Forlong - Rivers of Life

472
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
faithful followers, promising the putting away of sins by a laver of his own . . . . .
sets his mark on the forehead of his soldiers, celebrates also the obltation of bread, and
introduces an image of a Resurrection, and under a sword wreathes a crown.” The
Resurrection of Mithras assures us of his death, and as to Baptism, Tertullian states that
this was practiced at the “sacred rites” of “Isis or Mithras, and at the Apollinarian and
Eleusinian games,” where by “washing,” “imbuing with water,” or “baptising, “they
(the heathen) presume that the effect is regeneration and the remission of the penalties
due to their perjuries; and thus “the nations who are strangers to all understanding
of spiritual powers ascribe the self-same efficacy” as we do to Christian rites (chap. v.)
Tertullian 1 acknowledges that at infant baptism the Christian tasted a mixture of
milk and honey, as Isaiah’s child appears to have done in accordance with the rites of
Zarathustra. 2 It was not from Judaism that Christians got baptism, for only proselytes
to that faith were baptised; the rite, like “the Supper,” bread, water, or wine, was acknowledged
by Justin, Tertullian, and the fathers, to be of far more ancient date; they
were so simple and spiritual, it was said as to super-sede all the rites of the ancients,
especially Jewish sacrifices and circumcision. The Lion of Mithras, it had been taught,
was the “Lion of Juda”—a symbol of the deity. In Revelation (see also Esdras xi. and
xii.) Christ is called by this name, but elsewhere the “Lion” clearly means Satan, for
the character of gods cahnge in men’s eyes according as they are loved, feared, or hated.
Mithras appears to have been a later name for the sun than Perseus, Peresis, Perses,
Perez, or Parez, from which came Persians, Parsis, Parhasians, and Perezites. These
were no other than Heliadæ and Osirians; for Perseus was Osiris, and the sacred cavern
of Mithras was called Perseum. 3 Greeks or Helladians claim Perseus as father, saying
he was born in Argos, but Diodorus Siculus lays the foundations of hia history in
Egypt (7, 1), while Herodotus tells us that he sprang from Asyria, and that “nor surname
of any mortal father is attributed to Perseus” (vi. 53). This shows that they knew
him as the Sun, “without beginning of days,” whose throne “is ever vacant,” but on
which “none may sit.”
Herodotus (vii p. 150) makes Xerxes claim kindred with the Argives, who said that
Perseus was their Father-god. Mundane history in Babylon makes Perseus marry
Asterie, the stars, daughter of Belus, the Astarte of later days, by whom he had Hekate
or Juno. A king Perseus cleary reigned long at Memphis, and was called the “Father
of Astronomy.” He diacovered Helike, the polar constellation, which was named
after him, obtained divine honour at death, had a temple devoted to him, and was
worshipped as a god. The watch or light-tower on the Herakleotic mouth of the Nile,
and indeed all light-houses or Phari, were sacred to Perseus, and his temple of
Chemis or Kemis long remained sacred, and of great repute. Perseus, they said,
1 De Corona, iii.
2 Is. vii. 15. Zarathustra was always acknowledged as a prophet by Jews. See Gospel of the
Infancy, III.
3 Bryant, II., p. 68, and Holwell, p. 330.