of the religious wars which otherwise seem inexplicable. On this ground they are easily explained: and this circumstance will satisfactorily explain several other equally inexplicable phænomena, as we shall see hereafter. In some parts of India a ninth Avatar was believed to have come, called Salivahana; in others, Ceylon for instance, he was thought to be another Buddha. Respecting this I shall say more hereafter.
Perhaps I shall be told that the incarnations of the Hindoo Gods are innumerable, and extend through millions of ages. This is true: probably to conceal their real periods from the profane eye.[1] But with these I do not meddle, as they do not militate against the existence of real cycles and for periods of true time. The ten incarnations were the ten revolutions of the Neros or the sacred Om. At the birth of Christ, eight had passed as allowed by the Brahmins, and testified of by Virgil, Zoroaster, and the Sibyls. All the mystics expected the world to end in 6000 years; that was in ten Avatars, Yugs, Calpas, or ages of 600 years each. The Gentiles were in no fear, as they thought there were yet 1200 years to run, while many Christians, taking their uncertain and doubtful calculations from the LXX. and Josephus, expected the end of the world every day. They saw the calculations in these books could not be brought to any certainty; and, to make the matter worse, they knew not whether their ages were to begin from the creation or the flood. But the term of 6000 years, for the duration of the world, was the generally received opinion among the early Christians; and this continues to be the opinion of many of them. The celebrated mystic, Mr. Irving, who lately preached with great éclat to the rabble of St. James’s and St. Giles’s, in London, has just announced that the Millenium will commence in a very few years.
The reader may probably have observed that, in my inquiries into the various incarnations of Buddha and Cristna, and into the ancient cycles, &c., I have scarcely ever named any thing later than the supposed æra of Jesus Christ. Since that epoch, however, much very interesting matter and most valuable information respecting the last two cycles, and the origin of the Romish religion, will be laid before him; but, after much consideration, I have determined to defer it until I have shewn whence the various rites and ceremonies of that religion, on which I have not yet touched, were derived. I shall also previously explain many other circumstances relating to the ancient mythoses.
CHAPTER IV.
CROSS, THE MEANING OF IT.—JUSTIN AND TERTULLIAN ON THE CROSS.—MONOGRAMS OF CHRIST AND OSIRIS.—CROSS OF EZEKIEL AND OTHERS.—OTHER MONOGRAMS OF CHRIST.—CHRISMON SANCTI AMBROGII.—SACRED NUMBERS IN THE TEMPLES OF BRITAIN.—MITHRA.—JOSEPHUS AND VALLANCEY ON MYSTIC NUMBERS.—INDIAN CIRCLES.—LAMA OF TIBET.—INDRA CRUCIFIED.— JESUITS’ ACCOUNT OF TIBET.
1. I will now shew how the cycle of 600, or the Neros, was concealed in another system and by another kind of mysticism. I scarcely need remind my reader that the cross has been an emblem used by all Christians, from the earliest ages. In my Celtic Druids he may see many proofs that it was used by the most ancient of the Gentiles, the Egyptians, and the Druids. The meaning of it, as an emblem, has been a matter much disputed. It has generally been thought to be
- ↑ Asiat. Res. Vol. II. p. 114.
