THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

[50] "The Egyptian reference in the Urim and Thummim is especially
distinct and incontrovertible."--HENGSTENBERG, p. 158.
[51] According to the estimate of Bishop Cumberland, it was only one
hundred and nine feet in length, thirty-six in breadth, and fifty-four
in
height.
[52] "Thus did our wise Grand Master contrive a plan, by mechanical and
practical allusions, to instruct the craftsmen in principles of the
most
sublime speculative philosophy, tending to the glory of God, and to
secure
to them temporal blessings here and eternal life hereafter, as well as
to
unite the speculative and operative Masons, thereby forming a twofold
advantage, from the principles of geometry and architecture on the one
part, and the precepts of wisdom and ethics on the other."--CALCOTT,
_Candid Disquisition_, p. 31, ed. 1769.
[53] This proposition I ask to be conceded; the evidences of its truth
are, however, abundant, were it necessary to produce them. The craft,
generally, will, I presume, assent to it.
[54]
"The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them--ere he framed
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems--in the darkling wood,
Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down,
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication."--BRYANT.
[55] Theologians have always given a spiritual application to the
temple
of Solomon, referring it to the mysteries of the Christian
dispensation.
For this, consult all the biblical commentators. But I may particularly
mention, on this subject, Bunyan's "Solomon's Temple Spiritualized,"
and a
rare work in folio, by Samuel Lee, Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford,
published at London in 1659, and entitled "Orbis Miraculum, or the
Temple
of Solomon portrayed by Scripture Light." A copy of this scarce work,
which treats very learnedly of "the spiritual mysteries of the gospel
veiled under the temple," I have lately been, by good fortune, enabled
to
add to my library.
[56] Veluti pecora, quae natura finxit prona et obedientia
ventri.--SALLUST, _Bell. Catil._ i.
[57] I Kings vi. 7.