The Two Babylons

And some are hung to bleach upon the WIND."

Hence the priests of Jupiter (who was originally just another form of Bacchus), were called Flamens, --that is Breathers, or bestowers of the Holy Ghost, by breathing upon their votaries.

Now, in the Mysteries, the "spittle" was just another symbol for the same thing. In Egypt, through which the Babylonian system

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passed to Western Europe, the name of the "Pure or Purifying Spirit" was "Rekh." But "Rekh" also signified "spittle"; so that to anoint the nose and ears of the initiated with "spittle," according to the mystic system, was held to be anointing them with the "Purifying Spirit." That Rome in adopting the "spittle" actually copied from some Chaldean ritual in which "spittle" was the appointed emblem of the "Spirit," is plain from the account which she gives in her own recognised formularies of the reason of anointing the ears with it. The reason for anointing the ears with "spittle," says Bishop Hay, is because "by the grace of baptism, the ears of our soul are opened to hear the Word of God, and the inspirations of His Holy Spirit." But what, it may be asked, has the "spittle" to do with the odour of sweetness"? I answer, The very word "Rekh," which signified the "Holy Spirit," and was visibly represented by the "spittle," was intimately connected with "Rikh," which signifies a "fragrant smell," or "odour of sweetness." Thus, a knowledge of the Mysteries gives sense and a consistent meaning to the cabalistic saying addressed by the Papal baptiser to the person about to be baptised, when the "spittle" is daubed on his nose and ear, which otherwise would have no meaning

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at all--"Ephpheta, Be thou opened into an odour of sweetness." While this was the primitive truth concealed under the "spittle," yet the whole spirit of Paganism was so opposed to the spirituality of the patriarchal religion, and indeed intended to make it void, and to draw men utterly away from it, while pretending to do homage to it, that among the multitude in general the magic use of "spittle" became the symbol of the grossest superstition. Theocritus shows with what debasing rites it was mixed up in Sicily and Greece; and Persius thus hold up to scorn the people of Rome in his day for their reliance on it to avert the influence of the "evil eye":--

"Our superstitions with our life begin;

The obscene old grandam, or the next of kin,

The new-born infant from the cradle takes,

And first of spittle a lustration makes;

Then in the spawl her middle finger dips,

Anoints the temples, forehead, and the lips,

Pretending force of magic to prevent (urentes oculos)

By virtue of her nasty excrement."--DRYDEN.

While thus far we have seen how the Papal baptism is just a reproduction of the Chaldean, there is still one other point to be noticed, which makes the demonstration complete. That point is contained in the following tremendous curse fulminated against a man who committed the unpardonable offence of leaving the Church of Rome, and published grave and weighty reasons for so doing: "May the Father, who creates man, curse him! May the Son, who suffered for us, curse him!" I do not stop to show how absolutely and utterly opposed such a curse as this is to the whole spirit of the Gospel. But what I call the reader's attention to is the astounding statement that "the Holy Ghost suffered for us in baptism." Where in the whole compass of Scripture could warrant be found for such an assertion as this, or anything that could even suggest it? But let the reader revert to the Babylonian account of the personality of the Holy Ghost, and the amount of blasphemy contained in this language will be apparent. According to the Chaldean doctrine, Semiramis, the wife of Ninus or Nimrod, when exalted to divinity under the Name of the Queen of Heaven, came, as we have seen, to be worshipped as Juno, the "Dove"--in other words, the Holy Spirit incarnate. Now, when her husband, for his blasphemous rebellion against the majesty of heaven, was cut off, for a season it was a time of tribulation also for her. The fragments of ancient history that have come down to us give an account of her trepidation and flight, to save herself from her adversaries. In the fables of the mythology, this flight was mystically represented in accordance with what was attributed

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to her husband. The bards of Greece represented Bacchus, when overcome by his enemies, as taking refuge in the depths of the ocean. Thus, Homer:--

"In a mad mood, while Bacchus blindly raged,

Lycurgus drove his trembling bands, confused,