Esoteric Christianity, or The Lesser Mysteries by Annie Besant (best 7 inch ereader TXT) 📖

_Ibid._ bk. I. ch. xiii.

[122] Vol XII. _Stromata_, bk. V. ch. iv.

[123] _Ibid._ bk. VI. ch. xv.

[124] Book I. of _Against Celsus_ is found in Vol. X. of the Ante-Nicene Library. The remaining books are in Vol. XXIII.

[125] Vol. X. _Origen against Celsus_, bk. I. ch. vii.

[126] _Ibid._

[127] Ex. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30, and compare with Heb. viii. 5, and ix. 25.

[128] _Origen against Celsus_, bk. IV. ch. xvi.

[129] _Ibid._ bk. III. ch. lix.

[130] _Ibid._ ch. lxi.

[131] _Ibid._ ch. lxii.

[132] _Ibid._, ch. lx.

[133] Vol. XXIII. _Origen against Celsus_, bk. V. ch. xxv.

[134] _Ibid._ ch. xxviii.

[135] _Ibid._ ch. xxix.

[136] _Ibid._ ch. xx xi.

[137] _Ibid._ ch. xxxii.

[138] _Ibid._ ch. xlv.

[139] _Ibid._ ch. xlvi.

[140] _Ibid._ chs. xlvii.-liv.

[141] _Ibid._ ch. lxxiv.

[142] _Ibid._ bk. IV., ch. xxxix.

[143] Vol. X. _Origen against Celsus_, bk. I., ch. xvii, and others.

[144] _Ibid._ ch. xlii.

[145] Vol. X. _De Principiis_, Preface, p. 8.

[146] _Ibid._ ch. i.

[147] S. John xiv. 18-20.

[148] _Loc. cit._ ch. i. sec. III. p. 55.

[149] _Ibid._ ch. I. Sec. III. pp. 55, 56.

[150] _Ibid._ pp. 54, 55.

[151] "Seems to have been" is a somewhat weak expression, after what is said by Clement and Origen, of which some specimens are given in the text.

[152] _Ibid._, p. 62.

[153] Article on "Mysticism."--_Encyc. Britan._

[154] Article "Mysticism." _Encyclopædia Britannica._

[155] _Orpheus_, pp. 53, 54.

[156] Obligation must be here acknowledged to the Article "Mysticism," in the _Encyc. Brit._, though that publication is by no means responsible for the opinions expressed.

[157] _The Mysteries of Magic._ Trans. by A. E. Waite, pp. 58 and 60.

[158] II. S. Peter i. 5.

[159] Gal. iv. 19.

[160] II. Cor. v. 16.

[161] S. John i. 14.

[162] S. John i. 32.

[163] S. Matt. iii. 17.

[164] _Ibid._ iv. 17.

[165] I. Tim. iii. 16.

[166] S. John x. 34-36.

[167] S. John xiv. 18, 19.

[168] Valentinus. Trans. by G. R. S. Mead. _Pistis Sophia_, bk. i., I.

[169] _Ante_, p. 72.

[170] _Ibid._ 60.

[171] _Ibid._ bk. ii., 218.

[172] _Ibid._ 230.

[173] _Ibid._ 357.

[174] _Ibid._ 377.

[175] Vol. II. Justin Martyr. _First Apology_, §§ liv., lxii., and lxvi.

[176] Vol. II. Justin Martyr. _Second Apology_, § xiii.

[177] Vol. VII. Tertullian, _On Baptism_, ch. v.

[178] The student might read Plato's account of the "Cave" and its inhabitants, remembering that Plato was an Initiate. _Republic_, Bk. vii.

[179] Eliphas Lévi _The Mysteries of Magic_, p. 48.

[180] Bonwick. _Egyptian Belief_, p. 157. Quoted in Williamson's _Great Law_, p. 26.

[181] The festival "Natalis Solis Invicti," the birthday of the Invincible Sun.

[182] Williamson. _The Great Law_, pp. 40-42. Those who wish to study this matter as one of Comparative Religion cannot do better than read _The Great Law_, whose author is a profoundly religious man and a Christian.

[183] _Ibid._ pp. 36, 37.

[184] _The Great Law_, p. 116.

[185] _Ibid._ p. 58.

[186] _Ibid._ p. 56.

[187] _Ibid._ pp. 120-123.

