ascribing all things to physical causes; life and intellect they
distinguish from physical being, both in man and in the Universe. They
place intellect and reason first as self-existent, and from these they
derive the created world. As Parent of generated things they constitute
a Demiurge, and acknowledge a vital force both in the Heavens and before
the Heavens. They place Pure Intellect above and beyond the Universe,
and another (that is, Mind revealed in the Material World), consisting
of one continuous mind pervading the Universe, and apportioned to all
its parts and spheres." The Egyptian idea, then, was that of all
transcendental philosophy--that of a Deity both immanent and
transcendent--spirit passing into its manifestations, but not exhausted
by so doing.
The wisdom recorded in the canonical rolls of Hermes quickly attained in
this transcendental lore, all that human curiosity can ever discover.
Thebes especially is said to have acknowledged a being without beginning
or end, called Amun or Amun-Kneph, the all-prevading Spirit or Breath of
Nature, or perhaps even some still more lofty object of reverential
reflection, whom it was forbidden even to name. Such a being would in
theory stand at the head of the three orders of Gods mentioned by
Herodotus, these being regarded as arbitrary classifications of similar
or equal beings, arranged in successive emanations, according to an
estimate of their comparative dignity. The Eight Great Gods, or primary
class, were probably manifestations of the emanated God in the several
parts and powers of the Universe, each potentially comprising the whole
Godhead.
In the ancient Hermetic books, as quoted by Iamblichus, occurred the
following passage in regard to the Supreme Being:
"Before all the things that actually exist, and before all beginnings,
there is one God, prior even to the first God and King, remaining
unmoved in the singleness of his own Unity: for neither is anything
conceived by intellect inwoven with him, nor anything else; but he is
established as the exemplar of the God who is good, who is his own
father, self-begotten, and has only Parent. For he is something greater
and prior to, and the fountain of all things, and the foundation of
things conceived by the intellect, which are the first species. And from
this ONE, the self-originated God caused himself to shine forth; for
which reason he is his own father, and self-originated. For he is both a
beginning and God of Gods, a Monad from the One, prior to substance and
the beginning of substance; for from him is substantiality and
substance, whence also he is called the beginning of things conceived by
the intellect. These then are the most ancient beginnings of all things,
which Hermes places before the ethereal and empyrean and celestial
Gods."
"CHANG-TI, or the Supreme Lord or Being," said the old Chinese creed,
"is the principle of everything that exists, and Father of all living.
He is eternal, immovable, and independent: His power knows no bounds:
His sight equally comprehends the Past, the Present, and the Future, and
penetrates even to the inmost recesses of the heart. Heaven and earth
are under his government: all events, all revolutions, are the
consequences of his dispensation and will. He is pure, holy, and
impartial; wickedness offends his sight; but he beholds with an eye of
complacency the virtuous actions of men. Severe, yet just, he punishes
vice in an exemplary manner, even in Princes and Rulers; and often casts
down the guilty, to crown with honor the man who walks after his own
heart, and whom he raises from obscurity. Good, merciful, and full of
pity, he forgives the wicked upon their repentance: and public
calamities and the irregularity of the seasons are but salutary
warnings, which his fatherly goodness gives to men, to induce them to
reform and amend."
Controlled by reason infinitely more than by the imagination, that
people, occupying the extreme East of Asia, did not fall into idolatry
until after the time of Confucius, and within two centuries of the birth
of Christ; when the religion of BUDDHA or FO was carried thither from
India. Their system was long regulated by the pure worship of God, and
the foundation of their moral and political existence laid in a sound,
upright reason, conformable to true ideas of the Deity. They had no
false gods or images, and their third Emperor _Hoam-ti_ erected a
Temple, the first probably ever erected, to the Great Architect of the
Universe. And though they offered sacrifices to divers tutelary angels,
yet they honored them infinitely less than XAM-TI or CHANG-TI, the
Sovereign Lord of the World.
Confucius forbade making images or representations of the Deity. He
attached no idea of personality to Him; but considered Him as a Power or
Principle, pervading all Nature. And the Chinese designated the Divinity
by the name of THE DIVINE REASON.
