Freemasonry & Israelitism.

safed to him ; while , in other respects , we see peculiar institutions and announcements specially adapted to the peculiar ends and purposes of the dispensations . Thus we trace the approach to God through

sacrifices , offerings , and formal services . Religious truths are conveyed under figures , and obligations are enforced by motives specially adapted to the wants and capacities of the persons addressed ; while

temporal prospects or benefits are held out as the immediate sanctions . The chosen seed of Abraham were formed into a distinct nation ; idolatry was strictly forbidden , and God Himself was the king and ruler . The

government was a Theocracy , and only such of the kings as recognised this fact , and regarded themselves as the Lord ' s vicegerents ,- were approved by Him . The Mosaic law appears , throughout , as a

national law . All its commandments , including the Decalogue , are civil laws . The first and second commandments are laws of State in the Theocracy . Everything was restricted to the nation , and the

principal ceremonials of the law were confined to Jerusalem , where all the males were required to present themselves three times in the year . The many intimations which we find in the later writings of the Hebrew

church ( the Prophets ) of the future extension of the true religion—the bringing in of the remote nations to the Israelitish church —of the whole earth , in fact , being brought by and into it— " The fulness of the

Gentiles "—these alone would suffice to show that the forms and ceremonies which the law prescribed could not be meant for perpetual and universal obligation ; while the character of many of them sufficiently

indicates that they were only symbolical , representative , or material types , or figures , of something beyond and better than themselves . "The latter days "—the times of the Messiah—were , in fact , often alluded

to , more or less clearly , as those in which all mankind should be brought to the knowledge of the true God , and should form an universal church , in which Israel should occupy a prominent place , as part of it . Another

covenant was to supersede the Mosaic one . The precision and formality of the law were in some measure extended and spiritualized by the prophets . Ezekiel ( ch . xviii . ) , in fact , represents the Lord as positively abrogating one

lawvisiting the sins of the fathers upon the children —and Isaiah strongly declares against sacrifices and sabbaths , excepting , no doubt , their spiritual significance ( ch . i . 13 ) , while Micah ( ch . vi . ) specifically declares that neither burnt

offerings nor other description of sacrifices or oblation , were to be required of Israel ; and Jeremiah plainly announces that the law was to

come to an end ; or , rather , was to be superseded by a better , that is a more spiritual , covenant : "Behold the days come , saith the Lord , that I will make a new covenant with the house of

of Israel and with the house of Judah : not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers , in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them up out of the land of Egypt ( which my covenant they broke , although I was

an husband unto them , saith the Lord ); but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel : After those days , saith the Lord , I will put my law in their inward parts , and write it in their hearts ; and I will be their God ,

and they shall be my people If those ordinances [ the sun , moon , and stars ] depart from before me , saith the Lord , then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever" ( Jer . xxxi . 31-36 ) .

Thus , even from the intimations in the Old Testament , as well as from the peculiar character of the Mosaic dispensation itself , and its being

obviously and avowedly disadapted for other than the people of which Jerusalem formed the centre apd seat of Divine worship , it follows that it was designed only for those who dwelt within

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

reach of the Holy City , and was intended only for a temporary purpose . But though Moses was to be thus superseded , Israel was not to be left without a lawgiver and a law , as is testified by many passages in the prophets , and even by Moses himself , in the

well-known passage , Deut . xvm . 15-19 , when the Lord said to Moses , " I will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee , of thy brethren , like unto thee ; . . . I will put My words in his mouth , and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him . And

it shall come to pass , that whosoever will not hearken unto My words , which he shall speak in My Name , I will require it of him . " I am not unaware of the interpretation which most of the mediteval Jews have given of these words ,

referring them , notwithstanding the singular form of the noun nebia ( prophet ) , to a succession of prophets , and not to a single person ; but I cannot help thinking , that , although they may have some reference to a succession of

prophets , the form of the promise , which evidently refers to a distant time , as also the likening of the prophet to Moses—who was preeminently a lawgiver , and the introducer and mediator of a new dispensation , though a

prophet also—point not to a number of men , who , though prophets , were none of them lawgivers ( but only enforced the obligations of the law of Moses , and threw upon it a higher and more spiritual aspect than its mere letter

presented , while they shadowed forth , in various ways , its transient character ) , hut to One who was to be superior to all . If the promise be looked at impartially , and without any foregone conclusion , it appears to me that it must be seen

at least to indicate—as many both early and later , and very eminent , critics decide—a line of prophets culminating in one eminent individual , the Messiah—who , only , was to be like unto Moses ; for , as the writer ofthe verses at the end

of this Book ( concerning the death of Moses ) testifies , " there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses , whom the Lord knew face to face " ( ch . xxxiv . 10 ) . This writer both Jews and Christians believe to have been Ezra ,

who did not live till after the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah had been destroyed , and the prophetic era closed . And thus the ancient Jews understood this prophecy , for though Maimonides only says that the Messiah should be

