The Two Babylons

This Phaethon, or Lucifer, who was cast down is further proved to be Janus; for Janus is called "Pater Matutinus" (HORACE, Sat. ii. 6, 20, p. 674; and the meaning of this name will appear in one of its aspects when the meaning of the name of the Dea Matuta is ascertained. Dea Matuta signifies "The kindling or Light-bringing goddess," and accordingly, by Priscian, she is identified with Aurora: "Matuta, quoe significat Aurorame" (PRISCIAN, ii. p. 591, apud Sir WILLIAM BETHAM'S Etruria, vol. ii. p. 53). Matutinus is evidently just the correlate of Matuta, goddess of the morning; Janus, therefore, as Matutinus, is "Lucifer, son of the morning." But further, Matuta is identified with Ino, after she had plunged into the sea, and had, along with her son Melikerta, been changed into a sea-divinity (Gradus ad Parnassum, sub voce "Ino"). Consequently her son Melikerta, "king of the walled city," is the same as Janus Matutinus, or Lucifer, Phaethon, or Nimrod.

There is still another link by which Melikerta, the sea-divinity, or Janus Matutinus, is identified with the primitive god of the fire-worshippers. The most common name of Ino, or Matuta, after she had passed through the waters, was Leukothoe (OVID, Metam. lib. vi. ll. 541, 542). Now, Leukothoe or Leukothea has a double meaning, as it is derived either form "Lukhoth," which signifies "to light," or "set on fire," or from Lukoth "to glean." In the Maltese medal given (ante, p. 160), the reader will see both of these senses exemplified. The ear of corn, at the side of the goddess, which is more commonly held in her hand, while really referring in its hidden meaning to her being the Mother of Bar, "the son," to the uninitiated exhibits her as Spicilega, or "The Gleaner,"--"the popular name," says Hyde (De Religione, Vet. Pers., p. 392), "for the female with the ear of wheat represented in the constellation Virgo." In Bryant (vol. iii. p. 245), Cybele is represented with two or three ears of corn in her hand; for, as there were three peculiarly distinguished Bacchuses, there were

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consequently as many "Bars," and she might therefore be represented with one, two, or three ears in her hand. But to revert to the Maltese medal just referred to, the flames coming out of the head of Lukothea, the "Gleaner," show that, though she has passed through the waters, she is still Lukhothea, "the Burner," or "Light-giver." And the rays around the mitre of the god on the reverse entirely agree with the character of that god as Eleleus, or Phaethon--in other words, as "The Shining Bar." Now, this "Shining Bar," as Melikerta, "king of the walled city," occupies the very place of "Ala-Mahozim," whose representative the Poe is elsewhere (ante, p. 252) proved to be. But he is equally the Sea-divinity, who in that capacity wears the mitre of Dagon (compare woodcuts, pp. 160 and 216, where different forms of the same Maltese divinity are given). The fish head mitre which the Pope wears shows that, in this character also, as the "Beast from the sea," he is the unquestionable representative of Melikerta.

NOTE P, p. 238

The Roman Imperial Standard of the Dragon of Symbol of

Fire-worship.