The Japanese believe in a Supreme Invisible Being, not to be represented
by images or worshipped in Temples. They styled him AMIDA or OMITH; and
say that he is without beginning or end; that he came on earth, where he
remained a thousand years, and became the Redeemer of our fallen race:
that he is to judge all men; and the good are to live forever, while the
bad are to be condemned to Hell.
"The Chang-ti is represented," said Confucius, "under the general emblem
of the visible firmament, as well as under the particular symbols of the
Sun, the Moon, and the Earth, because by their means we enjoy the gifts
of the Chang-ti. The Sun is the source of life and light: the Moon
illuminates the world by night. By observing the course of these
luminaries, mankind are enabled to distinguish times and seasons. The
Ancients, with the view of connecting the act with its object, when they
established the practice of sacrificing to the Chang-ti, fixed the day
of the Winter Solstice, because the Sun, after having passed through the
twelve places assigned apparently by the Chang-ti as its annual
residence, began its career anew, to distribute blessings throughout the
Earth."
He said: "The TEEN is the universal principle and prolific source of all
things.... The Chang-ti is the universal principle of existence."
The Arabians never possessed a poetical, high-wrought, and
scientifically arranged system of Polytheism. Their historical
traditions had much analogy with those of the Hebrews, and coincided
with them in a variety of points. The tradition of a purer faith and the
simple Patriarchal worship of the Deity appear never to have been
totally extinguished among them; nor did idolatry gain much foothold
until near the time of Mahomet; who, adopting the old primeval faith,
taught again the doctrine of one God, adding to it that he was His
Prophet.
To the mass of Hebrews, as well as to other nations, seem to have come
fragments only of the primitive revelation: nor do they seem, until
after their captivity among the Persians, to have concerned themselves
about metaphysical speculations in regard to the Divine Nature and
essence; although it is evident, from the Psalms of David, that a select
body among them preserved a knowledge, in regard to the Deity, which was
wholly unknown to the mass of the people; and those chosen few were made
the medium of transition for certain truths, to later ages.
Among the Greeks, the scholars of the Egyptians, all the higher ideas
and severer doctrines on the Divinity, his Sovereign Nature and Infinite
Might, the Eternal Wisdom and Providence that conducts and directs all
things to their proper end, the Infinite Mind and Supreme Intelligence
that created all things, and is raised far above external nature,--all
these loftier ideas and nobler doctrines were expounded more or less
perfectly by Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, and Socrates, and developed in the
most beautiful and luminous manner by Plato, and the philosophers that
succeeded him. And even in the popular religion of the Greeks are many
things capable of a deeper import and more spiritual signification;
though they seem only rare vestiges of ancient truth, vague
presentiments, fugitive tones, and momentary flashes, revealing a belief
in a Supreme Being, Almighty Creator of the Universe, and Common Father
of Mankind.
Much of the primitive Truth was taught to Pythagoras by Zoroaster, who
himself received it from the Indians. His disciples rejected the use of
Temples, of Altars, and of Statues; and smiled at the folly of those
nations who imagined that the Deity sprang from or had any affinity with
human nature. The tops of the highest mountains were the places chosen
for sacrifices. Hymns and prayers were their principal worship. The
Supreme God, who fills the wide circle of Heaven, was the object to Whom
they were addressed. Such is the testimony of Herodotus. Light they
considered not so much as an object of worship, as rather the most pure
and lively emblem of, and first emanation from, the Eternal God; and
thought that man required something visible or tangible to exalt his
mind to that degree of adoration which is due to the Divine Being.
There was a surprising similarity between the Temples, Priests,
doctrines, and worship of the Persian Magi and the British Druids. The
latter did not worship idols in the human shape, because they held that
the Divinity, being invisible, ought to be adored without being seen.
They asserted the Unity of the Godhead. Their invocations were made to
the One All-preserving Power; and they argued that, as this power was
not matter, it must necessarily be the Deity; and the secret symbol used
to express his name was O.I.W. They believed that the earth had
sustained one general destruction by water; and would again be destroyed
by fire. They admitted the doctrines of the immortality of the soul, a
future state, and a day of judgment, which would be conducted on the
principle of man's responsibility. They even retained some idea of the
redemption of mankind through the death of a Mediator. They retained a
tradition of the Deluge, perverted and localized. But, around these
fragments of primitive truth they wove a web of idolatry, worshipped two
Subordinate Deities under the names of HU and CERIDWEN, male and female
(doubtless the same as Osiris and Isis), and held the doctrine of
transmigration.
