from Central Asia into Syria, by means of the return of
the Jews from Babylon, and had afterwards extended widely, through the
mixing of nations produced by Alexander's conquests.

[273:1] See King's Gnostics, p. 145. Monumental Christianity, pp. 100
and 402, and Jameson's Hist. of Our Lord in Art, vol. i. p. 16.

[273:2] See Monumental Christianity, p. 402, and Hist. of Our Lord, vol.
i. p. 16.

[273:3] Monumental Christianity, pp. 403-405.

[273:4] Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 19.

[273:5] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 59.

[274:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. p. 588. An eminent heathen challenged his
Christian friend Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, a champion of the
Gospel, to show him but one person who had been raised from the dead, on
the condition of turning Christian himself upon it. _The Christian
bishop was unable to give him that satisfaction._ (See Gibbon's Rome,
vol. i. p. 541, and Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 60.)

[274:2] Middleton's Works, vol. i. pp. 20, 21.

[274:3] Ibid. p. 62. The Christian Fathers are noted for their frauds.
Their writings are full of falsehoods and deceit.

[275:1] Contra Celsus, bk. 1, ch. ix. x.

[275:2] See Middleton's Works, pp. 62, 63, 64.

[275:3] On The Flesh of Christ, ch. v.

[276:1] I. Corinthians, i. 22, 23.

[276:2] Matt. xii. 29.

[276:3] See for example, Joel, ii. 10, 31; iii. 15; Matt. xxiv. 29, 30;
Acts, ii. 19, 20; Revelations, vi. 12, 13; xvi. 18, _et seq._

[277:1] The writers of the Gospels were "I know not what sort of _half_
Jews, not even agreeing with themselves." (Bishop Faustus.)

CHAPTER XXVIII.

CHRIST CRISHNA AND CHRIST JESUS COMPARED.

Believing and affirming, that the _mythological portion_ of the history
of Jesus of Nazareth, contained in the books forming the Canon of the
New Testament, is nothing more or less than a copy of the mythological
histories of the Hindoo Saviour _Crishna_, and the Buddhist Saviour
_Buddha_,[278:1] with a mixture of mythology borrowed from the Persians
and other nations, we shall in this and the chapter following, compare
the histories of these _Christs_, side by side with that of Christ
Jesus, the Christian Saviour.

In comparing the history of Crishna with that of Jesus, we have the
following remarkable parallels:

1. "Crishna was born of a chaste virgin, called Devaki, who was selected
by the Lord for this purpose on account of her purity."[278:2]

1. Jesus was born of a chaste virgin, call