“Marcion, of Smyrna, who has written a work on the virtues of simples, informs that the sea scolopendra will burst asunder if spit upon; and that the same is the case with bramble frogs, and other kinds of frogs. Opilius says that serpents will do the same if a person spits into their open mouth; and Salpe tells us that when any part of the body is asleep the numbness may be got rid of by the person spitting into his lap, or touching the upper eyelid with his spittle. If we are ready to give faith to such statements as these, we must believe also in the efficacy of the following practices: upon the entrance of a stranger, or when a person looks at an infant while asleep, it is usual for the nurse to spit three times upon the ground; and this, although infants are under the special guardianship of the god Fascinus, the protector, not of infants only, but of generals as well, and a divinity whose worship is entrusted to the vestal virgins, and forms a part of the Roman rites.”[125]
[103] _Antiquities of Greece_, by John Potter, D.D., vol. i., pp. 261-263, Edinburgh, 1832.
[105] _The Origin and Development of Religious Belief_, by S. Baring Gould, M.A., vol. i., p. 397, London, 1869.
[106] See Keil, _Attische Culte aus Inschriften_, _Philologus_, bd. xxiii., 212, 259, 592, 622; also Weingarten, _Histor. Zeitschrift_, bd. xlv., 1881, p. 441 ff.
[107] See Tertullian, _De Baptismo_, chap. v.; and Clem. of Alex., _Strom._, book v., chap. iv.
[108] _Cf._ Hatch, _Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church_.
[109] _Cf._ Clem. of Alex., _Exhortation to the Heathen_, chap. xii.
[110] _Cf._ Hatch as above; and Lenormant, in _Contemporary Review_ for September, 1880.
[111] “The objection which Celsus makes (c. _Cels._, i., 1, Keim, p. 3) to the secrecy of the Christian associations would hardly have held good in the apostolic age. Origen admits (c. _Cels._, i., 7) that there are exoteric and esoteric doctrines in Christianity, and justifies it by (1) the philosophies, (2) the mysteries. On the rise of this conception of Christian teaching as something to be hidden from the mass, _cf._ the Valentians in Tert., c. _Valent._, i., where there is a direct parallel drawn between them and the mysteries; also the distinction of men into two classes--πνευματικοὶ and ψυχικοὶ or ὑλικοί,--among the Gnostics. Yet this very secrecy was naturalized in the Church. _Cf._ Cyril Hier., _Catech._, vi., 30; Aug. in _Psalm_ ciii.; _Hom._, xcvi., in _Joan_; Theodoret, _Quæst._ xv., in _Num._, and _Dial._, ii., (_Inconfusus_); Chry., _Hom._, xix., in _Matt._ Sozomen’s (i., 20, 3) reason for not giving the Nicene creed is significant alike as regards motive and language.”--Hibbert Lectures, 1888, p. 293 and footnote.