Freemasonry And Its Institutes.—Iii.

this mighty hunter , whose game was man , founded the first empire . After his death , his son Ninus , the first king of the Assyrians and founder of Nineveh , instituted sacred rites in his honour ; lie caused a statue to be made of Belus , or Nimrod , to ivhich ho ordained that the people should pay the same honour as if he were living , and made it a sanctuary for ill doersso that if at any time au offender should fly to

, this statue , it should not be lawful to force him from thence to punishment . This privilege procured so great a veneraration for the dead king , that he was created a god under the name of Orion . Several causes may be assigned for the origin of idolatry : first , the . extreme folly and vainglory of men ; for when anyone excelled exceedingly in height , or was

noted for his surpassing wit or intelligence , he first gained the greatest admiration and respect ofthe ignorant crowd , till at length thoy enrolled him in the number of the gods . Second ; flattery—for to gratify the pride and vanity of their kings , " whom they could not lion our in presence because they dwelt far oflj they took the counterfeit of his visage from far , and made an express image of a king ivhom they honoured , to tho end that by this , their foi-Avarclness , they might flatter him that was absent as if he Avere present . "

( Wisdom xiv . 17 ) . Third ; the desire of perpetuating the memory of men who had rendered themselves illustrious by their acts , either private or public , and in this manner to excite in others a desire to imitate their example . Fourth ; the desire of poiver and aggrandisement among their kings , who , by forming a state religion , thus kept their subjects

separate from the neighbouring states , and , by working them into a religious frenzy , urged them to fresh conquests . The history ofthe world continually shows the influence of religion on the minds and manners of men ; on social circumstances and national character . "Temples , " says Dr . Turnbull , ( Ghrist . Philos . ) , "have their sacred imagesand we see

, what influence they have always had on the greater part of mankind ; but in truth the ideas and images in men ' s minds are the invisible powers that constantly govern them , and to these they all pay a ready submission . " The religion of the Greeks was favourable to the active and cogitative powers of man ; Jupiter was always ready to

assist and support the supreme poiver when properly attained aud administered ; Minerva was the constant guardian of valour directed by prudence and aided by skill ; Mars gave victory to daring courage ; Ceres assisted and rewarded tlie labours of tlie

field" Prima Ceres unco glebam dimovit aratro ; Prima dedit fruges , afimciitaque mitia terris ;" Mercury , the " facunde nepos Atalantis , " presided over eloquence and the fine arts ; whilst Apollo inspired the poet and urged the bards to rivalry . Thus every useful and laudable pursuit had its deity , and the rewards held up to merit tended to stimulate valour and animate the exertions

of talent and genius . In the Bible , the word which our translation renders "idols , " means literall y "things of nought . " The Israelites , when thev caused Aaron in the Avilderness , after leaving Egypt , ( where their long sojourn had familiarized their minds to the idea of idol worship ) , to make a golden calfdid not worship it as an image per se

, , but as a visible emblem of the true God ; again , when in after times the kings of Israel set up the same representation of thc true God at Dan and Bethel , the scripture constantl y speaks of it as the leading sin from which all the rest of the idolatries , and at last their utter destruction proceeded ; for , says Archbishop Seeker , from worshipping the true God by

an imago , they soon came to worship the images of false gods too , and from thence fell into all sorts of superstition and all sorts of wickedness . The sun extending his beneficial influence over all nature , Avas amongst the earliest objects of Avorshi p . The fire presented a symbol of the ; sun , and the other celestial bodies naturally attracted their share of Veneration . Animals symbolical of tho attributes of thc deit y became gods themselves ; tho same god represented by

different animals was thought to have changed himself into different forms . We shall find that wherever the propensity in the human mind to acknowledge and adore some superior poiver is employed iu contemplating the order and beneficence that really exists in nature , the spirit of superstition is mild ; but wherever imaginary beings , created by the

fancy and fears of men , are supposed to preside in nature and become thc objects of worship , superstition ahvays assumes a more severe and atrocious form . Superstition then , of one kind or another , is natural to the human mind till its clouds are dispelled by the lig ht of reason and pliilosophy , but it assumes very different appearances from the

diversity of climate and scenery . " The Mediterranean , " says Chateaubriand ( Travels ! . 65 ) , "placed in the midst of the civilized world , studded with smiling islands , and washing shores planted with the niyrtle , the palm , and the olive , instantly reminds the spectator of that sea which gave birth to Apollothe Nereidsand Venus ; whereas the

oceande-, , , formed by tempests and surrounded by unknown regions , was well calculated to be the cradle of the p hantoms of Scandinavia . " A great portion of the knowledge and attainments of the ancients , and consequently those of the moderns , is to bo traced to Egypt . That Egypt was one of the first countries settled after the floodwe gather from its being sometimes

, called " The land of Ham , " ( Ps . Ixxviii . 51 ) , and from its retaining in its native dialect a name derived from Ham ' s son , Misraim . In the words of the father of history , Herodotus , ( ii . 35 ) , " I must dwell longer upon Egypt , because it contains more that is remarkable , and more objects worthy of attention , than any other country . " Painting , statuary ,

architecture , . geometry , the art of medicine and statistics arose here . Tlie Egyptians instructed the Greeks , for Avliich purpose Ave find that Orpheus , Musa 3 us , Melampus , Daadalus , Homer , Lyeurgus the Spartan , Solon , Plato , Pythagoras , Democritus and others , visited it ; the Greeks performed the same office to the Romans , and the two latter have

transmitted to the world much of that knowledge of which we are in the present day possessed . " The first and original mysteries , " says AA arburton , " were those of Isis and Osiris in Egypt , whence they are derived by the Greeks . The nature and end of these were all the same , to teach the doctrine of a future state . " The word " mystery , " has been

traced ( vide Braude ' s Encyclopedia ) to tho Hebrew verb "to hide , " whence "Mysfcar , " a thing concealed , formed from ivhich are the Greek / . ivcnipiov , old French , mestier , English , mystery , and old English , mistctr , a trade or craft , the learning of which was something occult and mysterious . Toland ( Hist . Druid . ) defines " mystery " to be a thing intelligible in itself , but which could not be known without special revelation . The word signifies a secret , a mystery being a thing kept secret and hid from our understanding till it be

revealed to us , thus " we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery , even tbe hidden wisdom" ( 1 Cor . ii . 7 . ) Mysteries are said to be of two sorts : one sort such as would never have . been knoivn without revelation ; but when revealed may bo in a good measure explained and understood . Such is the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead , of the

forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ ' s sufferings , and of eternal life in a future world . The other sort of mysteries are those which , when revealed to us , we know the existence , or reality and certainty of them , but cannot comprehend the manner and mode how they are . These are the mystery of the blessed Trinity and the mystery of the incarnation of

Christ . The calling of the Gentiles , which was hid and kept secret for many ages , is called a mystery ; " according to the revelation of the mystery ivhich was kept secret since the world began , but now is made manifest , and by the scriptures of tho prophets , according to the commandment of the everlasting God , made knoivn to all nations for tlie obedience of faith , " ( Rom . xvi . 25 , 2 G . ) The gospel is called "The mystery of godliness , " ( 1 Tim . iii . 16 . ) ( Vide Crudon ' s GoncordanceS And Warburtoii ' s definition of the mysteries