After many years the father felt his end approaching, and he summoned his son and the officers of the king, and announced to them the secret that he had so long kept. The poor man was his son, who in early days had wandered away from him; and now that he was conscious of his former debased condition, and was able to appreciate and retain vast wealth, he was determined to hand over to him his entire treasure. The poor man was astonished at this sudden change of fortune, and overjoyed at meeting his father once more.
The parables of Buddha are reported in the Lotus of the Perfect Law to be veiled from the ignorant by means of an enigmatic form of language. The rich man of this parable, with his throne adorned by flowers and garlands of jewels, is announced to be Tathagata (God), who dearly loves all his children, and has prepared for them vast spiritual treasures. But each son of Tathagata has miserable inclinations. He prefers the dung-heap to the pearl mani. To teach such a man, Tathagata is obliged to employ inferior agents, the monk and the ascetic, and to wean him by degrees from the lower objects of desire. When he speaks himself, he is forced to veil much of his thought, as it would not be understood. His sons feel no joy on hearing spiritual things. Little by little must their minds be trained and disciplined for higher truths.
PARABLE OF THE WOMAN AT THE WELL.
Ananda, a favourite disciple of Buddha, was once athirst, having travelled far. At a well he encountered a girl named Matanga, and asked her to give him some water to drink. But she being a woman of low caste, was afraid of contaminating a holy Brahmana, and refused humbly.
"I ask not for caste, but for water!" said Ananda. His condescension won the heart of the girl Matanga.
It happened that she had a mother cunning in love philtres and weird arts, and when this woman heard how much her daughter was in love, she threw her magic spells round the disciple and brought him toher cave. Helpless, he prayed to Buddha, who forthwith appeared and cast out the wicked demons.
But the girl Matanga was still in wretched plight. At last she determined to repair to Buddha himself and appeal to him.
The Great Physician, reading the poor girl's thought questioned her gently:—
"Supposing that you marry my disciple, can you follow him everywhere?"
"Everywhere!" said the girl.
"Could you wear his clothes, sleep under the same roof?" said Buddha, alluding to the nakedness and beggary of the "houseless one."
By slow degrees the girl began to take in his meaning, and at last she took refuge in the Three Great Jewels.
A common objection to Buddhism is that it fails to proclaim the fatherhood of God.
"The loving Father of all that lives." (Tsing-tu-wan.)
"Our loving Father and Father of all that breathes." ("Imit. Buddha," p. 67.) (" Daily Manual of the Shaman," cited by Mr. Bowden.)
"I am the Heavenly Father (loka pita Swayambhu), the Healer, the Protector of all creatures." (Kern, "Lotus," p. 310.)
I will give a pretty parable that pictures Buddha as a Father.
PARABLE OF THE BLAZING MANSION.
Once there was an old man, broken, decrepit, butvery rich. He possessed much land and many gold pieces. Moreover, he possessed a large rambling mansion which also showed plain proofs of Time's decay. Its rafters were worm-eaten; its pillars were rotten; its galleries were tumbling down; the thatch on its roof was dry and combustible. Inside this mansion were several hundreds of the old man's servants and retainers, so extensive was the collection of rambling old buildings.
Unfortunately, this mansion possessed only one door.
The old man was also the father of many children—five, ten, twenty, let us say. One day there was a smell of burning, and he ran out by the solitary door. To his horror he saw the thatch in a mass of flame, the rotten old pillars were catching fire one by one, the rafters were blazing like tinder. Inside, his children, whom he loved most tenderly, were romping and amusing themselves with their toys.
The distracted father said to himself, "I will run in and save my children. I will seize them in my strong arms. I will bear them harmless through the falling rafters and the blazing beams!" Then the sad thought seized him that his children were romping and ignorant. "If I tell them that the house is on fire they will not understand me. If I try to seize them they will romp about and try to escape. Alas! not a moment is to be lost!"
Suddenly a bright thought flashed across the old man's mind. "My children are ignorant," he mentally said, "but they love toys and glittering playthings. I will promise them some playthings of unheard-of beauty. Then they will listen to me!"
So the old man shouted out with a loud voice, "Children, children, come out of the house and see these beautiful toys. Chariots with white oxen, all gold and tinsel. See these exquisite little antelopes! Whoever saw such goats as these! Children, children, come quickly or they will all be gone!"
Forth from the blazing ruin came the children in hot haste. The word "playthings" was almost the only word that they could understand. Then the fond father, in his great joy at seeing his offspring freed from peril, procured for them some of the most beautiful chariots ever seen. Each chariot had a canopy like a pagoda. It had tiny rails and balustrades, and rows of jingling bells. It was formed of the seven precious substances. Chaplets of glittering pearls were hung aloft upon it; standards and wreaths of the most lovely flowers. Milk-white oxen drew these chariots. The children were astonished when they were placed inside.
The meaning of this parable is thus rendered in the "White Lotus of Dharma." The old man is Tathagata, and his children the blind, suffering children of sin and passion. Tathagata fondly loves them, and would save them from their unhappiness. The old rambling mansion, unsightly, rotten, perilous, is the Domain of Karma, the Domain of Appetite. This old mansion is ablaze with the fire of mortal passions, and hates, and lusts. Tathagata in his "immense compassion" would lead all his beloved children away from this great peril, but they do not understand his language. Their only thought is of tinsel toys and childish pastimes. If he speaks to them ofthe great inner quickening which makes man conquer human pain, they cannot understand him. If he talks to them of wondrous supernatural gifts accorded to mortals, they turn a deaf ear to him. The tinsel chariots provided for the children of Tathagata are the "Vehicles" of the Buddhist teaching.
After Buddha's Death.
From Buddha's death we turn to Buddha's religion and its progress. And I think the narrative form will help us best, but a few preliminary remarks are necessary.
What is Buddhism?
"The religion of Buddha," says Professor Max Müller in his "Chips from a German Workshop," "was made for a madhouse."
"Buddha," says Sir Monier Williams in his "Buddhism," "altogether ignored in human nature any spiritual aspirations."
Having heard the dictum of Oxford, perhaps it is fair to listen to a real Buddhist. In a work called "Happiness," an anonymous writer sketches his religion.
The teaching of Buddha, as set forth by him, is simple and sublime. There are two states of the soul, call them ego and non-ego—the plane of matter and the plane of spirit—what you will. As long as we live for the ego and its greedy joys, we are feverish, restless, miserable. Happiness consists in the destruction of the ego, by the Bodhi, and Gnosis. This is that interior, that high state of the soul, attained by Fenelon and Wesley, by Mirza the Sufi and Swedenborg, by Spinoza and Amiel.
"The kingdom of God is within you," says Christ.
"In whom are hid the treasures ofsophiaandgnosis," says St. Paul.
"The enlightened view both worlds," says Mirza the Sufi, "but the bat flieth about in the darkness without seeing."
"Who speaks and acts with the inner quickening," says Buddha, "has joy for his accompanying shadow. Who speaks and acts without the inner quickening, him sorrow pursues as the chariot wheel the horse."
Let us give here a pretty parable, and let Buddha speak for himself:—
"Once upon a time there was a man born blind, and he said, 'I cannot believe in a world of appearances. Colours bright or sombre exist not. There is no sun, no moon, no stars. None have witnessed such things.' His friends chid him; but he still repeated the same words.