[188] See on this the opening of the Johannine Gospel, i. 1-5. The name Logos, ascribed to the manifested God, shaping matter--"all things were made by Him"--is Platonic, and is hence directly derived from the Mysteries; ages before Plato, Vâk, Voice, derived from the same source, was used among Hindus.

[189] See _Ante_, pp. 124.

[190] See _Ante_, pp. 93-94.

[191] See _Ante_, p. 85.

[192] II. Cor. iv. 18.

[193] II. Cor. v. 7.

[194] Heb. v. 14.

[195] S. Luke xv. 16.

[196] _Ibid._ xiv. 26.

[197] S. Matt. v. 28.

[198] Heb. xi. 27.

[199] S. Matt v. 45.

[200] S. Luke ix. 49, 50.

[201] S. Matt xvii. 20.

[202] II. Cor. vi. 8-10.

[203] Col. iii. 1.

[204] S. Matt. v. 8, and S. John xvii. 21.

[205] Gen. i. 2.

[206] S. John i. 3.

[207] _The Christian Creed_, p. 29. This is a most valuable and fascinating little book, on the mystical meaning of the creeds.

[208] _Ibid._ p. 42.

[209] A name of the Holy Ghost.

[210] _Ibid._ p. 43.

[211] _Ante_, p. 124.

[212] S. Matt. xviii. 3.

[213] 2 S. Peter iii. 15, 16.

[214] A. Besant. _Essay on the Atonement._

[215] _Ibid._

[216] _Brihadâranyakopanishat_, I. i. 1.

[217] _Bhagavad Gîtâ_, iii. 10.

[218] _Brihadâranyakopanishat_, I. ii. 7.

[219] _Mundakopanishat_, II. ii. 10.

[220] Haug. _Essays on the Parsîs_, pp. 12-14.

[221] Rev. xiii. 8.

[222] W. Williamson. _The Great Law_, p. 406.

[223] A. Besant. _Nineteenth Century_, June, 1895, "The Atonement."

[224] Heb. i. 5.

[225] _Ibid._, 2.

[226] C.W. Leadbeater. _The Christian Creed_, pp. 54-56.

[227] _Ibid._ pp. 56, 57.

[228] S. Matt. xxv. 21, 23, 31-45.

[229] Is. liii. 11.

[230] S. Matt. xvi. 25.

[231] S. John xii. 25.

[232] Heb. vii. 16.

[233] _Light on the Path_, § 8.

[234] Heb. vii. 25.

[235] Heb. v. 8, 9.

[236] I Tim. iii. 16.

[237] Annie Besant. _Theosophical Review_, Dec., 1898, pp. 344, 345.

[238] C. W. Leadbeater. _The Christian Creed_, pp. 61, 62.

[239] I Cor. xv. 44.

[240] I Thess. v. 23.

[241] See Chapter IX., "The Trinity."

[242] See _Ante_, pp. 84, 99, 100.

[243] 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4.

[244] S. Matt. v. 48.

[245] S. John xvii. 22, 23.

[246] 2 Cor. v. 1.

[247] 1 Cor. xv. 28.

[248] This mistranslation was a very natural one, as the translation was made in the seventeenth century, and all idea of the pre-existence of the soul and of its evolution had long faded out of Christendom, save in the teachings of a few sects regarded as heretical and persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church.

[249] S. John iii. 13.

[250] Heb. v. 9.

[251] Rev. i. 18.

[252] H. P. Blavatsky. _The Voice of the Silence_, p. 90, 5th Edition.

[253] S. John. xvii. 5.

[254] 1 Cor. xv. 20.

[255] _Chhândogyopanishat_, VI. ii., 1.

[256] Deut. vi. 4.

[257] 1 Cor. viii. 6.

[258] An error: En, or Ain, Soph is not one of the Trinity, but the One Existence, manifested in the Three; nor is Kadmon, or Adam Kadmon, one Sephira, but their totality.

[259] Quoted in Williamson's _The Great Law_, pp. 201, 202.

[260] H. H. Milman. _The History of Christianity_, 1867, pp. 70-72.

[261] _Asiatic Researches_, i. 285.

[262] S. Sharpe. _Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christology_, p. 14.

[263] See Williamson's _The Great Law_, p. 196.

[264] _Loc. Cit._, pp. 208, 209.

[265] S. John i. 3.

[266] Jer. li. 15.

[267] See _Ante_, pp. 179-180.

[268] Athanasian Creed.

[269] Rev. iv. 8.

[270] S. Luke. i. 38.

