e most powerful arguments for its
credibility and for its composition by Moses."--HENGSTENBERG, p. 239,
Robbins's trans.

[48] Josephus, _Antiq._ book iii. ch. 7.

[49] The ark, or sacred boat, of the Egyptians frequently occurs on the
walls of the temples. It was carried in great pomp by the priests on the
occasion of the "procession of the shrines," by means of staves passed
through metal rings in its side. It was thus conducted into the temple,
and deposited on a stand. The representations we have of it bear a
striking resemblance to the Jewish ark, of which it is now admitted to
have been the prototype.

[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 por