raised against Christianity but as for that private Opposition that it met with from Philosophers and pretendedly learned Men it was so very contemptible that it scarce deserves consideration For though one would expect to have found all the learned World engaged in a Controversie that concern'd the whole World yet they were very few that concern'd themselves against the Christian Cause and those that did so onely pelted at it with remote and far-fetcht cavils but never came up to the matter of Fact which is the onely pertinent subject in this Enquiry and if that stand firm all other Opposition falls short of the Argument and breaks its own force upon it self by endeavouring to disparage the truth of a thing that it cannot deny or to prove the same thing to be false that it cannot but confess to be true Nay so far were they from putting the matter of Fact to the question that they were all forced to take it for granted Porphyry and Celsus impute our Saviour's Miracles to Magick Hieroles and Trypho say onely that the Christians make too much of them by making a God of a divine Man Julian tells us that he did no such great matters but onely cure the Lame and the Blind So that it seems none of them were at that time hardy enough so much as to think of controuling the reality of our Saviour's Actions for fear of too much disadvantage in the Controversie Now after this it is easie to foretell with what trifling pretences they must satisfie themselves and they were so very trifling that it-will require but very little pains to shew their Vanity All the Opposition then that was made to it this way proceeded meerly either from gross Superstition or avowed Atheism The first is coincident with the former account of the publick Persecutions and was nothing else than a meer fanatick zeal for the old Pagan Idolatry And this was chiefly managed by the Pythagoreans the onely superstitious Sect among all the Philosophers who were all along so zealous of the Grecian Rites that they may properly be styled the Monks and Friers of that Religion This humour they derived from their first Founder Pythagoras himself who having learned that part of natural Philosophy from Thales and Anaximander that explain'd the mechanical contrivances of Matter and Motion to which alone those Philosophers pretended he quickly perceived either by the sagacity of his own Mind or the instruction of Pherecides that there was some intelligent Being in Nature that was the cause of the order and harmony of Things And it was this that so strongly possest him with the notion of a Deity whom he defined to be a Mind diffused through all Nature from whom all things receive their Life and Activity As not being able to understand how the natural effects that are constantly and every where visible in the World could be brought to pass but by the present and immediate assistance of such a power And now having his Mind thus throughly touched with a sense of the Divinity and finding the Orphean Rites and Constitutions at that time the most sacred Solemnities of Religion in the World he grew very zealous of them as the most religious Symbols of Divine Worship Neither was his zeal satisfied with the superstition of his own Country but he travel'd into all parts of the World to inform himself of their several ways of worshipping their Gods And then composed a Service of his own partly out of the Orphean partly out of the AEgyptian partly out of the Chaldean partly out of the Eleusinian and partly to mention no more out of the Samothracian Rites which together with his own theurgick Ceremonies must make up a compleat Rhapsodie of all the Superstition and Idolatry of the Heathen World And though some of his Followers Leucippus Democritus and Epicurus apostatised so far from his Institution as to fall into the rankest and most audacious Atheism yet all that persevered in their Master's Discipline were sure no doubt to be most of all strict in his Religion And it was onely this Sect of Philosophers who were Men rather devout than learned that all along gave authority and reputation to the old Heathen Idolatry And therefore when Christianity began to bear it away it could not be expected but that they should appear the most forward Champions to defend their Fanes and their Temples their Altars and their Oracles against the new and prevailing Religion The first and the ablest Champion was Porphyrie a Man at that time eminent for Wit and Learning but so entirely eaten up with fanatick zeal for his Religion that he had not patience so much as to hear of any thing that opposed it and this set him all on fire against Christianity For being by nature of a fierce and angry temper insomuch as he attempted to cut his own Throat as he describes himself in the Life of Plotinus and withall very much inclined to Austerity and Devotion for he was a very strict observer of the Pythagorean Rules this fixt him in his fanatick and superstitious zeal than which there is nothing more insuperable Though when this happens to be join'd with a natural eagerness of temper it grows into meer fury and outrage and so transports Men out of the use of their natural Understandings And this seems to have been the case of Porphyrie not onely from that description that he gives of himself and that account that his Friends give of his Life but also by that Character that is given of his Writings against the Christians which is described by the most impartial Writers as full of rage and bitterness Though how he performed what he undertook is not so certainly determinable in that not onely his own Book but all those that were written against