that pure fountain of Light, which is now denominated Freemasonry; because they contain innumerable references to some system more ancient than idolatry itself, which could be nothing but an institution of unequivocal purity attached to the true and only acceptable mode of paying divine worship to the supreme and invisible God. I rejoice however in the hope that I have accomplished a still more useful object than merely proving the antiquity of Freemasonry. I have drawn forth and illustrated some of the moral beauties of our science, which may shed a lustre over it in the estimation of the uninitiated; and also tend to make my brethren wiser masons and better men. This has occupied my most anxious attention, and if I have been unsuccessful, the failure must not be attributed to a want of diligence and assiduity in the pursuit to which some portion of my leisure has been for many years devoted. Before I take a final leave, however, I will offer a few brief observations on some of the ceremonies, emblems, and jewels, which have not been comprehended within the general design of these Lectures; and by so doing, I hope to furnish an epitome of the science, which, though wholly incomprehensible to the uninitiated, may be useful to the young mason, while grounding himself in the mysteries of symbolical knowledge. And, as the deity is the first and most important object of our attention, I shall commence this interesting disquisition with a few observations on the custom of uncovering the feet and bending the knee while offering up devotions to this august and beneficent Being. In the early ages of the world, one important indication of pure worship consisted in taking off the shoes when about to enter a temple dedicated to God. This custom was of very ancient observance, as we may infer from the interview with which Moses was favoured at the burning bush. The heathen nations used the same method of expressing the humility of their devotion. Not only did the wise and judicious Pythagoras command his disciples to worship with bare feet,* as an expressive symbol of humility and contrition of heart; but even the grosser worship of the Greeks and Romans enjoined the same practice. In public religious processions, the priests walked barefooted; the high-born Roman ladies did not dare to enter the temple of Vesta with covered feet; and in Greece, the female votaries walked barefooted in the processions of Ceres, The same usage prevailed equally in India, and the islands to the west of Europe; and even the American savages thought that uncovering the feet while in the act of devotion, was a sublime method of paying honour to the deity. Going barefoot, says Killet, was a sign of much sorrow; assumed by David to express his woeful expulsion from his Jambl, vit. Pyth, c. xxviii. Tricæn. p. 38. own country by his rebellious son;* and distres sed captives used it in their bondage in another country.† Allied to this reasonable practice, we find another custom which appears to have been enforced in ancient times. The devout worshipper was obliged to enter his temple with the right foot placed first over the threshold; and Vitruvius, in reference to this ceremony, tells us, that the steps which lead to any hallowed fane should be composed of an odd number; that the right foot, being used for the first step, might necessarily first enter the building. Genuflection, was used in the infancy of the world, as an act of devout homage to God; for it is in reality a just expression of humility and reverence from a created mortal to the Great Author of his existence. Pliny says, that " in the knees of man there is reposed a certain religious reverence, observed even in all the nations of the world. For humble suppliants creep and crouch to the knees of their superiors; their knees they touch, to their knees they reach forth their hands; their knees they worship and adore as religiously as the very altars of the gods." In the system of christianity, this custom is universally prevalent in obedience to the repeated injunctions of Christ and his Apostles. 2 Samuel xv. 33. + Isaiah xx. 2, 3, 4. Here it is Nat. Hist. 1. xi. c. 45. Luke xxii. 41.-Philippians ii. 10.-Romans xiv. 11.—Ephesians iii. 14.--Acts ix, 49, &c. &c. described as a proper and approved act of devotion; and one of the Fathers of the Church has conferred a still higher character upon it. He says, "when we bow the knee, it represents our fall in Adam ; and when we rise, having received the benefit of prayer addressed to the throne of grace, it is a type of our restoration in Christ by the grace of God, through whom we are able to lift up our hearts to heaven." The candidate for masonry is directed to bend his knee with a similar reference. He is in a state of intellectual darkness, as far as regards the science into which he is about to receive initiation. His mind unenlightened with the bright rays of masonic knowledge, bends before the divine illuminator, in the humble hope that his understanding may be opened and his mental faculties improved by the process of initiation, commenced with a devout supplication to, and a firm reliance on, that Great Being whose favour alone can convey protection and assistance in every difficulty and danger he may be called to sustain, as a trial of his patience, fortitude, and zeal. While thus engaged, he is placed with his face towards the east. For this custom, Masonry affords many substantial reasons. The ancients thought the east peculiarly sacred, because the Sun, the source of light and life, commenced his daily career in that quarter.* The practice may perhaps be * This elucidation, strictly speaking, may be erroneous; for in reality the east and west points are but imaginary, and stand on very doubtful more correctly deduced from some or all of the following considerations, accounting those points for east and west, which are commonly received in that acceptation. The camp of Judah was placed by Moses in the east as a mark of honorary distinction. The first public temple dedicated to the exclusive service of God, was the Tabernacle of Moses, which was placed due east and west; and in the east our holy religion was first promulgated to mankind. This custom was not peculiar to any nation or people, but was practised throughout the world. The Egyptian and Mexican pyramids were erected according to the four cardinal points; and the idolaters usually built their temples due east and west, that when a sacrifice was offered on the altar, the people might conveniently direct their devotions to the east, and thus adore the rising Sun.* Virgil says, Illi ad surgentem conversi lumina solem, En. xii. 173. ground when compared with the claims of north and south; for the north and south poles are the invariable terms of that axis whereon the heavens move; and are therefore incommunicable and fixed points, whereof the one is not apprehensible in the other. But with the east and west it is quite otherwise; for the revolution of the orbs being made upon the poles of north and south, all other points about the axis are mutable; and wheresoever therein the east point be determined, by succession of parts in one revolution every point becomes the east. And so, if, where the Sun rises, that point be termed the east; every habitation differing in longitude, will have this point also different; inasmuch as the Sun successively rises unto every one. Vid. more of this in Brown's Vulgar Errors. b. vi. c. 7. * Vid. Ezekiel viii. 16. |