The passage of Ammianus Marcellinus, that speaks of that standard, calls it "purpureum signum draconis" (lib. xvi. cap. 12, p. 145). On this may be raised the question, Has the epithet purpureum, as describing the colour of the dragon, any reference to fire? The following extract from Salverte may cast some light upon it: "The dragon figured among the military ensigns of the Assyrians. Cyrus caused it to be adopted by the Persians and Medes. Under the Roman emperors, and under the emperors of Byzantium, each cohort or centuria bore for an ensign a dragon" (Des Sciences Occultes, Appendix, Note A, p. 486). There is no doubt that the dragon or serpent standard of the Assyrians and Persians had reference to fire-worship, the worship of fire and the serpent being mixed up together in both these countries (see LAYARD'S Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. pp. 468-469). As the Romans, therefore, borrowed these standards evidently from these sources, it is to be presumed that they viewed them in the very same light as those from whom they borrowed them, especially as that light was so exactly in harmony with their own system of fire-worship. The epithet purpureus or "purple" does not indeed naturally convey the idea of fire-colour to us. But it does convey the idea of red; and red in one shade or another, among idolatrous nations, has almost with one consent been used to represent fire. The Egyptians (BUNSEN, vol. i. p. 290), the Hindoos (MOOR's Pantheon, "Brahma," p. 6), the Assyrians (LAYARD's Nineveh, etc., vol. ii. chap. 3, p. 312, Note), all represented fire by red. The Persians evidently did the same, for when Quintus Curtius describes the Magi as following "the sacred and eternal fire," he describes the 365 youths, who formed the train of these Magi, as clad "puniceis amiculis," in "scarlet garments" (lib. iii. cap. 3, p. 42), the colour of these garments, no doubt, having reference to the fire whose ministers they were. Puniceus is equivalent to purpureus, for it was in Phenicia that the purpura, or purple-fish, was originally found. The colour derived from that purple-fish was scarlet (see KITTO'S Illustrated Commentary on Exodus xxxv. 35, vol. i. p. 215), and it is the very name of that Phenician purple-fish, "arguna," that is used in Daniel v. 16 and 19, where it is said that he that should interpret the handwriting on the wall should "be clothed in scarlet." The Tyrians had the art of making true purples, as well as scarlet; and there seems on doubt that purpureus is frequently used in the ordinary sense attached to our world purple. But the original meaning of the epithet is scarlet; and

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as bright scarlet colour is a natural color to represent fire, so we have reason to believe that that colour, when used for robes of state among the Tyrians, had special reference to fire; for the Tyrian Hercules, who was regarded as the inventor of purple (BRYANT, vol. iii. p. 485), was regarded as "King of Fire," (NONNUS, Dionysiaca, lib. xl. l. 369, vol. ii. p. 223). Now, when we find that the purpura of Tyre produced the scarlet colour which naturally represented fire, and that puniceus, which is equivalent to purpureus, is evidently used for scarlet, there is nothing that forbids us to understand purpureus in the same sense here, but rather requires it. But even though it were admitted that the tinge was deeper, and purpureus meant the true purple, as red, of which it is a shade, is the established colour of fire, and as the serpent was the universally acknowledged symbol of fire-worship, the probability is strong that the use of a red dragon as the Imperial standard of Rome was designed as an emblem of that system of fire-worship on which the safety of the empire was believed so vitally to hinge.

NOTE Q, p. 268.

The Slaying of the Witness.

Is it past, or is it still to come? This is a vital question The favourite doctrine at this moment is, that it is past centuries ago, and that no such dark night of suffering to the saints of God can ever come again, as happened just before the era of the Reformation. This is the cardinal principle of a work that has just appeared, under the title of The Great Exodus, which implies, that however much the truth may be assailed, however much the saints of God may be threatened, however their fears may be aroused, they have no real reason to fear, for that the Red Sea will divide, the tribes of the Lord will pass through dry shod, and all their enemies, like Pharaoh and his host, shall sink in overwhelming ruin. If the doctrine maintained by many of the soberest interpreters of Scripture for a century past, including such names as Brown of Haddington, Thomas Scot, and others, be well founded--viz, that the putting down of the testimony of the witnesses is still to come, this theory must not only be a delusion, but a delusion of most fatal tendency--a delusion that by throwing professors off their guard, and giving them an excuse for taking their ease, rather than standing in the high places of the field, and bearing bold and unflinching testimony for Christ, directly paves the way for that very extinction of the testimony which is predicted. I enter not into any historical disquisition as to the question, whether, as a matter of fact, it was true that the witnesses were slain before Luther appeared. Those who wish to see an historical argument on the subject may see it in the Red Republic, which I venture to think has not yet been answered. Neither do I think it worth while particularly to examine the assumption of Dr. Wylie, and I hold it to be a pure and gratuitous assumption, that the 1260 days during which the saints of God in Gospel times were to suffer for righteousness' sake, has any relation whatever, as a half period, to a whole, symbolised by the "Seven times" that passed over Nebuchadnezzar when he was suffering and chastened for his pride and blasphemy, as the representative of the "world power." But to this only I call the reader's attention, that even on the

