40"As this was the temple in which Jesus taught, it is deeply interesting to obtain a general idea of its appearance. The area on which it stood is described, in general terms, as a square, surrounded by a wall and cloister. In the centre of this vast enclosure (the court of the Gentiles, from which Christ expelled the traders), was a second court, also surrounded by a wall; to this there was an ascent by a flight of steps. Within this court was the noble temple itself, with its porticos, its golden front reflecting back a fiery splendour when the sun rose above the mountains of Arabia. The architecture was probably Greek or Roman, fancifully applied, and not, as that of Solomon, of a Tyrio-Egyptian character." (Bartlett's Jerusalem, p. 35.)

4 It is a curious coincidence that at the very same time, the temple of Apollo at Delphi was overthrown by earthquakes and fire from heaven; and neither of them was ever rebuilt. The concurrence of these circumstances shows that the coming of the Messiah was intended to abolish Jewish ceremonies and heathen idolatry, that the kingdom of Christ might be fully established in the world.

42A soldier threw a burning brand throngh the golden window, into the chambers on the north side, and they were immediately in flames. All the endeavours of Titus and his army to extinguish them were ineffectual. The fire soon communicated to the other buildings, and the whole temple was presently in a blaze.

43 "As the flames sprang up," says Bartlett, "the Jews uttered a cry of despair and vengeance, and madly rushed upon the swords of their Roman butchers. The rage and hate, which had been months in gathering to a head, now found an awful issue; the carnage at the foot of the blazing building was horrible."

"Milman graphically describes the confusion and terror by which the desolation was accompanied." The shouts of the Roman soldiers, as they ran to and fro, and the howlings of the insurgents, who were perishing in the flames, mingled with the roaring of the conflagration, and the thundering sound of falling timbers. The echoes of the mountains replied or brought back the shrieks of the people on the heights; all along the walls resounded screams and wailings; men who were expiring with famine, rallied their remaining strength to utter a cry of anguish and desolation."

15 See Freemasons' Quarterly Review for 1838, p. 183.

46 Jowett, in his Researches in the Holy Land, minutely describes these ancient walls.

47 In the degree of Sovereign Princes of Masonry it is said, that when the Masons, who beheld with sorrow and regret, the temple utterly destroyed, departed from Jerusalem, in conformity with the recommendation of Jesus Christ—"Let him that is in Judea flee to the mountains," after they had embraced Christianity, and determined never to assist in constructing it again, they divided themselves into companies, and migrated to different parts of the earth. One party came into Scotland, and established a Lodge at Kilwinning, where they built a town.

48" If Jerusalem was destroyed exactly forty years after our Saviour's death," says the author of the Harmony of the four Evangelists (vol. i. p. 487), "as it is apparent, then that destruction of it befel just in the year of the world 4000. And so, as the temple of Solomon had been finished A. M. 3000, so in a. m. 4000, both the city and temple, that then were, were destroyed, never to be repaired or rebuilt again. And from that time most properly began the kingdom of heaven and the new Jerusalem, when that earthly kingdom and that old city were utterly

ruined." The Jews have a prophecy, which is preserved in Josippon (c. 97), to the following effect:-"The day will come, the time of our redemption, and our God will deliver us. He will remember the oath made with our fathers, and will build up our city and restore our temple, and gather our dispersions, and will bring back our captivity, and hasten the coming of the Messiah."

49 "Titus carried away out of the sanctuary the golden table of shewbread, which weighed several talents; the seven branch candlestick, a rich and curious piece of art; the sacred roll of the law, covered with a costly gold cloth, which was considered the most venerable of all the trophies. The two former he placed in the temple of Peace, which his father had built; the latter, together with several curious and costly veils, and other rich furniture of the temple, he converted to his own private use." (Jos. de bel. Jud. 1. vi. c. 24.)