The early inhabitants of Scandinavia believed in a God who was "the
Author of everything that existeth; the Eternal, the Ancient, the Living
and Awful Being, the Searcher into concealed things, the Being that
never changeth." Idols and visible representations of the Deity were
originally forbidden, and He was directed to be worshipped in the lonely
solitude of sequestered forests, where He was said to dwell, invisible,
and in perfect silence.
The Druids, like their Eastern ancestors, paid the most sacred regard to
the odd numbers, which, traced backward, ended in Unity or Deity, while
the even numbers ended in nothing. 3 was particularly reverenced.
19(7+3+3²): 30 (7x3+3x3): and 21 (7x3) were numbers observed in the
erection of their temples, constantly appearing in their dimensions, and
the number and distances of the huge stones.
They were the sole interpreters of religion. They superintended all
sacrifices; for no private person could offer one without their
permission. They exercised the power of excommunication; and without
their concurrence war could not be declared nor peace made: and they
even had the power of inflicting the punishment of death. They professed
to possess a knowledge of magic, and practised augury for the public
service.
They cultivated many of the liberal sciences, and particularly
astronomy, the favorite science of the Orient; in which they attained
considerable proficiency. They considered day as the offspring of night,
and therefore made their computations by nights instead of days; and we,
from them, still use the words fortnight and sen'night. They knew the
division of the heavens into constellations; and finally, they practised
the strictest morality, having particularly the most sacred regard for
that peculiarly Masonic virtue, Truth.
In the Icelandic Prose Edda is the following dialogue:
"Who is the first or eldest of the Gods?
"In our language he is called ALFADIR (All-Father, or the Father of
All); but in the old Asgard he had twelve names.
"Where is this God? What is his power? and what hath he done to display
his glory?
"He liveth from all ages, he governeth all realms, and swayeth all
things both great and small.
"He hath formed Heaven and earth, and the air, and all things thereunto
belonging.
"He hath made man and given him a soul which shall live and never
perish, though the body shall have mouldered away or have been burnt to
ashes. And all that are righteous shall dwell with him in the place
called _Gimli_ or _Vingolf_; but the wicked shall go to _Hel_ and thence
to _Niflhel_ which is below, in the ninth world."
Almost every heathen nation, so far as we have any knowledge of their
mythology, believed in one Supreme Overruling God, whose name it was not
lawful to utter.
"When we ascend", says MÜLLER, "to the most distant heights of Greek
history, the idea of God as the Supreme Being stands before us as a
simple fact. Next to this adoration of One God, the Father of Heaven,
the Father of men, we find in Greece a Worship of Nature." The original
Ζεύς was the God or Gods, called by the Greeks the Son of Time, meaning
that there was no God before Him, but He was Eternal. "Zeus," says the
Orphic line, "is the Beginning, Zeus the Middle; out of Zeus all things
have been made". And the Peleides of Dodona said, "Zeus was, Zeus is,
Zeus will be; O great Zeus!" Ζεύς νή, Ζεύς έστίν, Ζεύς ἐσσεται ώ μεγάλη
Ζεύ: and he was Ζεύς, κύδιστος, μέγιστος, Ζεus, Best and Greatest.
The Parsees, retaining the old religion taught by Zaradisht, say in
their catechism: "We believe in only one God, and do not believe in any
beside Him; Who created the Heavens, the Earth the Angels.... Our God
has neither face nor form, color nor shape, nor fixed place. There is no
other like Him, nor can our mind comprehend Him."
The Tetragrammaton, or _some other word covered by it_, was forbidden to
be pronounced. But that its pronunciation might not be lost among the
Levites, the High-Priest uttered it in the Temple once a year, on the
10th day of the Month Tisri, the day of the great feast of expiation.
During this ceremony, the people were directed to make a great noise,
that the Sacred Word might not be heard by any who had not a right to
it; for every other, said the Jews, would be incontinently stricken
dead.
