Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
therefore ascend higher than Moses and the Hebrew nation , to explain the true original of the Pagan universal symbols and the principles of religion .” 39 In fact , Adam “ conversed with the Logos in paradise under a human form ” and even : “ God , after having banished him from paradise , revealed to him the sacrifice , sufferings , and triumphs of the Messiah .” 40 Since Adam is the father of all humanity “ the sages of all nations , ages and religions , had some ideas of these sublime doctrines , tho ’ more or less degraded , adulterated , and obscured ; and that these scattered hints and vestiges of the most sacred and exalted truths were originally rays and emanations of ancient and primitive traditions , handed down from generation to generation , since the beginning of the world , or at least , since the fall of man to all mankind .” 41 The patriarchs passed down
these ideas until the Flood . According to a legend known to some Freemasons :
It is no ways probable , that such a wise man as Noah who was instructed by , and conversed with the Logos , would have trusted to oral tradition alone , for the preservation and transmission of these divine lights , and sublime mysteries of faith to his posterity , and all the nations who were to cover the face of the earth . He , no doubt , took care to have them wrote in such characters as were then in use [ ... ] hieroglyphics . 42
This was the beginning of the Noachite tradition :
All religious and learned nations have by tradition the idea of a great Man or Legislator , who was the first author of these sacred symbols and hieroglyphics , of letters and sciences , who taught them their original laws , sacred mysteries , and religious rites . The Chinese called him Fohi ; the Indians , Zoroaster ; the Chaldeans , Douvanai ; the Egyptians , Thoyt ; the Phenicians , Taaut ; the Latins , Mercury ; the Greeks , Hermes ; the Arabians , Adris or Edris ; the Gauls , Teutatis . Now , upon a strict examination and deep enquiry it will be found , that according to astronomical and chronological calculations , all these men lived sometime before the universal deluge ; yea , that they were all the same man , and consequently some antidiluvian patriarch [ ... ]. Some think that this antidiluvian patriarch was Enoch himself . Others believe that it was Noah the restorer of mankind . 43
Huet , Thomassin , Gale , and almost all the antiquarians of the last century ; men otherwise of great learning , but very bad philosophers .” Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 2 , p . 23 .
39 Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 2 , pp . 24-25 . 40 Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 2 , p . 8 . 41 Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 2 , p . 8 . 42 Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 2 , p . 9 . 43 Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 2 , pp . 12-13 .
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