* The mask being indispensable in theology, it is not wonderful that its votaries should appear everywhere in disguise. END OF LECTURE FOURTH. LECTURE FIFTH. ON THE EARLY EFFECTS OF THE CHRISTIAN SUPERSTITION “Tis only thou, Accursed superstition, cans’t accord Thy aids to tyranny, for which alone She guards thee with the penalty of “Laws". Endows thee, pampers thee ; and seems to bend (Mocking herself) in reverence to thy nod. For this imperial rapine shares with thee Her gaudy spoil.” In a former lecture, when speaking of the compilation of the New Testament, we promised to show that the first idea of forming that book was drawn from a Pagan prototype; and therefore we resume the subject, in order also to adduce farther proof that the very vitals of our religion originated in heathen polytheism. Here, it is of the highest importance to draw particular attention to the sacred and mysterious testament of the Athenians, on which they believed the salvation not only of their city, but of all Greece depended. There is now so little said about this famous testament, that it has nearly passed into oblivion; but this is easily accounted for, as the fabricators of the Christian New Testament would, as usual in such cases, do all in their power to suppress the remembrance of a volume which suggested the scheme of their own book of mysteries, in the formation of which St. Paul was not only the principal contributor, but, in point of fact, the real founder of our religion.* We ought not, therefore, to pass without distinct notice, the remarkable deference and respect which he pretended to have for this book of imposture, when wishing to recommend himself to any Grecian state. * The famous Longinus mentions Paul of Tarsus, whom "he considered to be the first setter-forth of an unproved doctrine."