it are utterly perisht But by those fragments that remain of it in the Writings of the Ancients it does not at all appear that he ever ventur'd to deny the matter of Fact of our Saviour's Miracles but granted them so far as to impute them to the power of Magick But how vain that pretence is we have already shewn at least the whole of the Controversie depends upon the truth of the matters of Fact that are recorded of our Saviour none of which I do not find that he ever undertook to controul and as long as that stands firm all other Opposition is but trifling However he was a Person so infinitely superstitious that his Opinion can be no prejudice against the cause of Christianity because he was at no liberty to make any enquiry into the truth of its pretences And of the same Kidney was Hierocles especially if he were of which there is little doubt the same zealous Person that was first Judge at Nicomedia and afterward Prefect of AEgypt under Dioclesian and a great Agent in his bloody Persecution however he was a zealous Orphean and extreamly addicted to the old Pythagorick Superstition But whatever he was otherwise his work
unquestionable proofs in the World § XX. This is the first invincible Impediment of Christianity supposing it had been false but whether true or false it labour'd under many other great disadvantages that it could never have surmounted but by the irresistible evidence and certainty of its truth And the first is its contrariety to the Vice and Wickedness of that Age in which it was first divulged The World being at that time as is evident from the Records that are left of it extreamly debaucht both in its Manners and Principles For Julius Caesar having violated all the Laws of his Countrey and overthrown the old Government that had always kept up a generous sense of Vertue and Integrity and by that means chiefly raised it self to that vast Greatness that afterwards so much exposed it to the attempts of ambitious Men. For though that spirit began to work in the time of Marius and passed down through all the great Men Cinna Sulla and Pompey all of them struggling for the sole Sovereignty of so vast an Empire the design was never compleatly compassed but by the boldness and activity of Julius Caesar. Now the success of the Caesarean Faction that were generally Atheists and Epicureans against the Patriots of the old State that were as generally eminent for Worth and Honour Vertue and Integrity and Zeal for the publick Good made the thriving Principles and Practices quickly come into Fashion and Reputation with the World And after the Death of Brutus we find no such thing as an ancient Roman but what he said in passion was seriously and universally embraced as a great truth That Vertue was nothing but an empty name So that if we survey the Roman History before and after the Usurpation of Caesar it does not look like the History of the same Nation the former abounding with the bravest examples of Gallantry and Magnanimity whereas in the latter we are generally entertain'd with no other politicks than Fraud and Treachery Even the admired wisedom of the great Augustus himself was no better than craft and dissimulation And though his Successour Tiberius be particularly remarqued for that Vice it was onely because he was not able to act his part so artificially as his Predecessour had done who dyed with that particular comfort to himself that he had so skilfully played the Comedy of humane Life and certainly of all Princes upon Record he had the most subtile faculty of appearing highly honest without any design of ever being so In short under his Reign all the Principles of Atheism and Impiety were prevalent in the Court of Rome that then prescribed Manners to the best part of the then known World neither were their Practices disagreeing to their Principles for as they cast off all restraints of Vertue and Modesty so they entirely devoted themselves to Luxury and Sensuality and studied nothing else than to emprove their bruitish Pleasures to the utmost extravagance of Enjoyment And as was the great Court of Rome so were all the other lesser Courts of their several Prefects and Governours And that not onely by imitation but by the natural baseness of the Men themselves Scarce any but the worst of Men that is Epicureans and Vilains by Principle being prefer'd by J. Caesar to Authority in the Empire though things grew much worse under the Tyranny of Mark Anthony a Man kneaded up of Lust and Malice and the onely reason why he was not more of each was because he was all both for he would never unless for the sake of his Lust quit his Cruelty nor ever unless to satisfie his Cruelty forsake his Lust and as himself was made up of all manner of Baseness so he would advance none to preferment but such as had recommended themselves to his good liking by their more than ordinary Wickedness And for that reason it was that Judaea and the parts about it were at that time more over-run with Vice and Debauchery than in any former Age in that Herod one of the vilest Men that ever lived had by the patronage of Mark Anthony obtain'd their Government and by a long Reign over them after his Patron 's Death under Augustus had familiarised all manner of the most licentious Wickedness to the People even so much that one half of the leading Men even among the Jews themselves that had been so famous through all Ages for their reverence to their Religion were no better than open and avowed Atheists Now how was it possible for such a Doctrine as Christianity that consists of Precepts of Chastity and Sobriety of Truth and Honesty of Kindness and Charity and of