The Pope And Freemasonry.

at Byblus , Mahaveda and Sita in India , Hu and CeirdAven in Britain , Woden and Fria in Scandinavia , Avere the names of those imaginary deities . In Epigr . 80 of Ausonius we find the following lines , which will be readily understood : —¦

Ogvgia me Baochum vocat ; Osirin Egyptus putat : Afysi Phanaoem nominant ; Dionuson Indi existimant ; Eoniana sacra Liberum ; Arabioa gens Adoneuin . The mysteries having gone on from bad to Averse ,

ia the year 864 A . D . Valentinian published an edict , forbidding nocturnal sacrifices , for the purpose of preventing indecencies Avhichwere perpetrated in them . The pro-Consul , of Greece , Pretextatus , relaxed the law , and permitted them to

to be celebrated in that country provided eveiything Avas clone decently ancl in order . Soon afterwards , however , Theodosius sent orders to Egypt that the temples and places of initiation should be closed , and that Avas done accordingly . The old

rites were secretly practised in Greece for several centuries—till the eighth century in Athens according to Psellus ; and the old Bardic writings inform us that they were still celebrated in Wales and Scotland CIOAA ' to the twelfth century of Christianity .

I will not trouble your readers Avith authorities for the following statement , nor coulcl yon afford me the necessary space . You must , therefore , be pleased to take it for granted , that in all the old mysteries ( at least in their palmy days ) , these

extraordinary doctrines were regularly taught—viz ., the unity and trinity ofthe Godhead { e . g ., in Plato ) , the creation and fall of man , ancl the expiation of sin by the voluntary death of a promised mediator . There Avere undoubted references in their beaching

to the sin of our first parents and their expulsion from Paradise—a sin produced by a serpent tempter—to the first fratricide , and various antediluvian transactions , to the destruction of the human race by a deluge , and the saving of one just

family in a boat or ark—to the deliverance of the chosen people from their Egyptian bondage—to the sacrifice of Isaac , & c . ; and , Avhat is far more wonderful , they taught a resurrection ancl a future state even more clearly than those abstruse

doctrines were understood by the JBAVS , the candidate at his initiation being figured as dying , and being afterwards restored to life . They also taught that the good would be rewarded , and the Avicked punished after death . Of course such a strange coincidence as that of such sublime doctrines as

these being taught universally m countries debarred from intercourse with each other can only be accounted for on the supposition that they had one common parentage — viz ., primitive Freemasons , Avhich has preserved the same old symbols

along with the primitive explanation of them . I will just quote a few authorities to shew what our ancient British forefathers taught in their rude open-air lodges . Selden shows that they taught the unity of the Deity ; "their invocations ( he

says ) were made to one all-preserving power , and they argued that as this power Avas not matter , it must necessarily be the Deity , and the secret symbol used to express His name Avas 0 I W . " They believed that the earth , having been once destroyed

by a deluge , would next be consumed by fire , " aliquando igni periturum ; " they also believed in a future state and a day of judgment . — " Cassar de Bell Gall . vi . 13 . " They retained some knowledge of the redemption of mankind through the death of a meditator . —Ibid . It is difficult to

understand how some of these tenets coulcl have been taught even in the genuine Masonic lodges , for some of them are subjects of direct revelation only fully made known in the later Scriptures . I will touch on one other point before I leave the

old mysteries , as I think I can apply it to your own country . When Zoroaster reformed the religion of the Persians—of course through the mysteries—he induced them to cease worshipping in the open

air , on bare hill tops , in irregular circles of unhewn stone , and they commenced to build covered temples . They had been in the habit of worshipping the sun and fire , as representatives of the omnipresent Deity , and he persuaded them to preserve

the sacred fire in covered fire-towers ( " Hyde de Eel . vet . Pers . " c . 8 , et passim ) , AA'hich AA'ere circular buildings—in other words round toAvers—Avith a dome , ancl a small orifice at the top to let out the smoke . The fire was figurative of the sun ,

and the round toAver represented the universe . NOAV , I cannot say for certain that these are the veritable round towers of Ireland , as I have not had the good fortune to examine any of them so as to see whether they agree with the description given

by Hyde of the Persian buildings . I can only say that Dr . Borlase has traced a surprising uniformity in the temples , priests , doctrines , and Avorship of the Persian Magi and the British Druids . " This conformity ( says Faber ) . is so striking ancl extraordinary , that Pellontier , in his history of the