The Great Egyptian Initiates, before the time of the Jews, did the same
thing in regard to the word Isis; which they regarded as sacred and
incommunicable.
Origen says: "There are names which have a natural potency. Such as
those which the Sages used among the Egyptians, the Magi in Persia, the
Brahmins in India. What is called Magic is not a vain and chimerical
act, as the Stoics and Epicureans pretend. The names SABAOTH and ADONAI
were not made for created beings; but they belong to a mysterious
theology, which goes back to the Creator. From Him comes the virtue of
these names, when they are arranged and pronounced according to the
rules."
The Hindū word AUM represented the three Powers combined in their Deity:
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; or the Creating, Preserving, and Destroying
Powers: A, the first; U or Ŏ-Ŏ, the second; and M, the third. This word
could not be pronounced, except by the letters: for its pronunciation as
one word was said to make Earth tremble, and even the Angels of Heaven
to quake for fear.
The word AUM, says the Ramayan, represents "The Being of Beings, One
Substance in three forms; without mode, without quality, without
passion: Immense, Incomprehensible, Infinite, Indivisible, Immutable,
Incorporeal, Irresistible."
An old passage in the Purana says: "All the rites ordained in the Vedas,
the sacrifices to the fire, and all other solemn purifications, shall
pass away; but that which shall never pass away is the word A-Ŏ-Ŏ-M
for it is the symbol of the Lord of all things."
Herodotus says that the Ancient Pelasgi built no temples and worshipped
no idols, and had a sacred name of Deity, which it was not permissible
to pronounce.
The Clarian Oracle, which was of unknown antiquity, being asked which of
the Deities was named IAΩ, answered in these remarkable words: "The
Initiated are bound to conceal the mysterious secrets. Learn, then, that
IAΩ is the Great God Supreme, that ruleth over all."
The Jews consider the True Name of God to be irrecoverably lost by
disuse, and regard its pronunciation as one of the Mysteries that will
be revealed at the coming of their Messiah. And they attribute its loss
to the illegality of applying the Masoretic points to so sacred a Name,
by which a knowledge of the proper vowels is forgotten. It is even said,
in the Gemara of Abodah Zara, that God permitted a celebrated Hebrew
Scholar to be burned by a Roman Emperor, because he had been heard to
pronounce the Sacred Name with points.
The Jews feared that the Heathen would get possession of the Name: and
therefore, in their copies of the Scriptures, they wrote it in the
Samaritan character, instead of the Hebrew or Chaldaic, that the
adversary might not make an improper use of it: for they believed it
capable of working miracles; and held that the wonders in Egypt were
performed by Moses, in virtue of this name being engraved on his rod:
and that any person who knew the true pronunciation would be able to do
as much as he did.
Josephus says it was unknown until God communicated it to Moses in the
wilderness: and that it was lost through the wickedness of man.
The followers of Mahomet have a tradition that there is a secret name of
the Deity which possesses wonderful properties; and that the only method
of becoming acquainted with it, is by being initiated into the Mysteries
of the _Ism Abla_.
H O M was the first framer of the new religion among the Persians, and
His Name was Ineffable.
AMUN, among the Egyptians, was a name pronounceable by none save the
Priests.
The old Germans adored God with profund reverence, without daring to
name Him, or to worship Him in Temples. The Druids expressed the name
of Deity by the letters O-I-W.
Among all the nations of primitive antiquity, the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul was not a mere probable hypothesis, needing
laborious researches and diffuse argumentation to produce conviction of
its truth. Nor can we hardly give it the name of _Faith_; for it was a
lively _certainty_, like the feeling of one's own existence and
identity, and of what is actually present; exerting its influence on all
sublunary affairs, and the motive of mightier deeds and enterprises than
any mere earthly interest could inspire.
