Part 55 (2/2)
To the ma.s.s of Hebrews, as well as to other nations, seem to have come fragments only of the primitive revelation: nor do they seem, until after their captivity among the Persians, to have concerned themselves about metaphysical speculations in regard to the Divine Nature and essence; although it is evident, from the Psalms of David, that a select body among them preserved a knowledge, in regard to the Deity, which was wholly unknown to the ma.s.s of the people; and those chosen few were made the medium of transition for certain truths, to later ages.
Among the Greeks, the scholars of the Egyptians, all the higher ideas and severer doctrines on the Divinity, his Sovereign Nature and Infinite Might, the Eternal Wisdom and Providence that conducts and directs all things to their proper end, the Infinite Mind and Supreme Intelligence that created all things, and is raised far above external nature,--all these loftier ideas and n.o.bler doctrines were expounded more or less perfectly by Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, and Socrates, and developed in the most beautiful and luminous manner by Plato, and the philosophers that succeeded him. And even in the popular religion of the Greeks are many things capable of a deeper import and more spiritual signification; though they seem only rare vestiges of ancient truth, vague presentiments, fugitive tones, and momentary flashes, revealing a belief in a Supreme Being, Almighty Creator of the Universe, and Common Father of Mankind.
Much of the primitive Truth was taught to Pythagoras by Zoroaster, who himself received it from the Indians. His disciples rejected the use of Temples, of Altars, and of Statues; and smiled at the folly of those nations who imagined that the Deity sprang from or had any affinity with human nature. The tops of the highest mountains were the places chosen for sacrifices. Hymns and prayers were their princ.i.p.al wors.h.i.+p. The Supreme G.o.d, who fills the wide circle of Heaven, was the object to Whom they were addressed. Such is the testimony of Herodotus. Light they considered not so much as an object of wors.h.i.+p, as rather the most pure and lively emblem of, and first emanation from, the Eternal G.o.d; and thought that man required something visible or tangible to exalt his mind to that degree of adoration which is due to the Divine Being.
There was a surprising similarity between the Temples, Priests, doctrines, and wors.h.i.+p of the Persian Magi and the British Druids. The latter did not wors.h.i.+p idols in the human shape, because they held that the Divinity, being invisible, ought to be adored without being seen.
They a.s.serted the Unity of the G.o.dhead. Their invocations were made to the One All-preserving Power; and they argued that, as this power was not matter, it must necessarily be the Deity; and the secret symbol used to express his name was O.I.W. They believed that the earth had sustained one general destruction by water; and would again be destroyed by fire. They admitted the doctrines of the immortality of the soul, a future state, and a day of judgment, which would be conducted on the principle of man's responsibility. They even retained some idea of the redemption of mankind through the death of a Mediator. They retained a tradition of the Deluge, perverted and localized. But, around these fragments of primitive truth they wove a web of idolatry, wors.h.i.+pped two Subordinate Deities under the names of HU and CERIDWEN, male and female (doubtless the same as Osiris and Isis), and held the doctrine of transmigration.
The early inhabitants of Scandinavia believed in a G.o.d who was ”the Author of everything that existeth; the Eternal, the Ancient, the Living and Awful Being, the Searcher into concealed things, the Being that never changeth.” Idols and visible representations of the Deity were originally forbidden, and He was directed to be wors.h.i.+pped in the lonely solitude of sequestered forests, where He was said to dwell, invisible, and in perfect silence.
The Druids, like their Eastern ancestors, paid the most sacred regard to the odd numbers, which, traced backward, ended in Unity or Deity, while the even numbers ended in nothing. 3 was particularly reverenced.
19(7+3+3): 30 (7x3+3x3): and 21 (7x3) were numbers observed in the erection of their temples, constantly appearing in their dimensions, and the number and distances of the huge stones.