"In those days there was a Rishi who had the inner vision; and he detected on the steeps of the lofty Himalayas four simples that had the power to cure the man who was born blind. He culled them, and, mashing them with his teeth, applied them. Instantly the man who was born blind cried out, 'I see colours and appearances. I see beautiful trees and flowers. I see the bright sun. No one ever saw like this before.'
"Then certain holy men came to the man who was born blind, and said to him, 'You are vain and arrogant and nearly as blind as you were before.You see the outside of things, not the inside. One whose supernatural senses are quickened sees the lapis-lazuli fields of the Buddhas of the Past, and hears heavenly conch shells sounded at a distance of five yoganas. Go off to a desert, a forest, a cavern in the mountains, and conquer this mean thirst of earthly things.'"
The man who was born blind obeyed; and the parable ends with its obvious interpretation. Buddha is the old Rishi, and the four simples are the four great truths. He weans mankind from the lower life and opens the eyes of the blind.
I think that Sir Monier Williams's fancy, that Buddha ignored the spiritual side of humanity is due to the fact that by the word "knowledge" he conceives the Buddhist to mean knowledge of material facts. That Buddha's conceptions are nearer to the ideas of Swedenborg than of Mill is, I think, proved by the Cingalese book, the Samanna Phala Sutta. Buddha details, at considerable length, the practices of the ascetic, and then enlarges upon their exact object. Man has a body composed of the four elements. It is the fruit of the union of his father and mother. It is nourished on rice and gruel, and may be truncated, crushed, destroyed. In this transitory body his intelligence is enchained. The ascetic, finding himself thus confined, directs his mind to the creation of a freer integument. He represents to himself in thought another body created from this material body—a body with a form, members, and organs. This body, in relation to the material body, is like the sword and the scabbard, or a serpentissuing from a basket in which it is confined. The ascetic, then, purified and perfected, commences to practise supernatural faculties. He finds himself able to pass through material obstacles, walls, ramparts, etc.: he is able to throw his phantasmal appearance into many places at once; he is able to walk upon the surface of water without immersing himself; he can fly through the air like a falcon furnished with large wings; he can leave this world and reach even the heaven of Brahma himself.
Another faculty is now conquered by his force of will, as the fashioner of ivory shapes the tusk of the elephant according to his fancy. He acquires the power of hearing the sounds of the unseen world as distinctly as those of the phenomenal world—more distinctly, in point of fact. Also by the power of Manas he is able to read the most secret thoughts of others, and to tell their characters. He is able to say, "There is a mind that is governed by passion. There is a mind that is enfranchised. This man has noble ends in view. This man has no ends in view." As a child sees his earrings reflected in the water, and says, "Those are my earrings," so the purified ascetic recognises the truth. Then comes to him the faculty of "divine vision," and he sees all that men do on earth and after they die, and when they are again reborn. Then he detects the secrets of the universe, and why men are unhappy, and how they may cease to be so.
I will now quote a conversation between Buddha and some Brahmins which, I think, throws much light on his teaching. It is given in another Cingalese book, the "Tevigga Sutta."
When the teacher was dwelling at Manasâkata in the mango grove, some Brahmins, learned in the three Vedas, came to consult him on the question of union with the eternal Brahma. They ask if they are in the right pathway towards that union. Buddha replies at great length. He suggests an ideal case. He supposes that a man has fallen in love with the "most beautiful woman of the land." Day and night he dreams of her, but has never seen her. He does not know whether she is tall or short, of Brahmin or Sudra caste, of dark or fair complexion; he does not even know her name. The Brahmins are asked if the talk of that man about that woman be wise or foolish. They confess that it is "foolish talk." Buddha then applies the same train of reasoning to them. The Brahmins versed in the three Vedas are made to confess that they have never seen Brahma, that they do not know whether he is tall or short, or anything about him, and that all their talk about union with him is also foolish talk. They are mounting a crooked staircase, and do not know whether it leads to a mansion or a precipice. They are standing on the bank of a river and calling to the other bank to come to them.
Now it seems to me that if Buddha were the uncompromising teacher of atheism that Sir Monier Williams pictures him, he has at this point an admirable opportunity of urging his views. The Brahmins, he would of course contend, knew nothing about Brahma, for the simple reason that no such being as Brahma exists.
But this is exactly the line that Buddha does nottake. His argument is that the Brahmins knew nothing of Brahma, because Brahma is purely spiritual, and they are purely materialistic.
Five "Veils," he shows, hide Brahma from mortal ken. These are—
1. The Veil of Lustful Desire.
2. The Veil of Malice.
3. The Veil of Sloth and Idleness.
4. The Veil of Pride and Self-Righteousness.
5. The Veil of Doubt.
Buddha then goes on with his questionings:—
"Is Brahma in possession of wives and wealth?"
"He is not, Gautama!" answers Vasettha the Brahmin.
"Is his mind full of anger, or free from anger?"
"Free from anger, Gautama!"
"Is his mind full of malice, or free from malice?"
"Free from malice, Gautama!"
"Is his mind depraved or pure?"
"It is pure, Gautama!"
"Has he self-mastery, or has he not?"
"He has, Gautama."
The Brahmins are then questioned about themselves.
"Are the Brahmins versed in the three Vedas in possession of wives and wealth, or are they not?"
"They are, Gautama!"
"Have they anger in their hearts, or have they not?"
"They have, Gautama."
"Do they bear malice, or do they not?"
"They do, Gautama."
"Are they pure in heart, or are they not?"
"They are not, Gautama."
"Have they self-mastery, or have they not?"
"They have not, Gautama."
These replies provoke, of course, the very obvious retort that no point of union can be found between such dissimilar entities. Brahma is free from malice, sinless, self-contained, so, of course, it is only the sinless that can hope to be in harmony with him.
Vasettha then puts this question: "It has been told me, Gautama, that Sramana Gautama knows the way to the state of union with Brahma?"
"Brahma I know, Vasettha!" says Buddha in reply, "and the world of Brahma, and the path leading to it!"
The humbled Brahmins learned in the three Vedas then ask Buddha to "show them the way to a state of union with Brahma."
Buddha replies at considerable length, drawing a sharp contrast between the lower Brahminism and the higher Brahminism, the "householder" and the "houseless one." The householder Brahmins are gross, sensual, avaricious, insincere. They practise for lucre black magic, fortune-telling, cozenage. They gain the ear of kings, breed wars, predict victories, sacrifice life, spoil the poor. As a foil to this, he paints the recluse, who has renounced all worldly things, and is pure, self-possessed, happy.
To teach this "higher life," a Buddha "from time to time is born into the world, blessed and worthy, abounding in wisdom, a guide to erring mortals." He sees the universe face to face, the spirit world ofBrahma and that of Mâra the tempter. He makes his knowledge known to others. The houseless one, instructed by him, "lets his mind pervade one quarter of the world with thoughts of pity sympathy, and equanimity; and so the second, and so the third, and so the fourth. And thus the whole wide world, above, below, around, and everywhere, does he continue to pervade with heart of pity, sympathy, and equanimity, far-reaching, grown great, and beyond measure."
