3, and Thornton,
vol. i. p. 137.

[249:1] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 259. In the most ancient
parts of the Zend-Avesta, Ormuzd is said to have created the world by
his WORD. (See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 104, and Gibbon's Rome, vol.
ii. p. 302, Note by Guizot.) "In the beginning was the WORD, and the
WORD was with God, and the WORD was God." (John, i. 1.)

[249:2] Quoted in Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 267.

[249:3] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 404.

[249:4] See Dunlap's Mysteries of Adoni, p. 156.

[249:5] See Ibid. p. 156, and Bulfinch, Age of Fable.

[249:6] John, i. 1, 2.

[249:7] John, xvii. 5.

[250:1] Col. i. 17.

[250:2] Hebrews, xiii. 8.

[250:3] Rev. i. 8, 23, 13.

[250:4] Rev. i. 17; xii. 13.

[250:5] Geeta, p. 35.

[250:6] Geeta, p. 36.

[250:7] Lecture ix. p. 80.

[250:8] Lecture x. p. 83.

[250:9] Lecture x. p. 85.

[250:10] Lecture ix. p. 91.

[250:11] Lecture x. p. 84.

[250:12] Lecture xi. p. 95.

[250:13] See Vishnu Purana, p. 440.

[250:14] See chapter xii.

[250:15] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 200.

[251:1] Thornton: Hist. China, vol. i. p. 137.

[251:2] Prog. Relig. Ideas, ii. p. 267.

[251:3] Mueller's Chips, vol. ii. p. 15.

[251:4] "C'est moi qui vous conduis, vous et tout ce qui vous regarde.
C'est moi, qui vous conserve, on qui vous sauve. Je suis Alpha et Omega.
Il y a au dessous de l'inscription un serpent qui tient sa queue dans sa
gueule et dans la cercle qu'il decrit, cest trois lettre Greques {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI~}{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON~},
qui sont le nombre 365. Le serpent, qui est'ordinaire un embleme de
l'eternite est ici celui de soleil et de ses revolutions." Beausobre:
Hist. de Manichee, Tom. ii. p. 56.

"I say that I am immortal, Dionysus (Bacchus), son of Deus."
_Aristophanes_, in Myst. Of Adoni, pp. 80, and 105.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST JESUS AND THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS.

The legendary history of Jesus of Nazareth, contained in the books of
the New Testament, is full of prodigies and wonders. These alleged
prodigies, and the faith which the people seem to have put in such a
tissue of falsehoods, indicate the prevalent disposition of the people
to believe in everything, and it was among such a class that
Christianity was propagated. All leaders of religion had the reputation
of having performed miracles; the biographers of Jesus, therefore, not
wishing