SYMBOLS of the PJSSION. 
1 T is evident that the admirers and publifhers of Chriftianity in the early ages, efpe- 
cially thofe engaged in the illumination and embeliifhment of the facred books and 
Pediments, had been deeply imprelTed with the hieroglyphical fpiendor in which the 
aj icient communications had been conveyed. A veneration was long retained for 
ttiofe fymbols, which preferved a myfterious remembrance of primaeval traditions. 
They feem to have perceived, “That they were memorials of facred truths; had 
l heir origin from the prophetical books, or more ancient infignia of patriarchal 
re cords ; that, coming forward in fuch a hallowed channel, and being preferved from 
time immemorial as divine, they might involve allufions to evangelical truth ; and 
{{ therefore, with pious appropriation, they applied them to illuftrate the my lie ties of 
the Chriftian faith : ” and by this means we find them adopted on various monuments 
the doftrine of the Catholic church. 
Cf A roll of a book,” a piece of parchment of confiderable length, beautifully illu- 
'hmated with fplendid colours, and with burnifhed gold, exhibiting a copious arrange- 
ment of the Symbols of the Pallion, was lately difcovered in a long-neglected coffer 
lfl Moray. Oppofite to each Symbol, there is an addrefs to the Deity; a verfe of its 
a Pplication to the improvement of the heart, and ipecifying thofe peculiar fentiments 
piety, which the correfponding image lhould infpire. 
The verfes are in the Saxon character, accurately formed ; the emphatical words 
etT -bellifhed with gold and filver. Whether it may have been the expenfive ap- 
Pendage of private devotion, or prepared for a place in the archives of the cathedral; 
'' v ell merits the care of the Antiquarian Society, who have obtained poffeflion of it. 
Twas only mentioned here to give fome additional idea of the facred importance in 
^'ch thefe religious Symbols were held, that are found accompanying the Crofs, in 
embellifhments of Abbeys, &c. and are now to come under our confideration. 
The chapter-houfe of the cathedral church at Elgin, is an elegant oftagon, of about 
r ty feet diameter, and equally high ; the roof forms an ample dome, fupported in. 
*^ e center by a noble column, the capital of which is richly fculptured with variety 
er nblematical devices ; on each of the eight Tides of that uncommon chapiter, there 
a Afield reprefented, which contains the emblems ; and on two of thefe ihields, the 
'Mbols of the Passion, as expreffed by the plate, are fculptured. 
the perufal of thefe, they will probably feem fo far from unufual, and their re- 
ere nce in general fo apparent, as to require no very particular or elaborate difcuflion 
^ *; lle ir import : any more obvious application, often equally fatisfies the peafant and 
■ 1 'm ne i to dive into the records of antiquity for the primteval allufions of the facred 
l! §nia of the Cross of Jesus, to many feems equally unprofitable «id daring. 
if, on examining thefe with the candid eye of liberal refearch into the annals of 
j^quity, they {hall be found to be memorials of things divine, previous to the asra of 
e Cr ucifixion, then will the wonderful evidences come in view, that thofe facred fymbols, 
Crated from the earlieft ages, were no lefs prophetical, than they are now comme- 
°rati Ve of that great event. From hence a light of the divinity of the Gospel may 
to aftonifh the world with its renewed fpiendor. 
This is not the place to enter on a formal treatife of the original derivation and 
5 
meaning 
