The Origin And References Of The Hermesian Spurious Freemasonry.

women , and the upper for the birds , and that the men were separated from the women by the body * of Adam , which Noah had taken into the Ark . " * The Ark being at length finished , and the day of grace having expired , Noah and his family , with the animals which he had been instructed to preserve , entered into it as a place of safety ; and the Most High closed the door . Then it was that the

wicked inhabitants of the world became conscious of their error , and bitterly repented that they had disregarded tho gracious words of Enoch and Noah . The ceremony of initiation into the Spurious Freemasonry was founded upon this incident . The aspirantlike Noah

, , was placed in an Ark or coffin , and was actually interred amidst the most lively demonstrations of grief and despair ; and his subsequent deliverance , or resurrection , from it was a prelude to universal gladness and rejoicing . He was considered

as a representative of the patriarch during his confinement in the Ark . Now , Archbishop Leighton , in his commentary on 1 Pet . iii . 21 , promulgates this very idea . His words are very remarkable . " Noah seemed to have rather entered into a grave as dead , than into a safeguard of life , in going into the Ark ; yet being buried there , he rose ariain , as it were , in

his coming forth to begin a new world . " Stobceus , quoting an ancient author , says , " the mind is affected in death , as it is by initiation into the Mysteries . And word answers to word , as well as thing to thing ; for -reXwrav , is to die ; and TtXaarOat , to

be initiated . " This initiation , or figurative death , referring to the temporary extinction of the Deity , was variousl y modified in different nations , ancl the Spurious Freemasonry was the legitimate medium of its promulgation .

In the revolutions of human affairs , nations and empires rise , flourish , and are extinguished , leaving behind them nothing but a name . The life of individuals is but a continued series of fluctuations and reverseschequered with good and evil

, , pleasure and pain , and if the rich and powerful occasionally sink into obscurity , the lowest slave has sometimes been exalted to a diadem . In like manner the frame

aud constitution of the globe which we inhabit , has undergone a series of revolutions . At the deluge the foundations of tho earth were shaken , and it is highly probable that some portions of the Antediluvian seas became dry land , and its

lands submerged under the waters . These phenomena will never cease . Here the waters recede , and there they encroach , and vast alterations have been made by this process in comparatively modern times . It is conjecturedfor instancethat the

, , expanse of waters now called Cardigan Bay , on the western coast of our own Island , was once a fruitful and populous province . On the eastern coast also , the County of York has suffered much from the encroachments of the sea ; and an

ancient seaport and borough , with many adjacent villages , at the extreme point of Holderness , have been washed away , leaving no vestiges behind ; while on the coast of Lincolnshire , thousands of acres have been recovered , which were formerly the bottom of the sea . The universal deluge destroyed all the splendid monuments of art with which

the Antediluvian world undoubtedly abounded , and with them , the manners and customs of the first inhabitants of this globe . Appollodorus mentions the names of several of " the giants " who perished on this occasion , slain , as he terms it , by tho gods . One of themnamed Polybotes ,

, attempted to escape from Neptune by crossing the waters of the ocean ; but tho god , seizing a fragment of the Island of Cos , darted the enormous mass at the giant and crushed him beneath its weight . It is not impossible that this story may have

been invented for the purpose of describing the disappointed efforts made by some of the Antediluvians to save themselves front the impending destruction . * In this tremendous judgment the cities , aud towns , aud palaces , and obelisks , fell )

never to rise again . There are some who doubt this fact . The author of the Hexameron says , " we have no just cause to think that all building and ancient monuments , of the fathers , before the flood , were extinguised on that occasion ; for is reputed by Pomponius , Mela , and Pliuji concerning the city of Joppa , that it w *