the former class; and lastly, the degrees of Rose Croix, or Prince Mason; K. H., or Philosophical Masons; Knight of the Sun; Princes of the Royal Secret; and Grand Inspectors General (together with the order of Mizraim, which is possessed by some members of the college of K. H., but not practised), all of which are subject to the Grand Council of Rites, lately organized, to the great advantage of these higher degrees." (F. Q. R. 1839, p. 154.)

LECTURE XXXVIII.

THE CAPTIVITY IN BABYLON.

"We have fallen under the displeasure of the Almighty through the offences committed by our ancestors; who, deviating from true Masonic principles, not only fell into great errors and corruptions, but were guilty of the most abominable sins; wherefore Jehovah, in his wrath, denounced heavy judgments against them by Jeremiah and other prophets, declaring that their fruitful land should be spoiled, their city become desolate and an abomination, and themselves and their descendants feel the effects of his displeasure for the space of seventy years, which commenced in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiachim, A. L. 3398.”— OLD LECTURES.

"Nebuchadnezzar being now at rest from all his wars, and in full peace at home, applied himself with great industry to the grand design of finishing his buildings at Babylon, and employed therein all the able artists of Judea, and other captives, besides his own Chaldean masons; who, by their joint labour, made it the fourth of the seven wonders of -ANDERSON.

art."

In the preceding lecture we have briefly detailed the iniquities of the people of Israel, and the miserable captivity of the ten tribes, which had been inflicted by the Almighty as their punishment. The effect of this judgment on the remaining tribes was very evanescent. Their infatuation in favour of the spurious Freemasonry of their heathen neighbours was not corrected;1 and therefore their ancient enemies, the descendants of Esau, were permitted to harass them by repeated inroads; and at length they seized a portion of the land, and united with the Chaldeans to destroy them as a nation. And, accordingly, as the people did not show a disposition to reform their lives at the repeated admonitions of the prophet Jeremiah,2 but rather hardened themselves against the divine authority, Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, was incited to invade and subdue the kingdom of Judah. He had no quarrel with its king, nor any particular mo tive for an invasion of the country; it was the effect of chance, directed by an over-ruling Providence, intent on

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punishing the people for their disobedience. Nebuchadnezzar coming with his army to a place where two roads met, he had recourse to divination for the purpose of determining which country he should next invade. The lot fell upon Judah; and accordingly he turned his successful arms against Jerusalem.

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The contest was soon decided. He ravaged the whole country; and the holy city of God, after a protracted siege, during which many traitors went over to the enemy, was abandoned to pillage; they burned the temple, broke down the walls of the city,' set fire upon her towers, and carried away the consecrated vessels of gold and silver, the brazen sea and altar, and the two pillars of Jachin and Boaz, which stood at the entrance of the porch. All the princes, the nobility,10 and every person of consequence, according to the prediction of Jeremiah,12 were removed into the land of Chaldea;13 but Nebuzaradan, the chief of Nebuchadnezzar's officers, left behind many families of the lower classes to cultivate the vineyards, and other servile purposes,14 with strict injunctions to transfer the fruits thereof to Babylon in their season, as luxuries for the tables of the nobility.15

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It must not be imagined that the captives were condemned to interminable slavery. A distribution was made according to rank and family; some were retained at Babylon; others were disposed in the provinces to augment the population, and improve the general resources of the empire. They were allowed to collect and retain their moveable property; to purchase lands and build houses; and they located themselves in this novel situation contentedly; for it had been asserted by Jeremiah, that all hopes of present restoration were entirely groundless, and that it was ordained of God that the period of their exile should be seventy years.

