THE CODE OF JESUS
To John Adams
Monticello, Oct. 12, 1813
1813101
DEAR SIR -- Since mine of Aug. 22. I have recieved your favors of
Aug. 16. Sep. 2. 14. 15. and -- and Mrs. Adams's of Sep. 20. I now send you, according to
your request a copy of the Syllabus. To fill up this skeleton with arteries, with veins,
with nerves, muscles and flesh, is really beyond my time and information. Whoever could
undertake it would find great aid in Enfield's judicious abridgment of Brucker's history
of Philosophy, in which he has reduced 5. or 6. quarto vols. of 1000. pages each of Latin
closely printed, to two moderate 8 vos. of English, open, type.
To compare the morals of the old, with those of the new testament,
would require an attentive study of the former, a search thro' all it's books for it's
precepts, and through all it's history for it's practices, and the principles they prove.
Ascommentaries too on these, the philosophy of the Hebrews must be enquired into, their
Mishna, their Gemara, Cabbala, Jezirah, Sohar, Cosri, and their Talmud must be examined
and understood, in order to do them full justice. Brucker, it should seem, has gone deeply
into these Repositories of their ethics, and Enfield, his epitomiser, concludes in these
words.
`Ethics were so little studied among the Jews, that, in their whole compilation called
the Talmud, there is only one treatise on moral subjects. Their books of Morals chiefly
consisted in a minute enumeration of duties. From the law of Moses were deduced 613.
precepts, which were divided into two classes, affirmative and negative, 248 in the
former, and 365 in the latter. It may serve to give the reader some idea of the low state
of moral philosophy among the Jews in the Middle age, to add, that of the 248. affirmative
precepts, only 3. were considered as obligatory upon women; and that, in order to obtain
salvation, it was judged sufficient to fulfill any one single law in the hour of death;
the observance of the rest being deemed necessary, only to increase the felicity of the
future life. What a wretched depravity of sentiment and manners must have prevailed before
such corrupt maxims could have obtained credit! It is impossible to collect from these
writings a consistent series of moral Doctrine.' Enfield, B. 4. chap. 3.
It was the reformation of this `wretched depravity' of morals which Jesus undertook. In
extracting the pure principles which he taught, we should have to strip off the artificial
vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into
various forms, as instruments of riches and power to them. We must dismiss the Platonists
and Plotinists, the Stagyrites and Gamalielites, the Eclectics the Gnostics and
Scholastics, their essences and emanations, their Logos and Demi-urgos, Aeons and Daemons
male and female, with a long train of Etc. Etc. Etc. or, shall I say at once, of Nonsense.
We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very
words only of Jesus, paring off the Amphibologisms into which they have been led by
forgetting often, or not understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own
misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not
understood themselves. There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code
of morals which has ever been offered to man. have performed this operation for my own
use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging, the matter which is
evidently his, andwhich is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill.The result
is an 8 vo. of 46. pages of pure and unsophisticated doctrines, such as were professed and
acted on by the unlettered apostles, the Apostolic fathers, and the Christians of
the 1st. century. Their Platonising successors indeed, in after times, in order to
legitimate the corruptions which they had incorporated into the doctrines of Jesus, found
it necessary to disavow the primitive Christians, who had taken their principles from the
mouth of Jesus himself, of his Apostles, and the Fathers cotemporary with them. They
excommunicated their followers as heretics, branding them with the opprobrious name of
Ebionites or Beggars.
For a comparison of the Graecian philosophy with that of Jesus,
materials might be largely drawn from the same source. Enfield gives a history, and
detailed account of the opinions and principles of the different sects. These relate to
the gods, their natures, grades, places and powers;
the demi-gods and daemons, and their agency with man;
the Universe, it's structure, extent, production and duration;
the origin of things from the elements of fire, water, air and earth;
the human soul, it's essence and derivation;
the summum bonum and finis bonorum; with a thousand idle dreams and
fancies on these and other subjects the knolege of which is withheld from man, leaving but
a short chapter for his moral duties, and the principal section of that given to what he
owes himself, to precepts for rendering him impassible, and unassailable by the evils of
life, and for preserving his mind in a state of constant serenity.
Such a canvas is too broad for the age of seventy, and especially of
one whose chief occupations have been in the practical business of life. We must leave
therefore to others, younger and more learned than we are, to prepare this euthanasia for
Platonic Christianity, and it's restoration to the primitive simplicity of it's founder. I
think you give a just outline of the theism of the three religions when you say that the
principle of the Hebrew was the fear, of the Gentile the honor, and of the Christian the
love of God.
An expression in your letter of Sep. 14. that `the human
understanding is a revelation from it's maker' gives the best solution, that I believe can
be given, of the question, What did Socrates mean by his Daemon? He was too wise to
believe, and too honest to pretend that he had real and familiar converse with a superior
and invisible being. He probably
considered the suggestions of his conscience, or reason, as revelations, or inspirations
from the Supreme mind, bestowed, on important occasions, by a special superintending
providence.
I acknolege all the merit of the hymn of Cleanthes to Jupiter, which
you ascribe to it. It is as highly sublime as a chaste and correct imagination can permit
itself to go. Yet in the contemplation of a being so superlative, the hyperbolic flights
of the Psalmist may often be followed with approbation, even with rapture; and I have no
hesitation in giving him the palm over all the Hymnists of every language, and of every
time. Turn to the 148th. psalm, in Brady and Tate's version. Have such conceptions been
ever before expressed? Their version of the 15th. psalm is more to be esteemed for it's
pithiness, than it's poetry. Even Sternhold, the leaden Sternhold, kindles, in a single
instance, with the sublimity of his original, and expresses the majesty of God descending
on the earth, in terms not unworthy of the subject.
`The Lord descended from
And bowed the heav'ns most
above high;
And underneath his feet he cast
The darkness of the sky.
On Cherubim and Seraphim
Full royally he rode;
And on the wings of mighty
Came flying all abroad.'
winds Psalm xviii. 9. 10.
The Latin versions of this passage by Buchanan and by Johnston, are
but mediocres. But the Greek of Duport is worthy of quotation.
{Oyranon agklinas katebe ypo possi d' eoisin
Achlys amphi melaina chythe kai nyx erebenne.
Rimpha potato Cheroybo ocheymenos, osper eph' ippo.
Iptato de pterygessi polyplagktoy anemoio.}
The best collection of these psalms is that of the Octagonian
dissenters of Liverpool, in their printed Form of prayer; but they are not always the best
versions. Indeed bad is the best of the English versions; not a ray of poetical genius
having ever been employed on them. And how much depends on this may be seen by comparing
Brady and Tate's XVth. psalm with Blacklock's Justum et tenacem propositi virum ["a
man just and steadfast of purpose"] of Horace, quoted in Hume's history, Car. 2. ch.
65. A translation of David in this style, or in that of Pompei's Cleanthes, might give us
some idea of the merit of the original. The character too of the poetry of these hymns is
singular to us. Written in monostichs, each divided into strophe and antistrophe, the
sentiment of the 1st. member responded with amplification or antithesis in the second.
On the subject of the Postscript of yours of Aug. 16. and of Mrs.
Adams's letter, I am silent. I know the depth of the affliction it has caused, and can
sympathise with it the more sensibly, inasmuch as there is no degree of affliction,
produced by the loss of those dear to us, which experience has not taught me to estimate.
I have ever found time and silence the only medecine, and these but assuage, they never
can suppress, the deep-drawn sigh which recollection for ever brings up, until
recollection and life are extinguished together. Ever affectionately yours
P. S. Your's of Sep -- just recieved
