Alternative Religion/ Library

LECTURE VII

The Temple at Jerusalem

The first worshippers of the God of Nature in the east, represented the Deity by the figures of the sun and moon, from the influence of those heavenly bodies on the earth; professing that the universe was the temple in which the Divinity was at all times and in all places present.

They adopted those, with other symbols, as a cautious mode of preserving or explaining divine knowledge. But we perceive the danger arising from thence to religion; for the eye of the ignorant, the bigot, and enthusiast, cast up towards these objects, without the light of understanding, introduced the worship of images; and, at length, the idols of Osiris and Isis became the gods of the Egyptians,¹ without conveying to their devotees the least idea of their great Archetype. Other nations (who bad expressed the attributes of the Deity by outward objects, or who had introduced images into the sacred places as ornaments, or rather to assist the memory, claim devout attention, and warm the affections) ran into the same error, and idols multiplied upon the face of the earth.

¹ "It would occupy too much of our time," says Spine to, "to give the whole account of them both; of their exploits; of the benefits they conferred upon Egypt; of the persecution and murder of Osiris by Typhon, and the anxiety and labors undergone by Isis to collect his scattered limbs, and to have them buried. This foolish story, which in process of time became a legend, was in the beginning, without the least doubt, a regular fable; recording one of the greatest truths transmitted and preserved by tradition amongst mankind, of the sad event of the fall of man, and of the destruction of the world by the deluge." -EDITOR.

Amongst the ancients, the vulgar worshippers of idols throughout the world had at last entirely lost the~ remembrance of the original, of whose attributes their images were at first merely symbols; and the second darkness in religion was more tremendous than the first, as it was strengthened by prepossession, custom, bigotry, and superstition.

Moses had acquired the learning of the Egyptians, and derived the doctrines of truth from the righteous ones of the nations of the east; he being also led by divine influence, and thence-truly comprehending the light from out the darkness taught the people of Israel the worship of the true God, without the enigmas and pollutions of the idolatrous nations which surrounded them. This was the second era of the worship of the God of Nature; and at this period the second stage of Masonry arises.

The Ruler of the Jews, perceiving how prone the minds of ignorant men were to be perverted by show and ceremony; and that the eye, being caught by pomp and solemn rites, debauched the judgment, and led the heart astray; and being convinced that the magnificent festivals, processions, sacrifices, and ceremonials of the idolatrous nations, impressed the minds of mankind with a wild degree of reverence and enthusiastic devotion, thought it expedient, for the service of the God of Israel, to institute holy offices, though in an humbler and less ostentatious mode; well judging that the service and adoration of the Deity, which was only clothed in simplicity of manners and humble prayer, must be established in the conviction of the heart of man; with which ignorance was ever waging war.

In succeeding ages, Solomon built a temple for the service of God, and ordained its rites and ceremonies to be performed with a splendor equal to the most extravagant pomp of the idolaters.

As this temple¹ received the second race of the servants of the true God, and as the true craftsmen were here proved in their work, we will crave your attention to the circumstances which are to be gathered from holy writ, and from historians, touching this structure, as an illustration of those secrets in Masonry, which may appear to such of our brethren as are not learned in antiquity, dark or insignificant, unless they are proved from thence.

¹ "The east gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince: the prince shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. Then brought he me by the way of the north gate before the house." (Ezek. xliv. 2-4.)

In the first book of Kings, we are told that "Hiram, King of Tyre, sent his servants unto Solomon: and Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, Behold I intend to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God. And Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel, and the levy was thirty thousand men. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the levy. And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burthens, and fourscore thousand hewers in the. mountains, besides the chief of Solomon's officers which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people which wrought in the work. And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house. And Solomon's builders did Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stone-squarers or gibilites. In the fourth year was the foundation of the house laid, and in the eleventh year was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Napthali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass. He cast two pillars of brass, with two chapiters which were of lily-work, and he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple. And he set up the right pillar, and he called the name thereof Jachin; and he set up the left pillar, and called it Boaz."¹ In the second book of Chronicles, we read that "he set three hundred and ten thousand of them to be bearers of burthens, and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountains, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people to work. And Solomon sent to Hiram, King of Tyre, to send him a man cunning to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in purple, in crimson, and in blue, and skilful in engravings. And Hiram sent unto him a cunning man, endowed with the understanding of Hiram his father. And he made the veil of the temple of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen. And he made before the house two pillars,² and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and that on the left Boaz."³

¹ In M. Clavel's Picturesque Masonry, he informs us that in the dome of Wortzberg, in front of the entrance to the chamber of the dead, we see on one side, on the chapiter of a column, the mysterious inscription Jachin; and at the other side, the word Boaz, on the shaft of a pillar. And the figure of Christ, which occupies the top of the portal of the church of St. Denis, has his hand placed in a position well known to all existing Freemasons. -EDITOR.

² These pillars were not set up for worship, but for ornament and commemoration; because the adoration of such obelisks was an abomination expressly forbidden in the Mosaic law. "Ye shall not place in your land, a stone to be looked on in the way of adoration." (Levit. xxvi. 1.) -EDITOR.

