^4CRAME NT A L MONUMENT, 
In the Church of Desk ford, Banffjhire . 
Y'HE fathers and guardians of the myfteries of the church of Rome not only 
3 avowedly admitted into the fanftuary the fymbols of the Gentile religion, but 
^ Um ph in their facred application, as evidently having prophetical allufion to the 
v ^Ngelical Revelation. _ . . , 
h ; h ey beheld, in the fublime hieroglyphics of Egypt, which had aggrandned tne 
<JehlT * _ i r fhp rnamfr-lra- 
' el P h ic oracle, and the temple of Eleufis, fome wonderful references to the mamfefta- 
^ °f the Word of God, contained in theGospFL of Jesus ;^and thae oie, ^wit 1 
tio; 
, WORD OF VJOD, CUIllcUIlCU ill luv, vju—- — ' _ . - . r . . 
-they efteemed a hallowed appropriation, adopted into the inftittmons oi * L -t 
lf y Several of thofe myftic fymbols, which involved the communications o- ti<- t - - 
Urines. 
«»d 
memorials of fome circumftances of the higheft antiquity coine t.iCKi^t- 
°ur notice, from the infpeftion of fuch monuments as that leprdlente in t. 
n lleXe ^ engraving. In any other view, thefe carvings might not be deeme to nav^ 
L, 8ular ity or importance enough to merit a place in this colleftion. i 1C now 
ar j 6 t ^ e high origin from whence the ftrufture and fculptures of thefe monuments 
C erived, is the fource of great part of the pleafure of meeting them on coni- cni-C- 
^ound. 
^•T. he chapel of Eejkford had been additionally embellifhed and endowed in tne 
tin the fixteenth century, when the Catholic inftitutions were in hign e ua.<. 
•y/!’ a nd the monument now under confideration was then elected in tie c .ance . 
<c iS a Ppears from the infeription, which celebrates it in ratnci peculiar terms, 
„ for the honour of loving of god.” 155 r * And it bears on the fup- 
t j f tln S columns the arms and initials of the Lord and Lady FinlaUt , vno e tom was 
c >e d in the preceding number. The earlieft enrichments of feveral of the **ja- 
churcheswere made at the inftance of that noble family. 
i s r,le cubical apartment in the wall of the chancel, with a recefs on either -hand within, 
C e circumftance which the church borrowed bom iome of the mol, ancient 
paries. 
ci,? e f »cred cube, or Kaaba, within which the higheft myfteries lay concealed, oc- 
vi :ed the innermoft rccefles'of the eaftern temples. '1 hefe Adyta were impel - 
i t > a "d their contents a fecret, often even to thofe who had feen within the veil. 
tL as the abode of celeftial truth j the hallowed cell where the oracles lay en in me ; 
b,,. t0n ‘b where the body of divine laws and ordinances were repofed ; and where t.ie 
T,, palladium was preferved inviolate. , „ ■ • c 
e faithful copyifts of the church of Rome, either with the flattering view of 
o r ^dating the Chriftian myfteries to the prepoffeffions of the Gentile wond, 
V the vain idea of adding higher grandeur to the facred rites, of which they 
w th e minifters, adopted the Kaaba, or Adyta, of the ianftuar.es, as the moft 
K *rine wherein the euchariftical elements could be repofed; and there the 
0 / which contained the Host, was laid. - 
appropriation of the cell, in the cafe before us, hallowed as therepoutory 
of the fymbols of the Word of God, the micnption, I^mjkk 
