tabernacle and its appendages to Christianity, which was the true religion on which Judaism was engrafted for wise and inscrutable purposes; and if we examine the services and other component parts of the institution itself, we shall find that they all point equally to the same event, the coming of Shilo predicted by Jacob while the Israelites were in Egypt; and the full establishment of Christianity, by the total subversion of this temporary and figurative institution.

The Annual Sacrifices were typical of the sacrifice of Christ. They cleansed the sinner from all moral as well as ceremonial defilement; but a repetition of them every year was essential, because of the imperfection of a system which necessarily ordained that one man should atone for

another; but the one sacrifice of Christ, God as well as man, purifies the conscience for ever from sin. The burnt offerings were also typical of the same Divine personage. They were burnt without the camp, and Christ was sacrificed without the city. Their blood was sprinkled on the ark of the covenant to propitiate the Deity who dwelt between the cherubims; and Christ's blood was poured out in the face of heaven as a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour, to wash away the sins of men.

The scape goat, the paschal lamb, the cities of refuge, the daily sacrifices, the temple, were equally types of Christ; as the jubilee was of the Gospel, and Mount Zion of the Church. It is in fact unnecessary, in a disquisition of this nature, to

multiply evidences for the purpose of proving that the entire system of Judaism was typical of Christianity; and consequently that salvation was then, as now, suspended on the indispensable condition of faith in the Mediator. And this was not an obscure doctrine, partially understood by the Jews; for their prophets were continually sounding it in their ears, and there was scarcely a generation from Moses to Malachi which did not hear it enforced by the awful sanction of rewards and punish

ments.

Hence, as the glad tidings of salvation to be attained through Christ, were as ancient as the time of man's sin;"* and as they were constantly and unequivocally acknowledged by patriarchs and

* Joseph Mede.

prophets until the actual appearance of Christ upon earth; we may safely pronounce that the one true and unchangeable religion, which extends from the beginning to the end of time, and has hitherto been distinguished by the express approbation of God in every gradation, is that which is now known by the significant appellation of Christianity. But genuine speculative masonry has been alone preserved by the race of men who were the conservators of this religion; it follows, therefore, that speculative masons, in every age of the world, have been the exclusive professors of the true religion, or Christianity; and hence masonry and religion have been cemented from the creation to the present time.

CHAP. IV.

Every event alluded to in the historical part of the Masonic Lectures, has a direct reference to Jesus Christ, or the Christian religion.

THE System which is now practised under the denomination of freemasonry was originally an intellectual pursuit, which had God and his worship for its sole object of meditation, and consequently was not by any means connected with a mechanical craft. Its name corresponded with its nature, for it was designated by a term signifying LIGHT, purity, or perfection. To trace the origin of its present appellation