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theory of Dr. Wylie himself, the witnesses of Christ could not possibly have finished their testimony before the Decree of the Immaculate Conception came forth. The theory of Dr. Wylie, and those who take the same general view as he, is, that the "finishing of the testimony," means "completing the elements" of the testimony, bearing a full and complete testimony against the errors of Rome. Dr. Wylie himself admits that "the dogma of the "Immaculate Conception' [which was given forth only during the last few years] declares Mary truly 'divine,' and places her upon the altars of Rome as practically the sole and supreme object of worship" (The Great Exodus, p. 109). This was NEVER done before, and therefore the errors and blasphemies of Rome were not complete until that decree had gone forth, if even then. Now, if the corruption and blasphemy of Rome were "incomplete" up to our own day, and if they have risen to a height which was never witnessed before, as all men instinctively felt and declared, when that decree was issued, how could the testimony of the witnesses be "complete" before Luther's day! It is nothing to say that the principle and the germ of this decree were in operation long before. The same thing may be

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said of all the leading errors of Rome long before Luther's day. They were all in essence and substance very broadly developed, from near the time when Gregory the Great commanded the image of the Virgin to be carried forth in the processions that supplicated the Most High to remove the pestilence from Rome, when it was committing such havoc among its citizens. But that does in no wise prove that they were "complete," or that the witnesses of Christ could then "finish their testimony" by bearing a full and "complete testimony" against the errors and corruptions of the Papacy. I submit this view of the matter to every intelligent reader for his prayerful consideration. If we have not "understanding of the times," it is vain to expect that we "shall know what Israel ought to do." If we are saying "Peace and safety," when trouble is at hand, or underrating the nature of that trouble, we cannot be prepared for the grand struggle when that struggle shall come.

NOTE R, p. 274.

Attes, the Sinner.

We have seen that the name Pan signifies "to turn aside," and have concluded that as it is a synonym for Hata, "to sin," the proper generic meaning of which is "to turn aside from he straight line," that name was the name of or first parent, Adam. One of the names of Eve, as the primeval goddess, worshipped in ancient Babylon, while it gives confirmation to this conclusion, elucidates also another classical myth in a somewhat unexpected way. The name of that primeval goddess, as given by Berosus, is Thalatth, which, as we have seen, signifies "the rib." Adam's name, as her husband, would be "Baal-Thalatth," "Husband of the rib;" for Baal signifies Lord in the sense frequently of "Husband." But "Baal-Thalatth," according to a peculiar Hebrew idiom already noticed (p. 38, Note), signifies also "He that halted or went sideways." This is the remote origin of Vulcan's lameness; for Vulcan, as the "Father of the gods," needed to be identified with Adam, as well as the other "fathers of the gods," to whom we have already traced him. Now Adam, in consequence of his sin and departure from the straight line of duty, was, all his life after, in a double sense "Baal-Thalatth," not only the "Husband of the rib," but "The man that halted or walked sideways." In memory of this turning aside, no doubt it was that the priests of Baal (1 Kings xviii. 26) "limped at the altar," when supplicating their god to hear them (for that is the exact meaning in the original of the word rendered "leaped"--see KITTO'S Bib. Cyclop, vol. i. p. 261), and that the Druidic priests went sideways in performing some of their sacred rites, as appears from the following passage of Davies:--"The dance is performed with solemn festivity about the lakes, round which the sanctuary the priests move sideways, whilst the sanctuary is earnestly invoking the gliding king, before whom the fair one retreats upon the veil that covers the huge stones" (Druids, p. 171). This Davies regards as connected with the story of Jupiter, the father of the gods, violating his own daughter in the form of a serpent (p. 561). Now, let the reader look at what is on the breast of the Ephesian Diana, as the Mother of the gods (ante, p. 29), and he will see a reference to her share in the same act of going aside; for there is the crab, and how does a crab go but sideways? This, then, shows the meaning of another of the signs of the Zodiac. Cancer commemorates the fatal turning aside of our first parent from the paths of righteousness, when the covenant of Eden was broken.