The disciples of Pythagoras were divided
into two classes; the first were simple hearers, and the
last such as were allowed to propose their difficulties, and learn
the reasons of all that was taught. The figurative manner in which
he gave instructions was borrowed from the Hebrews, Egyptians,
and other orientals.
If we examine how morality, or moral philosophy, is defined, we shall find that it is a conformity to those unalterable obligations which result from the nature of our existence, and the necessary relations of life; whether to God as our Creator, or to man as our fellow-creature; or it is the doctrine of virtue in order to attain the greatest happiness.
Pythagoras shewed the way to Socrates, though
his examples were very imperfect, as be deduced
his rules of morality from observations of nature; a degree of
knowledge which he had acquired in his communion with the priests
of Egypt. The chief aim of Pythagoras' moral doctrine was to purge
the mind from the impurities of the body and from the clouds of
the imagination. His
morality seems to have had more purity and piety in it than the
other systems, but less exactness; his maxims being only a bare
explication of divine worship, of natural honesty, of modesty,
integrity, public spiritedness, and other ordinary duties of life.
Socrates improved the lessons of Pythagoras, and reduced his maxims
into fixed or certain principles. Plato refined the doctrine of
both these philosophers, and carried each virtue to its utmost
height and accomplishment, mixing the idea of the universal principle
of philosophy through the whole design.
The ancient Masonic record also says, that
Masons knew the way of gaining an understanding
of Abrac. On this word all commentators (which I have yet read)
on the subject of Masonry have confessed themselves at a loss.
Abrac, or Abracar, was a name which Basilides, a religious of
the second century, gave to God, who he said was the author of
three hundred and sixty-five.
The author of this superstition is said
to have lived in the time of Adrian, and that it had its
name after Abrasan, or Abraxas, the denomination which Basilides
gave to the Deity. He called him the Supreme God, and ascribed
to him seven subordinate powers or angels, who presided over the
heavens: and also, according to the number of days in the year,
he held that three hundred and sixty-five virtues, powers, or
intelligences, existed as the emanations of God:* the value, or
numerical distinctions, of the letters in the word, according
to the ancient Greek numerals, make three hundred and sixty-five
-
A B P A X A S
1 2 100 1 60 1 200=365.**
(* The heathen idols were constructed. or
perhaps consecrated with astronomical observances, if we may believe
Bishop Synnesius. He says, "The hierophants who bad been
initiated into the mysteries, do not permit the common workmen
to form idols or images of the gods; but they descend themselves
into the sacred caves, where they have concealed coffers containing
certain
spheres, upon which they construct those images secretly, and
without the knowledge of the people, who despise simple and natural
things, and wish for prodigies and fables." -EDITOR.)
(** The solar deity of the Druids, worshipped under the name of Belenus, produces the same result, to represent the time occupied by the annual course of the sun. For this purpose it m thus-
B H ? E N O S
2 8 30 5 50 70 200=365. -EDITOR.)
With antiquaries, Abraxas is an antique gem or stone, with the word abraxas engraven on it. There are a great many kinds of them of various figures and sizes, mostly as old as the third century. Persons professing the religious principles of Basilides, wore this gem with great veneration, as an amulet; from whose virtues, and the protection of the deity to whom it was consecrated, and with whose name it was inscribed, the wearer presumed he. derived health, prosperity, and safety.
In the British Museum is a beryl stone,
of the form egg. The head is in cameo, the reverse in
tagho. The head is supposed to represent the image of the Creator,
under the denomination of Jupiter Ammon.* The sun and moon on
the reverse, the Osiris and Isis** of the Egyptians; and re used
hieroglyphically to represent the omnipotence, omnipresence, and
eternity of God. The star *** seems to be used as a point only,
but is an emblem of Prudence, the third emanation of the Basilidian
divine person. The scorpion, **** in hieroglyphics, represented
malice and wicked subtlety, and the serpent,***** an heretic;******
the implication whereof seems to be, that heresy, the subtleties
and vices of infidels, and the devotees of Satan, were subdued
by the knowledge of the true God. The inscription I own myself
at a loss to decypher; the characters are imperfect, or ill-copied.*******
(* Jupiter Ammon, a name given to the Supreme
Deity, and who was worshipped under the symbol of the Sun. He
was painted with horns, because with the astronomers the sign
in the zodiac is the heginning of the year: when the sun enters
into the house of Aries, he commences his annual course. Heat,
in the Hebrew tongue Hammah, in the prophet Isaiah Hammamin, is
given as a name of such images. The error of depicting him with
horns grew from the doubtful signification of the Hebrew word,
which at once expresses heat, splendor, brightness, and also horns.
