Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ar04500
threw it clown upon them , and the ruins are called Babylon . Before this time men had but one language , but now the gods divided it ; and then there was war betwixt Saturn and the Titans . "
Light and darkness were remarkably identified with the reli gion of Persia , the benevolent Creator of heaven and earth being termed LIGHT , and the evil being DARKNESS . These were the principles in which Cyrus , the future conqueror of Babylonand the liberator of the Jewshad
, , been educated ; and it was to convince him of the superior power of the True God , that the prophet introduces him as saying , " I am the Lord , and there is none else ; there is no God besides me . I guided thee , though thou hast not known
me ; that they may know from the rising of the sun , and from the west , that there is none besides me . I form the light and create darkness . I make peace and create evil . I , the Lord , do all these things . " * It is a curious fact
mentionedPor-, phyry , ! , that the Egyptians painted their statues black to denote the invisibility of the Divine essence ; and made the crocodile an emblem of the deitv , because that
creature , by the help of a pellucid membrane descending from his forehead , was able , as they believed , to see with closed eyes . Now man living , as it were , in the confines of heaven and earth , his celestial mind being united to a body of gross flesh and blood ; his understanding
receiveth instruction through the gates of the outward senses , and is , in an especial manner , assisted by the phantasms which Light pictureth in the brain . This frame of man renders him covetous in his speculations respecting the help of some
external and visible object ; and although they knew that proverb of the Arabians , which said , " Shut up the five windows that the house may be filled with light ;" yet they must have a visible deity to represent Light ; and that deit was Osiris
y , the representative of the sun . j This is further indicated b y another fact , viz ., that the scarab was a symbol of generation as well as life ; and the candidate , when he arrived at the final period
of initiation , was pronounced hy the hier 0 . phant to be born again ; or , as it was mo »> forcibly expressed iu the Dionysian system , of Spurious Freemasonry , StijW or twice born ; the first time ca rnal )/ from his natural motnerand now agaiil
, spiritually , in the Euresis of the mysteries ; and sometimes rptyovos , or thriceborn , to signify his farther elevation to the highest point of perfection the Greater Mysteries could confer . These three degrees of regeneration
correspond with the three superior Sepliiroth , and the three celestial spheres , ami were coloured scarlet , sky blue , and green , to represent the three elements of initiation , fire , air , and earth .
CHAPTER XV . THE REFERENCE TO THE GENERAL RESUII - RECTION OF THE DEAD . " Some think that the souls of those who die , return again ; others , that though they do not return , yet they do not die , but go to a more happy place . " MEIA .
It has been asserted by some great and learned writers that there is no specific revelation of a future state in the Mosaic law . But it was a doctrine fully received by all the learned Jews , and is , at least , indirectly stated , not only in the book of Job ( which from the internal evidence of
its highly poetical style , indicative of the first ages , and in the absence of all other testhnony , I should pronounce to have preceded the writings of the Jewish law-giver ) , but throughout the prophetical writings . It was understood bthe patriarchsand
y , was strikingly exemplified in the three visible translations of Enoch , Elijah , and Christ . Jacob knew that the God of Abraham and Isaac was his God also by peculiar promise , and was not satisfied with any
reward which mi ght have a reference to this life only . He confessed himself a stranger and pilgrim upon earth , declaring that he looked for a better country , that , a heavenly . * Job expressly asserted h- ' belief in a Messiah , who should raise him from the dead at the last day . t Th "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Ar04500
threw it clown upon them , and the ruins are called Babylon . Before this time men had but one language , but now the gods divided it ; and then there was war betwixt Saturn and the Titans . "
Light and darkness were remarkably identified with the reli gion of Persia , the benevolent Creator of heaven and earth being termed LIGHT , and the evil being DARKNESS . These were the principles in which Cyrus , the future conqueror of Babylonand the liberator of the Jewshad
, , been educated ; and it was to convince him of the superior power of the True God , that the prophet introduces him as saying , " I am the Lord , and there is none else ; there is no God besides me . I guided thee , though thou hast not known
me ; that they may know from the rising of the sun , and from the west , that there is none besides me . I form the light and create darkness . I make peace and create evil . I , the Lord , do all these things . " * It is a curious fact
mentionedPor-, phyry , ! , that the Egyptians painted their statues black to denote the invisibility of the Divine essence ; and made the crocodile an emblem of the deitv , because that
creature , by the help of a pellucid membrane descending from his forehead , was able , as they believed , to see with closed eyes . Now man living , as it were , in the confines of heaven and earth , his celestial mind being united to a body of gross flesh and blood ; his understanding
receiveth instruction through the gates of the outward senses , and is , in an especial manner , assisted by the phantasms which Light pictureth in the brain . This frame of man renders him covetous in his speculations respecting the help of some
external and visible object ; and although they knew that proverb of the Arabians , which said , " Shut up the five windows that the house may be filled with light ;" yet they must have a visible deity to represent Light ; and that deit was Osiris
y , the representative of the sun . j This is further indicated b y another fact , viz ., that the scarab was a symbol of generation as well as life ; and the candidate , when he arrived at the final period
of initiation , was pronounced hy the hier 0 . phant to be born again ; or , as it was mo »> forcibly expressed iu the Dionysian system , of Spurious Freemasonry , StijW or twice born ; the first time ca rnal )/ from his natural motnerand now agaiil
, spiritually , in the Euresis of the mysteries ; and sometimes rptyovos , or thriceborn , to signify his farther elevation to the highest point of perfection the Greater Mysteries could confer . These three degrees of regeneration
correspond with the three superior Sepliiroth , and the three celestial spheres , ami were coloured scarlet , sky blue , and green , to represent the three elements of initiation , fire , air , and earth .
CHAPTER XV . THE REFERENCE TO THE GENERAL RESUII - RECTION OF THE DEAD . " Some think that the souls of those who die , return again ; others , that though they do not return , yet they do not die , but go to a more happy place . " MEIA .
It has been asserted by some great and learned writers that there is no specific revelation of a future state in the Mosaic law . But it was a doctrine fully received by all the learned Jews , and is , at least , indirectly stated , not only in the book of Job ( which from the internal evidence of
its highly poetical style , indicative of the first ages , and in the absence of all other testhnony , I should pronounce to have preceded the writings of the Jewish law-giver ) , but throughout the prophetical writings . It was understood bthe patriarchsand
y , was strikingly exemplified in the three visible translations of Enoch , Elijah , and Christ . Jacob knew that the God of Abraham and Isaac was his God also by peculiar promise , and was not satisfied with any
reward which mi ght have a reference to this life only . He confessed himself a stranger and pilgrim upon earth , declaring that he looked for a better country , that , a heavenly . * Job expressly asserted h- ' belief in a Messiah , who should raise him from the dead at the last day . t Th "