The Origin And References Of The Hermesian Spurious Freemasonry.

from possessed individuals ; silenced the heathen oracles ;* put all enemies under His feet , by His descent into hell ancl redemption thence . And it ivas for this very purpose that the Son of God ivas manifested : that He might destroy the works of the devil . The doctrine ivas also preserved in the ceremonies of the Spurious Freemasonry ; for the candidate , ivho represented Osiris , ivas made to descend into Tartarus , to witness the torments of the damned . But ho was soon delivered thence , and being conducted to the sacred plains , he heard the sound of sacred music , ancl saw the souls of the just in the enjoyment of those rewards which arc the result of piety and virtue .

A reference to the great sacrifice by ivhich these benefits were secured to man was also found in the observances of these remarkable institutions , which were used for conferring a ceremonial regeneration , and the symbol was tho colour of the rose , or blood . And it is an extraordinary coincidence that the same relation should exist between this colour and baptism , in Christianity . The Scriptures speak of the rosetree as the symbol of the regenerated , ancl dew ( ros ) as that of regeneration . The red

. and white , which are sometimes united in the rose , are types of the love and wisdom of God , ancl by appropriating them to himself the candidate becomes regenerated and competent to partake of the benefits which are derived from initiation . As amongst the Jews an unequivocal type of the Atonement , wrought out by the crucifixion of Christ , had been provided in the projected sacrifice of Isaac by his father ; so , in all other nations , evident vestiges of the same fact may be accurately traced in

the bloody sacrifices which were used to avert the anger ancl propitiate the favour of avenging deities , ancl to prevent the idea from being lost , there was a bloody baptism in the Mysteries , ivhich resembled the ceremony instituted by Moses hi the wilderness , t and Avas typical of the blood of Christ . It was called Taurobolium , and was confidently believed to convey a perfect regeneration to the soul . Mr . Maurice imagines that these regeneratory sacrifices showed the deep ancl unanimous conviction of the pagan world that man had fallen from the high condition of his original purity ; whence he compares them to Christian baptism , ancl thinks they symbolize the necessity of a radical conversion of the heart .

It is quite clear that the simple act of shedding blood , unaccompanied by any typical reference , could never have been believed capable of procuring the favour or acceptance of God , and therefore a faith in their efficacy could only have been derived from a tradition of the divine command given to Adam , and practised by the first martyr , that animal sacrifices should be used to preserve in the minds of men a knowledge of the vicarious offering which was to atone for human transgression .

This primitive command was perpetuated throughout the heathen world in the abstruse theories of the hierophant , ancl also by immemorial practice . It was used by Ham , the first post-diluvian idolater , and every colony of his posterity considered the omission to be worse than sacrilege . The same may be said of all the other descendants of Noah who contracted the same defilements . However their opinions respecting the name of the deity or the nature of divine worship might vary , still purification by of

blood was esteemed the most acceptable service , ancl was always used on occasions peculiar solemnity . Ancl it was universally believed that the perfection of human nature would be restored , and general security accomplished , by some great human sacrifice , the use and design of which , says South , j ; " Was to appease the deity by paying down a life for sin , and that by the substitution of a man or beast to die and pay down his life instead of the sinner . For there ivas a tacit acknowledgment that the wages of sin was death , and that without shedding of blood there coidd be no remission . " ( To be continued . )