"The Sun was also worshipped by the House of Judah, under
the name of Tamuz; for Tamus, saith Hierom, was Adonis, and Adonis
is generally interpreted the Sun, from the Hebrew word Adon, signifying
do minus, them as Bual or Moloch formerly did, the lord or prince
of the
planets. The month which we call June was by the Hebrews called
Tamuz; and the entrance of the sun into the sign Cancer was in
the Jews' astronomy termed Tekupha Tamuz, the revolution of Tamuz.
About the time of our Savior, the Jews held it unlawful to pronounce
that essential name of God Jehovah, and instead thereof read Adonsi,
to prevent the heathen blaspheming that holy name, by the adoption
of the name of Jove, &c., to the idols. Concerning Adonis,
whom some ancient authors call Osiris, there are two things remarkable,
afa??sµ??, the death or loss of Adonis, and e??es??, the
finding him again: as there was great lamentation at his loss,
so was there great joy at his finding. By the death or loss of
Adonis, we are to understand the departure of the Sun; by his
finding again, the return of that luminary. Now he seemeth to
depart twice in the year; first when he is in the tropic of Cancer,
in the farthest degree northward; and, secondly, when he is in
the topic of Capricorn, in the farthest degree southward. Hence
we my note, that the Egyptians celebrated their Adonia in the
month of November, when the sun began to be farthest south ward,
the house of Judah theirs in the month of June, when the sun was
farthest northward; yet both were for the same reasons. Some authors
say, that this lamentation was performed over an image in the
night season; and when they had sufficiently, a candle was brought
into the room, which ceremony might mystically denote the return
of the sun; then
the priest, with a soft voice, muttered this form of words, 'Trust
ye in God, for out of pains salvation is come unto us.'"
(Godwyn's Moses and Aaron, p.149.))
(** The Marquis Spineto, in his Lectures on Hieroglyphics, (iv.139,) is equally plain and express. "The circumstances," say he, "recorded in the lives of Isis and Osiris, and the ceremonies which accompanied the mysteries, had an analogy to events, the memory of which they were originally intended to perpetuate. These were, the creation of the world; the fall of man; destruction of mankind by the flood; the preservation of Noah and his family; the unity of God, and the promise he made to that patriarch, and consequently the necessity of abjuring the worship of idols, which properly constituted the end of the mysteries, and obtained for them the name of Regeneration; and for the proud appellation of the regenerated." -ED.)
(*** " Our next inquiry is, what idol was meant by Chiun and Remphan, otherwise, in ancient copies, called Repham. By Chiun we are to understand Herculeb, who, in the Egyptian language, was called Chon. By Repham, we are to understand the same Hercules; for Rephaim, in holy tongue, signifieth giant. By Hercules, we may understand the planet of the sun. There are etymologists tbat derive Hercules' name from the Hebrew Hiercol, tilaminavit omnia: the Greek etymology ??????e??, aeris gloria, holds correspondence with the Hebrew, and both signify that universal light which floweth from the sun, as water from a fountain. Porphyry interpreteth Hercules' twelve labors, so often mentioned by the poets, to be nothing else but the twelve signs of the zodiac, through which the sun passes yearly. But some may question whether the name of Hercules was ever known to the Jews? It is probable it was; for Hercules was a god of the Tyrians, from whom the Jews learned much idolatry, as being their near neighbors. It is apparent, that in the time of the Maccabees the name was commonly known unto them; for Jason the high priest sent three hundred drachmas of silver to the sacrifice of Hercules, (2 Mac. iv. l9.)
