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by Hadrian , namely , that the bishops of Christ worshiped Osiris * . The people of Lystra would easily take htm , as they did Paul * for Jupiter come down among them : and we here see that the magicians , iti the court of Tiberius , supposed him to be
Pan , the sou of Mercury and Penelope . Eusebius , indeed , affects to suppose , that by the great Pan was meant not our Lord , but one of the demons destroyed by him . He must , I presume , have known better ; but though con * tending for the divinity of Jesus he was ashamed to make him one of the
most despicable of the heathen gods . Larduer objects to this story in Plutarch having any reference to Christ , as being all over heathenish . But might we not expect the truth to be mixed with Heathenism when related by Heathens > If it had been recorded
in the archives of Lustra , and not in the Acts of I he Apostles , that Jupiter and Mercury had appeared in the form of men , and healed a cripple in that city , and Kusebius had recorded it on that authority , as referriug to Paul and Barnabas , it is evident that Larduer would have disbelieved it ,
and said that the story was altogether heathenish and unworthy of credit . the miracles which our Lord performed , the leality of which was universally believed in Judea and other countries , disposed the munis of men to receive false miracles . The
impostors , who , in Rome and in the provinces , practised the arts of magic , availed themselves of this disposition ; and endeavouring , from the ? eal works of Jesus , 1 o attach credit to their own impostures , affected to use and extol his name , while they ivere enemies to
him and to his gospel . The Samaritan Simon , Barjesus , the sons of Sceva ,: ftlf mentioned in the book of the A ; cttt , arc examples of this kind ; and it . is reasonable to suppose , that the magician * around Tiberius acted on the same principle . They
pronounced him to be ran , the son of Mercury ! mid Penelope . , The character of I his god may be seen in one of the dialogues of L u < ian ; and I lie monster , as he is there described .
shews , flint Ihejflereivrrs , a bo ' ve-men-
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wicked Jew , whom Josephus holds forth as a teacher of the gospel in Rome , was probably in the number of these impostors : for he was in league with the priests of I sis , who effected the destruction of Fulvia , the
wife of Saturuinus , an intimate friend of the emperor ; and these priests no doubt constituted in part the magicians and astrologers , mentioned by Plutarch , under the name of philologers . This last author expressly declares ,
that the emperor con suites I them on this occasion , and that they gave it as their opinion , that : the person inquired after , was one of the Pagan gods . Now , an it was their opiiiiou that Jesus was a God , or , in other words , that before
he was put to death he was inhabited by a god , and as they gave this opinion to the emperor , is it not probable that they also advised him to procure his deification from the senate ? And as , moreover , Tiberius was exceedingly devoted to such men , is it hot farther reasonable to suppose , that he did , from their advice and under their
influence , what he would not have done from his own temper or from the acts of Pilate r Tertullian and Eusebius were well acquainted with these circmnttances ; but being ashamed of the base advisers of the emperor , they threw a veil over their interference :
but , at the same time , wishing to avail themselves of the fact , they left it by the omission destitute of its proper evidence . Justin Mart > r , in his first Apology ,
addressed to the emperor and senate , has the following passage , which lias occasioned great perplexity to modern critics : " Sftnon , a Samaritan , from the village of Git ton , in the reign of Claudius , by means of demons
working in hitnv : is , in , your royal city , deemed a god , and is honoured as such by a statue from you : which statue had been raised by the river Tiber , between the two bridge ^ hav - ing upon it this inscription , in Latin , Miwoni Deo Sancro / " p 3 $ ; ed . Thirl . Simon wm > a shameless and
4 > rt > fligate , impostor : and it is a fact , that wherever he went he pretended to be a god . His language to his fol-Uwm& > as appears froii | the Recogni § m& . ascribed to Clemens , wa ^ " I tiat ? be adored as a god ^ and have divine honours bestowed upon me * % o that men shall make me a btatue aud worship me as a god / ' To his im-
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Dr . Jones on the Deification of Jesus Christ at Rome , 541
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1818, page 541, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2480/page/5/
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