renouncing the Pleasures of this Life for the Rewards of another to make its way into such a wicked World as this Men of atheistical Principles are of all others the most stubborn and inflexible they scorn all manner of better Information and will not endure to enquire into the truth of any thing that might possibly undeceive them so that there is no way to overcome Persons so prejudiced and so conceited unless we can by the meer evidence of things force them into conviction And as for Men of luxurious Lives they have neither Mind nor Leisure to attend to any thing that may reclaim them It is Pain to them to think of parting with their Pleasures they will labour to preserve them upon any terms and as long as they are able to resist no information shall be able to fasten on them and therefore when the Christian Religion so suddenly reformed infinite numbers from all sorts of Vices it must have brought along with it a real Evidence equal to its pretended Authority for as it pretended to a Divine Commission by virtue whereof it required strict Obedience to all its Commands so it must have proved the reality of its Commission by such certain Evidence that it was not possible for the most refractory Persons to withstand its force and therefore when we find such multitudes so wonderfully prevail'd upon to quit their most beloved Lusts and Vices we have reason from thence onely to conclude that they were more than convinced of the undeniable truth of its pretences § XXI The next disadvantage of Christianity was its bold and open defiance to the establisht and inveterate Religions of the World For of all prejudices those of Religion are the strongest and the older they are the deeper root they take And therefore when its Enemies could plead the antiquity of many hundred years against it it could not but be a very difficult task to perswade them out of such an ancient Prescription It s meer Novelty was an Objection of no small force but when a new and upstart Religion would not be content with its own Authority but must disgrace all the settled Religions in the World and refuse its own settlement unless they may be utterly extirpated this could not but seem too sawcy a demand especially to Princes and great Men to require of them not onely
to give way to an upstart Sect but to renounce the Religion of their Ancestours confirm'd as well by their own Laws as ancient Custom and submit themselves and their power to the Authority of a few Galilaean Fishermen and this the Authours of that Age say was the main reason why the Christian Religion was at all adventure rejected by the Roman Senate because it would allow none other beside it self And first as for the Jewish Religion beside its very great Antiquity it was establisht by Divine Authority and therefore with plausible appearance of reason believed by the Jews to be of eternal Obligation at least not otherways reversible but with the same dreadfull signs and appearances of the Divine Presence wherewith it was at first enacted and therefore when a young Man should take upon him to cancel the onely true way of worshipping the onely true God that design seem'd so like to Blasphemy and Idolatry that his very pretending to it without any farther enquiry was whatever he could say or doe an invincible prejudice and an unpardonable crime This is evident through the whole History of his Life that the Jews every where concluded him an Impostor because he set up against Moses and then let him work what Miracles he would they would regard neither him nor them And particularly this was the case of the Controversie when he cured the Man that was born Blind when the matter of Fact was evident beyond all contradiction by the Testimony of his Parents and by the confession of all the Neighbours who knew him to have sat and begged in a certain place for many years yet notwithstanding all this the Pharisees concluded against his doing any Miracles because he was a Sinner that is as they thought a Blasphemer of Moses Law and when the blind Man argues with them that it was such a Miracle as had never been done from the beginning of the World before it was all one for that they answer all with this peremptory Assertion We know that God spake unto Moses as for this fellow we know not from whence he is So that whatever Miracles he worked they were not to be regarded because he derogated from the Authority of Moses And therefore Origen very well observes that the difficulty of our Saviour's Work was much greater than that of Moses from the great prejudices of the People against his Undertaking For Moses had to doe with the Off spring of Abraham who had all along observed the Law of Circumcision and those other Rites and Customs that he had delivered down to his Posterity and onely undertook to deliver them from a grievous Bondage and bring them into that happy Land that God had promised to their Forefathers But our Saviour was sent to a People to command them to forsake that way of Worship in which they had been educated and to prescribe a new model of Religion against an old one that had been settled by Divine Authority and therefore instead of being complyed with as Moses was he was sure to meet with all the fiercest contradiction both of Zeal and Malice And for this reason says he it was that it was so requisite that he should doe greater Miracles than Moses or any of the Prophets were recorded to have done to convince them that God had given him greater Authority and so thereby obliged them to submit to his Discipline as they had hitherto done to that of Moses and the Prophets And as the Eternity of the Law of Moses was