The Star of Remphan is thought to be the star which was painted in the forehead of Moloch; neither was it unusual for the heathen to paint their idols with such symbolica additamenta." (Godwin's Moses and Aaron, p. 148.) The Egyptian Apis was to bear such a mark.
(**** I own myself doubtful of the implication
of these hieroglyphics. I am inclined to believe the whole of
them implied the tenets of the Egyptian philosophy; that the scorpion
represents
Egypt, being her ruling sign in the zodiac; and that the serpent
represents a religious tenet. The learned Mr. Bryant proves to
us, that it was adopted among the ancients, as the most sacred
and salutary symbol, and rendered a chief object of adoration;
insomuch, that the worship of the serpent prevailed so, that many
places as well as people received their names from thence.)
(***** In the coins of Constantine we find the labarium, or banner of the cross, surmounted by the sacred monogram, erected on the body of a prostrate serpent. A striking emblem of Christianity triumphant over the ophite idolatry, and a proof that serpent worship was prevalent at that period. -EDITOR.)
(******The corruptions flowing from the Egyptian philosophy, when adapted to Christianity, were these -they held that the God of the Jews was the Demiurgus; that to overthrow and subvert the power and dominion of this Demiurgus, Jesus, one of the celestial Æons, was sent by the Supreme Being to enter into the body of the man Christ, in the shape of a dove: that Christ, by his miracles and sufferings, subverted the kingdom of the Demiurgns; but when he came to suffer, the Æon Jesus carried along with him the soul of Christ, and left behind upon the cross only his body and animal spirit: that the serpent who deceived Eve ought to be honored for endeavoring to rescue men from their slavery to the Demiurgus." (Key to the New testament, p.29.))
(******* I have obtained two constructions of the inscriptions on the Abrax. The one is, "the earth shall praise thee, 1305," purporting the date of the sculpture. This date can have no relation to the Christian era; Basilides existed in the earliest age of Christianity, and the insignia with which the gem is engraven have relation, most evidently, to the Egyptian philosophy; which renders it probable this antique owes its creation to very remote ages. The other construction, without noticing the numeral, is, " Terra declarat laudem magnificientiamque tuam." Both these gentlemen say the characters are very rude and imperfect. As to the numerals, computing the date from the deluge, it will relate to that remarkable era of David's conquest of Jerusalem, and settling the empire and royal seat there. The descendants of Ham would probably take their date from the departure of Noah's sons from the ark.)
The Moon, with divines, is an hieroglyphic of the Christian Church, who compared Jesus Christ to the Sun, and the church to the Moon,* as receiving all its beauty and splendor from him.
(* In the Jewish economy the moon was compared to the kingdom of David; and, according to the Rabbins, infers that in the same manner as the moon increases for 15 days, and then decreases for 15, so was Israel enlightened in an increasing manner for 15 generations, reckoning from Abraham to Solomon, in whose reign this light was at the full; and from him, like the moon, it waned for 15 generations, to Zedekiah, with whom the lamp of Israel may be said to have been extinguished. - EDITOR.)
In church history, Abrax is noted as a mystical
term, expressing the Supreme God; under whom
the Basilideans supposed three hundred and sixty-five dependent
deities: * it was the principle of the gnostic hierarchy; whence
sprang their multitudes of Thaeons, From Abraxas proceeded their
primogaenial mind; from the primogaenal mind, the logos or word;
from the logos, the phronaesis, or prudence; from phronmsis, sophia,
and dynamis, or wisdom and strength; from these two proceeded
principalities, powers, and angels; and from these, other angels,
of the number of three hundred and sixty-five, who were supposed
to have the government of so many celestial orbs committed to
their care. The Gnostics ** were a sect of Christians having particular
tenets of faith; they assumed their name to express that new knowledge
and extraordinary light to which they made pretensions; the word
gnostic implying an enlightened person.
(* The Egyptian Hercules has the credit of having first found out the exact number of days in which the earth performs her annual revolution; and accordingly added 5 days to the 360, which former calendars erroneously contained. For this service his countrymen erected statues to his honor, under the appellation of Hercules Salvator. -EDITOR.