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We shall see hereafter that this particular period was named as the duration of their captivity, for the purpose of allowing the land to enjoy its sabbaths," in fulfilment of the divine ordinance, which had been defeated by the disobedience of their forefathers, who cultivated the land every seventh year, when it was commanded to lie at rest.18

The chief Jewish families resided in the city of BabyInn, and some of their noblest men were taken into the

royal palace, and by their superior wisdom were admitted to share in the councils of state, to the great annoyance of the native princes, who strove by every means in their power to involve them in disgrace, and by their invidious policy succeeded in subjecting them to a series of severe trials.19 Daniel was cast into a den of hungry lions; and Hananiah, Misael, and Azariah into a furnace of fire; but both these attempts not only failed, but awfully recoiled on the conspirators, by the righteous decrees of retributive justice. The Jews in Chaldea even preserved an appearance of regal state in the midst of an enemy's country; and on the death of Jehoiakim, who reigned over them at the commencement of the captivity, Salathiel his son was formally inaugurated as King of the Jews, and head of the captivity; and the latter style was continued for many years after the rebuilding of the temple, by those who preferred to remain in Chaldea, where they had been born and educated, and was thus endeared to them by early recollections.20

The people who adhered to the faithful worship of God, and they were neither few nor insignificant, continued to meet in their schools or Lodges, for the undisturbed practice of their system of ethical Freemasonry; which they did not fail to propagate for their mutual consolation during this calamitous reverse of fortune, and for the benefit of their descendants. It so happened that about this period Cambyses invaded Egypt, and amongst his freaks in that country took the celebrated philosopher Pythagoras prisoner, and conveyed him to Babylon, which city Thales had already visited. This event constitutes an era in Masonry, for it is extremely probable that the second Zoroaster was living there at the same time, together with the Jewish prophets. From Zoroaster, the Samian philosopher, it is said, but I am afraid on doubtful authority," received full instruction in the peculiar mysteries of the Magian religion;24 but, what is more to our purpose, he procured initiation at the hands of Daniel,25 into the Jew ish system of Freemasonry, which he studied with great intensity during his entire residence of twelv years in Chaldea; and when he returned home and established his school, he disseminated, along with the esoteric secrets of his philosophy, the peculiar rites and cere

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monies of Jewish Masonry, which gave a new character to his sect,29 and conferred upon it a high pre-eminence amongst the systems promulgated by the sages of Greece.30

The enthusiasm of such a celebrated philosophers in favour of these practices would give a genial impulse to the Jewish institutions, and prevent them from suffering by apathy and supineness in the midst of an idolatrous country, where pains and penalties were the threatened punishment of any deviation from the worship of false gods.

NOTES TO LECTURE XXXVIII.

"They forsook the great and good King David to follow his rebellious son; they slew Zacharias, the son of Jehoida, in the most holy place, making the very priest himself a sacrifice of their cruelty. And as to the high priests, they treacherously designed the death of Jeremiah, and had effected it, if they had not been hindered by the authority of some of the rulers. However, they extorted this much, that he should be held a captive till the very moment the city was taken." (Grot. de verit. B. 5, s. 20.)

2" In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah prophesied of the coming of Nebuchadnezzar against Judah and Jerusalem, that the whole land should be delivered into his hands, and that a captivity of seventy years' continuance should after that ensue upon the people of the Jews; and he also delivered several other prophecies of the many calamities and woful desolations that were then ready to be brought upon them, intending thereby, if possible, to bring them to repentance, that so the wrath of God might be diverted from them." (Prideaux. Com. P. 1, B. 1.)

3 "Nebuchadnezzar has been worse used," says Southey (Omniana, vol. i. p. 152), “in doggrel than even poor As-in-prosent himself. But scurvily as he has been berhymed for his conquest of Jerusalem, etymologists have as scurvily explained his name, and invented a story to explain their explanation. They say, he was exposed when an infant under a tree; a she goat gave him suck, and an owl hooted at noon day from the boughs above. This unusual noise excited the attention of a leper who was passing by; he turned aside to the tree, saw the child, and preserved him; and in mem ry of these circumstances named him Nabuchodonosor, nabuz signifying in Chaldee an owl; code, a she goat; and nosor, a leper."