at that time an insuperable prejudice against Christianity so is it to this very day as may be seen in the Writings of the Jewish Doctours who always lay this supposition at the bottom of their Disputes against the Divine Authority of the Christian Law But of the prejudices of the Jews I shall give a farther account when I come to shew the reasons of their Infidelity notwithstanding the Gospel brought all that evidence along with it that we pretend it did And then as for the Religion of the Gentiles beside its proud pretence to the greatest Antiquity it now valued it self upon a much prouder title of being the Religion of the Empire and by reason of the vast extent of that it was rooted in all parts of it with more strength and unity than it could have been under several Governments and there is nothing that can make People more fond of their Religion than to possess them with a belief of its Universality Now when a Religion so Catholick was settled by the Laws was own'd by the Emperours and was made the onely Religion of Power and Interest in the World its Votaries could not endure to see it treated with scorn and dishonour by an upstart Sect of Men destitute of all Power and Authority And for this reason is it that Pliny Tacitus and Suetonius inveigh against Christianity with so much scorn and indignation not that they had any concern for Religion themselves being profest Epicureans and so inwardly as great despisers of Paganism as the Christians could pretend to be But they were angry that a Religion abetted by the Emperours and the great Statesmen such as themselves were or pretended to be should be so dishonourably born down by a company of superstitious and despicable Jews And that proved another very great disadvantage to Christianity the force of Laws and the interest of Government against its reception In that Statesmen are ever jealous of all Innovations in Religion as dangerous to the present Government so that though themselves look upon all Religion as a meer design of State-craft yet they are very zealous for that which they find already establisht as that by which they enjoy their present security and therefore vigilant against all alterations as naturally tending to the subversion of the Civil State So that it is none of their business to enquire into the pleas of a new Religion but its being new is with them a sufficient reason of proceeding against it as being Sedition ipso facto against the establisht Law And this was the main reason of most of those many severe Edicts and Rescripts of several Emperours against the Christians who looked upon their numerous Assemblies upon pretence of Religion as dangerous Associations against the State of the Empire and particularly Trajan a wise and politick Prince who either because he would not give the Christians the advantage of pleading Religion or suffering for it or rather out of his particular jealousie and fear of Tumults put in execution against them the Law against the Heteriae which forbad all manner of numerous Meetings upon what account soever though onely of Friendship or Good-fellowship for which those Heteriae were first instituted so that upon pretence of this Law he seem'd not to proceed against them upon the account of Religion but as unlawfull Riots and Tumults against the State § XXII Now from the concurrence of all these mighty prejudices against Christianity it met
to set about such an Undertaking to reverse all the ancient Laws and Religions in the World and to introduce every where not onely a different but a contrary state of things These things says he if they should have objected he could have return'd them no other answer had he not prevented the Objection by the promise of his miraculous Assistance And therefore when they were obedient to his command it is evident that they were already by his Divine Works convinced of his Divine Authority For that they believed in him must be granted in that they so readily obeyed him in a little time leaving their own native Country to instruct the World in the Faith of Jesus and soon saw the promise of his Divine Assistance not onely made good but abundantly exceeded by their incredible success But when they went about such a Work as this after what manner think you did they address themselves to the People Did they go into the Market-place and there summon up an Auditory of all Passengers or did they apply themselves to particular Persons Take which you please I pray which way did they win their Attention when they began their Story at the most ignominious Death of their Master whom they set forth as the onely Instructour of Mankind the Son of God and Saviour of the World For if they had conceal'd that part of his History that related to his Passion and Sufferings and onely trumpeted out his great Vertues and much greater Miracles it had been very difficult to overcome the Faith of Mankind to a report so very strange and in it self incredible And yet if they had done this they might have kept their Story within some bounds of probability But when they acknowledged that the same Person whom they magnified as a God lived like a miserable Man encountred perpetual Affronts and Contumelies and at last suffer'd the Death of the worst and most ignominious Malefactours who that heard them would not laugh at the gross contradiction of their own Story Or at least how could any Man be so credulous as upon the bare report of unknown Persons to believe that a Person so shamefully executed should be so conspicuously risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven when he was not able to rescue himself from so dishonourable