Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
cases , whether plainly or symbolically expressed , it was esteemed a consecration of the holy precinct where it was placed , and the depository of all human virtues . The Roman deity , Terminus , was of this nature—Termine , sive lapis , & c . —Ovid . Capitoli immobile Saxum . — Virgil .
This people invoked their chief deity by the name of Lapis . "Quidigiturjurabo ? "says Apuleius ; "Per Jovem Lapidem , Romano vetutissimo more . " Amongst the Greeks the Sun was called Xttfor : so universally did the respect and veneration for consecrated petrse prevail . Nor can we of the present generation allow ourselves to
be so much elated with our own attainments , as to despise these superstitions of the early inhabitants of the world , when we consider that our forefathers , not more than three centuries ago , practised similar puerilities ; as witness , the extraordinary prevalence of a belief , at that period , in the efficacy of amulets rituallconsecratedand marked with the
y , name of God , for the cure of diseases . From an old medical treatise , I select the following recipe for the cure of cramp . " Gather together on Good Friday , at five parish churches , five of the first pennies that are offered at the cross ; of each church the first penny . Then take them all and go before
the cross , and say five paternosters . And then cause a ring to be made thereof , without alloy of other metal , and write within it the name of the three kings of Cologne , and on the other side the holy name of Jesus . Then take it from the goldsmith upon a Friday , and say five paternosters as before , and then it will be ready for use . "
Tradition is silent respecting the final destination of our Foundation Stone . It does not appear to have been removed from its place in the foundation of the temple during the above supernatural convulsions ; but we hear nothing more about it , although the mountain has been subsequentl y excavated for the erection of a Turkish mosque . This hiatus in the
account is much to be deplored , because the Rabbi Judah , the compiler of the Mishna , where the history of this stone is recorded , lived on the spot , and ought , for the satisfaction of his countrymen , then dispersed amongst all nations , for whose use this book was written , to have verified his account by a careful personal investigation , on a subject so interesting and important to his nation , yet containing facts which were VOL . VIII . 8 F
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences, Doctrines, And Traditions.
cases , whether plainly or symbolically expressed , it was esteemed a consecration of the holy precinct where it was placed , and the depository of all human virtues . The Roman deity , Terminus , was of this nature—Termine , sive lapis , & c . —Ovid . Capitoli immobile Saxum . — Virgil .
This people invoked their chief deity by the name of Lapis . "Quidigiturjurabo ? "says Apuleius ; "Per Jovem Lapidem , Romano vetutissimo more . " Amongst the Greeks the Sun was called Xttfor : so universally did the respect and veneration for consecrated petrse prevail . Nor can we of the present generation allow ourselves to
be so much elated with our own attainments , as to despise these superstitions of the early inhabitants of the world , when we consider that our forefathers , not more than three centuries ago , practised similar puerilities ; as witness , the extraordinary prevalence of a belief , at that period , in the efficacy of amulets rituallconsecratedand marked with the
y , name of God , for the cure of diseases . From an old medical treatise , I select the following recipe for the cure of cramp . " Gather together on Good Friday , at five parish churches , five of the first pennies that are offered at the cross ; of each church the first penny . Then take them all and go before
the cross , and say five paternosters . And then cause a ring to be made thereof , without alloy of other metal , and write within it the name of the three kings of Cologne , and on the other side the holy name of Jesus . Then take it from the goldsmith upon a Friday , and say five paternosters as before , and then it will be ready for use . "
Tradition is silent respecting the final destination of our Foundation Stone . It does not appear to have been removed from its place in the foundation of the temple during the above supernatural convulsions ; but we hear nothing more about it , although the mountain has been subsequentl y excavated for the erection of a Turkish mosque . This hiatus in the
account is much to be deplored , because the Rabbi Judah , the compiler of the Mishna , where the history of this stone is recorded , lived on the spot , and ought , for the satisfaction of his countrymen , then dispersed amongst all nations , for whose use this book was written , to have verified his account by a careful personal investigation , on a subject so interesting and important to his nation , yet containing facts which were VOL . VIII . 8 F