and broke asunder the
fetters which before could not be broken; and with his _invincible
power_ visited those who sat in the deep darkness by iniquity, and the
shadow of death by sin. Then the King of Glory trampled upon Death,
seized the Prince of Hell, and deprived him of all his power."
(Description of _Christ's_ Descent into Hell. Nicodemus: Apoc.)

[495:4] "The women weeping for Tammuz was no more than expressive of the
Sun's loss of power in the winter quarter." (King's Gnostics, p. 102.
See also, Cox: Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 113.)

After remaining for three days and three nights in the lowest regions,
the Sun begins to ascend, thus he "rises from the dead," as it were, and
"ascends into heaven."

[496:1] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 174.

[496:2] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 100.

[496:3] Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 125.

[496:4] Egyptian Belief, p. 182.

[496:5] Ibid.

[496:6] Origin of Religions, p. 264.

[497:1] Origin of Religions, p. 268.

[497:2] Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 384.

[497:3] Origin of Religion, pp. 264-268.

[498:1] The number twelve appears in many of the Sun-myths. It refers to
the twelve hours of the day or night, or the twelve moons of the lunar
year. (Cox: Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 165. Bonwick: Egyptian Belief,
p. 175.)

Osiris, the Egyptian Saviour, had twelve apostles. (Bonwick, p. 175.)

In all religions of antiquity the number _twelve_, which applies to the
twelve signs of the zodiac, are reproduced in all kinds and sorts of
forms. For instance: such are the _twelve_ great gods; the _twelve_
apostles of Osiris; the _twelve_ apostles of Jesus; the _twelve_ sons of
Jacob, or the _twelve_ tribes; the _twelve_ altars of James; the
_twelve_ labors of Hercules; the _twelve_ shields of Mars; the _twelve_
brothers Arvaux; the _twelve_ gods Consents; the _twelve_ governors in
the Manichean System; the _adectyas_ of the East Indies; the _twelve_
asses of the Scandinavians; the city of the _twelve_ gates in the
Apocalypse; the _twelve_ wards of the city; the _twelve_ sacred
cushions, on which the Creator sits in the cosmogony of the Japanese;
the _twelve_ precious stones of the _rational_, or the ornament worn by
the high priest of the Jews, &c., &c. (See Dupuis, pp. 39, 40.)

[499:1] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 505.

[499:2] Luke, ii. 32.

[499:3] John, xii, 46.

[499:4] John, ix. v.

[499:5] I. John, i. 5.

[500:1] Monumental Christianity, p. 117.

[501