Even the doctrine of transmigration of souls, universal among the
Ancient Hindūs and Egyptians, rested on a basis of the old primitive
religion, and was connected with a sentiment purely religious. It
involved this noble element of truth: That since man had gone astray,
and wandered far from God, he must needs make many efforts, and undergo
a long and painful pilgrimage, before he could rejoin the Source of all
Perfection: and the firm conviction and positive certainty, that nothing
defective, impure, or defiled with earthy stains, could enter the pure
region of perfect spirits, or be eternally united to God; wherefore the
soul had to pass through long trials and many purifications before it
could attain that blissful end. And the end and aim of all these systems
of philosophy was the final deliverance of the soul from the old
calamity, the dreaded fate and frightful lot of being compelled to
wander through the dark regions of nature and the various forms of the
brute creation, ever changing its terrestrial shape, and its union with
God, which they held to be the lofty destiny of the wise and virtuous
soul.
Pythagoras gave to the doctrine of the transmigration of souls that
meaning which the wise Egyptians gave to it in their Mysteries: He never
taught the doctrine in that literal sense in which it was understood by
the people. Of that literal doctrine not the least vestige is to be
found in such of his symbols as remain, nor in his precepts collected by
his disciple Lysias. He held that men always remain, in their essence,
such as they were created; and can degrade themselves only by vice, and
ennoble themselves only by virtue.
Hierocles, one of his most zealous and celebrated disciples, expressly
says that he who believes that the soul of man, after his death, will
enter the body of a beast, for his vices, or become a plant for his
stupidity, is deceived; and is absolutely ignorant of the eternal form
of the soul, which can never change; for, always remaining man, it is
said to become God or beast, through virtue or vice, though it can
become neither one nor the other by nature, but solely by resemblance of
its inclinations to theirs.
And Timæus of Locria, another disciple, says that to alarm men and
prevent them from committing crimes, they menaced them with strange
humiliations and punishments; even declaring that their souls would pass
into new bodies,--that of a coward into the body of a deer; that of a
ravisher into the body of a wolf; that of a murderer into the body of
some still more ferocious animal; and that of an impure sensualist into
the body of a hog.
So, too, the doctrine is explained in the Phædo. And Lysias says, that
after the soul, purified of its crimes, has left the body and returned
to Heaven, it is no longer subject to change or death, but enjoys an
eternal felicity. According to the Indians, it returned to, and became a
part of, the universal soul which animates everything.
The Hindūs held that Buddha descended on earth to raise all human beings
up to the perfect state. He will ultimately succeed, and all, himself
included, be merged in Unity.
Vishnu is to judge the world at the last day. It is to be consumed by
fire: The Sun and Moon are to lose their light; the Stars to fall; and a
New Heaven and Earth to be created.
The legend of the fall of the Spirits, obscured and distorted, is
preserved in the Hindū Mythology. And their traditions acknowledged, and
they revered, the succession of the first ancestors of mankind, or the
Holy Patriarchs of the primitive world, under the name of the Seven
Great RISHIS, or Sages of hoary antiquity; though they invested their
history with a cloud of fictions.
The Egyptians held that the soul was immortal; and that Osiris was to
judge the world.
And thus reads the Persian legend:
"After Ahriman shall have ruled the world until the end of time,
SOSIOSCH, the promised Redeemer, will come and annihilate the power of
the DEVS (or Evil Spirits), awaken the dead, and sit in final judgment
upon spirits and men. After that the comet _Gurzsher_ will be thrown
down, and a general conflagration take place, which will consume the
whole world. The remains of the earth will then sink down into
_Duzakh_, and become for three periods a place of punishment for the
wicked. Then, by degrees all will be pardoned, even _Ahriman_ and the
_Devs_, and admitted to the regions of bliss, and thus there will be a
new Heaven and a new earth."
In the doctrines of Lamaism also, we find, obscured, and partly
concealed in fiction, fragments of the primitive truth. For according to
that faith, "There is to be a final judgment before ESLIK KHAN: The good
are to be admitted to Paradise, the bad to be banished to hell, where
there are eight regions burning hot and eight freezing cold."
In the Mysteries, wherever they were practised, was taught that truth of
the primitive revelation, the existence of One Great Being, Infinite and
pervading the Universe, Who was there worshipped without superstition;
and His marvellous nature, essence, and attributes taught to the
Initiates; while the vulgar attributed His works to Secondary Gods,
personified, and isolated from Him in fabulous independence.