"Verily this, Vasettha, is the way to a state of union with Brahma," and he proceeds to announce that the bhikshu, or Buddhist beggar, "who is free from anger, free from malice, pure in mind, master of himself, will, after death, when the body is dissolved, become united with Brahma." The Brahmins at once see the full force of this teaching. It is as a conservative in their eyes that Buddha figures, and not an innovator. He takes the side of the ancient spiritual religion of the country against rapacious innovators.
Sir Monier Williams quotes a part of this Sutta, and, oddly enough, still maintains that Buddha was an atheist.
There are two great schools of Buddhism, and they are quite agreed on this point that Buddhism is the quickening of the spiritual vision.
Let us now consider how the two great schools of Buddhism diverge.
1. The earliest school, the Buddhism of Buddha, taught that after Nirvâna, or man's emancipation from re-birth, the consciousness of the individual survived, and that he dwelt for ever in happiness inthe Brahma heavens. This is the Buddhism of the "Little Vehicle."
2. The second, or innovating school, maintained that after Nirvâna the consciousness of the individual ceased. Their creed was the blank atheism of the Brahmin S'unyavâdi.
The first serious study of Buddhism took place in one of our colonies, and the first students were missionaries. Great praise is due to the missionaries of Ceylon for their early scholarship, but naturally they ransacked the Buddhist books less as scholars than missionaries. Soon they discovered with delight the teaching of the atheistic school, and statements that the Ceylon scriptures were the earliest authentic Buddhist scriptures, brought to the island by Mahinda, King Asoka's son (B.C.306). In consequence of this the missionaries concluded that Ceylon had preserved untainted the original teaching of Buddha, and that the earliest school, that of the "Little Vehicle," was atheistic.
But the leading Sanscrit scholar of the world, Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra, has completely dissipated this idea. In his work, "Nepalese Buddhist Literature," p. 178, he shows conclusively that it is the Buddhism of the innovating school, that of the "Great Vehicle," which preaches atheism. About the epoch of Christ, Kanerkos or Kanishka, a king who conquered India, introduced this innovating teaching. Hweng Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, who visited India in the seventh century, confirms this. There was in India at this date amongst the followers of Siva, a school who held that Nothingness was God, and Nothingness thefuture of man. They were called the S'unyavâdis, the proclaimers of Nothingness. Two priests, Parsvika and Vasabandhu, were with Kanerkos, and they persuaded this monarch to force this Pyrrhonism on the Buddhists. A mighty conflict was the consequence. The old Buddhists remonstrated. They said that Buddha knew nothing of all this. They called the "Great Vehicle" Sunyapushpa (the Carriage that drives to Nowhere). But Parsvika packed a convocation like Constantine, and forced the new teaching down their throats. ("Hweng Thsang, Hist." p. 114.,et. seq."Memoirs," pp. 174, 220.) Rajendra Lala Mitra says that the Buddhist books of the "Great Vehicle" are in a servile manner copied from Brahmin treatises.
Let us examine this "Great Vehicle," as writers like Sir Monier Williams tells us that it was this school that introduced the ideas of God and immortality into Buddhism, which until then was pure atheism. Its main Bible is a collection of writings called the "Rakshâ Bhagavatî." (Rajendra Lala Mitra, p. 179.) Bryan Hodgson confirms this. ("Literature of Nepal," p. 16.) The work itself is an avowed attack on the Hinayâna or "Little Vehicle," which is "refuted repeatedly," says the learned Hindoo. (p. 178.)
Let us now see what sort of god and what sort of immortality the "Rakshâ Bhagavatî" in its title of chapters proclaimed.
Chap. I. The subject of Nothingness (Sunyata) expounded.
Chap. II. Relation of the soul to form colour and vacuity.
Chap. IV. Relation of form to vacuity.
Chap. VII. How a Bodhisattwa merges all natural attributes into vacuity.
Chap. XII. The doctrine of Mahâyâna and its advantages, derived principally, if not entirely, from its recognition of the greatness of S'unyavâda (Nihilistic doctrine of the Brahmin sect of S'unyavâdis).
Chap. XIII. To the Bodhisattwa there is nothing eternal, nothing transient, nothing painful, nothing pleasant. All qualities are unreal as a dream.
Chap. XIV.-XVI. The principle of the Prajnâ Paramitâ imparted by Buddha to Indra. The end sought is the attainment of vacuity.
Chap. XXXV. All objects attainable by the study of Nihilism. ("Nepalese Buddhist Literature," p. 180.)
Hodgson gives a bit of what he calls this "pure Pyrrhonism" from the same book. Buddha is made to talk thus:—
"The being of all things is derived from belief, reliance, in this order: from false knowledge, delusive impression; from delusive impression, general notions; from them, particulars; from them, the six seats of the senses; from them, contact; from it, definite sensation and perception; from it, thirst or desire; from it, embryolic (physical) existence; from it, birth or actual existence; from it, all the distinctions of genus and species among animate things; from them, decay and death, after the manner and period peculiar to each. Such is the procession of all things into existence from delusion (avidyâ), and in the inverse order to that of their procession they retrograde into non-existence." (p. 79.)
Another book, the "Suvarna Prabhâsa," makes "grand non-existence," the Bodhi, the divine knowledge. "I now instruct you on the means of acquiring the knowledge of nothingness," Buddha is made to say to his disciples. (Rajendra Lala Mitra, p. 243.)
But there is a third school of Buddhism, the Madhyamika, or "Middle Pathway." Unless all this is definitely understood, Buddhism will remain a riddle. For a long time the "Great" and the "Little" Vehicles fought furiously. I believe that the "Middle Pathway" was a rude attempt at conciliation. No one can read many Buddhist writings without observing flat contradictions at every page. Thus the Brahmajâla Sûtra, much quoted by missionaries, who are plainly unaware that it belongs to the literature of the "Carriage that drives to Nowhere," announces that the existence of the soul after death in a conscious or even an unconscious state is impossible. But there is a passage which the missionaries do not quote. Buddha also tells his disciples that the statement of the Brahmins and Buddhist teachers, that "existing beings are cut off, destroyed, annihilated," is founded on their ignorance and want of perception of the truth. (Seemy "Popular Life of Buddha," p. 223.)
Having thus cleared the way, I will now proceed with the history of the progress of Buddha's religion. Before, it would have been unintelligible.
Buddha died B.C. 470. Asoka, the Buddhist Constantine, gained India B.C. 260. Unfortunately, between these two dates there is scarcely any authentic history at all. Buddha left behind him brief instructions to his disciples, which are called the "Twelve Observances." They were never to sleep under a roof. In Ceylon even to this day a Buddhist monk is called Abhyâvakâsika (he whose covering is the heavens). They were never to stop two nights in the same spot. What was to be their food? Refuse victuals. What was to be their dress? Rags from the graveyard, dung-heap, etc. What was his following to be called? The "Mob of Beggars" (Bhikshu Sangha). Jumping fromB.C.470 toB.C.302, history flashes a sudden light upon these wandering beggars.
