Among the savage tribes the same notions prevailed. The _Edues_ of the Californians taught that there was a supreme Creator, _Niparaga_, and that his son, _Quaagagp_, came down upon the earth and instructed the Indians in religion, &c. Finally, through hatred, the Indians killed him; but although dead, he is incorruptible and beautiful. To him they pay adoration, as the _mediatory power_ between earth and the Supreme Niparaga.[131:2]
The _Iroquois_ also had a beneficent being, uniting in himself the character of _a god and man_, who was called _Tarengawagan_. He imparted to them the knowledge of the laws of the Great Spirit, established their form of government, &c.[131:3]
Among the _Algonquins_, and particularly among the _Ojibways_ and other remnants of that stock of the North-west, this intermediate great teacher (denominated, by Mr. Schoolcraft, in his "_Notes of the Iroquois_," "the great incarnation of the North-west") is fully recognized. He bears the name of _Michabou_, and is represented as _the first-born son of a great celestial Manitou_, or _Spirit, by an earthly mother_, and is esteemed the friend and protector of the human race.[131:4]
I think we can now say with M. Dupuis, that "the idea of a God, who came down on earth to save mankind, is neither new nor peculiar to the Christians," and with Cicero, the great Roman orator and philosopher, that "brave, famous or powerful men, after death, came to be _gods_, and they are the very ones whom we are accustomed to worship, pray to and venerate."
Taking for granted that the synoptic Gospels are historical, there is no proof that Jesus ever claimed to be either God, or a god; on the other hand, it is quite the contrary.[131:5] As Viscount Amberly says: "The best proof of this is that Jesus never, at any period of his life, desired his followers to worship him, either as God, or as the Son of God," in the sense in which it is now understood. Had he believed of himself what his followers subsequently believed of him, that he was one of the constituent persons in a divine Trinity, he must have enjoined his Apostles both to address him in prayer themselves, and to desire their converts to do likewise. It is quite plain that he did nothing of the kind, and that they never supposed him to have done so.