ON THE OTHER SHORE, the pure way of heaven is opened, I have entered the road to Nirvana. On this road the oceans of blood and of tears are dried, the mountains of human bones are broken through and the army of death annihilated as the elephant overturns the reed hut. He who without distraction follows this way escapes from the circle of transmigration and the revolutions of the world. He can boast: I have performed what was incumbent on me, I have annihilated the existence for myself, I will not again be born, I am freed, I shall see no more existence after this!'

CHAPTER XIII.

THE WORLD RELIGIONS.

Omnia paullatim tabescere, et ire

Ad scopulum spatio aetatis defessa vetusto.

Lucretius, ii. 1170.

He made of one blood every race of men to dwell on all the face of the earth... that they should seek God if haply they might trace and find him, since he is not far from each one of us!

Paulus.

THE "One Existence" of the Hindus and other orientals appears as the "First Cause" in the Jewish Philosophy. It is the EN-SOPH (" without end") of the Cabbala. This is all things, and out of it there is nothing. No substance has proceeded out of absolute nothing; all which is has drawn its origin from a source of eternal light, from God. God is only comprehensible in his manifestation: the not-manifested God is an abstraction for us. Under this point of view he is called the "NOTHING." This "NOTHING" (AYIN) is the indivisible and infinite unity; hence it is called EN-SOPH. This is "boundless," and not limited by any thing. Here we have Anaximander's To APEIRON, the Buddhist's non-existence and the Chinese TAO, as analogous ideas. The Buddhist Swabhava is not a person; neither was the Tao, nor the Babylonian ONE PRINCIPLE OF THE UNIVERSE, nor the Egyptian UNKNOWN DARKNESS.

The Primitive Light of the God-NOTHING filled all space; it is space itself. All creation has gradually emanated from the Divine Light. According as it removes itself from its

source it approaches Darkness; and Matter, which is the most remote, is the seat of Evil.' Here is also a variation. of the Brahman idea that all creatures issued from this Highest Being in such a manner that the most spiritual were nearest to him, the most material, sensual and coarsest forms the furthest removed from him. The EN-SOPH manifests itself freely by its WISDOM and thus becomes the First Cause, the Cause of causes. The INFINITE EN-SOPH manifested himself, in the Beginning, in One First Principle or Cause, the "PROTOTYPE OF CREATION" or "Macrocosm," called the SON OF GOD, the Primitive Man. This is the "figure of a man" which hovers above the symbolic animals of Ezekiel. It is the Adam-Kadmôn, from whom the Creation emanates."

The New Testament shows the abundant superstitions of the times, especially among the common people. There we find dumb devils, demoniacs, spirits of weakness, &c., &c. Sins, mistakes, diseases, must be atoned for as in Egypt by offerings. Pigeons, meat, grain, wine and salt must all be offered to the Lord by way of ATONEMENT for their sins. Paul preached an ancient doctrine when he taught that Christ died an atonement to the eternal justice of God for the sins of men. The ideas which prevail in the New Testament were many of them old before the time of Christ. We find the doctrine of purification in Leviticus, in the laws of Manu and the Zendavesta. Innumerable sects existed, and all sorts of doctrines came from Greece, Babylon, Persia, India and Egypt to influence the Hebrew mind. The End of the world was expected in Persia and Judaea; and this event was connected with the appearance of the expected Messiah and the Resurrection.

"Philo imagined an eternal atonement already made

'Munk's Palestine, p. 523.

2 Duncker, ii. 68.

3

Munk, 523. The Epistle to the Hebrews, i. 10, 11, applies Psalm cii. 24 (25), 25 (26), and its expression ELI (Ali, O God) to Christ. See above, pp. 245, 246.

and eternally being made by the Logos.' This JewishHeathen philosophy of religion was carried into practice by the Therapeutae, the servants of God, who considered themselves the genuine spiritual contemplative worshippers. They are to be viewed as Jewish monks like the Essenes, whom they strongly resemble, though no outward connection can be shown. They dwelt in a quiet, pleasant country on Lake Moeris, not far from Alexandria, shut up in cloister-like cells (σeuveia, povaστýpia) and devoted to the contemplation of divine things and the practice of asceticism. They generally lived on nothing but bread and water, and ate only in the evening, being ashamed to take material nourishment in daylight. Every seventh Sabbath was with them specially sacred. They then united in a common lovefeast of bread and water seasoned with salt and hyssop, sang ancient hymns and performed mystic dances emblematic of the passage of their fathers through the Red Sea, or, according to their allegorical exegesis, of the release of the Spirit from the bonds of sense. These Jewish ascetics regarded the sensible' as intrinsically evil, and the body as a prison of the soul. Consequently the aim of the wise man was outward mortification. The ascetic death was the birth to true life."

2

The Essenes were an association of practical philosophers who joined to the doctrines of the Pharisees the principles of an exalted morality, and applied themselves to the practical virtues, to temperance and labor. They divided the day between prayer, ablutions, labor and repasts in common. No profane word was uttered before the Sun rose, which they saluted every morning with prayers after the ancient usage. Then the superiors sent each to his occupation; after laboring until eleven o'clock they bathed themselves in cold water and joined in the repast. They entered the dining room solemnly as if it were a temple, and sat down in the most profound silence. Each received a piece of 'Schaff, Hist. Apost. Church, 180.

2 Ibid. 181.

bread and a dish with one mess. Before and after the meal a priest pronounced a prayer. Before returning to their work they put off the garment which they had assumed for the meal and which they looked upon as sacred. At evening they united for a second repast.' Yea and nay were with them a sufficient guaranty of veracity."

Let your word be yea yea, nay nay; for what is more than these comes of evil!-Matthew, v. 37.

The Essenes like the Buddhists lived in associations or monasteries and generally disinclined to marry. They believed in equality among men (like Buddha and Christ), in giving to those who are in want, they avoided splendid garments and generally all cleaving to existing things, rejecting pleasures as an evil and esteeming the conquest over the passions as a virtue. They studied morality, and held that the soul, having descended from Aether the most pure, being drawn to the body by a certain natural attraction, remains in it as in prison. For the rest, they resembled the Pythagoreans and differed from the Buddhists by believing in a God. The Essenes kept up relations with the world beyond their community and sought to serve society by giving it the example of a laborious life, a sincere piety, and a constant virtue which controlled all the human passions. Those who entered their society must bring to it all that they possessed; the property of the society confided. to administrators was held in common and belonged to all: and there were no rich and no poor. John the Baptist was apparently a stricter sort of Essene.*

3

1 Munk's Palestine, 515, 516.

Schaff, 175.

According to an Orphic notion more than once alluded to by Plato, human souls are punished by being confined in the body.-K. O. Müller, Hist. Greek Lit. 238. This was the idea of Philo, who considered that the soul existed before the body was created.-Preface to Philo, by Yonge; De Wette, Bibl. Dogm. 149.

4

Milman, Hist. Christ. p. 77; Munk's Palestine, 515-519; Josephus, Wars of the Jews, ii. ch. 8.