an Execution However who could have been so easie as to forsake the Religion of their Countrey and that way of Worship that had been used as they believed from the beginning of the World by the meer Authority of a company of mean and ignorant Mechanicks and a crucified Malefactour who notwithstanding his contemptible Life and dishonourable Death would bear himself out as the onely Son of God While says he I revolve these things in my Mind and consider the improbability of the Story in it self I cannot imagine how it is possible meerly by their own bare report to prevail upon the Faith of any one Man And yet when I reflect upon the strange Effect of their Endeavours and that such despicable Persons as they were in themselves should prevail upon such innumerable multitudes of Men and that not in barbarous and obscure places onely but in the most famous Cities of Rome Alexandria Antiochia nay in all parts of the World Europe Asia and Africa I am forced to enquire into the rational Account of so strange an Event and find that nothing could ever have brought it about but a manifest Divine Power whereby they were able when they pleased as we find in their Records to work Miracles and that alone was more than enough to vanquish and subdue the minds of Men to their Authority For when they saw their Miracles they could not but be concern'd to enquire by what Means they wrought such Effects And when they were told that they were empower'd by Jesus and did whatever they did by virtue of his Authority that alone over-ruled their Minds and without farther proof commanded entire submission to his Doctrine So that it was not the evidence of the thing it self nor the credit of their Testimony but the undeniable power of God discovering it self in their miraculous Actions that so easily subdued the World before them And it is impossible as Origen observes that the Apostles of our Lord without these miraculous Powers should ever have been able to have moved their Auditours or perswaded them to desert the Institutions of their Countrey and embrace their new Doctrine and having once embraced it to defend it to the death and defie all manner of dangers in its defence But then as it was impossible to have wrought this wonderfull change in the World without these miraculous Powers so with them it was impossible for Men to withstand so clear a demonstration of Divine Authority And therefore they did not so properly convert the World by their Preaching as by their Actions whilst they perform'd such things as though they themselves had never opened their Minds proclaim'd their Divine Commission And when People were once convinced of that little perswasion would serve the turn to engage them to the belief of that Doctrine which by their works they had already proved to be of Divine Authority And this if we consult the Apostolical History was the usual method of their proceeding first to shew a Miracle and then to declare its meaning Thus the first time that they appeared in publick after their Commission to preach the Gospel to the utmost parts of the Earth was at the great Festival of Pentecost when Proselytes of all Nations resorted to Jerusalem to whom they preached in their several Languages and this being noised abroad that a few illiterate Fishermen were all on a sudden inspired with the gift of speaking all the Languages of the known and habitable World curiosity brought great multitudes to hear them and when the multitude was convinced of and amased at the Miracle then was it a proper time for Saint Peter to begin his Sermon of the Resurrection of Jesus and prove it by their own Testimony This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we are all Witnesses That is we that are as you see endued with this miraculous gift of speaking all Languages in order to our preaching in the name of Jesus to all Nations do here assure you that we were no less than Eye-witnesses of his Resurrection And there lay the main strength and efficacy of Saint Peter's Sermon it was the Miracle that so soon converted thousands to his Doctrine So again when it was blazon'd abroad that the famous Cripple that was so well known to every Boy in the City to have kept for so many years together his begging stage at the chief Gate of the Temple styled Beautifull because made as Josephus informs us of Corinthian Brass was so miraculously healed by one of the company onely by a word speaking this could not but enflame their curiosity and every Man was concern'd to satisfie himself in the truth or falshood of a report
of him upon his knees to make him Emperour to whom Apollonius with the state and authority of a God answered I have made thee so viz. by my Interest with the Gods and he so far gratified the vanity of the Man as to seem to receive the Empire at his hands and thus was he assured of his Empire by Men of greatest Reputation for both Religions for as there was no Jew at that time to be compared to Josephus for knowledge and learning in the Antiquities of his own Nation so Apollonius was then the most famous and renowned Saint in the World for the Heathen Religion now whilst he stayed at Alexandria a Blind and a Lame Man being warn'd so to doe by the God Serapis address themselves to him for a Cure and obtain it so that considering the circumstances of the story by it self it looks so like fraud and flattery as to betray it self For the report of his having been abused into the conceit of being the Messias in Judaea being probably come to Alexandria where great numbers of Jews resided it is likely that they would not come short of their Country-men in doing honour to the