(** Of the Gnostics who were converted to Christianity, the most dangerous and pernicious kind were those who were infected with the Egyptian philosophy a system, as it was then taught, entirely chimerical and absurd. The Christians of this sort assumed to themselves the name of Gnostics a word of Greek extraction. implying in it a knowledge of things much superior to that of other men. This word doth not occur in the New Testament; but the Nicolaitans, made mention of in the apocalypse of St. John, seem to have been of the gnostic sect; the most of the errors maintained by Cerinthus, and opposed in the gospel of St. John, may be derived from the same source. When we say the gentile converts were chiefly liable to the Gnostic infection, we must not be understood to exclude those of the Jewish race, many of whom were tainted with it, but they seem to have derived it from the Essenes. The maintainers of the Egyptian philosophy held, that the Supreme Being, though infinitely perfect and happy, was not the creator of the universe, nor only Independent Being; for, according to them, matter too was eternal. The Supreme Being, who resides in the immensity of space, which they call Pleroma, or fullness, produced from himself, say they, other immortal and spiritual natures, styled by them Æons, who filled the residence of the Deity with beings similar to themselves. Of these beings some were placed in the higher regions, others in the lower. Those in the Lower regions were nighest to the place of matter, which originally was an inert and formless mass, till one of them, without any commission from the Deity, and merely to show his own dexterity, reduced it into form and order, and enlivened some parts of it with animal spirit. The being who achieved all this they called the Demiurgus, the operator, artificer, or workman; but such was the perverseness of matter, that when brought into form, it was the source of all evil. The Supreme Being, therefore, never intended to have given it a form, but as that had been now done, he, in order to prevent mischief as much as possible, added to the animal spirit of many of the enlivened parts, rational powers. The parts, to whom rational powers were thus given, were the original parents of the human race; the other animated parts were the brute creation. Unluckily, however, the interposition of the Supreme Being was in vain; for the Demiurgits grew so aspiring, that he seduced men from their allegiance to the Supreme Being, and diverted all their devotion to himself. (Key to the New Testament, p.28.))
The gnostic heresy, here pointed out, represents to us the degrees of ethereal persons or emanations of the Deity. This leads me to consider the hierarchy of the Christian Church in its greatest antiquity, which, in the most remote times, as a society, consisted of several orders of men, viz., rulers, believers, and catechumens: the rulers were bishops, priests, and deacons; the believers were perfect Christians, and the catechumens imperfect.
Catechumens were candidates for baptism. They were admitted to the state of catechumen by the imposition of hands, and the sign of the cross. Their introduction to baptism was thus singular; some days before their admission, they went veiled; and it was customary to touch their ears, saying, "be opened;" and also to anoint their eyes with clay: both ceremonies being in imitation of our Savior's practice, and intended to shadow out to the candidates their ignorance and blindness before their initiation. They continued in the state of catechumen, until they proved their proficiency in the catechistic exercises, when they were advanced to the second state, as believers.
As the Druids* were a set of religious peculiar to Gaul and Britain, it may not be improper to cast our eyes on the ceremonies they used; their antiquity and peculiar station render it probable some of their rites and institutions might be retained, in forming the ceremonies of our society. In so modern an æra as one thousand one hundred and forty, they were reduced to a regular body of religious in France, and built a college in the city of Orleans. They were heretofore one of the two estates of France, to whom were committed the care of providing sacrifices, of prescribing laws for warship, and deciding controversies concerning rights and properties.