At this date Seleucus Nicator sent an ambassador named Megasthenes to King Chandragupta at Patna. His account of the India of that day is, unfortunately, lost; but through Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Arrian, and Clement of Alexandria, some valuable fragments have come down to us. Patna, it must be remembered, was in the heart of the Buddhist Holy Land. Clement of Alexandria cites a passage from Megasthenes about the Indian "philosophers." "Of these there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanæ (Sramanas) and other Brahmins. And those of the Sarmanæ, who are called Hylobii, neither inhabit cities nor have roofs over them, but are clothed in the bark of trees, feed on nuts, and drink water in their hands. Like those called Encratites in the present day, they know not marriage, nor begetting of children. Some, too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha, whom, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honours."
Strabo also describes the Brahmins and the Hylobii, or Germanes, with similar details. He draws a distinction between the Germanes and the Brahmins on the subject of continency, the Brahmins being polygamists.
No doubt these Sarmanæ and Brahmins of Megasthenes were the Brahmins and Buddhist Sramanas, or ascetics. To the first were confided sacrifices and ceremonies. They were a caste apart, and none outside this caste could officiate. Their ideas of life and death, it is announced, were similar to those of Plato and the Greeks. The Brahmins ate flesh and had many wives. Every new year there was a great synod of them. They dwelt in groves near the great cities on "couches of leaves and skins."
The Hylobii, on the other hand, insisted on absolute continence and strict vegetarianism, and water drinking. Clitarchus gives us an additional fact from Megasthenes. The Hylobii "derided the Brahmins." "By their means," says Strabo, "kings serve and worship God." (See for all that can be recovered from Megasthenes, Cory, "Ancient Fragments," pp. 225-227.)
That the Buddhists at first were wandering beggars without any convents is the opinion of the Russian Orientalist, Wassiljew, who supports it from a valuable Chinese history by Daranatha. It asserts that the King Ajatasatru passed Varsha or Lent in a graveyard; and that until the date of Upagupta, a contemporary of Asoka, there were no temples. The first was built at Mathura. (Ch. iv., cited by Wassiljew, "Buddhism," p. 41.)
Daranatha asserts that a disciple of Ananda reached Cashmir. M. Wassiljew remarks that this wouldmean a spread of the doctrines in intermediate lands. I must point out that the first ritual of Buddhism was the "Praise of the Seven Mortal Buddhas," who were worshipped, as Gen. Cunningham has shown from the Bharhut Stupa, in the form of trees. This seems to have been the sole form of worship even in the days of King Asoka, who enjoins his subjects to worship round Buddha's tree, the ficus indicus.
I think that my readers are now in a position to judge whether India was gained by houseless Parivrajakas, ever marching, ever preaching, ever enduring hunger, thirst, buffets, death if necessary, or by lazy monks, living in sumptuous convents, and debating whether their couches should have fringes and their dress be silk or cotton. This last is the contention of the Buddhist histories, and these dishonest documents have even deceived learned men in the West, more skilful in Pâli roots, perhaps, than judicial analysis. These books record that three months after Buddha's death a vast convocation of monks was assembled at Râjâgriha to render canonical certain holy books, in bulk four times as big as our Bible. Eighteen disused monasteries were hastily cleared of their cobwebs and rubbish, and set in order for these monks, and a cave temple, whose columns and splendid stone carvings vied with Ellora, was cut out of the rock in what must be thought a very small space of time, namely, two months. I have shown in my "Popular Life of Buddha" that we have here most probably the details of a real convocation, that of King Kanerkos, assembled about 20A.D., by the "Carriage that drives Nowhere" (Sunyapushpa) toforce their Pyrrhonism on the old faith, and that they have dishonestly antedated this convocation by nearly 500 years, to make it appear that their innovations were the earliest Buddhism. Hweng Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, has given us the details of the convocation.
The number of monks was fixed at four hundred and ninety-nine. The ambitious Vasubandhu, leader of the "Great Vehicle" movement, presented himself at the door, but the traditions of early Buddhism were still strong. Some of the monks desired him to depart, as none but Arhats (the fully enfranchised) could remain near the building.
"I care little for the enfranchisement of study" (the rank of Arhat), said Vasubandhu. Then, with some inconsistency, he performed a great miracle to prove that he had attained that dignity. He flung into the air a ball of thread, and one end remained fixed in the sky. A similar prodigy was witnessed by Marco Polo and other old travellers. Vasubandhu was chosen president, and the convocation proceeded to discuss their Pyrrhonism. All this is servilely repeated in the fictitious narrative of the first convocation. A difficulty arose about Ananda, who had not acquired the miraculous powers that stamp the adept in the knowledge of Prajñâ Pâramitâ, the wisdom of the unseen world. Thus, as first constituted, the convocation consisted of 499 members and a vacant carpet was spread for Ananda. During the night he meditated on the Kâyagastâ Sâtiyâ, and in the morning these powers came; and in proof he reached his seat through the medium of the floor of the temple.
To culminate this silliness, Ananda is then calledupon to disclose this "wisdom of the unseen world," because, being Buddha's chief disciple, he is the only one who knows much about it. The Bible of the "Carriage that drives Nowhere" is the chief book discussed, the Brahmajâla Sûtra, which Hoa Yen, the greatest Chinese authority (seeRémusat, "Pilgrimage of Fa Hian," p. 108), says is distinctly a "Great Vehicle" scripture. In it Buddha discusses every conceivable theory about the next world, and contradicts them all. Could such an insane Bible, in a few years, have tumbled to pieces the great priesthoods of India, China, Persia?
We now come to King Asoka, a monarch whose dominions stretched from Grândhâra, or Peshawur, to Chola and Pândiya, the extreme southern provinces of India. On the extreme west he cut a rock-inscription at Girnar, on the Gulf of Cutch. On the east coast at Ganjam were the Dhauli and Jaugada inscriptions. His rule was a broad one.
He became a convert to Buddhism, and made it the official creed. He carved his "Edicts" on rocks and stone columns. Let us see from them whether early Buddhism was the atheism and negation of an immortal life that is depicted in popular treatises. He is called Devânampiya, the friend of the spirits.
KING ASOKA'S IDEAS ABOUT GOD.
"Much longing after the things [of this life] is a disobedience, I again declare; not less so is the laborious ambition of dominion by a prince who would be a propitiator of Heaven. Confess andbelieve in God [Isâna], who is the worthy object of obedience. For equal to this [belief], I declare unto you, ye shall not find such a means of propitiating Heaven. Oh, strive ye to obtain this inestimable treasure." (First separate Edict, Dhauli, Prinsep.)
"Thus spake King Devânampiya Piyadasi:—The present moment and the past have departed under the same ardent hopes. How by the conversion of the royal born may religion be increased? Through the conversion of the lowly born if religion thus increaseth, by how much [more] through the conviction of the high born and their conversion shall religion increase? Among whomsoever the name of God resteth, verily this is religion."
"Thus spake Devânampiya Piyadasi:—Wherefore from this very hour I have caused religious discourses to be preached. I have appointed religious observances that mankind, having listened thereto, shall be brought to follow in the right path, and give glory to God." (Edict No. vii., Prinsep.)
ASOKA ON A FUTURE LIFE.
"On the many beings over whom I rule I confer happiness in this world; in the next they may obtain Swarga [paradise]." (Edict vi., Wilson.)
