INTRODUCTION. IV 



be received as spoken ex cathedra, and as 

 dictated by the Holy Spirit. It should not 

 be lost sight of, that the great object of 

 Revelation was to reclaim mankind from the 

 debasing worship of those that were not gods 

 by nature ; of those powers in nature, or their 

 symbols, selected from natural objects, which 

 God employed and directed as his agents in 

 the formation and government of the globe 

 we inhabit, and of the whole universe. " But 

 we," says Bacon, " dedicate or erect no 

 capitol or pyramid to the pride of men ; but, 

 in the human intellect, lay the foundations 

 of a holy temple, an exemplar of the world." l 

 This passage is capable of an application that 

 may lead us into an avenue terminating in 

 such a temple, which, though not erected 

 in the human intellect, may enlighten it in 

 several points relating to physical truths con- 

 cerning which it is now in darkness. The 

 Mosaical tabernacle and the Solomonian 

 temple were both erected not after the 

 imaginings of the spirit of man ; but the 

 former after a pattern which was shown to 

 Moses in the mount; 2 and the latter after 



1 Nov. Org. aphorism. 120. 

 * Exod xxv. 40, xxvi. 30. 