³ The raising pillars and obelisks was a custom of the eastern nations, and of Egypt in particular; the use of which, we are told, was to record the extent of dominion, and the tributes of nations subject to the Egyptian empire, &c., or in commemoration of memorable events. Diodorus tells us, that Sesostris signalized his reign by the erection of two obelisks, which were cut with a design to acquaint posterity of the extent of his power, and the number of nations he had conquered. Augustus, according to the report of Pliny, transported one of these obelisks to Rome, and placed it in the Campus Martius. Pliny says, the Egyptians were the first devisers of such monuments, and that Mestres, King of Heliopolis, erected the first. Marsham and others attribute the invention to Sesostris. The obelisk of Shannesses exceeded all that had preceded it: Constantine, and Constans, his son, caused it to be removed to Rome, where it remains the noblest piece of Egyptian antiquity existing in the world. Solomon had pursued this custom in erecting his pillars in the porch of the temple, which he designed should be a memorial to the Jews as they entered the holy place, to warm their minds with confidence and faith; by this record of the promises made by the Lord unto his father David, and which were repeated unto him in a vision, in which the voice of God proclaimed (1 Kings, ix, 5.) "I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever."

When this splendid structure was finished; Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord, in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands and said, O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven and in the earth: O Lord my God, hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee: O Lord God, turn not away the face of thy anointed."

In the conduct of this great work, we must admire the sagacity of this pious architect; he discerned the necessity there was to assign to portions of his people, the particular labor they were to pursue; he gave them particular signs and secret tokens,¹ by which each rank should be distinguished, in order that the whole might proceed with propriety, and without confusion; he selected those of most enlightened minds and comprehensive understandings, religious men, piously zealous in good works, as masters to superintend the workmen; men skilful in geometry and proportions, who had been initiated and proved in the mystical learning of the ancient sages; those he made overseers of the work: the whole was conducted with that degree of holy reverence, that even the noise of a tool or instrument was not permitted to disturb the sacred silence on Moriah, sanctified by the presence of the Almighty, and by his miraculous works. - Was it not reasonable, then, to conceive under this exalted degree of pious attention, that no part of the structure was to be formed, but by men of pure hands and holy mind, who had professed themselves devoted to the service of the true God, and had enrolled themselves under the banner of true religion and virtue. As the sons of Aaron alone were admitted to the holy offices, and to the sacrificial rites, so none but devotees were admitted to this labor. On this stage we see those religious who had received the truth, and the light of understanding as possessed by the first men, embodied as artificers, and engaged in this holy work as architects. This, together with the construction of the tabernacle under Moses, are the first instances of our predecessors being exhibited to the world as builders: for, although it is not to be doubted, the sages amongst the Hebrews, Egyptians, Persians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Romans, Bramins, Druids, and Bards, understood geometry and the rules of proportion and numbers, yet we have no evidence of their being the actual executors of any plan in architecture;² and yet, without question, they were the projectors and superintendents of such works in every age and nation.

¹ These were meant for the better conduct of the work, and were totally abstracted from those other principles which were the foundation of our profession. They were manual proofs of the part each was stationed to perform; the light which had possessed the soul, and which was the first principle, was in no wise to be distinguished by such signs and tokens, or revealed. expressed, or communicated thereby.

² Modern discoveries in Egypt, and other countries have contributed to prove that the most stupendous specimens of architecture have been erected by all the above people. In Egypt, particularly, such works have been found, which in magnitude and sublimity, exceed the comprehension, and excite the wonder of modern artists. Respecting Thebes, Beizoni says, that "this most sublime of all ruins is in appearance a city of giants, who, after a long conflict which ended in their destruction, left the ruins of their habitations behind them as a memorial." Browne fully confirms the statement of Diodorus, which has been so much disputed, viz., that the houses of Thebes were four or five stories high, and that the circuit was nine leagues. If so, it must have been the largest mass of buildings ever known in the world, without excepting Babylon. So much for magnitude. And with respect to the elegance of the Egyptian details, Denon informs us that at Tentyra are the representations of the peristyles of temples in caryatides, which are executed in paintings at the baths of Titus, and have been copied by Raphael, and which we constantly ape in our rooms, without suspicion that the Egyptians have given us the first models. -EDITOR.

Without such regulations as Solomon had devised for the government of his servants, without such artificers, and a superior wisdom overruling the whole, we should be at a loss to account for the beginning, carrying on, and finishing that great work in the space of seven years and six months, when the two succeeding temples, though much inferior, employed so much more time; and when we have good authority to believe that the Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, a structure not comparable to the Temple of Jerusalem, was two hundred and twenty years in building.

The building being conducted by a set of Religious, makes it natural to conceive that, from devotion and pious fervor, as well as emulation, those employed had unceasing motives to prompt their diligence, and preserve harmony and order; as their labor was probationary, and led to an advancement-and superior privileges, higher points of knowledge, and, at the last, to that honorable pre-eminence, a master of the holy work.