"This is good. With these means let a man seek Swarga. This is to be done. By these means it is to be done, as by them Swarga [paradise] is to be gained." (Edict ix., Wilson.)
"I pray with every variety of prayer for those who differ with me in creed, that they, following after myexample, may with me attain unto eternal salvation." (Delhi Pillar, Edict vi., Prinsep.)
"And whoso doeth this is blessed of the inhabitants of this world; and in the next world endless moral merit resulteth from such religious charity." (Edict xi., Prinsep.)
"Unto no one can be repentance and peace of mind until he hath obtained supreme knowledge, perfect faith, which surmounteth all obstacles, and perpetual assent." (Rock Edict, No. vii., Prinsep.)
"In the tenth year of his anointment, the beloved King Piyadasi obtained the Sambodhi or complete knowledge." (Rock Edict, No. vii., Burnouf.)
"All the heroism that Piyadasi, the beloved of the gods, has exhibited is in view of another life. Earthly glory brings little profit, but, on the contrary, produces a loss of virtue. To toil for heaven is difficult to peasant and to prince unless by a supreme effort he gives up all." (Rock Edict, No. x., Burnouf.)
"May they [my loving subjects] obtain happiness in this world and in the next." (Second separate Edict, Burnouf.)
Early Buddhism had no prayer, no worship, say our popular treatises.
"Devânampiya has also said—Fame consisteth in this act, to meditate with devotion on my motives and on my deeds, and to pray for blessings in this world and the world to come." (Dhauli, separate Edict, No. ii., Prinsep.)
"I pray with every variety of prayer for those who differ with me in creed, that they, followingafter my example, may with me attain unto eternal salvation." (Delhi Pillar, Edict vi., Prinsep.)
Early Buddhism knew nothing of soul, we learn also.
"As the soul itself, so is the unrelaxing guidance of Devânampiya worthy of respect." (Dhauli, separate Edict, No. ii., Prinsep.)
On the Bairât rock the king, too, gives a list of the holy books that his monks were to learn by heart.
1. The Summary of Discipline.
2. The Supernatural Powers of the Masters.
3. The Terrors of the Future.
4. The Song of the Muni.
5. The Sûtra on Asceticism.
6. The Question of Upatishya.
7. The Admonition to Râhula concerning Falsehood, uttered by our Lord Buddha.
Nothing can be more important than this. If the Bairât rock-inscription is genuine, the Ceylon history of the convocations is pure fiction.
It must be remembered that in the old Indian creeds, holy books were handed down entirely by recitation. The letters of the alphabet, according to Professor Max Müller, General Cunningham, and the chief authorities, were not known in India until Asoka's day. We know from the Mahâwanso that the holy books of Ceylon were not committed to writing until the reign of King Wattaganini (104 to 76B.C.). So the books that Asoka ordered to be handed down by the recitation and chantings of his monks must have plainly constituted the entire body of the recognised scriptures. In what way could anyother scriptures come down? Dr. Oldenburg talks of these seven books as if they were "passages" only, he believing that the large body of Pâli scriptures of Ceylon were in existence as early as the second convocation. But if they were "passages," who was to remember and recite the rest of the voluminous canon? Asoka's monks were expressly forbidden so to do.
Of immense importance is one more fact. The Dhauli inscription announces that the four Greek kings (Chapta Yoni Raja), who took over Alexander's empire, had allowed their subjects to "follow the doctrine" of Asoka. He mentions Antiochus and Ptolemy. Also "Gongakenos" and Megas of Cyrene. This plainly proves that his missionaries had reached Egypt and Greece.
The Apostles of the Bloodless Altar.
There are two Zoroasters, or rather a sort of dual personality. One of these Zoroasters lived six thousand yearsB.C.according to Darmesteter, and the other about five hundred yearsB.C.The earlier Zoroaster swathed Persia in a network of silly rites and regulations. A culprit who "threw away a dead dog" was to receive a thousand blows with the horse goad, and one thousand with the Craosha charana. A culprit who slew a dog with a "prickly back" and a "woolly muzzle" was to receive a similar punishment. ("Fargard," xxx.) This Zoroaster was particular about the number of gnats, ants, lizards, that the devout had to kill. ("Fargard," xiv.) This Zoroaster proclaimed a god who loved to see on his altar a "hundred horses, a thousand cows, ten thousand small cattle," and so on. ("Khordah Avesta," xii.) But the second Zoroaster proclaimed a bloodless altar, and sought to tear the network of the first Zoroaster to shreds. What was the meaning of this? Simply that the Buddhist Wanderers had by this time invaded Persia, and had fastened their doctrines upon the chief local prophet. This was their habit. A study of this second religion, the religion of Mithras, will help us to some of the secrets of Buddhist propagandism.
Mr. Felix Oswald cites Wassiljew as announcing that the Buddhist missionaries had reached Western Persia,B.C.450. This date would, of course, depend on the date of Buddha's life and Buddha's death. The latter is now definitely fixed by Buhler's translation of Asoka's Rupnath rock-inscription,B.C.470. Wassiljew, citing Daranatha, announces that Madeantica, a convert of Ananda, Buddha's leading disciple, reached Ouchira in Cashmir. From Cashmir Buddhism passed promptly to Candahar and Cabul. (p. 40). Thence it penetrated quickly to Bactra, and soon invaded "all the country embraced by the word Turkistan, where it flourished until disturbed by Mahomet."
Tertullian has two passages which describe the religion of Mithras.
He says that the devil, to "pervert the truth," by "the mystic rites of his idols vies even with the essential portions of the sacraments of God. He too baptises some—that is, his own believers and faithful followers. He promises the putting away of sins by a laver (of his own), and, if my memory still serves me, Mithras there (in the kingdom of Satan) sets his mark on the foreheads of his soldiers, celebrates also the oblation of bread, and introduces an image of the resurrection, and before a sword wreathes a crown." (Pres. v., Hœr. chap. xl.)
Here is another passage.
"Some soldier of Mithras, who at his initiation in the gloomy cavern,—in the camp, it may well be said, of darkness,—when at the sword's point a sword ispresented to him as though in mimicry of martyrdom, and thereupon a crown is put upon his head, is admonished to resist and cast it off, and, if you like, transfer it to his shoulders, saying that Mithras is his crown. He even has his virgins and his ascetics (continentes). Let us take note of the devices of the devil, who is wont to ape some of God's things." ("De Corona," xv.)
