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  • Jan. 3, 1863
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  • CLASSICAL THEOLOGY.
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The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine, Jan. 3, 1863: Page 9

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Classical Theology.

Moses , there is no proof , in fact , of a theocracy extending further back than to the Deluge , B . C . 2348 , when the earth itself was broken up . Indeed , so new , complexed , and material grew theological theories , that in accordance with them , and the variations of languages in consequence of the confusion of tonguesB . C . 2247 . Noah becameas it were

, , , under different names , the representative of Adam , or was , more or less vaguely , received and adopted , as a god theogonically into their systems , or in God ' s stead he stood as the renewer , the artificer , progenitor , and institutor of both the earth and mankind , in which respect we may conclude he was

Brahma , as also Saturn , who , as the son of Qua and Vesta might be Adam , but . as asserted by many , including Plato , was considered to be of the parentage of Oceanus and Thetis , whereby it is signified , by the help of the ark , Noah was new born , as it wereout of the waters of the Deluge . At all

, events of these , out of the course of human nature , was begotten the God upon earth , or king according to history , Jupiter or TJpatos , to whom they assigned the heirdom , literally meaning , with his other titles and names , the highest and paternal majesty of the worldor the sun . Be it so understood , there was

, hardly a nation that did not institute and offer a worship to some Jupiter of their own , and believe him to have been born amongst themselves . The ante-diluvians considered them not the

Adamite , but the Pre Adamite world , iu which Adam was bom or made . * Of course we are here alluding to theological periodsautecedent to the almighty epochs of the birth of Christ , and the spread of the Holy Scriptures , which ended before those timeswhen heathen theologies began to be interpolated with the metaphysical Baalisms of the Cabalaand vice versawhich

, , mainly added to transpose the one into a mere mythistoria ; and Mageiai , or Sortitology , the other . Elsewhere we shall again refer to the notions on the ori g in of man . AVe have no geographical description of the earth ' s dimensions and consistencies at the time of its destruction recorded in Genesis , save what

is therein related of themin synecdochical phraseology , that is to say , ante-deluvian names are post-diluvianized . The equal distance of the extremities of the universe must first be discovered before we can find the centre of the world's empire , but we may reasonably conclude it is more in the sun than in the earth .

If the moon had not its motion from west to east which it has with us , the ebb and flow of the sea would happen diurnaliy at the same actual time the earth rises towards and falls off from the sun . It follows that wllen the earth has accomplished its revolution , it must advance twelve and a half degrees more before it can be on the same position again as

it was under the moon , or in its range of the sun . On this account the rise of the sea occurs fifty minutes later each succeeding day ; five-and-twenty minutes being the difference between the one and the other of its regular tides . It has been said , in refutation of the science of astrologythat it will

, require 7000 years to establish the same constitution of the stars that may be seen to-day , and that such a disposition of the heavens as will be to-morrow has never been produced since the world was created ,

Consequently , it has been imagined and predicted that the renewal of that disposition will constitute the earth ' s climacteric , or rather , by a dialectical obscurity , its end ; as , what begins a thing will end in its completion , on the revolment of its fulfilment . Observations of past ages , on scientific principles ,

confirmed by the experience of modern times , sufficiently elucidate at a g lance that there is no part of the earth but has more or less undergone some alteration . We can comprehend its wasting away without diminution by means of its self-replenishment ; but is its diminishment equal to its increasement , or its

irrigation commuasuratewith its desiccation ? There is a never-ending departing and returning of life in all the terresbrial states of its government , by which daily it accumulates heaps in plentitude , and vivifies a bulk additionally as large . Ashes return unto ashesmoisture unto moisture . Dissolve them in the

, waters , or evaporate them to the winds , yet by the laws of gravitation they will be re-collected aud absorbed by the earth . Eor all this , as far as the earth was known , it does not now appear at all different to the descriptions we find given of it by the ancients , so far as they can be traced .