Solomon, himself, was an extraordinary personage, and his wisdom and magnificence had gained him the wonder and attention of the neighboring nations; but this splendid structure, the wonder of the earth, thus raised by the pious hands of men, laboring in the worship and service of the God of Israel, would of consequence extend his fame, and attract the admiration of the more distant parts of the world: his name and his artificers would become the wonder of mankind, and his works their example and emulation:¹ from thence the mason of Solomon would be dispersed into different states, to superintend the works of other princes; and they would, in consequence, convert infidels, initiate brethren in their mysteries, and extend their order over the distant quarters of the known world.

We find that the like distinctions were retained on rebuilding the temple in the reign of Cyrus, and that the work was performed by the religious of the Israelites, and not by ordinary mechanics; for they refused to admit the Samaritans to a share of the work, although they petitioned for it under the denomination of servants of the same God: yet they were rejected, as unworthy of works of piety, and unacceptable to the God of Israel; for, though they professed themselves to be servants of the true God, they polluted their worship by Josephus, in his "History of the Antiquities of the Jews," speaking of Solomon's going about to erect the temple at Jerusalem, gives copies of the epistles which passed between Solomon and Hiram, King of Tyre, on that matter; and which, he says, remained in his days, preserved in their books, and amongst the Tyrians also;² which epistles are as follow:

¹ An ancient Masonic tradition relates that our G.M. King Solomon, struck with the harmony produced by the admirable arrangements which had been adopted amongst the workmen, conceived the idea of forming an universal bond of brotherly love, which should unite all nations in the pursuits of virtue and science. For this purpose, he admitted to his system those illustrious sages who visited Jerusalem from every part of the globe, and allowed them to participate in his mysteries. And hence, when they returned home, they diffused Freemasonry over the whole face of the earth. -EDITOR.

² Eusebus Preparat. Evangel. ix. 34, has these letters, though greatly disguised by Eupolemus, from whom Eusebius had his copies.

SOLOMON TO KING HIRAM

"Know thou, that my father would have built a temple to God, but was hindered by wars and continual expeditions; for he did not leave off to overthrow his enemies, till he made them all subject to tribute. But I give thanks to God for the peace I at present enjoy; and, on that account, I am at leisure, and design to build an house to God: for God foretold to my father that such an house should be built by me ; wherefore I desire thee to send some of thy subjects with mine to Mount Lebanon, to cut down timber; for the Sidonians are more skilful than our people in cutting of wood: as for wages for the hewers of wood, I will pay whatsoever price thou shalt determine."

HIRAM TO KING SOLOMON

"There is reason to bless God that he has committed thy father's government to thee, who art a wise man, and endowed with all virtues. As for myself, I rejoice at the condition thou art in, and will be subservient to thee in all thou requirest; for when, by my servants, I have cut down many and large trees of cedar and cypress wood, I will send them to sea, and will order my subjects to make floats of them, and to sail to what place so ever of thy country thou shalt desire, and leave them there; after which thy servants may carry them to Jerusalem but do thou take care to procure corn for this timber, which we stand in need of, because we inhabit an island."

Josephus, speaking of the progress of the building,¹ Says, "Solomon sent for an artificer out of Tyre, whose name was Hiram, by birth of the tribe of Naphthali, on the mother's side. This man was skilful in all sorts of works; but his chief skill lay in working in gold, in silver, and brass; the one of the pillars which he set at the entrance of the porch, at the right hand, he called Jachin, and the other, at the left hand, he called Boaz."

¹ Appendix, H.

Solomon was wise in all the learning of the ancients: he was possessed of all the mystical knowledge of the eastern nations; and, to perfect the same, was enlightened by the immediate gift of heaven. It was also the mode and manners of the times, in which the temple of Jerusalem was erected, to use emblematical and symbolical ornaments in public edifices; a fashion derived from the hieroglyphic monuments of the Egyptians, and the mysterious mode in which their sages concealed their wisdom and learning from the vulgar eye, and communicated science to those of their own order only.

The pillars erected at the porch of the temple were not only ornamental, but also carried with them an emblematical import in their names.¹

¹And more than this, like the Palladium of Troy, they appear to have been essential to the well-being of the structure. Thus, at the time when the temple was abandoned by Jehovah, be is represented magnificently, as standing upon the altar, and commanding the angel of destruction to strike the heads or chapiters of these two pillars, and the total ruin, not only of the temple, but of Jerusalem, and of the entire system of Jewish polity, should ensue. (Amos, ix 1.) As their destruction was thus comprehensive and significant, so was their erection symbolical of the magnitude and splendor of the Jewish nation under Solomon. And this reference was embodied in their names. -EDITOR.

Boaz being, in its literal translation, "in thee is strength;" and Jachin, "it shall be established;" which, by a very natural transposition, may be put thus: O Lord, thou art mighty, and thy power is established from everlasting to everlasting; or otherwise they might imply, as Boaz was the great grandfather of David, the house of David shall be established for ever. I am justified in this latter application, by the express words of Nathan, the prophet, unto David, inspired by the vision of the Lord, "And, when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever."¹

¹ 2 Sam. vii. 12-16.

In commemoration of this great promise to the faithful, we ornament the entrance into our lodges with these emblematical pillars, from our knowledge of the completion of that sacred sentence accomplished in the coming of our Redeemer.

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