From this it is plain that the worshippers of Mithras had the simple rites of Buddhists and Christians, baptism and the bloodless altar; also an early Freemasonry, which some detect veiled in the Indian life of Buddha. Thus the incident of the sword and crown in the Mithraic initiation is plainly based on the menacing sword of Mâra in the "Lalita Vistara" and the crown that he offered Buddha. In modern masonry it is feigned that Hiram Abiff, the architect of Solomon's temple, made three efforts to escape from three assassins. These are plainly Old Age, Disease, and Death. He sought to evade the first at the east of the temple, in the same way that Buddha tried to escape by the eastern gate. The second and third flights of Hiram and Buddha were to the same points of the compass. Then Buddha escaped the lower life through the Gate of Benediction, and Hiram was killed. The disciples of Mithras had, in the comedy of their initiation, "seven tortures,"—heat, cold, hunger, thirst, fire, water, etc.,—experiences by no means confined to histrionics in the experience of Buddha's Wanderers. A modern mason goes through the comedy of giving up his gold and silver and baring his breast and feet, a form that once hada meaning. Mithras was born in a cave; and at Easter there was the ceremony called by Tertullian the "image of the resurrection." The worshippers, Fermicus tells us ("De Errore," xxiii.), placed by night a stone image on a bier in a cave and went through the forms of mourning. The dead god was then placed in a tomb, and after a time withdrawn from it. Then lights were lit, and poems of rejoicing sounded out, and the priest comforted the devotees. "You shall have salvation from your sorrows!" Dupuis naturally compares all this to thecierge pascaland Catholic rites. In Jerusalem the Greek pontiff goes into the cave called Christ's sepulchre and brings out miraculous fire to the worshippers, who are fighting and biting each other outside, imaging unconsciously Buddha's great battle with Mâra and the legions of hell, its thunder and lightning and turmoil, followed by a bright coruscation, and by the angels who greeted his victory. This sudden illumination, which is the chief rite of Freemasonry, of Mithraism, and of Christianity, has oddly enough been thrown overboard by the English Church.
That Mithraism was at once Freemasonry and Buddhism is proved by its great spread. Buddhism was the first missionary religion. Judaism and the other old priestcrafts were for a "chosen people." At the epoch of Christ, Mithraism had already honeycombed the Roman paganism. Experts have discovered its records in Arthur's Oon and other British caves.
A similar Freemasonry was Pythagoreanism in Greece. Colebrooke, the prince of Orientalists, sawat once that its philosophy was purely Buddhist. Its rites were identical with those of the Mithraists and Essenes. These last must now be considered. They have this importance, that they are due to a separate propagandism. Alexandria was built by the great invader of India, to bridge the east and the west. And an exceptional toleration of creeds was the result.
Neander divides Israel at the date of Christ into three sections:—
1. Pharisaism, the "dead theology of the letter."
2. Sadduceeism, "debasing of the spiritual life into worldliness."
3. Essenism, Israel mystical—a "co-mingling of Judaism with the old Oriental theosophy."
Concerning this latter section, Philo wrote a letter to a man named Hephæstion, of which the following is a portion:—
"I am sorry to find you saying that you are not likely to visit Alexandria again. This restless, wicked city can present but few attractions, I grant, to a lover of philosophic quiet. But I cannot commend the extreme to which I see so many hastening. A passion for ascetic seclusion is becoming daily more prevalent among the devout and the thoughtful, whether Jew or Gentile. Yet surely the attempt to combine contemplation and action should not be so soon abandoned. A man ought at least to have evinced some competency for the discharge of the social duties before he abandons them for the divine. First the less, then the greater."I have tried the life of the recluse. Solitude brings no escape from spiritual danger. If it closes some avenues of temptation, there are few in whose case it does not open more. Yet the Therapeutæ, a sect similar to the Essenes, with whom you are acquainted, number many among them whose lives are truly exemplary. Their cells are scattered about the region bordering on the farther shore of the Lake Mareotis. The members of either sex live a single and ascetic life, spending their time in fasting and contemplation, in prayer or reading. They believe themselves favoured with divine illumination—an inner light. They assemble on the Sabbath for worship, and listen to mystical discourses on the traditionary lore which they say has been handed down in secret among themselves. They also celebrate solemn dances and processions of a mystic significance by moonlight on the shore of the great mere. Sometimes, on an occasion of public rejoicing, the margin of the lake on our side will be lit with a fiery chain of illuminations, and galleys, hung with lights, row to and fro with strains of music sounding over the broad water. Then the Therapeutæ are all hidden in their little hermitages, and these sights and sounds of the world they have abandoned make them withdraw into themselves and pray."Their principle at least is true. The soul which is occupied with things above, and is initiated into the mysteries of the Lord, cannot but account the body evil, and even hostile. The soul of man is divine, and his highest wisdom is to become as much as possible a stranger to the body with its embarrassing appetites.God has breathed into man from heaven a portion of His own divinity. That which is divine is invisible. It may be extended, but it is incapable of separation. Consider how vast is the range of our thought over the past and the future, the heavens and the earth. This alliance with an upper world, of which we are conscious, would be impossible, were not the soul of man an indivisible portion of that divine and blessed spirit. Contemplation of the divine essence is the noblest exercise of man; it is the only means of attaining to the highest truth and virtue, and therein to behold God is the consummation of our happiness here."
"I am sorry to find you saying that you are not likely to visit Alexandria again. This restless, wicked city can present but few attractions, I grant, to a lover of philosophic quiet. But I cannot commend the extreme to which I see so many hastening. A passion for ascetic seclusion is becoming daily more prevalent among the devout and the thoughtful, whether Jew or Gentile. Yet surely the attempt to combine contemplation and action should not be so soon abandoned. A man ought at least to have evinced some competency for the discharge of the social duties before he abandons them for the divine. First the less, then the greater.
"I have tried the life of the recluse. Solitude brings no escape from spiritual danger. If it closes some avenues of temptation, there are few in whose case it does not open more. Yet the Therapeutæ, a sect similar to the Essenes, with whom you are acquainted, number many among them whose lives are truly exemplary. Their cells are scattered about the region bordering on the farther shore of the Lake Mareotis. The members of either sex live a single and ascetic life, spending their time in fasting and contemplation, in prayer or reading. They believe themselves favoured with divine illumination—an inner light. They assemble on the Sabbath for worship, and listen to mystical discourses on the traditionary lore which they say has been handed down in secret among themselves. They also celebrate solemn dances and processions of a mystic significance by moonlight on the shore of the great mere. Sometimes, on an occasion of public rejoicing, the margin of the lake on our side will be lit with a fiery chain of illuminations, and galleys, hung with lights, row to and fro with strains of music sounding over the broad water. Then the Therapeutæ are all hidden in their little hermitages, and these sights and sounds of the world they have abandoned make them withdraw into themselves and pray.
"Their principle at least is true. The soul which is occupied with things above, and is initiated into the mysteries of the Lord, cannot but account the body evil, and even hostile. The soul of man is divine, and his highest wisdom is to become as much as possible a stranger to the body with its embarrassing appetites.God has breathed into man from heaven a portion of His own divinity. That which is divine is invisible. It may be extended, but it is incapable of separation. Consider how vast is the range of our thought over the past and the future, the heavens and the earth. This alliance with an upper world, of which we are conscious, would be impossible, were not the soul of man an indivisible portion of that divine and blessed spirit. Contemplation of the divine essence is the noblest exercise of man; it is the only means of attaining to the highest truth and virtue, and therein to behold God is the consummation of our happiness here."
Here we have the higher Buddhism, which seeks to reach the plane of spirit, an "alliance with the upper world" by the aid of solitary reverie. That Philo knew where this religion had come from is, I think, proved by another passage.
"Among the Persians there is the order of Magi who deeply investigate the works of nature for the discovery of truth, and in leisure's quiet are initiated into and expound in clearest significance the divine virtues.
"In India, too, there is the sect of the Gymnosophists, who, in addition to speculative philosophy, diligently cultivate the ethical also, and have made their life an absolute ensample of virtue.
