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next as a bifrons, one side resembling the head of a lion, the other that of a wild boar.39 Even the Israelites in the wilderness, not content with the pure and sober worship as instituted by God himself, sighed after the splendid superstitions of the neighbouring nations," and it has been conjectured that they adored the Tabernacle as a compound form of the Deity; the tabernacle itself being worshipped as Moloch, the cherubim as Apis, and the Shekinah as Remphan.

In a word, all the multiform animals which we view in connection with idolatry, derive their origin from the same source. They were misrepresentations of the doctrines of the mysteries; in which, legends of these overshadowers of the Mercy Seat, were certainly retained. What were the Satyrs, the Centaurs, the Sphinges, the Chimæræ, Garuda, and others? They have deformed every system of pagan theology, and certainly originated from the hallowed, yet misunderstood remembrance of these Hebraic Symbols.41

In all the ancient mysteries which attended the religious practice of every region in the idolatrous world, one principal secret consisted of dissertations on the form and worship of God, as the best incentive to the practice of moral virtue. In these Lectures the component parts of the cherubic symbol formed prominent subjects of disquisition; perverted, indeed, and gradually receding from the truth, as they were conveyed by uncertain tradition from the apostate sons of Noah down to the extirpation of idolatry. The practice was derived from a similar usage amongst the faithful worshippers of the true God, who transmitted the sublime science of Lux; and it has descended to our times pure and unadulterated. In the Lectures of Masonry this glorious emblem is copiously illustrated, and placed before the imagination, arrayed in awful splendours, and surrounded with unfading beauties, as the scriptural representation of the glory of that great Being, who is the universal Father of mankind, and into whose presence good Masons and virtuous men hope equally to be admitted, at the final consummation of all sublunary things.

Richardson's Dissert. on East. Nat. p. 171. "Wait's Antiq. vol. i. p. 149.

40 Amos v. 25, 26.

42 Ezekiel i. 28.

.43

Confine your attention steadily to this symbol, which is the pride and ornament of Masonry, and you cannot surely deviate from the practice of pure morality. We are told that Moses made two Cherubim, and fixed them permanently to the Mercy Seat, which was the sacred cover or lid of the Ark of the Covenant ; and that Solomon constructed two larger ones, which stood upright in the Sanctum Sanctorum on each side of the Ark, and stretched their expanded wings over it, to improve the general appearance of the Most Holy Place, and render the hallowed repository of the Ark more beautiful and sublime. Their wings formed a seat or throne over the Ark, in which God did not disdain perpetually to reside; and hence he is said to dwell between the Cherubim.45 This magnificent idea is happily expressed by Sternhold, in his version of the eighteenth Psalm.

The Lord descended from above,

And bow'd the heavens high,
And underneath his feet he cast
The darkness of the sky.

On cherubs and on cherubim,

Full royally he rode,

And on the wings of mighty winds,
Came flying all abroad.

46

Every posture of the Cherubim has a moral reference which is exceedingly profitable and worthy of our serious consideration. They hid their faces with their wings to express an innate dread of the divine majesty of God. Their wings stretched out denoted a readiness to execute celestial commissions. They were "full of eyes," to denote God's all-seeing providence; the wheels intersecting each other at right angles, expressed the revolutions of God's providence, regular and uniform, though apparently intricate and complicated. When they moved it was in a direct course, to represent their steadiness in performing the divine will. The spirit was in the wheels," that they might be capable of yielding instant obedience. Their faces placed towards each other, were an emblem of unity and concord; and they overshadowed the Mercy Seat with their wings, a sa sign of the protection afforded

441 Kings vi. 23-28.

45 Psalm lxxx. 1. and xcix. 1.

43 Exod. xxv. 18-22.
45 Ezekiel x. 11.

47 Ezekiel i. 21, 22.

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by the Deity to the invaluable contents of the Ark; the chief of which was the Sacred Law of God, written by inspiration, and deposited here as a place of perfect security, worthy of such a treasure. This treasure, we possess, with an inestimable addition, where those truths are plainly revealed, of which, even the Jews, favoured as they undoubtedly were in being the authorized keepers of the Oracles of God, had no absolute certainty ;—truths, which point the way, not merely to peace and comfort in the present life, but to eternal happiness in the life to come. This perfect volume is not now hid in an Ark; -it lies open on our pedestal for every body to read; and is almost universally disseminated throughout the Christian world. A written revelation is a public blessing; because it excludes all doubts and fears about the terms of salvation; and is subject to none of the defects of oral tradition. Immured within the tyled recesses of the Lodge, we spread forth the leaves of this holy book with confidence and hope; and looking on each other as Brethren cemented by the most endearing ties, we consider the open Lodge as the abode of peace, and no unfit emblem, surrounded as we are by every incentive to virtue, of the celestial mansion of bliss.

