[117] This symbolism of the double position of the corner-stone has not escaped the attention of the religious symbologists.  Etsius, an early commentator, in 1682, referring to the passage in Ephesians ii. 20, says, “That is called the corner-stone, or chief corner-stone, which is placed in the extreme angle of a foundation, conjoining and holding together two walls of the pile, meeting from different quarters.  And the apostle not only would be understood by this metaphor that Christ is the principal foundation of the whole church, but also that in him, as in a corner-stone, the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, are conjoined, and so conjoined as to rise together into one edifice, and become one church.”  And Julius Firmicius, who wrote in the sixteenth century, says that Christ is called the corner-stone, because, being placed in the angle of the two walls, which are the Old and the New Testament, he collects the nations into one fold.  “Lapis sanctus, i.e.  Christus, aut fidei fundamenta sustentat aut in angulo positus duorum parietum membra aequata moderatione conjungit, i.e., Veteris et Novi Testamenti in unum colligit gentes.”—­De Errore profan.  Religionum, chap. xxi.

[118] This permanence of position was also attributed to those cubical stones among the Romans which represented the statues of the god Terminus.  They could never lawfully be removed from the spot which they occupied.  Hence, when Tarquin was about to build the temple of Jupiter, on the Capitoline Hill, all the shrines and statues of the other gods were removed from the eminence to make way for the new edifice, except that of Terminus, represented by a stone.  This remained untouched, and was enclosed within the temple, to show, says Dudley, “that the stone, having been a personification of the God Supreme, could not be reasonably required to yield to Jupiter himself in dignity and power.”—­DUDLEY’S Naology, p 145.

[119] Dudley’s Naology, p. 476.

[120] Masonic Discourses, Dis. iv. p. 81.

[121] “The act of consecration chiefly consisted in the unction, which was a ceremony derived from the most primitive antiquity.  The sacred tabernacle, with all the vessels and utensils, as also the altar and the priests themselves, were consecrated in this manner by Moses, at the divine command.  It is well known that the Jewish kings and prophets were admitted to their several offices by unction.  The patriarch Jacob, by the same right, consecrated the altars which he made use of; in doing which it is more probable that he followed the tradition of his forefathers, than that he was the author of this custom.  The same, or something like it, was also continued down to the times of Christianity.”—­POTTER’S Archaeologia Graeca, b. ii. p. 176.

[122] From the Greek [Greek:  tetra\s], four, and [Greek:  gra/mma], letter, because it is composed of four Hebrew letters.  Brande thus defines it:  “Among several ancient nations, the name of the mystic number four, which was often symbolized to represent the Deity, whose name was expressed by four letters.”  But this definition is incorrect.  The tetragrammaton is not the name of the number four, but the word which expresses the name of God in four letters, and is always applied to the Hebrew word only.