The Secret Vault presents: The Christian and Pagan Creeds Collated. Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
By the Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
Was the most august of all the Pagan ceremonies celebrated, more especially by the Athenians, every fifth year, in honour of Ceres, the goddess of corn, who, in allegorical language, had given us her flesh to eat [LN., from whence surely Cereal]; as Bacchus, the god of wine, in a like sense, had given us his blood to drink; though both these mysticisms are claimed by Jesus Christ, (John 6-55.) They were celebrated every fifth year at Eleusis, a town of Attica, from whence their name; which name, however, both in the word and in the signification of it, is precisely the same as one of the titles of Jesus Christ. [[GK] - "Art thou the he that should come?" -John 11-3.] From these ceremonies, in like manner, is derived the very name attached to our Christian sacrament of the Lord's supper - "those holy mysteries;" and not one or two, but absolutely all and every one of the observances used in our Christian solemnity. Very many of our forms of expression in that solemnity are precisely the same as those that appertained to the Pagan rite. Nor, notwithstanding all we hear of the rapid propagation of Christianity, and the conversion of Constantine, were these heathen mysteries abolished, till the reign of the elder Theodosius, who had the honour of instituting the Inquisition, which was so great an improvement upon them, in their stead, about the year 440.
Mosheim acknowledges, that "the primitive Christians! [Mosheim, vol. 1, p. 204.] gave the name of mysteries to the institutions of the Gospel and decorated particularly the holy sacrament with that title; that they used the very terms employed in the heathen mysteries and adopted some of the rites and ceremonies of which those renowned mysteries consisted. This imitation began in the eastern provinces; but, after the time of Adrian, who first introduced the mysteries among the Latins, it was followed by the Christians who dwelt in the western parts of the empire. A great part, therefore, of the service of the church in this century (the second) had a certain air of the heathen mysteries and resembled them considerably in many particulars."
Eleusinian Mysteries and Christian Sacrament Compared.
ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES CHRISTIAN SACRAMENT
1. "But as the benefit of initiation was great, such as were convicted of witchcraft, murder, even though unintentional, or any other heinous crimes, were debarred from those
mysteries." - Bell's Panth. inlo- co quo res. 1. "For as the benefit is great, if, with a true penitent heart and lively faith, we receive that holy sacrament, &c. if any be an open and notorious evil-liver, or hath done wrong to his neighbour, &c. that he, presume not to come to the Lord's table." - Communion Service.
2. At their entrance, purifying themselves by washing their hands in holy water, they were
at the same time admonished to present themselves with pure minds, without which the external cleanness of the body would by no means be accepted. 2. See the fonts of holy water at the entrance of every catholic chapel in Christendom for the
purpose. Let us draw near with a true heart, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure
water. - Heb. 10-22.
3. The priests who officiated in these sacred solemnities, were called Hierophants, or revealers of holy things. 3. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of
God. - 1 Cor. 4-1.
4. After this, they were dismissed in these words: - 4. In English, thus: - The Lord be with you.
If it were possible to be mistaken in the significance of the monogram of Bacchus, the I H S, to whose honour, in conjunction with Ceres, these holy mysteries were distinctively dedicated, the insertion of those letters in a circle of rays of glory, over the centre of the holy table, is a hieroglyphic that depends not on the fallibility of translation but conveys a sense that cannot be misread by any eye on which the sun's light shines. I H S are Greek characters, by ignorance taken for Roman letters; and Yes, which is the proper reading of those letters, is none other than the very identical name of Bacchus, that is, of the Sun, of which Bacchus was one of the most distinguished personifications; And Yes, or Ies, with the Latin termination us, added to it, is Jesus. The surrounding rays of glory, as expressive of the sun's light, make the identity of Christ and Bacchus as clear as the sun.
These rays of glory are a sort of universal letter that cannot be misread or misinterpreted; no written language, no words that man could utter, could so distinctly, so expressively say that it was the Sun, and nothing but the Sun, that was so emblemized. And these rays are seen alike surrounding the heads of the Indian Krishna, as he is exhibited in the beautiful plate engraved by Barlow and inscribed to the Archbishop of Canterbury; round the Grecian Apollo; and in all our pictures of Jesus Christ. Nay, more - the epithet The Lord, as we have seen, was peculiarly and distinctively appropriate to the Sun, and to all personification of the Sun; so that the Sun and the Lord were perfectly synonymous, and Sun's day and the Lord's day the same to every nation on whom his light hath shone."
As it was especially to the honour of Bacchus, as the Sun, that the mysteries were celebrated, so the bread and wine which the Lord (or Sun) had commanded to be received, was called the Lord's supper. Throughout the whole ceremony, the name of the Lord was many times repeated, and his brightness or glory, not only exhibited to the eye by the rays which surrounded his name but was made the peculiar theme or subject of their triumphant exultation.
Now bring we up our most sacred Christian ordinance! That also is designated, as the ceremony in honour of Bacchus was, the Lord's supper. In that also all other epithets of the deity so honoured, are merged in the peculiar appropriation of the term The Lord. It would sound irreverently, even in Christian ears, to call it Jesus's supper, or Jesus's table; it is always termed the Lord's. And as in the Lord's supper of the ancient idolaters at Eleusis, it was the benefit which they received from the sun's rays or glory that were commemorated, so in our Christian orgies, it is the glory or brightness of the same deity which is peculiarly symbolized and honoured. A poor Jewish peasant never was, nor could have been called the Lord. Let us take words according to the meaning of words, and not suffer our reason to be sophisticated by mere sounds, which have in themselves no meaning at all, and we shall see that our English word Glory is but a ridiculously sonorous mouthing of its original, Clary. The exact meaning of clary is brightness; the attribute of brightness is peculiarly characteristic of the Sun: use only the meaning of the word, instead of its unmeaning sound, wherever it occurs, and the heliola trous sense and origination of our Christian Communion Service, and its absolute identity with the Pagan mysteries of Eleusis, can no longer evade detection; for thus run the Eleusinian and the Christian mysteries, like linked horses in a chariot, step for step, and phrase for phrase, together.