endowed with wisdom greater than Solomon's , and should equal their master , Moses , those preceding him went much further—this being a common saying among them , which Abarbinel sets down in his commentary on the minor

prophets : " He shall be exalted above Abraham , be lifted up above Moses , and be higher than the angels of the ministry . " To this maybe added that the cabalistic observation mentioned in Baal-Hatturim is not to be

quite neglected , which says that the fifteenth verse begins and ends with the letter nun , which is the numeral letter for 50 , importing that to the prophet here promised should be opened the 50 gates of knowledge , 49 only of which were

opened to Moses ; and that this verse consists of only 10 words , to signify that they were to obey this prophet as they do the 10 commandments . The observation is , no doubt , weakly grounded , but it contains a most illustrious

truth , showing that they believed that Moses here speaks of the Messiah . This propbet , then , who was to be raised up from among the people whom God chose to be the depositaries of His name and worship , was to be a legislator , as

Moses was . He was to give a law , consequently , a more excellent law ; he was to introduce a better covenant , for if the Mosaic covenant had been perfect—that is , to accomplish all the purposes of the Lord—there would not have been

the promise I have quoted from Jeremiah , of the days approaching in which the Lord would make a netv covenant with the house of Israel . III . Thus we see , that , though the Israelites were divorced from the law and its ceremonial

worship , they were to be married to one another . Thc prophet Jeremiah ( iii . 12-14 ) was directed to go and proclaim these words towards the north , to which Israel I ^ ad been carried captive " Return , thou backsliding Israel , saith the

Freemasonry & Israelitism.

Lord , and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon thee , for I am merciful , saith the Lord , and will not keep anger for ever ; only acknowledge thine iniquity , that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God , and hast scattered thy ways

to the strangers , under every green tree , and have not obeyed my voice , saith the Lord . Turn , 0 backsliding children , saith the Lord ; for I am married unto you , and I will bring you to Zion . " Tint before that return to Zion can

take place " The children of Israel shall return , and seek the Lord their God and David their king , and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days " ( Hosea iii . 5 ) . Here are two noticeable things : ( 1 ) The children of Israel

are to return from their idolatry ( ver . 4 ) , and seek the Lord their God , and David their king . AVho is this David their king ? Not the son of Jesse , for he had died long since . It must be David ' s successor—the spiritual king of

Israelthe Messiah—David's son and heir , who is to reign over the house of Israel for ever ( 2 Sam . vii . 16 ; Psl . lxxxix . 3 , 4 , 29-37 ) . ( 2 ) Next , it was to be in the "latter days . " . Now . the " latter days , " or the " last days , " have

always been understood , by both Jews and Christians , to denote the days or time of the Messiah . The Rabbi Nachmanides says , " According to the words of all , ' the last clays ' denote the days of Messiah ; and so Rabbi

David Kimchi , on Isaiah ii . 2 , where the phrase occurs , writes , " AVherever ' the latter times ' are mentioned in Scripture , the days of the Messiah are always meant , " This being agreed , it is clear that the king , and the law , and the

worship of the " latter days , " are not to be under the Mosaic dispensation , or the old covenant . Besides , seeing that all nations are in these latter days to be brought to the knowledge and worship of the true God , as are also Judah , or the Jews , through the instrumentality of

Israel , and that Jerusalem is the only place in which sacrifices and the ceremonial worship can be carried on , it must be under a new law and dispensation , and an universal king , even David ' s son and heir , of whose kingdom there shall be no end .

In accordance with all this , we find that when the Anglo-Saxons had been fully established in these islands , and had become the rulers , they were converted to the Christian faith , and have

ever since been spreading it abroad , by means of the written Scriptures , Old and New , and the preaching of those Scriptures in all the nations of the earth .

Let it not be supposed by my Christian brethren , that in thus reasoning with reference to the literal or natural seed of Abraham , and the literal and natural Israel , that I ignore the fact of a spiritual seed of Abraham , and of a

spiritual Israel . By no means . There are two things to be here observed ( 1 ) that I am standing upon ground common to both Jew and Christian . My proofs of Israel ' s character , localisation , and mission , are all derived from

the Old Testament ; not because I could not find many proofs—more and stronger , probablyin the New Testament than I find in the Old ; but in THE FREEMASON I am precluded from doing so by a mutual understanding between

the two classes of religionists . ( 2 ) That many ofthe Old Testament prophecies ofthe destiny and work of Israel are , as I have shown , to be literally fulfilled , in accordance with the language in which they are delivered . That they are to

have a spiritual fulfilment , also , I firmly believe , as well as that there are many Old Testament prophecies concerning the spiritual seed of Abraham—the seed by faith—the spiritual Israel , and therefore the heirs of the promises . But

for the reason stated , I here pass over all these , and occupy neutral ground . Glorious will be the day , and happy they who live to see it , in which the stick upon which is written , " For Judah and for the children of Israel , his companions ; " and the stick upon which is

written "For Joseph the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel , his companions , " shall be taken and be joined one to another , so that they shall become one stick ; and when it shall be said unto them , " Thus saith the Lord God , Behold , I will take the