(* Tacacitus says, "Among the Britons there is to be seen, in their ceremonies and superstitious persuasions, an apparent conformity with the Gauls." Both nations had their Druidæ, as both Cæsar and Tacitus evidence; of whom Cæsar thus recordeth: "The Druidæ are present at all divine services; they are the overseers of public and private sacrifices, and the interpretters of religious rites and ceremonies. They are the preceptors of youth, who pay them the highest honor and esteem. They determine all controversies, both public and private. In the case of heinous offences, murder, or manslaughter, they judge of the matter, and give rewards, or decree penalties and punishments. The determine disputes touching inheritance and boundaries of lands. If either private person or body politic obey not their decree, they debar them from religious ceremonies as excommunicate, which is esteemed by this people as a grievous punishment. Whoever are under this interdict are esteemed wicked and impious persons, and are avoided by all men, as fearing contagion from them; they have no benefit of the law, and are incapacitated from holding any public office. Of the Druidæ there is a chief who hath the greatest authority amongst them; at his death the most excellent person amongst them is elected as his successor; but, upon nay contest, the voice of the Druidæ is required; sometimes the contest is determined by arms. They, at a certain season of the year, hold a solemn session within a consecrated place in the Marches of the Carmites (near Chartres, in France); hither resort, as unto the term, from all parts, all persons having controversies or suits at law; and the decree and judgment there delivered are religiously obeyed. Their learning and profession is thought to have been first devised in Britain, and so from thence translated into France; and, in these days, they that desire more competent learning therein go there for instruction. The Druids are free from tributes and service ill war, and like these immunities, they are also exempt from all state impositions. Many, excited by such rewards, resort to them to be instructed. It is reported that they learn by heart many verses. They continue under this discipline for certain years, it being unlawful to commit any of their doctrines to writing. Other matters which they trust to writing is written in the Greek alphabet. This order they have established, I presume, for two reasons; because they would not have their doctrines divulged, nor their pupils, by trusting to their books neglect the exercise of the memory. This one point they are principally anxious to inculcate to their scholars, that man's soul so is immortal, and, after death, that it passeth from one man to another. They presume, by this doctrine, men will contemn the fear of death, and be stedfast in the exercise of virtue. Moreover, concerning the stars and their motions, the greatness of heaven and earth, the nature of things, the power and might of the Eternal Divinity, they give many precepts to their pupils." From Pliny we learn, "The Druidæ" for so they call their diviners, wise men, and priests, "esteem nothing in the world more sacred than misleto, and the tree which produces it, if it be an oak. The priests choose groves of the oak for their divine service; they solemnise no sacrifice, nor celebrate any sacred ceremonies, without the branches and leaves of oak; from whence they may seem to claim the name of Dryadæ in Greek. Whatsoever they find growing to that tree, besides its own proper produce, they esteem it as a gift sent from heaven, and a sure sign that the Deity whom they serve hath chosen that peculiar tree. No wonder that misleto is so revered, for it is scarce and difficult to be found; but, when they do discover it, they gather it very devoutly, and with many ceremonies. To that end they observe that the moon be just six days old, for, on that day, their months and new years commence, and also their several ages, which have their revolutions every thirty years. They call the misleto all-heal, for they have an opinion that it is an universal remedy against all diseases. When they are about to gather it, after they have duly prepared their sacrifices and festivals under the tree, they bring thither two young bullocks, milk-white, whose horns are then, and not before, bound up; this done, the priest, arrayed in a surplice or white vesture, climbeth the tree, and, with a golden bill, cutteth off the misleto, which those beneath receive in a white cloth; they then slay the beasts for sacrifice, pronouncing many orisons and prayers, 'that it would please God to bless these his gifts to their good on whom he had bestowed them."')
In the most distant antiquity in ancient Gaul and Britain, they were elected out of the best families, and were held, both from the honors of their birth and office, in the greatest veneration. Their study was astrology, geometry, natural history, politics, and geography:* they had the administration of all sacred things, were the interpreters of religion, and the judges of all matters indifferently. They had chief or arch-druid in every country. They had the tutorage of youth, and taught them many verses, which they caused them to learn by heart, without the assistance of writing; in which manner they instructed them in the mysteries of their religion, the sciences, and politics.** At the conclusion of each year they held a general festival and assembly, in which they paid their adoration, and offered gifts to the God of Nature, bringing with them misleto and branches of oaks, in mystic verses, supplicating for approaching spring, and renewing the year. At their sacrifices,*** and in their religious offices, they wore white apparel;**** and the victims were two white bulls. They opened a sessions once a year, in a certain consecrated place, in which all causes wore tried and determined. They worshipped one Supreme God, immense and infinite; but would not continue their worship to temple~ built with human hands; professing the universe was the temple of the Deity; esteeming any other inconsistent with his attributes. Their whole law and religion were taught in verse. Some Druids spent twenty years in learning to repeat those sacred and scientific distichs, which it was forbidden to commit to writing, by which means they were withheld from the vulgar. Such was the aversion and enmity entertained by the Romans against the Druids, that, as Suetonius says, their rites were prohibited by Augustus, and totally abolished by Claudius Cæsar.
