Britain ... - Blue-Lite

456 ORIGIN, ANTIQUITY, AND
rise out of Israel," &c. Here, is again, a manifest allusion to
the subject of the prophecy of Zoroaster, to the expectation of
that Redeemer who was to die the death of the cross, of whom
so much is spoken in Sanscrit lore, and the symbol of whose
expiation was portrayed in the sacred caverns of India, the
temples of Egypt, and the groves of Britain.
Having thus far, we imagine, fully proved the ancient Druids
to have been true and worthy Masons, the questions naturally
arise, through what channels did their rites descend to us,
and by whom ? and at what period were they changed to their
present form ? for that changed they have been, it is impossible
to deny. Yes they have been stripped of a portion of
their Druidical ornaments, though many symbols
of the
remotest antiquity still remain, and arrayed in comparatively
modern Jewish trappings. Could it even be proved, which it
never can, that the direct successors of Solomon brought Free-
Masonry to this island,
still it would not militate in the least
against our assertion of the changes in Masonry.
No one, we presume, acquainted with the secrets of the
Craft, will, if he reflect for a moment, maintain that our
initiations from a M. M. to the highest degrees in the Order,
can by any possibility be the same as the initiations of Solomon
and Hiram Abiff, to descend no further down the dim course of
time to its shadowy fountain, simply because it is
utterly
impossible that the forms and ceremonies used at their induction
to the sacred Mysteries, could have borne the
slightest
allusion to things and scenes which happened to themselves
subsequent to their being perfect Masons.
A brother, raised to the sublime degree of M. M., will perfectly
comprehend what we mean, and it is not our intention
to enlighten the darkness of the exoteric. This is another
undeniable proof, if needed, that Masonry did not descend to
us from the Jews, or the Essenes of Egypt, those respected
preservers of its secrets j for had such been the fact, and they
had cherished it in their bosoms in a pure and direct line from
the days of the wise king of Israel, our initiations must have
been precisely similar in form and kind to those which Solomon
and Hiram Abiff themselves passed through.