"Palestine, moreover, and Syria are not without their harvest of virtuous excellence, which region is inhabited by no small portion of the very populous nation of the Jews. There are counted amongst themcertain ones, by name Essenes, in number about four thousand, who derive their name, in my opinion, by an inaccurate trace from the term in the Greek language for holiness (Essen or Essaios—Hosios, holy), inasmuch as they have shown themselves pre-eminent by devotion to the service of God; not in the sacrifice of living animals, but rather in the determination to make their own minds fit for a holy offering." (Philo, "Every virtuous man is free.")
Plainly here the Essenes are pronounced of the same faith as the Gymnosophists of India, who abstain from the bloody sacrifice, that is the Buddhists.
I will now jot hastily down the points of contact between one of these monasteries described by Philo and a Buddhist monastery. In the centre is the sanctuary. Round it, in an enclosure "four square," are ranged the cells of the monks. The monks in Thibet, according to the Abbé Huc, may be divided into three categories.
1. Those who live in monasteries and perform the religious services, and also, like the Essenes described by Josephus, farm the convent land.
2. Hermits, in caves, like Banos dreaming holy dreams.
3. Wandering missionaries (Parivrajakas) who, like the "Apostles" described in the recently discovered "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," are not allowed to remain more than a day in the same place.
In the Buddhist Lent the community goes into a hastily built group of mud huts in the jungle. Each of these is tenanted by a monk and two novices. Each has a "guest chamber" for a sick man, or awandering beggar. This throws light on much. Let us continue our parallelism.
Enforced vegetarianism, community of goods, rigid abstinence from sexual indulgence, also a high standard of purity, were common to both the Buddhists and the Therapeuts.
Neither community allowed the use of wine.
Long fastings were common to both.
With both, silence was a special spiritual discipline.
The Therapeut left "for ever," says Philo, "brothers, children, wives, father and mother," for the contemplative life.
Like the Buddhists, the Therapeuts had nuns vowed to chastity.
The preacher and the missionary, two original ideas of Buddhism, were conspicuous amongst the Therapeuts. This was in direct antagonism to the spirit of Mosaism.
The Therapeut was a healer of the body as well as the soul.
Turning to the kindred society of the Essenes we get a few additional points of contact.
The Essenes, like the Buddhist monks, had ridiculous laws relating to spitting and other natural acts, those of the Essenes being regulated by a superstitious veneration for the Sabbath day, those of the Buddhists, by a superstitious respect for a pagoda.
In Buddhist monasteries a rigid obedience, together with a quite superstitious respect for the person of a superior, is enacted. In Buddhaghosa's Parables is a puerile story of a malicious Muni, who, when an inferior monk had gone out of a hut where the twowere sleeping, lay across the doorway in order to make the novice inadvertently commit the great sin of placing his foot above his superiors head. The penalty of such an act is that the offender's head ought to be split into seven pieces. With the Essenes similar superstitions were rife. If an Approacher accidentally touched the hem of the garment of an Associate, all sorts of purifications had to be gone through.
The principle of thrift and unsavouriness in dress was carried to extremes by both Essenes and Buddhists. The sramana (ascetic) was required to stitch together for hiskowatthe refuse rags acquired by begging. The Essenes were expected to wear the old clothes of their co-religionists until they tumbled to pieces.
In the Thibetan "Life of Buddha," by Rockhill, it is announced that when the great teacher first cast off his kingly silks he donned a foul dress that had been previously worn by ten other saints. This throws light on the story of Elisha.
Dr. Ginsburg ("The Essenes," p. 13) shows that the Essenes had eight stages of progress in inner or spiritual knowledge.
1. Outward or bodily purity by baptism.
2. The state of purity that has conquered the sexual desire.
3. Inward and spiritual purity.
4. A meek and gentle spirit which has subdued all anger and malice.
5. The culminating point of holiness.
6. The body becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost, and the mystic acquires the gift of prophecy.
7. Miraculous powers of healing, and of raising the dead.
8. The mystic state of Elias.
The Buddhists have likewise eight stages of inner progress, the Eightfold Holy Path. The first step, "Those who have entered the stream, the Naírañjana, the mystic river of Buddha," is precisely the same as the first Essene step. Then follow advances in purity, holiness, and mastery of passion. In the last two stages the Buddhists, like the Essenes, gained supernatural powers, to be used in miraculous cures, prophecies, and other occult marvels. It must be mentioned that the Essenes were circumcised as well as the other Jews.
The word "Essenes," according to some learned philologists, means the "Bathers," or "Baptisers," baptism having been their initiatory rite. Josephus tells us that this baptism was not administered until the aspirant had remained a whole year outside the community, but "subjected to their rule of life."
I will here give the rite of Buddhist baptism (abhisheka) when a novice is about to become a monk. It consists of many washings, borrowed plainly by the early Buddhists from the Brahmins, and brings to mind the frequent use of water attributed to the Hemero Baptists or disciples of John. It may be mentioned that in some Buddhist countries—Nepal, for instance—the various monkish vows are now taken only for form sake. This makes the letter, retained after the spirit has departed, all the more valuable.
The neophyte having made an offer of scents andunguents (betel-nut, paun, etc.) to his spiritual guide (guru), the latter, after certain formalities, draws four circles in the form of a cross, in honour of the Tri Ratna (trinity), on the ground, and the neophyte, seated in a prescribed position, recites the following text: "I salute Lord Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and entreat them to bestow on me the Pravrajya Vrata." The first and second days of the ceremonial are consumed in prayers and formalities carried on by the guide and his pupil alone. On the second day another mystical cross is drawn on the ground, the Swastica. A pot containing water and other mystic ingredients, a gold lotus, and certain confections and charms, figure in these early rites. At last it is poured on the neophyte's head. This is the baptism.
Previous to this there is a confession of sins and much catechising. The catechumen's name is changed at the baptism, and his head is shaved. A light is lit which reminds one of the φωτισμός [Greek: phôtismos] of the early Christians. Besides their baptism, the Essenes and Therapeuts had a mystery (sacramentum), an oblation of bread. Part of this was placed upon the bloodless altar, and part eaten. The Buddhists with their wheat and rice do exactly the same thing.
Two other points remain, the most important of all.
The Buddhists have a Trinity, Buddha or Swayambhu, the Self-Existent, Dharma or Prajnâ, which is the same word as Philo's Sophia Wisdom. From these two the Father and the Mother have been produced. Sangha, literally Union, the union of matter and spirit, like St. Paul's Christ, Humanity—ideal Humanity.
That a nation so "stiff-necked" as the Jews in thematter of their one God, should have accepted a Trinity, shows certainly a foreign influence.
The second point is stronger still. The Buddhist teachers in Persia and Egypt in days before Christ; in Japan, in Islâm, during the Middle Ages; in Europe now,—have had and have one method of procedure. They say practically, "Religion as we conceive it has only one lesson—knowledge of God. This is to be acquired not externally through creeds and priests, but internally by the education and purification of the soul. Keep your Bibles if the weaker brethren insist on them, but explain that they are symbols, not history. Keep your prophets, your Moses, your Mahomet, your Zoroaster, and fasten our teaching on him. Keep your hob-goblins and folklore, but give up your bloody altar."
