"American priests were found in Mexico, beyond Darien, baptizing boys and girls a year old in the temples at the cross, pouring the water upon them from a small pitcher." The water which they used was called the "WATER OF REGEN The Rev. Father Acosta alludes to this baptism by saying: "The Indians had an infinite number of other ceremonies and customs which resembled to the ancient law of Moses, and some to those which the Moores use, and some approaching near to the Law of the Gospel, as the baths or Opacuna, as they called them; they did wash themselves in water to cleanse themselves from sin."s After speaking of "confession which the Indians used," he says: "When the Inca had been confessed, he made a certain bath to cleanse himself, in a running river, saying these words: 'I have told my sins to the Sun (his god); receive them, O thou River, and carry them to the Sea, where they may never appear more.' "4 He tells us that the Mexicans also had a baptism for infants, which they performed with great ceremony." Baptism was also practiced in Yucatan. They administered it to children three years old; and called it REGENERATION." The ancient Peruvians also baptized their children.' History, then, records the fact that all the principal nations of antiquity administered the rite of baptism to their children, and to adults who were initiated into the sacred mysteries. The words "regenerationem et impunitatem perjuriorum suorum "-used by the heathen in this ceremony-prove that the doctrines as well as the outward forms were the same. The giving of a name to the child, the marking of him with the cross as a sign of his being a soldier of Christ, followed at fifteen years of age by his admission into the mysteries of the ceremony of confirmation, also prove that the two institutions are identical. But the most striking feature of all is the regeneration-and consequent forgiveness of sinsthe being "born again." This shows that the Christian baptism in doctrine as well as in outward ceremony, was precisely that of the heathen. We have seen that it was supposed to destroy all the evil in him, and all things that might injure him were requested to depart from him. So likewise among the Christians; the priest, looking upon the child, and baptizing him, was formerly accustomed to say: 1 Monumental Christianity, pp. 389, 390. • Kingsborough: Mex. Antiq., vol. vi. p. 114. Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 369. ♦ Ibid. p. 361. • Ibid. p. 369. • Monumental Christianity, p. 390. "I command thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that thou come out and depart from this infant, whom our Lord Jesus Christ has vouchsafed to call to this holy baptism, to be made member of his body and of his holy congregation. And presume not hereafter to exercise any tyranny towards this infant, whom Christ hath bought with his precious blood, and by this holy baptism called to be of his flock.” The ancients also baptized with fire as well as water. This is what is alluded to many times in the gospels; for instance, Matt. (iii. 11) makes John say, "I, indeed, baptize you with water; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with FIRE." The baptism by fire was in use by the Romans; it was performed by jumping three times through the flames of a sacred fire. This is still practiced in India. Even at the present day, in some parts of Scotland, it is a custom at the baptism of children to swing them in their clothes over a fire three times, saying, "Now, fire, burn this child, or never." Here is evidently a relic of the heathen baptism by fire. Christian baptism was not originally intended to be administered to unconscious infants, but to persons in full possession of their faculties, and responsible for their actions. Moreover, it was performed, as is well known, not merely by sprinkling the forehead, but by causing the candidate to descend naked into the water, the priest joining him there, and pouring the water over his head. The catechumen could not receive baptism until after he understood something of the nature of the faith he was embracing, and was prepared to assume its obligations. A rite more totally unfitted for administration to infants could hardly have been found. Yet such was the need that was felt for a solemn recognition by religion of the entrance of a child into the world, that this rite, in course of time, completely lost its original nature, and, as with the heathen, infancy took the place of maturity: sprinkling of immersion. But while the age and manner of baptism were altered, the ritual remained under the influence of the primitive idea with which it had been instituted. The obligations were no longer confined to the persons baptized, hence they must be undertaken for them. Thus was the Christian Church landed in the absurdity ----unparalleled, we believe, in any other natal ceremony-of requiring the most solemn promises to be made, not by those who were thereafter to fulfill them, but by others in their name; these others having no power to enforce their fulfillment, and neither those actu ally assuming the engagement, nor those on whose behalf it was assumed, being morally responsible in case it should be broken. Yet this strange incongruity was forced upon the church by an imperious want of human nature itself, and the insignificant sects who have adopted the baptism of adults only, have failed, in their zeal for historical consistency, to recognize a sentiment whose roots lie far deeper than the chronological foundation of Christian rites, and stretch far wider than the geographical boundaries of the