Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The History And Antiquities Of Freemasonry.
Jewish Rabbins * , the workmen discovered a subterraneous vault or cavity , the ARCHED roof (?) of which was supported by seven pair of pillars perfect and entire , which , from their situation , had escaped the fury of the flames which had consumed the Temple , and the desolation of war which
had destroyed the city . This vault , which had been built by Solomon as a secure depository for certain valuable secrets that would inevitably have been lost without some such expedient for their preservation , communicated subterraneousl y with the king ' s palace on Mount Zionf ; but , at the destruction of Jerusalemthe entrance having been
, filled with the rubbish of the building , it escaped observation , and was only discovered by the appearance of a KEY STONE amongst the foundations . The Rabbins add , that Josiah , foreseeing the destruction of the Temple , commanded the Levites to deposit the Ark of the Covenant in this vault , where it was found by Zerubabel ' s
workmen . But there is no foundation for this belief ; for if the situation of this vault had been known to Josiah , it must have been also known to his idolatrous predecessors , who would doubtless have plundered it of its valuable contents , and exposed them to the world in contempt of the true God to whom they referred , and whom these idolatrous
monarchs had wholl y renounced . It is much more probable , that , in the latter years of Solomon , when , by his intercourse with idolaters , he had almost forgotten God , his visits to this vault were discontinued ; and the entrance being curiously concealed amongst the caverns underneath his palace , the secret died with him , and the
communication was for ever closed . It is certain , however , if there really did exist such a vault , that the Ark of the Covenant was not found in it , for this was one of the invaluable gifts of God which the second Temple did not contain , and consequently it could not have been preserved by Josiah % . The Samaritans hearing that the Jews were engaged in
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The History And Antiquities Of Freemasonry.
Jewish Rabbins * , the workmen discovered a subterraneous vault or cavity , the ARCHED roof (?) of which was supported by seven pair of pillars perfect and entire , which , from their situation , had escaped the fury of the flames which had consumed the Temple , and the desolation of war which
had destroyed the city . This vault , which had been built by Solomon as a secure depository for certain valuable secrets that would inevitably have been lost without some such expedient for their preservation , communicated subterraneousl y with the king ' s palace on Mount Zionf ; but , at the destruction of Jerusalemthe entrance having been
, filled with the rubbish of the building , it escaped observation , and was only discovered by the appearance of a KEY STONE amongst the foundations . The Rabbins add , that Josiah , foreseeing the destruction of the Temple , commanded the Levites to deposit the Ark of the Covenant in this vault , where it was found by Zerubabel ' s
workmen . But there is no foundation for this belief ; for if the situation of this vault had been known to Josiah , it must have been also known to his idolatrous predecessors , who would doubtless have plundered it of its valuable contents , and exposed them to the world in contempt of the true God to whom they referred , and whom these idolatrous
monarchs had wholl y renounced . It is much more probable , that , in the latter years of Solomon , when , by his intercourse with idolaters , he had almost forgotten God , his visits to this vault were discontinued ; and the entrance being curiously concealed amongst the caverns underneath his palace , the secret died with him , and the
communication was for ever closed . It is certain , however , if there really did exist such a vault , that the Ark of the Covenant was not found in it , for this was one of the invaluable gifts of God which the second Temple did not contain , and consequently it could not have been preserved by Josiah % . The Samaritans hearing that the Jews were engaged in