We cannot but admit that by natural agency the earth has been in some parts of the world augmented ; but without an earthly creation there could be no earthly nature ; and as for an aqueous or a Neptunian nature , even with the combined aids of sand and an igneous or a Plutonian nature , metallic substances could never naturally be produced ; or the marine substances , of whose existence we have proof . Bocks have sprung from the depth of the sea , islands have

been formed and attached to the mainland , indicative of the work of the cirriped , velella , and coral worm , aud of the "first and second formations , " but of no " spontaneous biped or quadruped , " were once believed in among nations . On the other hand , almost within the twinkling of an eye or a flash of lihtningimmense tracts of land have

g , slipped away aud disappeared , swallowed up by the ocean or the earth ; plains have been lifted into mountains , and mountains have sunk into plains . The earthquake of Canada , in 1663 , overwhelmed thirty miles of freestone mountains , and the whole of that wide range changed into an expansive plain .

Ebb aud neap tides are well hnown , only we do not attribute them to atmospheric pressure ; the spring tides we attribute to the monthly courses of the ocean in connection with the position of the earth at those times ; still , of a certainty , in different places the tide varies . At the mouth of the Indus it rises to

about 30 feet ; in the Bay ofEundy to about 60 _ feet , and here so rapidly as to overtake persons and animals in their flig ht from it . But there is a gradual and important rise going on in some of the stratas of the ocean , which forces the sea itself hig her and higher upon the low countries . Admitting that if the

equatorial regions had or should have an elevation less than the polar regions , the waters of the latter would rush down , to the overflow of the former ; or that the earth should again arrive at the same position with the dispositions of the heavenly bodies that it manifested at the time of the creation , or that it exhibited at the time of the deluge , there are no symptoms in the earth's figure and motion to evince , by such changes , any such diluvian results .

“The Freemasons' Monthly Magazine: 1863-01-03, Page 9” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 11 July 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmr/issues/mmr_03011863/page/9/.
  • List
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Title Category Page
Untitled Article 1
Untitled Article 2
ADDRESS TO OUR READERS. Article 3
INDEX. Article 5
CLASSICAL THEOLOGY. Article 8
FREEMASONRY. Article 10
THE ROYAL ARCH SCHISM IN SCOTLAND. Article 12
CORRESPONDENCE. Article 15
THE MASONIC MIRROR. Article 16
METROPOLITAN. Article 16
PROVINCIAL. Article 17
SCOTLAND. Article 21
ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED RITE. Article 23
Obituary. Article 25
NOTES ON MUSIC AND THE DRAMA. Article 25
THE WEEK. Article 25
TO CORRESPONDENTS. Article 27
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Classical Theology.

Moses , there is no proof , in fact , of a theocracy extending further back than to the Deluge , B . C . 2348 , when the earth itself was broken up . Indeed , so new , complexed , and material grew theological theories , that in accordance with them , and the variations of languages in consequence of the confusion of tonguesB . C . 2247 . Noah becameas it were

, , , under different names , the representative of Adam , or was , more or less vaguely , received and adopted , as a god theogonically into their systems , or in God ' s stead he stood as the renewer , the artificer , progenitor , and institutor of both the earth and mankind , in which respect we may conclude he was

Brahma , as also Saturn , who , as the son of Qua and Vesta might be Adam , but . as asserted by many , including Plato , was considered to be of the parentage of Oceanus and Thetis , whereby it is signified , by the help of the ark , Noah was new born , as it wereout of the waters of the Deluge . At all

, events of these , out of the course of human nature , was begotten the God upon earth , or king according to history , Jupiter or TJpatos , to whom they assigned the heirdom , literally meaning , with his other titles and names , the highest and paternal majesty of the worldor the sun . Be it so understood , there was

, hardly a nation that did not institute and offer a worship to some Jupiter of their own , and believe him to have been born amongst themselves . The ante-diluvians considered them not the

Adamite , but the Pre Adamite world , iu which Adam was bom or made . * Of course we are here alluding to theological periodsautecedent to the almighty epochs of the birth of Christ , and the spread of the Holy Scriptures , which ended before those timeswhen heathen theologies began to be interpolated with the metaphysical Baalisms of the Cabalaand vice versawhich

, , mainly added to transpose the one into a mere mythistoria ; and Mageiai , or Sortitology , the other . Elsewhere we shall again refer to the notions on the ori g in of man . AVe have no geographical description of the earth ' s dimensions and consistencies at the time of its destruction recorded in Genesis , save what

is therein related of themin synecdochical phraseology , that is to say , ante-deluvian names are post-diluvianized . The equal distance of the extremities of the universe must first be discovered before we can find the centre of the world's empire , but we may reasonably conclude it is more in the sun than in the earth .