Emperour and so put these two counterfeits upon the design and there are enough of such dissembling Cripples to be had in great Cities for it being foretold that the Messias when he came should among other Miracles cure the Lame and the Blind they thought it an acceptable piece of flattery thus to way-lay his Ambition or rather this design was set on foot by the Egyptians a fawning crafty and flattering sort of People but chiefly by Apollonius for the honour of that Religion for which he was so zealous and therefore by this artifice confirm'd his own predicton of the Empire by the Authority of his Gods for they were sent on their Errand by Serapis But whoever contrived it and however it pleased the Emperour's humour it at first surprised him so as to move his laughter and scorn and to refuse the attempt with a very great deal either of seeming or real Reluctancy though at last he suffer'd himself to be overcome by the great importunity of the by-standers and the assurance of the Physicians that the thing was possible and then perform'd it in publick with all imaginable pomp and solemnity either as if himself had been beforehand privy to the plot or had now smelt out the design of the Complement Now what wise Man could compare this one theatrical piece of Court-flattery with all the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles the meer suspicion of these pretended Cripples being counterfeits at least the absolute uncertainty of it destroys its credit whereas the impossibility of suspecting any fraud or flattery in our Saviour's Miracles is an undoubted demonstration of their reality Beside that the Emperour was assured by the Physicians that the Men were not past a natural Cure and so not to be compared with our Saviour's Miracles most whereof were done upon Persons naturally incurable But to wave this I cannot give so much credit to a story that smells so rankly of imposture as to suppose the possibility of its truth and therefore I shall onely desire the Reader to compare it as he finds it under so many disadvantages of suspicion with the credibility of all those motives of belief that we have produced for the History of our Saviour's Life Death and Resurrection and then leave it to his own ingenuity to judge whether it be reasonable to oppose one story so miserably suspicious to a thousand others guarded with all the advantages of proof against all possible cavils and exceptions § XXVII But the Man of Wonders is Apollonius Tyanaeus of whom they boast and insult as the true Heathen Messias in that he wrought not as Vespasian did one or two chance Miracles but his whole Life was all prodigy and equal to our Saviour's both for the number and the wonder of his Works But here first we have in part already shewn what undoubted Records we have of the Life of Jesus whereas all the credit of Apollonius his History depends upon the Authority of one single Man who beside that he lived an hundred years after him ventured nothing as the Apostles did in confirmation of its truth but onely composed it in his Study thereby as appears from his frequent digressions to take occasion of communicating all the learning he had raked together to the World Nay so far was he from incurring any loss by the Work that he was set upon it by a great Empress whose religious Zeal in the Cause would be sure to see him well rewarded And though he made use of the Commentaries of Damis the inseparable Companion of Apollonius yet he confesses that Damis himself never publisht his own Commentaries but that a Friend of Damis communicated them to the Empress which himself might probably have forged as is common in Courts to pick her pocket However as for Damis himself it is evident from Philostratus his whole Story that he was a very simple Man and that Apollonius onely pickt him up as a fit Sancho Panche to exercise his Wit upon so that upon all occasions we find him not onely baffling the Esquire in Disputes but breaking Jests upon him which he always takes with much thankfulness and more humility still admiring his Master's Wisedom but much more his Wit But after all what the Story of Damis was or whether there were ever any such Story we have no account unless from Philostratus himself and therefore we must resolve it all into his Authority alone And there it is evident that he was neither a God nor a Divine Man as his Friends boasted nor a Magician or Conjurer as his Enemies imagin'd but a meer fanatick and pedantick Pythagorean that for the honour of his Sect travel'd as many others have done into all parts of the World and when he return'd home told his Country-men that all Men renown'd for Wisedom all the World over were of the Sect of the Pythagoreans and then for the advancement of their Authority told strange and prodigious tales of their wonder-working Power Though here either he or his Historian has acquitted himself so awkardly as utterly to spoil the tale and defeat the design This Eusebius has shewn at large in his Book against Hierocles by taking apieces all parts of the Story and discovering all its flaws and incoherences but I shall content my self with proving the vanity of the whole from the notorious falshood of one particular Narration upon which depends all that extraordinary power that he pretends to and that is his conversation with the Indian Brachmans from whom if we may believe his account of himself he learnt all that he could doe more than the common Philosophers of Greece And if this prove a Romance all the rest of the History must unavoidably follow its fortune and for this little proof will serve the turn when most of the Stories are so