The Origin And References Of The Hermesian Spurious Freemasonry.

The promise of restoration Avas subsequently transmitted through the ivorld by the migrations arising out of the Confusion of Tongues on the plains of Shinar . Beingembodied in the sacred drama of the mysteries , it was preserved there by a means which prevented it from being either perverted or lost , although too abstruse for the comprehension of those whose notions of the divine unity were , at the best , but loose and unsettled ; and accordingly we find many erroneous ideas afloat in various nations respecting this fundamental doctrine of true religion . But the very diversities are strongly corroborative of the fact that such a tradition , hoivcver it might be allegorized , formed ' a constituent part of their religious code .

In the East , which was lirst peopled after the flood , we may therefore expect to find historical notices of facts and doctrines in some degree of perfection ; as they would pass , without -any material change , from generation to generation , clown to the time when the sacred ' books of each country were compiled . Accordingly , amongst tho Hindoos and their immediate neighbours , many religious legends approximate very nearly to similar events recorded by Moses . Thus , for instance : A son of the first man

is said to have been slain by his brother . Sanchoniatho has recorded that a son of Uranus was killed by his brother . In Diodorus we find Hesperion meets a similar fate , ancl the Persian annals represent Siameck , the son of Cai-Amurath , the first king of Persia , as having been slain by giants . There is , hoivever , nothing very extraordinary in the naked fact . The outlines of the history of the antediluvian world Avere known to the family of Noah , and consequently to their immediate descendants , the Cuthites of Shinar , and when the language ivas confounded this knoAvledge Avoidd travel Avith every tribe which wandered to people the distant parts of the earth .

If this reasoning have any force , we may fairly conclude that the knowledge of the great events connected with the salvation of man , which AA'as preserved in the Spurious Freemasonry , proceeded from traditions communicated by the first man , and transmitted orally to his posterity ; being recorded by Moses in the Pentateuch , but certainly known to tlie heathen long before the Exodus . For it is presumed that the principal incidents had become distorted by fable previously to that period ; and therefore the Deity commanded Moses to make out a perfect register of them , which was preserved in the Tabernacle , and afterwards in the Temple at Jerusalem , as a record of truth from winch there should be no appeal .

AVe are furnished with abundant testimony to prove that the expectation of a Great Deliverer was taught in the Spurious Freemasonry , although the important secret ivas strictly preserved in the esoteric degrees , until the period approached when the allegory should be realised by His actual appearance in the ivorld . Daniel fixed the precise time of His appearance , which Avas acknowledged by Simeon ancl Anna to be correct , and it was the blindness and obstinacy of the Jews in refusing to receive Jesus as the expected Messiah that accelerated the destruction of their city and temple , ancl dispersed them over the face of the earth , —an awful monument of God ' s wrath to all generations .

Tertullian asserts that the philosophers of his time " had drank from the fountain of the prophets , " ancl Clemens Alcxandrinus expressly charges them with " stealing many of their facts and doctrines from the prophetical writings of the Jews . " But , as I have already observed , I see no good reason for adopting this opinion . Jt is scarcely credible that the earliest legislators and hierophasts woidd adopt into their mysteries the written dogmata of a small and despised sect , AA'ho themselves evinced little faith in tho efficacy of their own religion , and were continually lusting after the more licentious

superstitions of their Gentile neighbours . I am persuaded that oral tradition was their guide . They flattered themselves that they possessed tho especial favour of the celestial deities , and the temptation must have been strong indeed that could have induced them to deviate from it . Besides , though they might , had they been so inclined , have gleaned facts , they could hardly have extracted from those records the abstruse doctrines which Avere undoubtedly imbedded in their ineffable mysteries of salvation through the

vicarious sacrifice of a Mediator , ancl a future state of rewards and punishments , which it- is at least doubtful whether many of the JCAVS themselves believe . ( To be continued . )