If the moon had not its motion from west to east which it has with us , the ebb and flow of the sea would happen diurnaliy at the same actual time the earth rises towards and falls off from the sun . It follows that wllen the earth has accomplished its revolution , it must advance twelve and a half degrees more before it can be on the same position again as

it was under the moon , or in its range of the sun . On this account the rise of the sea occurs fifty minutes later each succeeding day ; five-and-twenty minutes being the difference between the one and the other of its regular tides . It has been said , in refutation of the science of astrologythat it will

, require 7000 years to establish the same constitution of the stars that may be seen to-day , and that such a disposition of the heavens as will be to-morrow has never been produced since the world was created ,

Consequently , it has been imagined and predicted that the renewal of that disposition will constitute the earth ' s climacteric , or rather , by a dialectical obscurity , its end ; as , what begins a thing will end in its completion , on the revolment of its fulfilment . Observations of past ages , on scientific principles ,

confirmed by the experience of modern times , sufficiently elucidate at a g lance that there is no part of the earth but has more or less undergone some alteration . We can comprehend its wasting away without diminution by means of its self-replenishment ; but is its diminishment equal to its increasement , or its

irrigation commuasuratewith its desiccation ? There is a never-ending departing and returning of life in all the terresbrial states of its government , by which daily it accumulates heaps in plentitude , and vivifies a bulk additionally as large . Ashes return unto ashesmoisture unto moisture . Dissolve them in the

, waters , or evaporate them to the winds , yet by the laws of gravitation they will be re-collected aud absorbed by the earth . Eor all this , as far as the earth was known , it does not now appear at all different to the descriptions we find given of it by the ancients , so far as they can be traced .

We cannot but admit that by natural agency the earth has been in some parts of the world augmented ; but without an earthly creation there could be no earthly nature ; and as for an aqueous or a Neptunian nature , even with the combined aids of sand and an igneous or a Plutonian nature , metallic substances could never naturally be produced ; or the marine substances , of whose existence we have proof . Bocks have sprung from the depth of the sea , islands have

been formed and attached to the mainland , indicative of the work of the cirriped , velella , and coral worm , aud of the "first and second formations , " but of no " spontaneous biped or quadruped , " were once believed in among nations . On the other hand , almost within the twinkling of an eye or a flash of lihtningimmense tracts of land have

g , slipped away aud disappeared , swallowed up by the ocean or the earth ; plains have been lifted into mountains , and mountains have sunk into plains . The earthquake of Canada , in 1663 , overwhelmed thirty miles of freestone mountains , and the whole of that wide range changed into an expansive plain .

Ebb aud neap tides are well hnown , only we do not attribute them to atmospheric pressure ; the spring tides we attribute to the monthly courses of the ocean in connection with the position of the earth at those times ; still , of a certainty , in different places the tide varies . At the mouth of the Indus it rises to

about 30 feet ; in the Bay ofEundy to about 60 _ feet , and here so rapidly as to overtake persons and animals in their flig ht from it . But there is a gradual and important rise going on in some of the stratas of the ocean , which forces the sea itself hig her and higher upon the low countries . Admitting that if the

equatorial regions had or should have an elevation less than the polar regions , the waters of the latter would rush down , to the overflow of the former ; or that the earth should again arrive at the same position with the dispositions of the heavenly bodies that it manifested at the time of the creation , or that it exhibited at the time of the deluge , there are no symptoms in the earth's figure and motion to evince , by such changes , any such diluvian results .

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