We are told from very high authority, and I insist on it here, because it is peculiarly satisfactory to us as Christians to know and understand, that "it was the Logos, or Jesus Christ himself, whose glory shone on the Ark, as appears by the many places of scripture which speak no otherwise of the Ark than as of the type of God incarnate. Christ before his incarnation sitting on the Propitiatory as his Throne, with the Ark and Law at his feet; for that holy vessel is in scripture called his footstool, seemeth to show himself beforehand in the Offices of King, and Prophet, and Priest. As King, whilst he sits on his Golden Throne, and exhibiteth the Law; as Prophet, whilst he answereth when consulted from between the Cherubim; and as Priest, establishing his seat as a Propitiatory or Mercy Seat." This is the opinion of Archbishop Tenison, and it appears to receive the sanction of scripture; for the divine Shekinah vouch

48

48 Psalm xcix. 5. and cxxxii, 7.-Isaiah lx. 13.

49 Ten. Idol. p. 342.

safed to the prophet Isaiah,50 is declared by St. John to be the actual glory of Jesus Christ the Saviour of mankind.51 And we must consider further, that the human body of Jesus Christ is the Ark of the Christian Covenant; over which the Shekinah appeared in the cave at Bethlehem, in the form of a supernatural Star in the East, which hence is placed in the centre of our Lodges; again at his baptism by John the Baptist, as a celestial Dove surrounded by a shining cloud of glory; and again at his transfiguration and ascension, in the ancient form of a cloud; which at length received him; and, overshadowed by this Shekinah, he returned to his legitimate seat in heaven, there to remain as our intercessor till the day of judgment, when he shall again appear in a cloud pass the final sentence on all mankind.

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Such are the peaceful investigations of Masonry :such are the objects which engage our attention in open Lodge. Let those who have no relish for these intellectual pursuits seek for pleasure and gratification amidst other scenes, where they fancy happiness may be found; we, meanwhile, will be satisfied with the enjoyments we possess; peace, harmony, and brotherly love, joined with the study and practice of moral virtue; and employ our leisure in humble attempts to illustrate the attributes and perfections of a Deity in whom we implicitly believe, and the nature and reality of those expressive symbols by which his glory has been manifested to his creatures. And we will prize our immaculate science, symbolized by the purity of our clothing, which leads to results that cannot fail to be highly beneficial to every true and faithful Brother, if received with fidelity, and practised uniformly and conscientiously in every circumstance and situation of life.

60 Isaiah vi. 1, 2.

& John xii. 41.

LECTURE V..

on the deluge.

Far the rest above,
Of ghastly nature, and enormous size,

One form assaults my sight, and chills my blood,
And shakes my frame. Of one departed world
I see the mighty shadow: oozy wreath
And dismal sea-weed crown her o'er her urn
Reclined, she weeps her desolated realms,
And bloated sons, and weeping, prophesies
Another dissolution, soon, in flames."

Young.

We have now arrived, by a systematic gradation, at that terrible event which almost annihilated the human race; and though the subject rather belongs to a collateral Degree than to genuine Masonry, yet, as the Ark of Noah, the Rainbow, and the Dove and Olive Branch have been introduced amongst our legitimate emblems, a Lecture on the subject may not be improperly introduced, as the Deluge forms a prominent feature in all the ancient mysteries; and a tradition of this signal judgment was universally prevalent in every region of the world.

In the concluding period of the antediluvian world, human wickedness, originating in the apostacy of Cain, had been increasing for many centuries. New modes of outrage were daily invented, which tended to alienate man still farther from original purity, until at length the world became universally corrupt, and the unlimited vengeance of God was poured out on the whole creation. This judgment had been denounced by a succession of holy men without producing the desired effect; and it has been observed, that in the age immediately preceding the Deluge, the wickedness and presumption of mankind exceeded the impiety and corruption of any succeeding age. Noah was deputed to give these sinners a final

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