Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions. *
simi of the cross , " says Edmonstone , " amongst the Egyptians , signified Life ; and was the mark by which they expressed the number Ten , which was a perfect number , denoting Heaven , and the Pythagorean Tetractys , or incommunicable Name of God . The symbolical pagan cross was originally the Tauticnot the compound figure with
, four arms + ; for this last , I apprehend , was more modern than the former , being , in fact , merely a double TThis symbol , as I have already observed , is interpreted by some of our Brethren to allude to the temple at Jerusalem , ( Templum Hierosolymas ) , who think that the T is laced over the H to denote the superiority of the place
p which w-as the habitation of God , over that which was only the dwelling-place of man ; for though the city was holy , the temple exceeded it in holiness . Others consider it , I apprehend with greater reason , to be the Tau Cross of heathen
nations triplified . Count de Gebelin informs us , that this symbol T was carried by the Egyptian priests during the processions attending their most sacred rites ; and therefore , was not unknown to the Israelites in their wanderings , and was consequently a Jewish emblem in existence before the Temple of Solomon was erected . It is , indeed , inserted as
a sacred symbol on the Isiac Table ; and hence , has been taken by some for a Nilometre , or key of the Nile , to measure the increase and decrease of its fructifying waters . This latter opinion is , I am persuaded , erroneous ; for the Nilometre would scarcely have been considered of sufficient importance to be stamped on the forehead of the Egyptian
Epopts : nor could it have been imitated in Persia ; and the Tau , as Tertullian informs us , ( ^ and he is an unexceptionable authority , because he had himself been initiated before his conversion to Christianity ) , was inscribed on the forehead of every person who had been admitted into the mysteries of Mithras .
Other opinions have been delivered , which it would be improper to introduce here . How true soever it may be that the Tau Cross was used by the Hebrews before their deliverance from Egyptian bondage , and continued through the entire period of their history , I shall treat it , in its triplifical character p } , as a
symbol peculiarly adapted to Christian Freemasonry ; thus partaking of the typical nature and application of all other parts of the Jewish mode of worship ; for although the single VOL . I . D
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions. *
simi of the cross , " says Edmonstone , " amongst the Egyptians , signified Life ; and was the mark by which they expressed the number Ten , which was a perfect number , denoting Heaven , and the Pythagorean Tetractys , or incommunicable Name of God . The symbolical pagan cross was originally the Tauticnot the compound figure with
, four arms + ; for this last , I apprehend , was more modern than the former , being , in fact , merely a double TThis symbol , as I have already observed , is interpreted by some of our Brethren to allude to the temple at Jerusalem , ( Templum Hierosolymas ) , who think that the T is laced over the H to denote the superiority of the place
p which w-as the habitation of God , over that which was only the dwelling-place of man ; for though the city was holy , the temple exceeded it in holiness . Others consider it , I apprehend with greater reason , to be the Tau Cross of heathen
nations triplified . Count de Gebelin informs us , that this symbol T was carried by the Egyptian priests during the processions attending their most sacred rites ; and therefore , was not unknown to the Israelites in their wanderings , and was consequently a Jewish emblem in existence before the Temple of Solomon was erected . It is , indeed , inserted as
a sacred symbol on the Isiac Table ; and hence , has been taken by some for a Nilometre , or key of the Nile , to measure the increase and decrease of its fructifying waters . This latter opinion is , I am persuaded , erroneous ; for the Nilometre would scarcely have been considered of sufficient importance to be stamped on the forehead of the Egyptian
Epopts : nor could it have been imitated in Persia ; and the Tau , as Tertullian informs us , ( ^ and he is an unexceptionable authority , because he had himself been initiated before his conversion to Christianity ) , was inscribed on the forehead of every person who had been admitted into the mysteries of Mithras .
Other opinions have been delivered , which it would be improper to introduce here . How true soever it may be that the Tau Cross was used by the Hebrews before their deliverance from Egyptian bondage , and continued through the entire period of their history , I shall treat it , in its triplifical character p } , as a
symbol peculiarly adapted to Christian Freemasonry ; thus partaking of the typical nature and application of all other parts of the Jewish mode of worship ; for although the single VOL . I . D