know that the Druid system of religion, long before the time of Cambyses, had taken deep root in the British Isles.”[1] “The cross among the Egyptians was an hieroglyphic, importing the life that is to come.”[2]
Mr. Ledwick has observed that the presence of Heathen devices and crosses on the same coin are not unusual, as Christians in those early times were for the most part Semi pagans. This is diametrically in opposition to all the doctrines of the Protestants about the early purity of the religion of Christ, and its subsequent corruption by the Romists. It equally militates against the purity of the Culdees. In fact it is mere nonsense, for there can be no doubt that the cross was one of the most common of the Gentile symbols, and was adopted by the Christians like all their other rites and ceremonies from the Gentiles—and this assertion I will prove, before I finish this work.
Nothing in my opinion can more clearly shew the identity of the two systems of the Christian priests, and of the ancient worshipers of the Sun, than the fact, unquestionably proved, that the sign or monogram used by both was identically the same. It is absolutely impossible that this can be the effect of accident.
3. The following are monograms of Christ, ☧ ⳨; but it is unquestionable, that they are also monograms of Jupiter Ammon. The same character is found upon one of the medals of Decius, the great persecutor of the Christians, with this word upon it, ΒΑ☧ΑΤΟ.[3] This cipher is also found on the staff of Isis and of Osiris. There is also existing a medal of Ptolomy, king of Cyrene, having an eagle carrying a thunderbolt, with the monogram of Christ, to signify the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, which was in the neighbourhood of Cyrene, and in the kingdom of Ptolomy.[4]
Basnage says, “Nothing can be more opposite to Jesus Christ than the oracle of Jupiter Ammom. And yet the same cipher served the false God as well as the true one; for we see a medal of Ptolomy, king of Cyrene, having an eagle carrying a thunder-bolt, with the monogram of Christ to signify the Oracle of Jupiter Hammon.”[5]
Dr. Clarke has given a drawing of a medal, found in the Ruins of Citium, in Cyprus, which he shews is Phœnician, and, therefore, of very great antiquity. This medal proves that the Lamb, the holy cross, and the rosary, were in use in a very remote period, and that they all went together, long before the time of Jesus of Nazareth.
It is related by Socrates that when the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, was demolished by one of the Christian emperors in his pious zeal against the demons who inhabited those places, under the names of Gods, that beneath the foundation was discovered the monogram of Christ, and that the Christians made use of the circumstance as an argument in favour of their religion, thereby making many converts. It is very curious that this unexpected circumstance should have carried conviction (as we learn that it did) to the minds of the philosophers of the falsity of the religion of Christ, and to the minds of the Christians of its trath. Unquestionably when the Christians held that the digging up of this monogram from under the ruins of the temples was a proof that they should be overthrown by the Cross of Christ, with the Christian Roman Emperor and his legions at their elbow, they would have the best of the argument. But what was still more to the pur-
- ↑ Ind. Ant. Vol. VI. p. 104; Celtic Druids, by the Author.
- ↑ Ruffinus, Vol. II. p. 29; Sozomen says the same, Hist. Eccl. Vol. VII. p. 15.
- ↑ I suspect that this word having been inscribed on a coin is circular, and may either begin or end with the Ο—that it ought to be ΟΒΑ☧ΑΤ, and that it is a Hebrew word written in Greek letters, meaning the Creator, formed from the word ברא bra to create. The X is put in the middle of the word, the same as the Samach or Mem final, in the passage of Isaiah, and for the same reason.
- ↑ Bas. B. iii. Ch. xxiii. S. iii.
- ↑ Χρηςηριον, Scaliger in Euseb. Chron., Hist. Jews, B. iii. Ch. xxiii.
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