“The Knight Templar's Dream”
Description
Singer dreams of the burning bush. He picks up the fiery serpent and it becomes a rod which he takes to Jerusalem. He sees the knights of Malta. He is enlisted "to fight for Christian Liberty." He travels to Ararat and Enoch's temple before he wakes.
Notes
Zimmermann, p.303 fn. 39: "Some of those who founded the first Orange Lodges were 'unwarranted' Freemasons, and both institutions had much in common in the early nineteenth century. Other Protestant organizations ... were also the themes of allegorical songs which appeared, along with masonic texts, in Orange collections." - BS
Moses and the burning bush are found in Exodus, chapter three. Exodus 4 mentions the rod which became a serpent, and vice versa -- but this serpent is not fiery, though it swallowed other serpents (Exodus 7:12). We meet fiery sepents in Numbers 21:6-9, where Moses makes a bronze serpent to combat a plague of serpents. (Note that it's not the same rod!) This fiery serpent did end up in Jerusalem, because King Hezekiah later destroyed it (2 Kings 18:4); the people were worshiping it. But Moses didn't take it to Jerusalem; Moses was dead before the Israelites conquered Canaan. It cannot have been taken to Jerusalem before the time of David.
Enoch's Temple is even more curious. Enosh was notable in that he "walked with God," but there is no evidence that he built a Temple. Even if he had, it would, in the Biblical view, have been destroyed in the Flood. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "The Brilliant Light" (subject)
- cf. "The Grand Mystic Order" (subject)
- cf. "Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta)" (style)
- cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (subject)
- cf. "The Blackman's Dream" (subject)
Broadsides
- Bodleian, Firth c.21(38), "The Knight Templar's dream," unknown, no date
- NLScotland, L.C.1270(010), "The Knight Templar's Dream," James Kay (Glasgow), c.1845
References
- Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 130-131, "The Knight Templar's Dream" (1 text)
- BI, BrdKnTeD