Eternal One.”[475] The above is a perfect repetition of Vishnu in his tenth avatar, for he will then throw the wicked into the infernal abodes in which, after purifying themselves, they will be pardoned--even those devils which rebelled against Brahma, and were hurled into the bottomless pit by Siva,[476] as also the “blessed ones” will go to dwell with the gods, over the Mount Meru. Having thus traced the similarity of views respecting the Logos, Metatron, and Mediator, as found in the _Kabala_ and the _Codex_ of the Christian Nazarenes and Gnostics, the reader is prepared to appreciate the audacity of the Patristic scheme to reduce a purely metaphysical figure into concrete form, and make it appear as if the finger of prophecy had from time immemorial been pointing down the vista of ages to Jesus as the coming Messiah. A theomythos intended to symbolize the coming day, near the close of the great cycle, when the “glad tidings” from heaven should proclaim the universal brotherhood and common faith of humanity, the day of regeneration--was violently distorted into an accomplished fact. “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but _one, that is God_,” says Jesus. Is this the language of a God? of the second person in the Trinity, who is identical with the First? And if this Messiah, or Holy Ghost of the Gnostic and Pagan Trinities, had come in his person, what did he mean by distinguishing between himself the “Son of man,” and the Holy Ghost? “And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven,” he says.[477] And how account for the marvellous identity of this very language, with the precepts enunciated, centuries before, by the Kabalists and the “Pagan” initiates? The following are a few instances out of many. “No one of the gods, no man or Lord, can be good, but _only God alone_,” says Hermes.[478] “To be a good man is impossible, God alone possesses this privilege,” repeats Plato, with a slight variation.[479] Six centuries before Christ, the Chinese philosopher Confucius said that his doctrine was simple and easy to comprehend (_Lûn-yù_, chap. 5, § 15). To which one of his disciples added: “The doctrine of our Master consists in having an invariable correctness of heart, and in doing toward others as we would that they should do to us.”[480]