346 AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY ix 



rites and ceremonies, circumcision and the like, which hitherto 

 have been dead ordinances, arid now are living : and so the 

 Apostles seem to have understood them (ibid. p. 65). 



So far as Nazarenism differentiated itself from 

 contemporary orthodox Judaism, it seems to have 

 tended towards a revival of the ethical and 

 religious spirit of the prophetic age, accompanied 

 by the belief in Jesus as the Messiah, and by 

 various accretions which had grown round Judaism 

 subsequently to the exile. To these belong the 

 doctrines of the Kesurrection, of the Last Judg- 

 ment, of Heaven and Hell ; of the hierarchy of 

 good angels ; of Satan and the hierarchy of evil 

 spirits. And there is very strong ground for 

 believing that all these doctrines, at least in the 

 shapes in which they were held by the post-exilic 

 Jews> were derived from Persian and Babylonian l 

 sources, and are essentially of heathen origin. 



How far Jesus positively sanctioned all these 

 indrainings of circumjacent Paganism into Juda- 

 ism ; how far any one has a right to declare, that 

 the refusal to accept one or other of these 

 doctrines, as ascertained verities, comes to the 

 same thing as contradicting Jesus, it appears to 



1 Dr. Newman faces this question with his customary ability. 

 "Now, I own, I am not at all solicitous to deny that this 

 doctrine of an apostate Angel and his hosts was gained 

 from Babylon : it might still be Divine nevertheless. God who 

 made the prophet's ass speak, and thereby instructed the 

 prophet, might instruct His Church by means of heathen 

 Babylon " (Tract 85, p. 83). There seems to be no end to the 

 apologetic burden that Balaam's ass can carry. 



