_ You tell us in your " Fiat" that the "Pagans defamed the Chris- tians for the worship of an ass's head;" and you give this reason of it, " Because the Jews had defamed our Lord Jesus Christ, whose head and half-portraiture Christians used upon their altars, even as they do at this day, of his great simplicity and ignorance." Two things you suppose,—!. That the Christians placed the head and half-portraiture of our Saviour in those days on their altars; which is alone to your purpose. 2. That this gave occasion to the Pagans to defame them with the worship of an ass's head, because the Jews had so blasphemed the Lord Christ, as you say. These things I told you are fond and false, and destitute of all colour of testimony from antiquity; that the worship of an ass's head was originally charged on the Jews themselves, and on Christians no otherwise but as they were accounted a sect of them, or their offspring; and that what in the same place you assert, of " the Jews accusmg the Christians for the worship of images," or "the Christians using the picture of Christ's head or his half-portraiture on their altars," are monsters that none of the ancients ever dreamed of. What plead you now in your vin- dication? Quite omitting that wherein alone you are concerned, you only undertake to prove that the worship of an ass's head was im- puted to the Christians as Avell as to the Jews, which you say " I deny, and say that it was not charged on the Jews at all." And the reason of this charge, you say, was, " Because they were reckoned among the Jews ' in odiosis,' and accounted of them." So well do you mind what you had said before of the rise of that imputation on the Christians, from the blasphemy of the Jews! So,— L In your " Fiat" you say nothing of the Jews at all, but only 'that by their calumnies the Pagans took occasion to slander the Christians; being now better instructed hy the " Animadversions," in the rise of that foolish calumny, you change your note, and close in with what is in them asserted. 2. You unduly affirm that " I deny this to have been charged on the Christians," when I grant it was, and that in the very same manner and on the same account that yourself now, contrary to what you had written before, acknowledge it to have been. He must be as much unacquainted with these things as some- body else whom I shall not name, " honoris gratia," seems to be, who^ knows not that this foolish impiety was imputed, in process of time, to the Christians by the Pagans, among a litter of other follies,^ as well as unto the Jews. Cascihus, in Minucius, tells us, "Audio eos ineptissimffi pecudis caput asini consecratum inepta nes- cio qua persuasione venerari;"— " I hear that by a foolish persuasion they worship^ the head of an ass, a vile beast." And Tertullian, ApoL, cap. xvi., " Nam quidam somniastis caput asininum esse Deum nostrum;"— "Some of you dream that an ass's head is our God;"—
478 A VINDICATIOX OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
presently declaring thereon, that this imputation was derived on them from the Jews, who first suffered under that fable. And if any thing gave new occasion unto it among the Christians, it was not the picture of Christ despised by the Jews, as you imagine, but the report of his riding on an ass ; which Athanasius takes notice of, Homil. ad Pagan. They said, "Or; 6 Qihg XpiffnavZv 6 xa'Kohn.ivog Xpia- Tog iig ovdpiov sKadide' — " That the God of the Christians, Avho is called Christ, sat on an ass." But you will prove what you say out of Ter- tullian. Say you, " The same TertuUian, in his Apologetic, adds these words : ' The calumnies (saith he) invented to cry down our religion grew to such an excess of impiety, that not long ago, in this very city, a picture of our God was shown, by a certain infamous person, with the ears of an ass, and a hoof on one foot, clothed with a gown, and a iDook in his hand, with this inscription, ' Onochoetes, the God of the Christians.' ' And he adds, ' That the Christians in the city, as they were much offended with the impiety, so did they not a little wonder at the strange, uncouth name the villain had put upon our Lord and Master. Onochoetes, forsooth! he must be called Onochoetes !' " In this testimony of you know not what, you triumph, and conclude, " Are you not a strange man, to tell me that what I speak of this business is notoriously false, nay, and that I know it is false, and that I cannot produce one authentic testimony, no not one, of any such thing? But this is your ordinary confidence." Seriously, sir, I wonder where you got this quotation out of TertuUian. Let me desire you to be wary in receiving any thing hereafter from the same hand, out of authors that you want the confidence to venture upon yourself The words of TertuUian, which your translator hath abused you in, are these : — " Sed nova jam Dei nostri in ista civitate proximo editio publicata est, ex quo quidam in frustrandis bestiis mercenarius noxius picturam proposuit cum ejusmodi inscriptione, ' Deus Christianorum Ononychites.' Is erat auribus asininis, altero pede ungulatus, librum cestans et tog^atus. Bisimus et nomen et formam. Sed illi debebant adorare statim biforme numen qui canino et leonino capite commistos deos receperunt;" — "Lately in that city" (that is, Rome) "there was a public show made of our God, wherein a guilty person hired to fight with wild beasts, and to cozen their rage, proposed a picture with this inscription, ' Ononychites, the God of the Christians." He had ass's ears, hoofed on one foot, carrying a book, and in a gown. We laughed at the name and shape. But they ought immediately to have adored this double-shaped deity, who have received gods mingled with dogs' and lions' heads." You see how well you have given us the words of TertuUian, which you pretend to do, saying, " He adds these words." But I confess, though he says no such matter, it is Hke enough he would have wondered at the name of Onochoetes,