stars; and even arranged the clusters of stars into constellations, by which they are in the present day distinguished.46 Chronologers tell us that the first celestial observations after the Flood were made immediately subsequent to the erection of the Tower of Babel; and this seems to be confirmed by what Porphyry tells us, that when Alexander took Babylon, he found in that city astronomical observations for nineteen hundred and three years; and this brings them within fifteen years of the building of Babel.*7 Berosus, who collected the ancient Chaldean 66 46 Thus Cronus, or Ham, was consecrated into the planet Saturn. (Euseb. de Præp. 1. 1, c. 10.) Thoth, or Athothes, was consecrated into Mercury. (Erat. Cat. c. 23.) The bodies, according to Plutarch, of Osiris, Isis, Typhon, &c., were worshipped on earth, and their souls shone as the stars in heaven. Isis was called the Dog-star; Orus appeared in the constellation known by the name of Orion, and Typhon in Ursa Major. (De Isid.) 47 The subdivision of the day into hours was not known to Moses; and consequently the Egyptians, prior to his time, were ignorant of it. According to Herodotus, the Babylonian priests first divided the day into twenty-four equal parts; and, subsequently, their neighbours, the Chaldeans, who were much addicted to astrological speculations, assigned to the days of the week the planetary names which they still retain. Conceiving that every hour of the day was under the influence of its governing planet, by a rotary motion, they appropriated to each day the name of the planet which appeared to govern the first hour of it; whence the names of the days had an astronomical origin. The method was this. Beginning with the first day after the creation, and arranging the planets thus-Sol, Venus, Mercury, Luna, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, they named the first day after the sun. Thus Venus would govern the second, ninth, sixteenth, and twenty-third hours; Mercury, the third, tenth, seventeenth, and twenty-fourth; which would consequently give to Luna the first hour of the second day; which was hence named Dies Lunæ; and so on of the rest. monuments, and published treatises of their astronomy and philosophy, gave an account, in his history, of a man among the Chaldeans in the tenth generation after the Flood, who was righteous, and great, and skilful in the celestial science;248 which character agrees with that of Abraham, who is said by Josephus to have taught the Egyptians astronomy and arithmetic, of which sciences they were utterly ignorant before his time.49 The investigations in this chapter are calculated to shew, that the science of Masonry, which embraces every branch of human learning, and applies each to the only end which can make men truly useful here, or happy hereafter, the glory of God; was practised amongst the descendants of Ham and Japheth so far only as its operative nature extended; for they stopped short at the portal of that most sublime and spiritual edifice, "a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."50 Hence, at the coming of Christ to restore the primitive religion, and with it the essence of speculative Masonry, the idolatrous worship sunk to decay, and all the works founded on its basis mouldered into dust and ruins. At his birth, the popular legend accredited amongst the idolaters was, that the groves and temples consecrated to demoniacal worship echoed with the most tremendous howlings; the waves of the adjacent seas swelled with an unusual agitation; the priests, overwhelmed with awe, inquired of their oracles the causes which produced these alarming Bp. Tomline. 48 Jos. Ant. 1. 1, c. 7. 50 2 Cor. v. 1. 49 and supernatural phenomena; when a voice was said to answer-"Our reign is expired. We are struck dumb by the appearance of a superior power!"" However this may be, the fatal shock which idolatry received by the appearance of Jesus Christ on earth is attested by evidence of a much more certain and specific character; the public confession of demons expelled by Our Saviour from possessed individuals (as recorded by the Evangelists), whose uniform cry was, Torment us not! We know and acknowledge thee to be the Son of God. And nearly four centuries after this, when Julian, in his attempt to restore the idolatrous worship, urged the oracle of Apollo, at Daphne, to declare the cause of his silence, the God replied, by his priests, that he was prevented from answering by the bones of a Christian saint which were buried adjacent to the temple. The bones were removed by Julian's order, and the temple was soon after destroyed by a fire from heaven. The triumph of Christianity over Idolatry and Judaism is amply corroborated by the conduct of this apostate emperor, in his impious attempt to frustrate the prophecy of Jesus Christ, and rebuild 51 Vide Suidas, voce Delphi. Plut. Defect. Orac. And our own Milton says:— The oracles are dumb; No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof, in words deceiving. Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance, or breathed spell, Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. the Temple of Jerusalem. The miraculous interposition of heaven to prevent the execution of this project, and assert the truth of Christianity, is recorded by Christian, Jewish, and Pagan writers. Gregory Nazianzen thus expresses himself on this mysterious subject: "The Jews set about the work of rebuilding with great attention, and pushed on the project with the utmost labour and application. But when now driven from their work by a violent whirlwind and a sudden earthquake, they fled together for refuge to a certain neighbouring church. There are who say, the church refused them entrance, and that, when they came to the doors, which were wide open but a moment before, they found them on a sudden closed by a secret and invisible hand. As they strove to force their way in by violence, the FIRE, which burst from the foundations of the temple, met and stopped them; and one part it burnt and destroyed, and another it desperately maimed, leaving them a living monument of God's condemnation and wrath against sinners." day after the earthquake," adds the Rabbin Gedaliah ben Joseph Iechajah, "a dreadful fire fell from heaven, which melted all the IRON TOOLS and Instruments employed about the work; and destroyed many, nay, incredible numbers of the Jews." And the truth of this statement is confirmed by the confession of Ammianus Marcellinus, Julian's professed Pagan apologist, who describes this miracle in the following words: "Julian committed the conduct of this affair to Alypius of Antioch, who formerly had been lieutenant in Britain. When, therefore, this Alypius had set himself to the vigor "The ous execution of his charge, in which he had all the assistance that the governor of the province could afford him, horrible balls of fire breaking out near the foundations with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place, from time to time, inaccessible to the scorched and blasted workmen; and the victorious element continuing in this manner, obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance, Alypius thought it best to give over the enterprise."52 The particular stone in the foundation from which these terrible flames issued, is said, by old Masons, to be the same which Jacob used for a restingplace when journeying towards Padanaram in Mesopotamia. 53 52 Vid. Warb. Julian, p. 45. 53 See the Freemason's Quarterly Review for 1841, p. 269. |