The Origin And References Of The Hermesian Spurious Freemasonry.

THE ORIGIN AND REFERENCES OF THE HERMESIAN SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY .

( Continued from 2 ) ag & 192 . ) BY KEY . GEO . OLIVER , D . D . CHAPTER VIII . —Continued .

IN process of time , hoAvever , a beast , though it might answer the purpose of ordinary occasions , Avas thought too insignificant for the acceptance of the vengeful gods in times of uncommon calamity , and the redemption Avas attempted by the immolation of human beings . The custom was said to have been introduced by Ham , for Sanchoniatho informs us that in the time of a great plague ancl mortality , he made his son a Avhole burnt-offering to his father Uranus , or Noah . Such sacrifices Avere offered

to appease avenging demons , and to stave off general destruction ; for they had an undelinable notion , arising doubtless from a tradition of the Messiah , that the sacrifice of one Avoidd saA'e the rest . How can AA ' account , upon any other principle , for that extensive immolation AA'hich is mentioned by Snelgrave , * of 4 , 000 Whidavvs , besides people of other nations , of Avhich he himself AA'as an eye-Avitness . Well mi ght Tacitus exclaim , "Arcanus hinc terror , sacra ignorantia , quid sitillnd , quod tantum perituri A'idebant . "

I stay not here to describe the bloody sacrifices of the Jews , Avhich had an admitted reference to the Messiah , because they have nothing to do Avith the subject under discussion . Every people under heaA'en , though they were insulated ancl cut off from any possible commerce Avith their species , practised blood y sacrifices for the purpose of averting calamities or expiating sin . The Eoinans , in times of any great national visitation , used to take some worthless

person , and after scourging him , they offered him up as a vicarious sacrifice , burning the body and casting the ashes into the sea , as a general lustration , Avith the formula , " Sis pro nobis peripsema . " From ir ^ pixj / ryxa , sordes , the offscouring . t As if they hael said , "Be thou a reconciliation or propitiation for us . " Hence arose the Iloman practice of a general devoting himself for the safety of his army ; and on the same principle , Midas , Eng of Phrygia , offered many valuable things to appease the angry gods , ancl concluded the

sacrifice by immolating his OAYU son . The Egyptians , the Greeks , and other nations , as Avell as the Jews , had a custom of laying all their sins ancl misfortunes periodically on the head of an expiatory A'ictim , that suffered a death which tho people thus acknowled ged to be due unto themselves . ¦ In the Spurious initiations the hierophants and mystagogues Avere called dogs ; although it is admitted that the Avord Cohen might signify prince or priest . One of the ceremonies

of initiation , boAveA'er , Avas A'ery dog-like , for it consisted in devouring the flesh of animals raw and erube Avith blood . This revolting custom clearly evinces how far they had deviated from the ordinances of the Noachidse , whose institutes they professed to observe , and these canine propensities Avere often indulged at the expense ol human , life . At Elethias , during the initiations , men were sometimes immolated by being binned alive , and their ashes Avere scattered to tlie four Avinds of heaven , -these AA'ere usually persons convicted of revealing the mysteries . Porphyry says that at Chios , in the rites of the Dionysiaca , the man Avas torn limb from limb . ' And the Messenians , in a time of calamity , consulted the oracle on the means of deliverance , and