(* I refer the curious brother to the History
of Initiation, lect. ix., where he will find a full account of
all the ceremonies, discipline, and doctrine, which were used
by the Druids in the
practice of their occult mysteries. - EDITOL)
(** They studied astronomy as a science,
and this led to the practice of judicial astrology, the pronunciation
of oracles, and the prediction of future events. For this purpose
their Spurious
Freemasonry was a tremendous engine in the bands of a learned
and politic priesthood. Hence sprang the pretensions to magical
arts and divinations, for which practices the priests of idolatry
attained great celebrity; and which, notwithstanding all the advantages
derived from education and science in our own times, is far from
being extinguished; as witness the absurdities of
palmistry, phrenology, animal magnetism, idle predictions, and
the interpretation of dreams. -EDITOR.)
(*** I cannot quit the subject of the Druids'
worship without taking notice of the charge made against them
by Solinus and Dio Cassius, "that they offered human victims,
or men's flesh, in their sacrifices." If we examine this
charge with candor we will not impute to them so great an offence
against the God of Nature and Humanity as appears at first sight;
they were judges of all matters, civil and religious; they were
the executors of the law: as being the ministers of God, to them
was committed the administration of justice. I shall admit that
they used human sacrifices, but those sacrifices were criminals
offenders against society, obnoxious to the world for their sins,
and adjudged to be deserving of death for their heinous wickedness.
The great attribute of God, to which they paid the most religious
deference, was justice: to the God of Justice they
offered up those offenders who had sinned against the laws: punishments
by death were of very early date, and such punishments have never
been esteemed a stigma on the states in which they were used.
Such executions, by the Druids, were at once designed as punishments
and examples; the utmost solemnity, and the most hallowed rites,
preceded and prepared this tremendous exhibition, to impress on
the minds of the spectators the deepest religious reverence; and
the utmost horror of the sufferings, and detestation of the crimes
for which they suffered, were endeavored to be instilled into
the hearts of those who were present it at this execution, by
the doctrine of the Druids. The criminals were shut up in an effigy
of wicker work, of a gigantic size, in whose chambers of tribulations
they suffered an ignominious death, by burning. This effigy represented
the Tyrian Hercules, whose name of Remphan, in the Hebrew tongue,
implies a giant. With him came the Phœnicians to this land,
from whom the Amonian rites and Hebrew customs were taught to
the Druids. Under this name, worship was also paid to the God
of Nature, symbolized by the Sun. In honor and commemoration of
him, the criminals were committed to his effigy, as being delivered
to the God of Justice.)
(**** Diodorus, however, informs us that divination was exercised among the Druids in a very cruel manner; for it was their custom to immolate human victims by thrusting a sharp instrument through their body above the diaphragm, and to take presages from his fall, his palpitation, the issuing of the blood, and sometimes of the body. - EDITOR.)
Many probable conjectures have been made
that the Phœnicians* visited this land in very early ages.
It has been attempted to be proved, from the similarity of the
habit worn, and staff carried,
by the western Britons.** This staff was used by the Druids, and
has the name of Diogenes' staff.
In a description, given by Mr. Selden, of some statues of Druids
which were dug up at Wichtel
berg, in Germany, it is particularly mentioned. The Phæicians
most probably introduced to those teachers the laws and customs
known amongst the ancient Hebrews, and specified in the Levitical
institutions. The altars or temples of the Druids, and also their
obelisks, or monuments of memorable events, of which many remains
are to be seen at this day, bear the greatest similarity to those
mentioned in the Old Testament :*** -- "And Jacob awaked
out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place,
and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is
this place ! this is none other but the house of God, and this
is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning,
and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it
up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it."****
"And, if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt
not build it of hewn stone; for, if thou lift up thy tool upon
it, thou hast polluted it And this stone, which I have set up
for a pillar shall be God's house."***** "And Moses
wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning,
and brn'lded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according
to the twelve tribes of Israel."****** "And he sent
young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt-offerings
of oxen unto the Lord, And it shall be on the day when ye shall
pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
that thou shalt set thee up great stones. Therefore it shall be
when ye go over Jordan that ye shall set up these stones, which
I command you this day in Mount Ebal. And there thou shalt build
an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt
not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the alter
of the Lord thy God of whole stones, and thou shalt offer burnt-offerings
thereon unto the Lord thy God."******* It was usual to give
those places the name of the house of the Lord. "This is
the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt
offering for Israel."******** This is said of the altar erected
by David, where afterwards the brazen altar stood in Solomon's
temple.