Now, in the view of the Jew, God had made a covenant with Israel, which was to last as long as the sun, the moon, and the stars. In return for the "offerings of the Lord made by fire" (Levit. xxiv. 9) on the temple altar of Jerusalem, Israel was to triumph over its foes and receive every temporal blessing. The advice of the Buddhist was practically that the Jewish half of the bargain was to be broken, but that the Bible, the document containing the contract, was to be retained.A prioricould any one have guessed that advice of this sort could be taken?
And yet we see the Essenes "allegorize" the bloody altar out of their Bible, but cling to the document more fondly than ever. The early Christians and Justin and Irenæus do the same. Scripture for the early Church was the Old Testament.
The Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Papias, the Bishop of Hieropolis (aboutA.D.140), wrote a small sentence which, examined critically recently, has revolutionised all our ideas about the four eye-witnesses of Paley.
He tells us that Matthew first in the Hebrew dialect wrote the λόγια [Greek: logia] (sayings), and each person translated as he was able.
This tells us everything. Matthew in Aramaic wrote down all the "sayings" of Christ that he could remember, and our three gospels and a number of other gospels were translations, enlargements, and fanciful versions of this. Matthew's work emerged in the Church at Jerusalem, and was their sole scripture. Jerome (416A.D.), writing against the Pelagians, says:
"In the Gospel according to the Hebrews—which is written, indeed, in the Chaldee and Syriac language, but in Hebrew letters, which the Nazarenes use to this day—according to the Apostles, or, as very many deem, according to Matthew." ("Dial. adv. Pelag.," ch. iii.)
This gives us its title. The Gospel according to the Hebrews was first called the Gospel according to the Apostles, and sometimes the Gospel according to Matthew. What do we know about this Gospelaccording to the Apostles? In a great trial, three or four obscure witnesses often unexpectedly assume a dominant importance. In the great trial now going on of Christianity (as distinguished from the religion of Christ), four such witnesses have suddenly surged up.
They are Hegesippus, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenæus. What do they tell us of the Gospel of the Apostles—the Gospel according to the Hebrews?
Hegesippus (170A.D.) was the earliest Church historian, but his history has been destroyed. Eusebius tells us ("Hist.," iv. 22) that he was a Jew, and that he used the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Papias, according to Eusebius, also used it, for he quotes from it the story of the woman taken in adultery.
Irenæus (Hœr. i. 26) tells us that the Ebionites (Church of Jerusalem) used "that Gospel which is according to Matthew." As we have overwhelming evidence that the Ebionites used the Gospel according to the Hebrews, it is plain that the Gospel according to Matthew of Irenæus was the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Remains Justin Martyr, and now the din of battle grows loud. Did he know anything of the sayings (λόγια [Greek: logia] )? Had he ever heard of the Gospel according to the Apostles? Or did he, according to the conventional defence, know only our Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
The answer on the surface seems convincing. Justin never mentions the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John at all. He makes one hundred andninety-seven quotations from the Old Testament, with the names of the authors and books attached. He alludes to "a man amongst us named John," as the author of the Revelations. He gives two hundred gospel quotations, and professes to get them from the sayings of our Lord, though he does not mention Matthew. He announces also that he is citing the "Memoirs of the Apostles," the alternative title apparently of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Are the sayings of our Lord quoted by Justin precisely similar to the words of Christ in our gospels? As a matter of fact, they differ considerably in the English translation, and still more in the Greek, as shown by Dr. Giles in his "Hebrew and Christian Records." It is replied that Justin quoted from our gospels and made mistakes.
Much has been made by the conventional defence of certain words used by Justin in reference to the works he was quoting from, "which are called gospels," but Schliermacher contends that the passage is an interpolation, and an instance in which a marginal note has been incorporated into the text. He urges, and so does Dr. Giles, that, at the date of Justin, ευαγγελια [Greek: euangelia] could not have been used in the plural for books. It is twice used in the singular by Justin elsewhere, and then means simply the Christian revelation (literally, glad tidings).
I propose now to give all that can be recovered from the writings of the Fathers of the Gospel according to the Apostles. To this I will add the "Sayings of our Lord" as quoted by Justin. If these are not from the Gospel of the Hebrews, at any rate we get amuch earlier version of Christ's words than those read in our churches. For the Gospel according to the Hebrews, consult Renan, "Les Evangiles," chap. vi.; Hilgenfeld, "Novum Testamentum extra Canonem Receptum," Fasc. iv.; Nicholson, "The Gospel according to the Hebrews;" and Baring-Gould.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS.
Epiphanius has given us the opening verses:—
"There was a certain man, by name Jesus, and he of about thirty years, who chose us out.
"And when he had come to Capernaum, he entered into the house of Simon, who was surnamed Peter, and opened his mouth and said,
"Passing by the Lake of Tiberias, I chose out John and James, sons of Zebedee, and Simon and Andrew, ... and Thaddæus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the Iscariot;
"And thee, Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, I called, and thou didst follow me.
"I will therefore that ye be twelve apostles for a testimony to Israel."
A fragment shows that the flight into Egypt was in the gospel.
"... then he arose and took the young child and departed into Egypt,
"That it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the prophet, Out of Egypt have I called my son."
Now, supposing that there were no class interests inthe way, it would be difficult to read the opening verses of this gospel without seeing what Justin meant by the "Memoirs of the Apostles." In it the Apostles expressly announce that Jesus has "chosen them out" to produce a "testimony," testament, memorial; and Matthew, apparently, is to be the amanuensis. This "testimony" was the entire New Testament, with the earliest Church, the Church of Jerusalem. It was called indiscriminately, as we have seen from Jerome, the Gospel according to the Apostles, and the Gospel according to Matthew. Papias and Hegesippus, the immediate predecessors of Justin, used it, and Irenæus some years later.
Let us go on with the Gospel of the Apostles.
"And John began baptizing.
"And there came out unto him Pharisees who were baptized, and all Jerusalem.
"And John had a raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his food was wild honey, whereof the taste was that of manna.
"And behold the mother of the Lord and his brethren said to him, John the Baptist baptizeth for remission of sins. Let us go and be baptized by him.
"But he said to them, Wherein have I sinned that I should go and be baptized by him? except, perchance, this very thing that I have said is ignorance.
"And when the people had been baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John.
"And as he went up, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Holy Spirit, in shape of a dove, descending and entering into him.
"And a voice from heaven said, Thou art my beloved Son. I have this day begotten thee.
"And straightway a great light shone around the place. And John fell down before him, and said, I pray thee, Lord, baptize thou me.
"But he prevented him, saying, Let be; for thus it is becoming that all things be fulfilled.
"And it came to pass when the Lord had come up from the water, the entire fountain of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and said to him,
"My Son, in all the prophets did I wait thee, that thou mightest come and I might rest in thee;
"For thou art my rest. Thou art my first-born Son for ever and for ever."
"And the Lord said, If thy brother hath sinned in word, and hath made thee amends seven times in a day, receive him.
"Simon, his disciple, said to him, Seven times in a day?
"The Lord answered and said unto him, I tell thee also unto seventy times seven, for in the prophets likewise after they were anointed by the Holy Spirit utterance of sin was found."