Christian faith. The intention of all these forms of baptism is identical. Water, as the natural means of physical cleansing, is the universal symbol of spiritual purification. Hence immersion, or washing, or sprinkling, implies the deliverance of the infant from the stain of original sin.' The Pagan and Christian rituals, as we have seen, are perfectly clear on this head. In both, the avowed intention is to wash away the sinful nature common to humanity; in both, the infant is declared to be born again by the agency of water. Among the early Christians, as with the Pagans, the sacrament of baptism was supposed to contain a full and absolute expiation of sin; and the soul was instantly restored to its original purity, and entitled to the promise of eternal salvation. Among the proselytes of Christianity, there were many who judged it imprudent to precipitate a salutary rite, which could not be repeated; to throw away an inestimable privilege, which could never be recovered. By the delay of their baptism, they could venture freely to indulge their passions in the enjoyments of this world, while they still retained in their own hands the means of a sure and easy absolution. St. Constantine was one of these. 1 That man is born in original sin seems to have been the belief of all nations of antiquity, especially the Hindus. This sense of original corruption is expressed in the following prayer, used by them: "I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful, I am conceived in sin. Save me, O thou lotus-eyed Heri, the remover of Sin." (Wil liams' Hinduism, p. 214.) CHAPTER XXXII. THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER. THE worship of the "Virgin," the "Queen of Heaven," the "Great Goddess," the "Mother of God," &c., which has become one of the grand features of the Christian religion-the Council of Ephesus (A. D. 431) having declared Mary "Mother of God," her assumption being declared in 813, and her Immaculate Conception by the Pope and Council in 1851'- was almost universal, for ages before the birth of Jesus, and "the pure virginity of the celestial mother was a tenet of faith for two thousand years before the virgin now adored was born.""" In India, they have worshiped, for ages, Devi, MahaDevi-"The One Great Goddess"-and have temples erected in honor of her. Gonzales states that among the Indians he found a temple "Parituræ Virginis"-of the Virgin about to bring forth." FIG. 16. Maya, the mother of Buddha, and Devaki the mother of Crishna, were worshiped as virgins, and represented with the infant Saviours in their arms, just as the virgin of the Christians is represented at the present day. Maya was so pure that it was impossible for God, man, or Asura to view her with carnal desire. Fig. No. 16 is 1 See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 115, and Monumental Christianity, pp. 206 and 226. 2 Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 159. See Williams' Hinduism. See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 540. St. Jerome says: "It is handed down as a tradition among the Gymnosophists of India, a representation of the Virgin Devaki, with the infant Saviour Crishna, taken from Moor's "Hindu Pantheon." "No person could bear to gaze upon Devaki, because of the light that invested her." "The gods, invisible to mortals, celebrated her praise continually from the time that Vishnu was contained in her per son."1⁄2 "Crishna and his mother are almost always represented black," and the word "Crishna" means "the black." The Chinese, who have had several avatars, or virgin-born gods, among them, have also worshiped a Virgin Mother from time immemorial. Sir Charles Francis Davis, in his "History of China," tells us that the Chinese at Canton worshiped an idol, to which they gave the name of "The Virgin.” The Rev. Joseph B. Gross, in his "Heathen Religion,” tells us that: "Upon the altars of the Chinese temples were placed, behind a screen, an image of Shin-moo, or the Holy Mother,' sitting with a child in her arms, in an alcove, with rays of glory around her head, and tapers constantly burning before her."5 poor fishermen. Shin-moo is called the "Mother Goddess," and the " Virgin." Her child, who was exposed in his infancy, was brought up by He became a great man, and performed wonderful miracles. In wealthy houses the sacred image of the "Mother Goddess" is carefully kept in a recess behind an altar, veiled with a silken screen.* The Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff, in his "Travels," speaking of the Chinese people, says: "Though otherwise very reasonable men, they have always showed themselves bigoted heathens. They have everywhere built splendid temples, chiefly in honor of Ma-tsoo-po, the Queen of Heaven.'” Isis, mother of the Egyptian Saviour, Horus, was worshiped as a virgin. Nothing is more common on the religious monuments of Egypt than the infant Horus seated in the lap of his virgin mother. She is styled "Our Lady," the "Queen of Heaven," "Star of the Sea," "Governess," "Mother of God," "Intercessor," "Immacu that Buddha, the founder of their system was brought forth by a virgin from her side." (Contra Jovian, bk. i. Quoted in Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 183.) 1 Plate 59. 2 Monumental Christianity, p. 218. Of the Virgin Mary we read: "Her face was shining as snow, and its brightness could hardly be borne. Her conversation was with the angels, &c.' (Nativity of Mary, Apoc.) See Ancient Faiths, i. 401. 4 Davis' China, vol. ii. p. 95. The Heathen Relig., p. 60. • Barrows: Travels in China, p. 467. 7 Gutzlaff's Voyages, p. 154. |