The Doxology
"Brightness be to God on high! We praise thee, we brighten thee (that is, we say that thou art bright), we give thee thanks for thy great brightness. Heaven and earth are full of thy brightness. Brightness be to thee, Lord (that is, Sun) most high!" Is not this the real, the only sense, of both mysteries? If it be not, our ignorance has, at least, one consolation: we shall not have to quarrel with anybody, who can tell us what is! Safe enough are we from anything like an idea on the part of the partakers of those holy mysteries: a sensible person who had received the sacrament, might be shown for a week afterwards at the menagerie.
Pagan Mythology Christian Revelation Compared.
PAGAN MYTHOLOGY CHRISTIAN REVELATION
1. Titan, the eldest of the children of heaven, yielded to Saturn the kingdom of the world,
provided he raised no more children; but on the birth of Jupiter, he rebelled, and raising
war in heaven, prevailed not, neither was his place found any more in heaven. He and all
his host of rebel angels were cast out and imprisoned under mountains heaped upon them. Their vain attempts to rise is the
supposed cause of earthquakes and volcanoes.
"Or from our sacred hill, with fury thrown,
Deep in the dark Tartarean gulph shall groan."
Jupiter's threat to the inferior gods, Iliad, 6. Pope's Version. 1. Satan, the eldest of the children of heaven, yielded to Jehovah the kingdom of the
world, provided he raised no more children; but on the birth of Messiah, he rebelled, and
raising war in heaven, "prevailed not, neither was his place found any more in heaven,"
(Rev. 12-8.) "And the angels which kept not their first estate, he hath reserved in ever-
lasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." - Jude 6.
"God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell" - l Pet. 2-4. Note
2. Latona (the moon) was driven out of heaven, and having been got with child by Jupiter, without
knowledge of a man, she brought forth her son, our Lord and Saviour Phoebus-Apollo, "the
brightness of his father's glory," and the express image of his person. She was, at the time of her delivery, refused a place where to bring forth, and was persecuted all her life by the dragon Python. 2. Eve was driven out of Paradise, and in her representatives Mary, "seeing she knew not a
man," brought forth her son, our Lord Jesus Christ, being the brightness of his glory, and
the express image of his person," (Heb. 1-3,)" she laid him in a manger, because there was no
room for them in the inn," (Luke 2-7.) "And the dragon persecuted the woman which brought
forth the man child." - Rev. 12-13.
3. Her son at length slew the Python, and was by Jupiter exalted with great triumph unto his
kingdom in heaven. 3. And the seed of the woman bruised the serpent's head, "and her child was caught up
to God, and to his throne." - Rev. xii. 5.
Another edition.
4. Jupiter transforms himself into a swan, and in that shape enjoys Leda, a married woman,
who became with child by him. 4. Jehovah, in the shape of a pigeon, obumbrates the wife of Joseph, who becomes with child by him. - Luke 1. [a]
5. The incarnation of Vichenou. 5. The incarnation of Christ.
6. The Logos, or Word of God, an epithet of Mercury. - Justin Martyr's Apology. 6. The Logos, or Word of God, an epithet of Jesus Christ. - St. John's Gospel.
7. Unum pro multis dabitur caput, (Virgil.) - i.e. One head shall be given as the redemption
for many. 7. "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." Heb. 9-28.
8. "The Vandals had a god called Triglaf; one of those was found at Herlungerberg, near Brandenburg. He was represented with three heads. -This was apparently the Trinity of Paganism." Such are the very words of the orthodox Christian, Parkhurst. 8. "To God the Father, Son, And Spirit, ever blest -Eternal Three in One - All worship be addressed." Such are the words of the orthodox Christian Doxology.
9. The ancient Gauls had an idol, under the name Hesus, who, the mythologists say, answered to the Roman Mars, Lord of Hosts, to whom they used to sacrifice their captives
taken in war; of whom Lucan, book 1, line 445.
Horrensque feris altaribus Hesus! Hesus, with cruel altars, horrid god! 9. The difference between Hesus and Jesus is but a breath, "The Lord of Hosts, he is
or the King of Glory." - Psalm 24-10.
"Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ!" - Te Deum, 14. "Thou shalt bruise them with
rod of iron, and break them in pieces, like a potter's vessel." - Psalm ii. 9.
"And he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood." - Rev. 19-13.
[note. [a] The editors of the Unitarian New Version of the New Testament, who very modestly wish to shovel all these spurcities and salacities out of the sacred text, have the impudence to tell us, in a note, that they were interpolated to lessen the odium attached to Christianity, from its founder being a crucified Jew, and to elevate him to the dignity of the heroes and demi-gods of the heathen mythology. So then, the argument of the primitive Christians with their Pagan opponents was good-natured enough - If you won't adopt our religion, - why we'll adopt yours.]
"Thus, have I attempted to trace, with a confidence continually increasing as I advanced, a parallel between the gods adored in Greece, Italy, and India; but which was the original system, and which the copy, I will not presume to decide. I am persuaded, however, that a connection existed between the old idolatrous nations of Egypt, India, Greece, and Italy, long before the birth of Moses."
So, concludes the pious Sir William Jones, Asiatic Researches, vol. 1, p. 211. The reader is to conclude as he pleases. [LN., Jones, William Sir, 1746 to 1794, he was an Anglo-Welsh philologist, a puisne judge, scholar of ancient India, especially interest in the relationship between European and Indian languages.]
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