[271] _Ibid_, 35.

[272] Book of Wisdom, viii. 1.

[273] Vol. IV. Ante-Nicene Library. S. Clement of Alexandria. _Stromata_, bk. V., ch. ii.

[274] See _Ante_, p. 262.

[275] See _Ante_, p. 207.

[276] Gen. i. 1.

[277] Job xxxviii. 4; Zech. xii. 1; &c.

[278] Gen. i. 2.

[279] Gen. i. 2.

[280] See _Ante_, p. 262.

[281] See _Ante_, p. 262.

[282] S. John i. 3.

[283] _Bhagavad Gîtâ_ ix. 4.

[284] 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28.

[285] S. John xiv. 6. See also the further meaning of this text on p. 272.

[286] Heb. xii. 9.

[287] Numb. xvi. 22.

[288] Gen. i. 26.

[289] S. Matt. v. 48.

[290] S. John xvii. 5.

[291] S. John v. 26.

[292] S. Matt. i. 22.

[293] Heb. ii. 18.

[294] Much of this chapter has already appeared in an earlier work by the author, entitled, _Some Problems of Life_.

[295] S. James i. 17.

[296] Gen. xxviii. 12, 13.

[297] See Chapter xii.

[298] Heb. i. 14.

[299] S. Matt. x. 29.

[300] Acts xvii. 28.

[301] T. H. Huxley. _Essays on some Controverted Questions_, p. 36.

[302] S. Luke xxii. 41, 43.

[303] S. John i. 11.

[304] Rev. iii. 20.

[305] H. P. Blavatsky. _Key to Theosophy_, p. 10.

[306] Is. xxxiii. 17.

[307] _On the Mysteries_, sec. v. ch. 26.

[308] Ps. xl. 7, 8, Prayer Book version.

[309] S. Luke, v. 18-26.

[310] _Ibid._ vii. 47.

[311] G. R. S. Mead, translated. _Loc. cit._, bk. ii., §§ 260, 261.

[312] _Ibid._ §§ 299, 300.

[313] S. Matt. xii. 36.

[314] _Ibid._ ix. 2.

[315] _Loc. cit._ iii. 9.

[316] _Ibid._ vi. 43.

[317] _Ibid._ ix. 30.

[318] See _ante_, Chap. VIII.

[319] This is the cause of the sweetness and patience often noticed in the sick who are of very pure nature. They have learned the lesson of suffering, and they do not make fresh evil karma by impatience under the result of past bad karma, then exhausting itself.

[320] S. Luke, vii. 48, 50.

[321] _Loc. cit._, ix. 31.

[322] S. Matt. vii. 1.

[323] _Loc. cit._, bk. ii. § 305.

[324] Rev. iii. 20.

[325] G. Bruno, trans. by L. Williams. _The Heroic Enthusiasts_, vol. i., p. 133.

[326] _Ibid._, vol. ii., pp. 27, 28.

[327] _Ibid._, pp. 102, 103.

[328] Rev. iv. 5.

[329] The phrase "force and matter" is used as it is so well-known in science. But force is one of the properties of matter, the one mentioned as Motion. See _Ante_, p. 264.

[330] Job xxxviii. 7.

[331] See on forms created by musical notes any scientific book on Sound, and also Mrs. Watts-Hughes' illustrated book on _Voice Figures_.

[332] See _ante_, p. 138 and p. 302.

[333] In the Sacrament of Penance the ashes are now usually omitted, except on special occasions, but none the less they form part of the rite.

[334] See _ante_ p. 329.

[335] _Christian Records_, p. 129.

[336] _The Great Law_, pp. 161-166.

[337] See _ante_, p. 151.

[338] _Diegesis_, p. 219.

[339] 1 Pet. iii. 4.

[340] 2 Kings vi. 17.

[341] 1 Cor. x. 16.

[342] Jer. xliv.

[343] Gen. xiv. 18, 19.

[344] _The Great Law_, pp. 177-181, 185.

[345] Lev. xvii. 11.

[346] Rom. xii. 1.

[347] Isaiah liv. 5; lxii. 5.

[348] Eph. v. 23-32.

[349] Athanasian Creed.

[350] 2 Pet. i. 20.

[351] 1 See _ante_, p. 102.

[352] 2 Cor. iii. 6.

[353] 1 Cor. ii. 11, 13.

[354] Is. vi. 6, 7.

[355] S. John v. 4.