50 Upon the foundations of the temple an exquisite building was subsequently erected by the Saracens, called the Mosque of Omar; and to the south of this, on the extreme edge of the summit of Mount Moriah, stands the venerable Christian church of the Virgin, erected by the Emperor Justinian, whose stupendous foundations, remaining to this day, fully justify the astonishing description given of the building by Procopius.

51 The city, however, was subsequently rebuilt, although the temple remained a perpetual ruin; and a degree has been formed out of this circumstance, of which I subjoin a brief sketch.---It gives an account of the rebuilding of Jerusalem by the Emperor Adrian in 120, and its subsequent domination under the Persians, Turks, &c., till the time of the crusades. It speaks of the search made by St. Helena for the cross of Christ; and how she discovered three crosses under the foundations of the temple of Venus; that being at a loss to discover which of these was the true cross, Pope Marcellinus advised her to try their efficacy in a case of sickness. Applying two of them to a sick woman, they produced no effect; but when she placed her hand upon the third she was restored to her former health. On the spot where the crosses were found St. Helena erected a stately church. The degree, which is called the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, then speaks of the crusades, and of the conquests of Baldwin and Godfrey de Bouillon.

52 The Jews have a tradition, which is preserved in the Gemara, that in the latter days, when the covenant shall be completed by their restoration, the temple will be rebuilt on mount Moriah, in a style of magnificence which shall greatly exceed that of King Solomon. Instead of hewn stone, they say, its walls will be constructed of polished jasper, and ornamented decorations of gold and ivory, and consecrated by the presence of the Divinity. At the dedication a grand banquet will be prepared, consisting of every delicacy the world can produce. A leviathan, fattened for the occasion; a female behemoth; and the bird bariuchne, whose outstretched wings are of such vast extent as to obstruct the sun's rays, are named amongst the provisions of this august feast. Wine from the vaults of Adam and Enoch, miraculously preserved from the time of these patriarchs, so that its flavour increases in richness every age, will be produced in quantities which cannot be exhausted; and all virtuous Jews, from the time of the deliverance from Egyptian ondage, will be summoned from their graves, to be present and partake f the feast; at which time a new worship will be introduced, more pare and spiritual than anything which has ever been practised from the creation of the world.

53 In the degree of Knight of K-H., the transmission of Freemasonry, in the first ages of Christianity, is thus explained :-After the temples of Zerubbabel and Herod were destroyed, the Masons endeavoured to produce a reformation of manners; and as the material edifice was forbidden to be rebuilt, they endeavoured to construct in their arts a spiritual and moral tempie. Manchin was a noted person amongst this class of Masons, and in his time a large section of them embraced Christianity, and formed themselves into Lodges, living together like a family of Brethren. Towards the sixth century, the Order sadly decreased, although there were still found a few zealous Masons, by whose exertions it was prevented from falling into oblivion. In the year 1118, eleven Grand Elect and Perfect Masons appeared before Garinus, Prince of Jerusalem, and requested him to accept the office of their Grand Master. An alliance was formed between these princes to re-establish in Jerusalem the worship of the Most High. But the result of the crusades being unfavourable, they were obliged to perform their vows in theory; and therefore they do not admit any into their order but such as have signalized themselves by the practice of brotherly love, relief, and truth.

54"It was not intended that the religion of the Jews should subsist entire after the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the seat of the Sanhedrim, to whose decisions the Jews were obliged to submit. For which reason the Rabbis, in their histories, principally endeavoured to show that, notwithstanding the deplorable condition to which their nation was reduced, by so many banishments into divers kingdoms, they had not lost, however, their traditions, because they imagine their famous schools or academies, where those traditions have been always taught, have preserved them. Though they could boast no longer of any infallible consistories, yet they insist that they ever had a succession of men who took upon them the dignity of Nasci, or Principal of the Sanhedrim ; and there are some persons amongst the Jews, even to this day, who assume that title to themselves as a mark of honour." (Cer. of the Jews, c. 69.)