(* When we speak of the Phœnicians, we must distinguish the times with accuracy. These people possessed originally a large extent of countries, comprised under the name of the land of Canaan. They lost the greatest part of it by the conquests of the Israelites under Joshua. The lands, which fell in division to the tribe of Asher, extended to Sidon; that city, notwithstanding, was not subdued. If the conquests of Joshua took from the Phoenicians a great part of their dominion, they were well paid by the consequences of that event. In effect, the greatest part of the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, seeing themselves threatened with entire destruction, had recourse to a flight to save themselves. Sidon afforded them an asylum. By this irruption of the Hebrew people, the Sidonians were enabled to send colonies wherever they thought proper. Sidon lent them ships, and made good use of these new inhabitants to extend their trade and form settlements. From hence that great number of colonies which went from Phoenicia to spread themselves in all the country of Africa and Europe. We may date this event about the year of the world 2553, and 1451 years before Christ. Spain was not the only country beyond the Pillars of Hercules which the Phoenicians penetrated. Being familiarized with the navigation of the ocean, they extended themselves to the left of the Straits of Cadiz as far as the right. Strabo assures us that these people had gone over a part of the western coast of Africa a little time after the war of Troy. We might, perhaps, determine their passage into England by a reflection which the reading of the writers of antiquity furnishes us with; they are persuaded that all the tin that was consumed in the known world came from the isles of Cassiterides; and there is no doubt that these isles were the Sorlingues, and a part of Cornwall. We see, by the books of Moses, that, in his time, tin was known in Palestine. Homer teaches us also that they made use of this metal in the heroic ages. It should follow, then, that the Phoenicians had traded to England in very remote antiquity." (D. Gogues on the Original of Arts and Sciences.)
(** "It would be endless," says Sammes, (Brit. p.113,) "to speak of the divers and barbarous customs of the wild Britons, which they took up after the Romans had reduced them to a, savage and a brutish life, insomuch that the Altacotti, a British nation, fed upon man's flesh; nay, so much were they given to it that, when they lit upon any flocks of sheep or herds of cattle, they preferred the buttock of the herdsman before the other prey; and accounted the paps and dugs of women the most delicious diet." -EDITOR.)
(*** At Stanton Drew, in Somersetshire, are the remains of an august druid temple, to which the devotional feelings of the people were so strongly wedded, that it became necessary to consecrate it to Christianity by the erection of a church and nunnery on its site. And again, Abury Church was not only built on the site of the ancient temple, but was constructed of the very stones which composed the sanctuary. Almost all our English churches are erected on hills, or artificial mounds, which had previously been the scene of druidical superstitions. -EDITOR.)
(**** Gen. xviii. 16-18.
(***** Exod. xx. 25.
(****** Exod. xxiv. 4, 5.
(******* Deut. xxvii. 2, 6.)
(******** l Chron. xxii. 1.)
