into an abyss by an excess of ambition to cause himself to be believed immortal. Jesus Christ was ignominiously hung up between two thieves, being covered with shame as a recompense for his imposture. Lastly, Mahomet died in reality in his own bed, and in the midst of grandeur, but with his bowels consumed by poison given him by a young Jewess, to determine if he really was a prophet.
This is all that can be said of these celebrated impostors. They were just as we have painted them after nature, without giving any false shading to their portraits. You decide whether they merited any confidence, and whether you should be led by these guides, raised by ambition and trickery and destroyed by ignorance.
Hardly had the disciples of Christ abolished the Mosaic law to introduce the Christian dispensation, than mankind, carried away by force, and by their ordinary inconstancy, followed a new law-giver, who advanced himself by the same methods as Moses. He assumed, like him, the title of prophet, and envoy of God, like him he performed miracles and knew how to profit by the passions of the people. First he was accompanied by an ignorant rabble, to whom he explained the new oracles of heaven. These unfortunates, seduced by the promises and fables of this new impostor, spread his renown and exalted him to a height that eclipsed his predecessors.
