galement auditeur, élu, maître. Les seuls mithriades en avaient sept --soldat, lion, corbeau, perse, bromius, hélios et père. A l'exemple de toutes les initiations la franc-maçonnerie a trois grades, ceux d'apprenti, de compagnon et de maître."

5 Our attention is called at this point to the Tracing-board (Resurgam) of Grand Master Wren, after the great fire of London. See Preston, p. 141.

Our Brother Rosenberg thus philosophizes on the coffin and dead body. The three elements, water, fire, and air, signify the three F. C. which conduct us, and are so necessary for our preservation, that our life is at an end the moment they quit the body. Diseases are in general caused by a revolution in these elements. The force of one being increased appears to destroy the others. If the element of fire becomes unnaturally strong, it causes inflammation and fever. If it be the element of water which increases in strength, other diseases equally dangerous are brought on. When death takes place, the three elements are again represented by the burning taper, the basin of water, and towels, which are generally placed beside a dead body, and which also represent the three wicked F. C., who have destroyed their Master."

61 The ancient tombs which recent discoveries have laid open to our inspection, were so constructed as to serve for the purpose of initiation into the spurious Freemasonry. The annotators of the Pictorial Bible say, that "the Egyptian tombs and temples appear to have been closely connected in their origin; and that those of royal persons often formed, in fact, cells of the temple, being within its sacred inclosure; and there is every probability, and some authority for the conclusion, which is also supported by the character of the decorations which many of them exhibit, that they were not merely tombs, but cells for the celebration of the darker mysteries and idolatries of a most debasing superstition." In a word, they were caverns of initiation as well as sepulchres.

62 How striking is this emblem of mortality, once animated like ourselves, but now it ceases to act or think; its vital energies are extinct, ind all the powers of life have ceased their operations. Such is the state to which we are all hastening. Let us, therefore, gratefully improve the remaining space of life, that when our weak and frail bodies, like this memento, shall become cold and inanimate, and mouldering in sepulchral dust and ruin, our disembodied spirits may soar aloft to the blessed regions where dwell eternal life and light. (Illustrations of the Degree of Knight Templar.)

63 In a private room in the temple of Tentyra, the ceiling is divided into two compartments, by a figure of Isis in very high relief. In one of them is the zodiac; in the other a variety of boats, with four or five human figures in each, one of whom is in the act of spearing a large egg, while others are stamping with their feet upon the victims of their fury, among which are several human beings. Near this scene, a large lion, supported by four dog-headed figures, each carrying a knife, may be regarded as an additional type of the sanguinary purposes for which the apartment was used. The walls of an adjoining room are covered with several representations of an individual-first lying on a couch at the point of death-then stretched out lifeless upon a bier—and, finally, being enbalmed. My Masonic readers will understand this without

comment.

64 In the druidical initiations a scenic death and revivification took place. In one of Taliesin's poems, the hierophant describes the process he had himself undergone." I have been a grain of the Arkites, which

vegetated upon a hill. I was received by the hen with red fangs and a divided crest. I remained nine nights an infant in her womb. I have been Aedd, returning to my former state. I have died, I have revived --and was fully instructed by her with the red fangs. Of what she gave me, scarcely can I express the great praise that is due."

6 Many interesting particulars which fully illustrate these observations will be found in Lecture xxxvi.

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The solemn thought of death," says the Lecture of the Third Degree," without revelation, is dark and gloomy; but the Christian is suddenly revived by the evergreen and everliving sprig of faith in the merits of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, which strengthens him with confidence and composure, to look forward to a blessed immortality, and doubts not but in the glorious morning of the resurrection his body will rise, and become as incorruptible as his soul." (Cross's Chart. p. 41.)

זי

LECTURE XXVII.

I EGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE, WITH SOME CONJECTURES ON ITS PROBABLE ORIGIN AND SYMBOLICAL REFERENCE.

"All men have birth, but some are born to more distinguishing situa tions in life than others; but in the grave all are on a level, deat! destroying all distinctions."—ANCIENT LECTURES.

"The occasion of the Brethren's searching so diligently for their Mas ter, was, to receive from him the secret word of Masonry, which should be delivered down, as a test, to the fraternity of after ages."-ANDER

SON.

“Her tomb was in the rubbish and filth cast forth of the temple, and acacia wove its branches over her monument."-ANCIENT LECTURES. The veil of the temple is rent, the builder is smitten, and we are raised from the tomb of transgression."-IBID.

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THE third degree of Masonry contains a remarkable legend, which I shall endeavour to interpret by a reference to events which occurred long before the presumed circumstances which it records; and to a doctrine which is as common to all religions as the promise of redemption, and a belief in a mediator to atone for sin. For if the resurrection and a future state were not true, the Promise would be useless; and, therefore, our ancient Brethren, in the construction of their system, with great propriety, introduced an account of the fall, and the expulsion of our first parents from Paradise, which produced that important Covenant on which the future happiness of man is suspended, into the original perfect degree of symbolical Masonry; and made the legend of a resurrection from the dead to constitute the chief material in a substituted degree; that the candidate in his gradual and measured approach to the great source of Light and happiness," might be instructed in its truth, connected with the doctrine of a personal responsibility," before he is introduced into the sanctum sanctorum te learn the sacred nature of Him through whom alone the resurrection could be beneficial, and without whose

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atonement eternal punishment would be his portion; and to become acquainted with that consoling promise, by the efficacy of which the eternity of a future life can alone be invested with those surpassing comforts of temporal Freemasonry-peace, harmony, and brotherly love. After the union of speculative and operative Masonry, and when the temple of Solomon was completed, a legend of sublime and symbolical meaning was introduced into the system, which is still retained, and consequently known to all Master Masons." How did this legend originate, and to what did it refer? It would scarcely have been adopted by Solomon to consecrate the memory of his humble associate, however his virtues and services might merit the continued respect of the Brethren of all ages and times, because the naked fact, even if it were true, would have afforded a very poor apology for the basis of an institution which was destined to extend to every nation of the earth, and to endure for ever. It would have been surpassed in ingenuity of invention, as it was in splendour of display and the imposing effect of ts machinery, by the legend of the spurious Freemasonry relating to the death and resurrection of Osiris or Bacchus.

The historical foundation of the true legend of speculalative Masonry,12 I am persuaded, had a spiritual reference to something of a higher and more supernal character— something connected with our best and most valuable interests both in time and eternity-even to the unhappy fall of our first parents, to which the penalty of death was attached, which all mankind unite in deploring; and the sprig of acacia is a symbol of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the desecration of which produced the dreadful sentence of expulsion and death. It referred also to their restoration to life and holiness by the promise of a mediator, and a resurrection from the dead. Thus, then, it appears that the historical reference of the legend of speculative Freemasonry in all ages of the world was to our DEATH IN ADAM. AND LIFE IN CHRIST.13 What, then, was the origin of our tradition? Or in other words, to what particular incident did the legend of initiation refer before the flood? I conceive it to have been the offering1 and assassination of Abel5 by his brother Cain, the escape of the murderer," and the discovery of

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