They were the sole interpreters of religion. They superintended all sacrifices; for no private person could offer one without their permission. They exercised the power of excommunication; and without their concurrence war could not be declared nor peace made: and they even had the power of inflicting the punishment of death. They professed to possess a knowledge of magic, and practised augury for the public service.
They cultivated many of the liberal sciences, and particularly astronomy, the favorite science of the Orient; in which they attained considerable proficiency. They considered day as the offspring of night, and therefore made their computations by nights instead of days; and we, from them, still use the words fortnight and sen'night. They knew the division of the heavens into constellations; and finally, they practised the strictest morality, having particularly the most sacred regard for that peculiarly Masonic virtue, Truth.
In the Icelandic Prose Edda is the following dialogue:
”Who is the first or eldest of the G.o.ds?
”In our language he is called ALFADIR (All-Father, or the Father of All); but in the old Asgard he had twelve names.
”Where is this G.o.d? What is his power? and what hath he done to display his glory?
”He liveth from all ages, he governeth all realms, and swayeth all things both great and small.
”He hath formed Heaven and earth, and the air, and all things thereunto belonging.
”He hath made man and given him a soul which shall live and never perish, though the body shall have mouldered away or have been burnt to ashes. And all that are righteous shall dwell with him in the place called _Gimli_ or _Vingolf_; but the wicked shall go to _Hel_ and thence to _Niflhel_ which is below, in the ninth world.”
Almost every heathen nation, so far as we have any knowledge of their mythology, believed in one Supreme Overruling G.o.d, whose name it was not lawful to utter.
”When we ascend”, says MuLLER, ”to the most distant heights of Greek history, the idea of G.o.d as the Supreme Being stands before us as a simple fact. Next to this adoration of One G.o.d, the Father of Heaven, the Father of men, we find in Greece a Wors.h.i.+p of Nature.” The original ?e?? was the G.o.d or G.o.ds, called by the Greeks the Son of Time, meaning that there was no G.o.d before Him, but He was Eternal. ”Zeus,” says the Orphic line, ”is the Beginning, Zeus the Middle; out of Zeus all things have been made”. And the Peleides of Dodona said, ”Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus will be; O great Zeus!” ?e?? ??, ?e?? ?st??, ?e?? ?sseta? ? e????
?e?: and he was ?e??, ??d?st??, ???st??, ?eus, Best and Greatest.
The Pa.r.s.ees, retaining the old religion taught by Zaradisht, say in their catechism: ”We believe in only one G.o.d, and do not believe in any beside Him; Who created the Heavens, the Earth the Angels.... Our G.o.d has neither face nor form, color nor shape, nor fixed place. There is no other like Him, nor can our mind comprehend Him.”
The Tetragrammaton, or _some other word covered by it_, was forbidden to be p.r.o.nounced. But that its p.r.o.nunciation might not be lost among the Levites, the High-Priest uttered it in the Temple once a year, on the 10th day of the Month Tisri, the day of the great feast of expiation.
During this ceremony, the people were directed to make a great noise, that the Sacred Word might not be heard by any who had not a right to it; for every other, said the Jews, would be incontinently stricken dead.
The Great Egyptian Initiates, before the time of the Jews, did the same thing in regard to the word Isis; which they regarded as sacred and incommunicable.
Origen says: ”There are names which have a natural potency. Such as those which the Sages used among the Egyptians, the Magi in Persia, the Brahmins in India. What is called Magic is not a vain and chimerical act, as the Stoics and Epicureans pretend. The names SABAOTH and ADONAI were not made for created beings; but they belong to a mysterious theology, which goes back to the Creator. From Him comes the virtue of these names, when they are arranged and p.r.o.nounced according to the rules.”
The Hindu word AUM represented the three Powers combined in their Deity: Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; or the Creating, Preserving, and Destroying Powers: A, the first; U or O-O, the second; and M, the third. This word could not be p.r.o.nounced, except by the letters: for its p.r.o.nunciation as one word was said to make Earth tremble, and even the Angels of Heaven to quake for fear.
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