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the Son of God? The Egyptians had ever cherished deep-rooted malice and envy towards *the Jews; and this circumstance rendered that country a very unlikely place for Joseph to seek+ protection. If the birth of Jesus had been announced to the whole world by the appearance of a peculiar star, if wise men were attracted by it from the East, and Herod had slain all the children in Bethlehem, he could no longer be concealed, wherever he went; and if he went into Egypt, his happy destination was sure to draw upon him the notice and envy of that people: and his parents would have more to dread from them than from the jealousy of any individual, however powerful, in his own country. Besides, the Egyptians were more devoted than any other nation to the arts of magic. So general was the popular belief in those arts, that our Lord, as soon as he began to work miracles, was in danger of being classed with the magicians. Was it, then, consistent with the wisdom of Heaven to direct his flight to a country where magic was mostly studied and practised? Would it not be suspected, that he repaired thither to be initiated, from his infancy, in the systematic impostures of that people; and that he returned into Judea only to practise the artifices which he had learnt in Egypt? Did not his enemies among the Jews and Gentiles avail themselves of his pretended visit, and hence reproach him as a magician? Ben Satda brought enchantments out of Egypt, was an allegation made by the writers of the Talmud. See Lard. VII. 149. Celsus makes the same objection: "Jesus," says he, "learnt in Egypt the mighty arts of magic, and being

elated with his power, he returned to Judea, and there, on account of it, wished to be deemed a god." The story of the miraculous conception is the sole foundation of this falsehood. On the other hand, if the transaction had really occurred in Rome, the flight into Egypt was natural and unavoidable. The goddess who sent the dream, was Isis, the presiding divinity of Egypt; and her priests, in whose company the women departed, themselves fled into that country.

If the magi bere mentioned had announced the birth of Jesus, and believed in him as the Messiah of the Jews, they must have been believers in Christ; and it is natural to suppose, that when they departed, to avoid the anger of Herod, they went away in company with Joseph and Mary, and this appears plain from the context. The forgers on saying, that they returned. into their own country, break off the narrative concerning them, and relate the departure of our Lord and his parents. We may conclude, therefore, that they departed together, and went into Egypt. Here again the story coincides, and is the very same with that of Paulina, Vistilia, and other women who left Rome in conjunction with the Egyptian converts, and withdrew into that or some other country.

VIII. I have said, that Josephus believing in Jesus, and believing only in his simple humanity, refers to Rome, as the origin of the doctrine of his divinity and miraculous birth, and holds up to public infamy the teachers of it as wicked in every respect. And I have shewn, that the events contained in the two first chapters of Matthew are actually copied from the very transactions to

which the Jewish historian refers. I have one consideration more to offer on this subject, which, though a single fact, appears to me a volume of evidence to the above proposition. Justin Martyr, some years after Josephus had published his Antiquities, addressed to the emperor and senate an Apology for the Christians, in which he dwells on the works and doctrines of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. Every reader, in first perusing that work, will of course expect to see the amiable author dwelling with peculiar energy on the mighty events which occurred at the birth of Jesus, the appearance of the star, the arrival of the magi in Jerusalem, the alarm of Herod, the flight of Joseph and Mary into Egypt, and the murder of the infants. These occurrences were peculiarly calculated to impress the people of Rome, who, though fatalists in general, were given to magic and astrology. But in this reasonable expectation he would be strangely disappointed. Not a word is said of them by Justin, though he had the strongest possible motive to mention them, and to insist upon their truth, as irresistibly proving the claims of Jesus. In his Dialogue, he does mention them to Trypho, though a Jew, and, as such, disposed to treat the tale with contempt. And how came he to be silent about it in circumstances where it might have been told with peculiar advantage and effect. The reason is now obvious. The transactions, as they originally happened at Rome, were comparatively recent, when Justin wrote, and fresh in the writings, and almost in the memories of men. Could this apologist then have publicly asserted, that those things happened at

Jerusalem which all knew to have been copied from prior events at Rome? He could not have done this, however disposed to inculcate the falsehood, without exposing himself and his cause to the bitterest contempt and derision. He had, therefore, no alternative but to pass by the events in silence, and this is what he has actually done.

A poem of Virgil, already mentioned, proves, that the books of the Sibyl contained close imitations of the Jewish prophets. These Tiberius examined, when produced by the philologers around him as referring to Christ. The philologers doubtless forged other writings more appropriate to their purpose, and cited them as genuine compositions of the Sibyl. The spurious oracles, we are told, Tiberius rejected, and he punished the base authors of them.

From Tacitus, it is manifest, that the emperor not only prevented the reception of the above oracles, but prohibited the use of them by private individuals. Now, we find, from a passage of Justin Martyr, that a prohibition was actually in force against the oracles forged by some pretended believers, whether imputed to the Sibyl, or to Hystaspes or the Jewish prophets; and he must have understood, that the forged prophecies to which he alludes, were the forgeries of the philologers in the court of Tiberius, and had wholly, or in part been brought before the senate, and there condemned and prohibited. This being the case, could he with any propriety produce them in his apology? This also was not to be expected; and, accordingly, not a single verse is to be found either in the first or second apo logy; while the Sibylline verses are poured forth

very abundantly in his exhortation to the Greeks, These facts, it appears to me, render it morálly certain, that Justin well knew, that the doctrine of the supernatural birth of Jesus was a forgery copied into the New Testament from the impostures in Rome. This knowledge will account for the following passage, in his dispute with Trypho, the Jew. Having stated, that Jesus was a god, and born of a virgin, he immediately subjoins this precaution, "Let me not be thought to fail in proving, that he is the Christ, though I should be unable to prove, that he is a god, and a man born of a virgin; and it will be just in you to say, that I have erred only in thinking so, and not to deny, that he is the Christ, though he should appear to have been born of human parents. For there are some, my friends, of your nation, who believe him to be the Christ, though a man born of men. With these I do not agree, though the greatest part of them have not the same sentiments with me." P. 233. ed. Thirl. If the introductory chapters in Matthew and Luke were authentic, the miraculous birth of Jesus stands precisely on the same ground with the miracles or divine mission of Christ. Justin, therefore, in making the above distinction, a distinction which no modern believer in the miraculous birth of Christ would make or even allow, evidently supposes, that the authenticity of those chapters had not the same proofs with the rest of the New Testament. Moreover, it is remarkable, that he here notices the Jewish Christians who believed, that Jesus had a natural father, and who therefore rejected the chapters which teach his supernatural birth. Here Justin virtually brings forward the testi

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