The government of the tribe of Judah had subsisted in one form or another from the death of Jacob to the last destruction of Jerusalem, and then it was utterly ruined; and soon the distinction of tribes was in a manuer lost. They are all Jews at the present day; but the tribe of Judah is so far from bearing rule, that they are uncertain which is the tribe of Judah; they exercise dominion nowhere, but everywhere live in subjection.

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56 The modern Jews boast of their dispersion and preservation as a mark of the divine favour. The preservation of the Jewish nation," says one of the Rabbis, "is a signal and illustrious act of Divine Providence. They are dispersed amongst all nations, and not confounded with them; the drops of rain that fall, and the great rivers which flow into the ocean, are mingled and lost in that great and immense body of water; and such would have been the fate of the Jewish nation. In the ordinary course of nature they would have been mingled and lost in the common mass of mankind; but they flow in all parts. blended with all nations, and yet are religiously and civilly separated from all; they still remain in their faith a distinct people; they are unable to live conformably to their laws; they nowhere elect their own magistrates, nowhere exercise the whole of their religion, intolerance restrains them; they are checked, bruised, and contemned; yet they are wonderfully saved and preserved from oppression, like their ancestors, Moses in the bulrushes, or Daniel in

the lions' den. Human power is frustrated, and there is no destroying those whom God chooses to preserve."

57 Simeon explains this clearly. He says "The ten tribes were spoiled of their power when they were carried captive to Assyria; but the tribe of Judah retained both their ecclesiastical and civil polity even in Babylon. If they did not exercise it to the same extent as before, they had by no means wholly lost it. As they had possessed it in Egypt, and retained it the whole time of their Egyptian bondage, so they still nominated their priests and elders while they were oppressed with the Chaldean yoke. Their bondage in Babylon was exceedingly heavy; but many of them were suffered to build houses and plant gardens, and to live rather as a colony than as slaves. On their return from Babylon, their own chiefs and elders were appointed to superintend the execution of Cyrus's decree; and after that period they continued to enjoy their privileges till the time of our Lord's advent. Soon after that they were reduced to the state of a Roman province; but still exercised the same powers, only in a more limited manner. But forty years after the death of Christ, when his gospel had been fully preached, and people of all oations had been gathered to him, their city and temple were utterly destroyed, and they themselves dispersed into all lands. From that time their sceptre has utterly departed from them; nor can the smallest vestige of their former power be traced. They are, therefore, living proofs throughout the whole world that their Messiah is indeed come."

LECTURE L.

COROLLARY.

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil."--ECCLESIASTES.

Cultivating brotherly love, the foundation and cope stone, the cement and glory, of this ancient Fraternity, avoiding all wrangling and quarrelling, all slander and backbiting; not permitting others to slander any honest Brother, but defending his character, and doing him all good offices, as far as is consistent with your honour and safety, and no farther, that all may see the benign influence of Masonry, as all true Masons have done from the beginning of the world, and will do to the end of time. Amen, so mote it be."-ANCIENT CHARGE.

Κογξ Ομπαξ.

"Watch and abstain from evil."-CHARGE AT THE CLOSE OF THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF GREECE.

HAVING brought the lectures to a conclusion, nothing now remains but to take a brief view of the general doctrines which they inculcate, and the truths which they impart. And this will show that Freemasonry is not the useless institution which some affect to think it, and bestow considerable pains to persuade others that their decision is correct.

The principal object I have had in view has been, to deduce from the science of Freemasonry a series of proofs, in corroboration of the fact contained in the sacred writings, that the design of God, throughout the whole of his dispensations, was to prepare the minds of men for the development of the great plan of human redemption by an atonement for sin, to be wrought out by the sacrifice of the word of God, the Messiah of the Jews, and the founder of the Christian scheme of salvation.

The evidences of this fact are numerous and conclusive, and prove beyond the slightest doubt that the G. A. O. T. U., who declared his NAME to Moses at the burning bush, appeared on earth at the time, and in the place