Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

The Genius of Freemasonry. 71
used were the same. There were found all the
sacraments of the Catholic Church, even the breath
of confirmation." . . "The Basilideans, a sect of
Christians that arose soon after the time of the
Apostles, practiced the Mysteries with the old
Egyptian legend. They symbolized Osiris by the
Sun, Isis by the Moon, and Typhon by Scorpio, and
wore crystals bearing these emblems, as amulets or
talismans, to protect them from danger, upon which
were also a brilliant star and the serpent. They
were copied from the talismans of Persia and Arabia,
and given to every candidate at his initiation.
They — all claimed"— (Gnostics, Marcosians, Ophites,
etc.) "to possess a secret doctrine, coming to then?
directly from Jesus Christ, different from that of U
Gospels and Epistles, and superior to those com
munications, which, in their eyes, were merely
exoteric. This secret doctrine they did not communicate
to every one; and among the extensive
sects of the Basilideans, hardly one in a thousand
knew it, as we learn from Irenseus. We know the
name of only the highest class of their initiates.
They were styled Elect, or Elus, and 'Strangers to
the World.' They had at least three degrees—the
Material, the Intellectual, and the Spiritual, and the
lesser and greater mysteries; and the number of