Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 609

1830.

Journal of Occurrences.

567

no law, no father, no ruler (sc. superior to Jesus), and that there was no such thing as filial piety or loyalty, no sympathy with one's kind, and no moral duties: for which cause the wrath of heaven was excited, and the judgment of heaven fell upon Jesus; on its behalf, the king of Judæa seized him, and his guilt being proved, punished him ac- cording to the laws of the realm, by nailing him upon a cross. His blood flowed until his whole form was covered with it ; he was unable to move his body; and so in seven days he died, and orders were given to the local authorities to have him interred; but his vagabond disciples fabricated a report that when he had been three days buried, he revived, and after forty days took his flight upwards : this tale was devised with a view to delude men by the doctrine they preached, and it, again, resembles that of Sun-ngan, who drowned himself when his troops were defeated, and was reported by his followers to have become a water-sprite; or that of [the rebela] of the White Lily faction, who were put to a slow and ignominious death by being cut to pieces, when their fellows gave out that the body, killed by a metal weapon, relaxed [its hold of the spirit, which] disengaged itself, and ascended to another state amongst spiritual beings,

The fact could not have been as it is stated; for if it were, how should a body that was lord of heaven be yet so little lord of itself, as to let ordinary mortals cause its death by binding and nailing it fast? The idle fiction of his disciples, that, as lord of heaven, he suffered punishment of sin for the sake of man, is also extremely ridiculous. So, to hide the traces of the death upon the cross, the body which was high minister of heaven and earth, could do everything but remit men the punishment of their sins, and to do this was obliged to undergo punishment on their account!

Then, this doctrine pretends to the encouragement of virtue and the repression of vice; but this is the language constantly held by the literati (Confucianists). Its dogma, that those who believe in the Lord of Heaven will be made happy, and that after death their spirits will ascend to heaven; and that those who do not so believe will be visited with misery, and that, after death, their spirits will enter the prison of hell, is of the same import as the saying of Wú San-ez', "Those who are good to me are good, those who are evil to me are evil." Suppose the believers in the Lord of Heaven alt robbers and vicious persons; happiness is to be hereafter bestowed upon them all, while those who are not believers, although just men with as tore of merit, are all to be hereafter subjected to misery. Never was the fair order of reward for virtue, and punishment for vice so in- verted and confused. Is it not fatal to what heaven (sc. nature) teaches us to be right ? Again, the terms "palace of heaven" and "prison of hell" are simply from the lowest class of Budhistic works; [Christians] notwithstanding, vilify the Budhists as people for evermore fallen into the prison of hell ; if so, who has seen them there? The crucifixion of Jesus alive is like the tree of swords and the mountain of weapons in the hell (of the Budhists,) perfectly [incapable] of proof.

It will next be found that of all nations beyond the sea, none so much believe in the Lord of Heaven as Germany, and yet [its inhabitants are] scattered, [its power] is in ruins, and more than one partition of its territory has been made: why, as believing in the Lord of Heaven, has happiness not been bestowed upon it? Of those that do not believe in the Lord of Heaven, none can compare with Japan : on a quay in their port is engraven a crucifix, and every merchant who repairs thither, and does not, as he 'lands, tread on the crucifix, is immediately beheaded as a warning to others; there is besides this, outside the city-gate, an image of Jesus sunk in the ground, so that it may be daily exposed to the insult of being trampled on and yet this kingdom has endured 2000 years; why has not the Lord of Heaven visited it with calamity ↑ It follows accordingly that the statement regarding the power to confer happiness or misery is utterly without foundation; it will merely make the simple people in this life, leave their ancestors without the power of enjoying the oblations of sweet-smelling incense and of the offer- ings which should be set before them in sacrificial vessels; while after death, they are to become blind ghosts, undergoing in addition the torments of burning till their bones arc scattered in ashes. What happiness results from such a doctrine 1

Again, as to the adoration of the crucifix, the stone tablet of the “luminous doctrine ” says “[Áloa] signed with a crows to determine the four quarters (sc. of the heavens);" the professors of this creed, it is not known at what period, thence devised the tale of [their teacher's] crucifixion : but were their tale fact, it would still be quite inexplicable why the worshipers of Jesus should adore the instrument of his punishment, and consider it so to represent him as not to venture to tread upon it. Would it be common-sense, if the father or ancestor of a house had been killed by a shot from a fowling-piece, or by a wound from a sword, that his sons or grandsons should adore a fowling-piece or a sword, as their father or ancestor ?

Although an ordinance of a late date did give permission to barbarians to expound their religious books to each other, it gave none to them to stray into the Inner Land, mixing with its people, and propagating their doctrine amongst them; and if there be any passing themselves off as barbarians, or any inviting mon from far places to flock hither, leaguing with them to excite and unsettle the public mind, inveigling females [to become converts], or otherwise offonding against the law, they will be punished, as of