The oak* was held sacred by the Druids, under whose branches they assembled, and held their solemn rites. The oak and groves of oak were also held in great veneration by the Hebrews and other ancient nations. The French Magi held their ????, or oak,** in great veneration.*** The Celtse revered the oak as a type or emblem of Jupiter.****
(* Diodorus Siculus termeth the Gaulish priests Sa????da?, which betokeneth an oak. Bryant, in his "Analysis," speaking of those who held the Amonian rites, says: - "In respect to the names which this people in process of time conferred either upon the deities they worshipped, or upon the cities they found, we shall find them either made up of the names of those personages, or else of the titles with which, in the process of time, they were honored." He proceeds to class those, and reduce them to radicals, as he terms them, and, inte alies, gives the monosyllable Sar. "Under the word Sar," says he, "we are taught that, as oaks were styled Saronides, so likewise were the ancient Druids, by whom the oak was held sacred. This is the title which was given to the priests of Gaul, as we are by Diodorus Siculus and, as a proof how far the Amonian religion was extended, and how little we know of driuidical worship, either in respect of its essence or its origin." (Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology.) Maximus Tyrius says, "The Celts (or Gauls) worshipped Jupiter, whose symbol or sign is the highest oak." The Saxons called their sages D?y, from the Druids. (The Saxon sages were called Drottes. -EDITOR.)
(** "Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree. And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire, and ye shall hew down their graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place." (Deut. xii. 2, 3.) "The flesh he put into a basket, and he put the broth into a pot, and he brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it." (Judges, vi. 19.) "And the prophets of the groves four hundred." (1 Kings, xviii. 19.) " For he built up again the high places, which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he reared up altars for Baal, made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he set a graven image of the grove which he had made." (2 Kings, xxi. 3, 7.) "He removed her from being queen, because she made an idol in a grove. But the high places were not taken away out of Israel." (2 Chron. xv. 16, 17.) "Ye shall destroy their altars and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the alter of the Lord thy God." (Deu vii. 5;.xvi. 21.) "Ye shall destroy their altars, and break their images, and cut down their groves." (Exoi xxxiv. 13.) "And the children of Israel, &C., served Baalim, and the groves." (Judges, iii. 7.))
(*** Plin. Nat. Hist.)
(**** Maxirnus Tyrius.)
I have been thus particular on this subject, as it encourages a conjecture that the Druids gained their principles and maxims from the Phoenicians, as appears from those similarities before remarked;* and thence, it may be conceived, they also received from them the doctrines of Moses, and the original principles of wisdom and truth, as delivered down from the earliest ages.
(* "In the plain of Tormore, in the
isle of Arran, are the remains of four circles, and, by their
sequestrated situation, this seems to have been sacred ground.
These circles were formed for religious purposes. Boethius relates,
that Mainus, son of Fergus I., a restorer and cultivator of religion,
after the Egyptian manner (as he calls it), instituted several
new and solemn ceremonies, and caused great stones to be placed
in the form of circle; the largest was situated towards the south,
and served an alter for the sacrifices to the immortal gods. (Boethius,
lib. ii. p. 15). Boethius is right in part of his account: the
object of the worship was the Sun; and what confirms this is the
situation of the alter, pointed towards that luminary in his meridian
glory."
(Penant's Voyage to the Hebrides.))
The oak, hieroglyphically, represents strength, virtue, constancy, and sometimes longevity: under these symbolical characters, it might be revered by the Druids; and the misleto, which they held in the highest veneration, has excellent medicinal qualities, which, in those days of ignorance, might form the chief of their materia medica, being a remedy for epilepsies, and all nervous disorders, to which the Britons, in those ages, might be peculiarly subject, from the woodiness of the country, the noxious respiration proceeding from the large forests, the moisture of the air from extensive uncultivated lands, and the maritime situation of this country.
From all these religious institutions, rites, cus toms, and ceremonies, which bear in many degrees a striking similarity to those of this society,* we may naturally conjecture that the founders of our maxims had in view the most ancient race of Christians, as well as the first professors of the worship of the God of Nature. Our ancient record, which I have mentioned, brings us positive evidence of the Pythagorean doctrine and Basilidean principles making the foundation of our religious and moral rules. The following lectures will elucidate these assertions, and enable us, I hope, with no small degree of certainty, to prove our original principles.
(* The druidical order was composed of three
classes - the druids, the bards, and the eubates. The former were
habited in white robes, while those of the bards were sky-blue;
the one an emblem of peace and truth, the other of innocence.
The person of the bard was so sacred, that he might pass in safety
through hostile countries. He never appeared in an army but as
a herald, or under the modern idea of a flag of truce, and never
bore arms, neither was a naked weapon to be held in his presence.
(Owen's Dict. V. Barz.) -EDITOR.)
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