CHAPTER IV. CONTAINING NINE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX YEARS. View of Masonry from Enoch to the Universal Deluge. THE great and prominent truth to be illustrated in these views of ancient Masonry is, that religion, or the genuine worship of God, was the chief object of masonic practice in the primitive ages of the world. And this may be deduced from the existence of pure Masonry at the present day; for, had it been erected on any other foundation but the glory of God,—had it been instituted solely to exalt human wisdom, or to promote human greatness, it would have been but as a flitting sunbeam, which passeth away and leaves no trace behind. Religion was the only foundation on which our Order could be securely placed; for no institution can be firm or permanent which is not supported by the favour and protection of the Deity. Every thing merely human must inevitably decay and crumble to ruins before the all-devouring hand of Time. "The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, But the word of God, and every thing founded on that basis, shall never fail. Even "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up;" but Masonry, pure and uncontaminated with earthly abominations, shall triumph over the general and universal dissolution, and shall cement the Host of Heaven in a holy union and communion to all eternity. Before Enoch assumed the superintendence of our Order, there appears to have been some intermixture of the two lines of Seth and Cain, for the world does not exhibit so bright an aspect as during the last period. Adam, however, was yet living, and his authority was sufficient to restrain the race over which he possessed the supreme government, as king, priest, and prophet, from those rash and violent deeds, which, after his death, deformed the face of Nature. Enoch prosecuted his scientific researches with indefatigable industry, and communicated his discoveries to his brethren. The line of Seth were, indeed, less eminent than the Cainites for mechanical arts, because their attention had been devoted to more sublime pursuits. They practised very successfully the speculative sciences which form a constituent part of Masonry. The celestial bodies were objects of their constant investigation. In the science of astronomy Enoch made many improvements; and it is thought that he was acquainted with the grand period of six hundred years, at the expiration of which, the sun and moon return to the precise situation which they occupied at the beginning of it. Other sciences were invented and perfected by Enoch, which tend to illustrate God's attributes and perfections; and hence this extraordinary patriarch earned a distinguished reputation, which will endure, both amongst Masons and Christians, until the frame of this world shall be shook in pieces by the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. But the study of human science was not the sole intention of God in the creation of man. He formed him for a nobler purpose; and these studies were but secondary considerations, springing as natural effects from natural causes. Of this truth we have had abundant proofs, in the view we have already taken of the origin of the sciences. For it appears that the idolatrous nations were not deficient in scientific knowledge, though they had renounced their allegiance to the true God. Enoch practised Masonry, of which he was now installed Grand Master, with such effect, that God vouchsafed, by immediate revelation, to communicate to him some peculiar mysteries, in token of his approba tion. The most valuable of these, according to old traditions, was that SACRED NAME OR WORD, which demands our utmost veneration, and enables man to reflect on the goodness of his Maker with renewed sentiments of reverence and devotion. The degeneracy of mankind increasing, Enoch exhorted them to turn from their unrighteous ways, and imitate the purity of their forefathers. He pressed upon them the nature of their obligations; he reiterated their duty to God and man; but the fascinations of pleasure had so intoxicated their senses, that the sober admonitions of reason and duty were little regarded. He therefore called a special assembly of Masons in whom he could confide, and in the presence of Adam, Seth, Jared his father, and Methusaleh his son, he enumerated the accumulating wickedness of man, and the enormous evils which were desolating the earth; and implored their advice and assistance in stemming the torrent of impiety which threatened a universal corruption. It was here Adam communicated that terrible prophecy, that all mankind, except a few just persons, should so far swerve from their allegiance to God, as to cause the destruction of all created things by water and fire.3 "The tablet of the last judgment," says Dr. Young, "which is so well illustrated by the testimony of Diodorus, concerning the funerals of the Egyptians, is found near the end of almost all the manuscripts upon papyrus that are so frequently discovered in the coffins of the mummies, and among others in Lord Mountnorris's hieratic manuscript, printed in the collection of the Egyptian Society. The great deity sits on the left, holding the hook and the whip or fan; his name and titles are generally placed over him. Before him is a kind of mace, supporting something like the skin of a leopard; then a