| 493 for hire in Egypt: he got acquainted with miraculous arts there; he returned; and, relying on his power of working miracles, declared himself God.'
'The apostles were infamous men, publicans, and abandoned mariners.'
'Why should you, when an infant, be carried into Egypt, lest you should be murdered? God should not fear being put to death.
'Ye say that God was sent to sinners; but why not to those who were free from sin; what harm is it not to have sinned?'
'Ye encourage sinners, because ye are not able to persuade any really good men; therefore ye open the doors to the most wicked and abandoned.'
'Some of them say, do not examine, but believe, and thy faith shall save thee.'
With a sneer he makes the Christians say, 'These are our institutions: 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 can gain only the foolish, the vulgar, the stupid slaves, women and children. They, who conversed with him when alive, and heard his voice, and followed him as their master, when they saw him under punishment and dying, were so far from dying with him or for him, or from being induced to despise sufferings, that they denied that they were his disciples: but now ye die with him.'
'He had no reason to fear any mortal now, after he had died, and, as ye say, was a God; therefore, he should have shown himself to all, and particularly, to him that condemned him,'
'He pursuaded [persuaded] only twelve abandoned sailors and publicans, and did not persuade even all these.'
'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 they had factious spirits from the beginning.'
'They are now so split into different sects that they have only the name left them in common.'
'All wise men are excluded from the doctrine of their faith: They call to it only fools and men of a servile spirit,'
He frequently upbraids Christians for reckoning him, who had a mortal body, to be God; and looking on themselves as pious on that account.
'The preachers of their divine word only attempt to persuade fools-mean and senseless persons-slaves-women and children. What harm can there be in learning, or; in appearing a man of knowledge? What obstacle can this be to the knowledge of God?'
'We see these itinerants showing readily their tricks to the vulgar, but not approaching the assemblies of wise men; not daring to show themselves there: but where they see boys-a crowd of slaves, and ignorant men-there they thrust in themselves and puff off their doctrine,'
'You may see weavers, tailors, and fullers, illiterate and rustic men, in their houses, but not daring to utter a word before persons of age, experience, and respectability: it is, when they get hold of boys, and of silly women, privately, that they recount their wonderful stories; it is then that they teach their young disciples that they must not mind their fathers or their tutors, but obey them: Their fathers and guardians, they tell them, are quite ignorant and in the dark, but themselves alone have the true wisdom. And if the children take this advice, they pronounce them happy; and direct them to leave their fathers and tutors, and to go, with the women and their play-fellows, into the chambers of the females, or into a tailor's or fullers, shop that they may learn perfection.
'In other mysteries, the cryer [crier] used to say.-Whoever has clean hands, and a good conscience, and a good life, let him come in. But let us hear whom they call. Whoever is a sinner, a fool an infant, a lost wretch, the kingdom of God will receive him. An unjust man, if he humble himself for his crimes, God will receive him; but a just man, who has proceeded in a course of virtue from the beginning, if he look up to him, he will not be received.'
He compares a Christian teacher to a quack, who promises to heal the sick, on condition that they keep from intelligent practitioners, lest his ignorance be detected.
'Ye will hear them, though differing so widely from one another, and abusing one another so foully, making that boast-the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.'
'The same things are better said by the Greeks, and withont [without] the imperious denunciation of God, or the Son of God.'
'If one sort introduce one doctrine, another, another, and all join in saying, Believe, if ye would be saved, or depart; what are they to do, who desire really to be saved? Are they to determine by the throw of a die? Where are they to turn themselves, or whom to believe?'
'Do you not see, that any man that will, may carry you away and crucify you and your demon: The Son of God gives you no help.'"
How often it is, we hear individuals indulging in the most harsh kind of epithets against
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