nd suppress is subject
either of punishment or of shame?

"What monstrous, what portentous notions do they fabricate! that that
God of theirs, whom they can neither show nor see, should be inquiring
diligently into the characters, the acts--nay, the words and secret
thoughts of all men; running to and fro, forsooth, and present
everywhere, troublesome, restless--nay, impudently curious they would
have him; that is, if he is close at every deed, interferes in all
places, while he can neither attend to each as being distracted through
the whole, nor suffice for the whole as being engaged about each. Think,
too, of their threatening fire, meditating destruction to the whole
earth--nay, the world itself with its stars!... Nor content with this
mad opinion, they add and append their old wives' tales about a new
birth after death, ashes and cinders, and by some strange confidence
believe each other's lies.

"Poor creatures! consider what hangs over you after death, while you are
still alive. Lo, the greater part of you, the better, as you say, are in
want, cold, toil, hunger, and your God suffers it; but I omit common
trials. Lo, threats are offered to you, punishments, torments; crosses
to be undergone now, not worshipped (_adorandae_); fires, too, which ye
predict and fear; where is that God who can recover, but cannot preserve
your life? The answer of Socrates, when he was asked about heavenly
matters, is well known: 'What is above us does not concern us.' My
opinion also is, that points which are doubtful, as are the points in
question, must be left; nor, when so many and such great men are in
controversy on the subject, must judgment be rashly and audaciously
given on either side, lest the consequence be either anile superstition
or the overthrow of all religion."

Such was Christianity in the eyes of those who witnessed its rise and
propagation--one of a number of wild and barbarous rites which were
pouring in upon the empire from the ancient realms of superstition, and
the mother of a progeny of sects which were faithful to the original
they had derived from Egypt or Syria; a religion unworthy of an educated
person, as appealing, not to the intellect, but to the fears and
weaknesses of human nature, and consisting, not in the rational and
cheerful enjoyment, but in a morose rejection of the gifts of
Providence; a horrible religion, as inflicting or enjoining cruel
sufferings, and monstrous and loathsome in its very