Hence _Budh-gaye_ and _Gaye-phallus_, after a succession of ages, when their _proper_ acceptation was forgotten, were remembered only in their _perverted_ sense. And accordingly we observe, that, when a Roman Emperor who had been brought up a priest in the East, assumed, on his being appointed to the Roman sceptre, the title of _Helio-ga-balus_, and thereby invested himself in all the attributes of _Gaye-phallus_, or _Budh-gaye_, that is, in other words, as the _Vicegerent of the Sun_, the licentiousness of his life, and the profligacy of his demeanour, having rendered him obnoxious to his subjects, they amputated the _prefix_ of his _Solar_ majesty, and branded him with the _scorn_ of _Ga-balus_. The _disdain_ intended in this latter abbreviation is now, therefore, already solved. _Gaye-phallus_, for sound sake, having been made _Ga-phallus_, this latter was still further--by reason of the commutability of the letters _ph_ and _b_--reduced into _Ga-balus_. When the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, was destroyed, we are told by Sozomen, that the monogram of Christ was discovered beneath the foundation. And, though neither party knew how to account for the sign, yet was it pleaded alike by the Gentiles as by the Christians, in support of the heavenliness of their respective religions. The early Roman _fathers_, very pious but very illiterate men, unable to close their eyes against the proofs of the priority of the cross to the era of the advent, did not scruple to assign it to the malicious foreknowledge of the prince of the lower world.[365] But if this gentleman had been the author of the early cross, is it likely that God would have embraced it as the signal of His protection when dealing destruction to the objects of His divine vengeance? “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a _mark_ upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof: “And to the others he said in my hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity. “Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children, and women; but _come not near any man upon whom is the mark_; and begin at My sanctuary.”[366] Now this “mark,” in the ancient Hebrew original, was the _cross_ X. St. Jerome, the most learned by far of those “_fathers_,” has admitted the circumstance. And if this had been the device of the enemy of man, would the Author of all goodness so sanction _his_ imposture, as to adopt it as the index of His saving love? “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?”[367]