The Origin And References Of The Hermesian Spurious Freemasonry.

THE ORIGIN AND REFERENCES OF THE HERMESIAN SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY .

( Continued from ' page 96 , ) BY BEV , GEO . -OLIVER , D , D , CHAPTER VIII—Continued .

r r \ tIE doc-trine of salvation was , however , plainly developed in the Spurious Free-•* - masonry of India , China , Persia , Egypt , Greece , Rome , aud all other heathen nations . The Saka , or younger Buddha of the East furnishes a striking instance of it , and the Cnmorica Chan da relates that after three thousand and one hundred years of the Call Tug shall be expired , then Saka , the divine child , born of a pure virgin and the son of a Tacshaka or carpenter , will appear to redeem the world from misery . " Ancl in China ,

Confucius , according to the best authorities , gave his disciples ( lie benefit of a distinct prophecy of the Messiah , when he told them " to look to the West for the HOLT OSS that was to appear upon earth . " Again , at the conclusion of the ceremony of initiation in Persia , the candidates were taught as a profound secret that at some future time a great Deliverer would appear in the West , who should be the son of a pure virgin . This Deliverer or Mediator ivas identified Avith Mithras , ancl had the name of the Middle or Second God , and was regarded as an emanation of the power of Ormista ,

and sometimes esteemed to be co-eternal with hmi .- ' Being reputed to he born irom . a rock , Dr . Doig takes occasion to observe that as " a rock is the symbol of strength ancl stability , so the dominion of Mithras shall be firm as a rock , and stable as the everlasting hills , " This ivas evidently a doctrine embodied from ancient tradition , for the Messiah was esteemed by the Jews as the Rock of their Salvation . t And St . Paul says plainly , _ 7 i « . rock was Christ , ! whose kingdom is everlasting , § ancl without end . ' || The Egyptian Orus was reputed to be the first production of the power of Osiris ,

ancl destined to destroy the works of Gyphon , or the evil principle , and reign for ever as a Mediator . ^ Hales , in bis chronology , ** thinks that "Hesiod , under the fable of the formation of the fair Pandora , who , ivith her box of evils , deceived Epimetheus , ivhen nothing Avas left but Hope , seems to have allegorized the history of the creation of Eve , with the Fall , ancl the hope of redemption through the seed of the woman , ivhich was , in fact , the yvncnov viov of Plato . The Eomans had a similar tradition , notwithstanding which Horace expressed an indifferent opinion of those who should reveal the secrets of the Spurious Freemasonry , —

' ' vetabo , qui Ceteris sacrum Yulgarifc arcana ., sub iisdem Sit toMbus , fragilemque mecum Solvat pliaselum , " A'irgil had the boldness to reveal these secrets , and his translation of the Sib y lline prophecies relative to the advent of the Messias affords a presumptive proof that it

was one of the ineffable doctrines preserved in these remarkable institutions , ancl they clearly foretold that a great conqueror should rise up in Judea about the time when Christ actually appeared , who should banish crime and govern the earth in peace . Tacitus , speaking of the wars of Yespasian and the Jews , says , " A firm persuasion had