female Cerberus, and, on a shelf over her head, the tetrad of termini, which have been already distinguished by the names, Tetrarcha,' 'Anubis,' 'Macedo,' and 'Hieracion,' each having had his appropriate denomination written over his head. Behind the Cerberus stands Thoth, with his style and tablet, having just begun to write. Over his head, in two columns, we find his name and titles, including his designation as a scribe. The balance follows, with a little baboon as a kind of genius sitting on it. Under the beam stand Cteristes and Hyperion, supposed by Mr. Champollion to be Anubis and Horus, who are employed in adjusting the equipoise; but their names in this manuscript are omitted. The five columns over the balance are only remarkable as containing, in this instance, the characteristic phrase, or the name of the deceased, intermixed with other characters. Beyond the balance stands a female holding the sceptre of Isis, who From this information Enoch formed his plans for preserving the knowledge he had acquired, amidst the devastation necessarily attending the predicted calamity. The sacred mysteries committed to his charge occupied his first and most anxious solicitude. Being inspired by his Maker, and in commemoration of the wonderful vision on the holy mountain, in which these sublime secrets were revealed to him, he built a temple in the bowels of the earth, the entrance to which was through nine several porches, each supported by a pair of pillars, and curiously concealed from human observation. The perpendicular depth of this temple was eighty-one feet from. the surface. Enoch, Jared, and Methusaleh were the three architects who constructed this subterranean edifice; but the two latter were not acquainted with the secret motives which influenced Enoch in causing this cavern to be dug. The arches were formed in the bowels of a mountain, which was afterwards denominated Calvary, in the land of Canaan; and the temple was dedicated to the living God. He then made a plate of gold in the form of an equilateral triangle, each of whose sides was eighteen inches; which he enriched with precious stones, and encrusted it on a triangular agate of the same dimensions. On this plate he engraved the ineffable characters he had seen in his vision; and alone, in silence and solitude, he descended through the nine portals into the temple, and placed this invaluable treasure upon a cubical pedestal of white marble. When the temple was completed, Enoch made nine secret doors of stone, and placed them at the entrance of the portals, with an iron ring inserted in each for the facility of raising, in case any wise and good man of future ages should be led to explore the secret recesses of this sepulchral vault. He then closed up the whole, seems to be called Rhea, the wife of the sun. She is looking back at the personage, who holds up his hand as a mark of respect, and who is identified as the deceased, by the name simply placed over him, without any exordium. He is followed by a second goddess, who is also holding up her hands in token of respect, and whose name looks like a personification of honour and glory, unless it is simply intended to signify a divine priestess, belonging to the order of the Pterophori, mentioned on the Rosetta stone." that the secrets there deposited might remain in perfect security amidst the anticipated destruction of mankind; for the contents of this temple were not entrusted to any human being. Enoch paid occasional visits to the temple, for the purpose of offering up his prayers and thanksgivings in a peculiar manner to the God who had vouchsafed to him alone such distinguished favours. As the world increased in wickedness, and the threatened destruction visibly approached nearer and nearer, Enoch, trembling for the fate of those useful arts and sciences which he had invented or improved, proceeded without delay to provide for their transmission to future ages: for the accomplishment of which, his knowledge of letters lent the greatest facility. Upon a high mountain, therefore, he erected two great pillars, one of marble and another of brass, to preserve the true principles of science for the benefit of a future world; the former of which he conceived would withstand fire and the latter water. On these he engraved the elements of the liberal sciences, including Masonry; and also a notification that he had concealed a valuable treasure in the bowels of the earth, which contained the essence and end of Masonry, and was consecrated to the only true and living God. Let him that hath WISDOM find it! Enoch perceiving that men did not reform, from his repeated exhortations, instituted that form of excommunication known amongst the primitive Christians by the name of Maranatha, being derived from Maran, the Lord, and Ath, fire. After giving them a solemn warning of the dreadful punishment which awaited their obdurate iniquity, he resigned the government to his son Lamech; and on his fervent petition for death, it pleased God to translate him from the Lodge on earth to the Lodge above, where his piety was rewarded with everlasting glory. His farewell exhortation was calculated to awaken mankind from their lethargy, if they had not been dead to every impulse but that of vice. "Behold," says he, "the Lord cometh, with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." ✦ Jude, 14, 15. |