Note: This material was scanned into text files for the sole purpose of convenient electronic research. This material is NOT intended as a reproduction of the original volumes. However close the material is to becoming a reproduced work, it should ONLY be regarded as a textual reference. Scanned at Phoenixmasonry by Ralph W. Omholt, PM in June 2007.
THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY,
BY WILLIAM HUTCHINSON, F.A.S.
A NEW EDITION,
BY
THE REV. GEORGE OLIVER, D.D.
PAST D. P. G. M. FOR LINCOLNSHIRE;
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND LODGE, LONDON; THE
SHAKESPEARE LODGE. WARWICK; THE FIRST LODGE OF LIGHT,
BIRMINGHAM; THE ST. PETER'S LODGE, WOLVERHAMPTON; THE OLIVE
UNION LODGE, HORNCASTLE; THE ST. PETER'S LODGE, PETERBOROUGH,
ETC. ETC. ETC.
AUTHOR OF
"THE HISTORY OF INITIATION," "ANTIQUITIES OF FREEMASONRY," " STAR IN
THE EAST," ETC. ETC.
Hutchinson, William, 1732‑1814.
The spirit of masonry.
Originally published: 1775.
I. Oliver, George, 1781‑1861.
FOREWORD
Among other qualifications, William James Hutchinson (1732‑1814) was a Freemason and a prominent member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries. For some years, he was also Master of the Masonic Lodge of Concord at Barnard Castle. His series of lectures attracted so much attention that he was requested to publish them in permanent form.
In 1774, Bro. Hutchinson applied to the Grand Lodge of England for permission to publish his lectures; thus, The Spirit of Masonry was published in 1775. Hutchinsons work quickly became a classic in the literature of Freemasonry. His work was one of the first to speak to the religious, philosophical, spiritual; the purpose and the depth of significance of Freemasonry. While some controversy is always available, its popularity among true Masonic scholars has been constant.
Hutchinson composed his work during an age when the oral tradition of the attentive ear and the instructive tongue was first surrendering to the printed word. Hence, Hutchinson was successful in preserving an important part of the Masonic tradition.
Discussion, debate and controversy aside, The Spirit of Masonry pioneered the intellect behind Freemasonry, facilitating the fraternal rank which Freemasonry now holds.
THE SANCTION OBTAINED FOR THE FIRST EDITION.
Whereas Brother WILLIAM HUTCHINSON has compiled a book, entitled The Spirit of Masonry," and has requested our Sanction for the publication thereof; we, having perused the said book, and finding it will be of use to this Society, do recommend the same.
PETRE, G.M.
ROWLAND HOLT, D.G.M.
THOMAS NOEL, S.G.W.
JOHN HATCH, J.G.W.
ROWLAND BERKELEY, G.T.
JAMES HESELTINE, G.S.
WILLIAM HUTCHINSON, F.A.S.
The much respected Author of this work, paid the debt of nature on the 7th of April, 1814, at the Grove, Barnard Castle, at the advanced age of eighty‑two years of an active and well‑spent life. Notwithstanding an extensive practice as an Attorney‑at‑Law, such was Mr. Hutchinson's indefatigable industry, that he compiled and wrote 2 A History of the County of Durham," in three large quarto volumes; " A View of Northumberland," in two volumes; "A History of Cumberland," in two quarto volumes; The Spirit of Masonry," which has gone through many editions; with a number of other publications, to which his name was not prefixed. He was a Member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, and much respected for his extensive literary acquirements, his cultivated mind, and suavity of manners. His death was preceded only two or three days by that of his wife, in the 78th year of her age; and they were both interred in the same grave.
THE AUTHOR'S ADDRESS PREFIXED TO THE
SECOND EDITION.
TO THE ANCIENT AND HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF FREE
AND ACCEPTED MASONS.
BRETHREN, ‑ The following Lectures were composed for the use of the Barnard Castle Lodge of Concord, over which I presided for several successive years. Explanatory notes are given to support my positions, or exemplify the principles of the work.
These Lectures, it is hoped, may serve to detect the wretched artifices used by wicked men to impose upon the world; and may also excite in you the due exercise of those moral works which our profession enjoins.
From the nature of our Society and its laws, it is difficult to write on the subject of Masonry. We are not allowed that explicit language any other topic would admit of. The moral intention of the work must plead for what is couched in allegory, or comprehended in that peculiarity of language which our mysteries prescribe.
To this edition many valuable Lectures, Observations, and Proofs, are added.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, BY THE EDITOR .. . .1
THE DESIGN .. .. 45
ON THE RITES, CEREMONIES, AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE ANCIENTS .. 62
THE NATURE OF THE LODGE 101
FURNITURE OF THE LODGE .. 121
THE APPAREL AND JEWELS OF MASONS . 128
THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM 135
ON GEOMETRY .. 148
THE MASTER MASON'S ORDER 155
THE SECRECY OF MASONS ... 163
ON CHARITY 180
ON BROTHERLY LOVE .. 188
ON THE OCCUPATIONS OF MASONS 194
A COROLLARY . 208
APPENDIX.
A. A CHARGE FOR THE FESTIVAL OF ST. JOHN. 219
B. AN ADDRESS FOR A VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION. . 228
XVICONTENTS.
PAGE
C. AN ADDRESS TO A BODY OF FREEMASONS . 233
D. AN ADDRESS AFTER THE EXPULSION OF A MEMBER 242
E. A CHARGE BY THE W.M. ON LEAVING THE CHAIR 250
F. A CHARGE DELIVERED ON THE INSTALLATION OF A W.M. 255
0. AN ADDRESS TO THE NEWLY‑INSTALLED OFFICERS .. 257
H. AN ORATION AT THE DEDICATION OF A NEW MASONIC HALL . 265
I. AN ORATION ON MASONRY.`a76
K. AN ORATION AT THE DEDICATION OF FREEMASON'S287 HALL, IN SUNDERLAND, JULY 15, 1778
L. LETTER FROM MR. LOCKE TO THE EARL OF PEMBROKE 295
M. AN OLD MANUSCRIPT ON FREEMASONRY 297
N. REMARKS ON THE OLD MANUSCRIPT 305
0. A VINDICATION OF FREEMASONRY 319
P. A LESSON FOR FREEMASONS332
THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY.
INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
IN ages of comparative darkness, whether it proceed from the prevalence of ignorance and superstition on the one hand, or from the existence of vice, arising out of a false estimate of human happiness, on the other, Free or Speculative Masonry has never unreservedly displayed her charms. The Operative branch, in all countries, effected the greatest and most comprehensive designs during such benighted periods; but even this was owing to the circumscribed sphere to which its mysteries were confined. None could comprehend or practise it but the honoured few whose minds were enlightened by a taste for science and philosophy; while the ignorant multitude wondered at the results which were accomplished by the judicious union of Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty.
It will be unnecessary to revert to distant ages in proof of this hypothesis, although it is fully exemplified in the productions of India, Egypt,
THE SPIRIT OF MASONRY.
INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
IN ages of comparative darkness, whether it proceed from the prevalence of ignorance and superstition on the one hand, or from the existence of vice, arising out of a false estimate of human happiness, on the other, Free or Speculative Masonry has never unreservedly displayed her charms. The Operative branch, in all countries, effected the greatest and most comprehensive designs during such benighted periods; but even this was owing to the circumscribed sphere to which its mysteries were confined. None could comprehend or practise it but the honoured few whose minds were enlightened by a taste for science and philosophy; while the ignorant multitude wondered at the results which were accomplished by the judicious union of Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty.
It will be unnecessary to revert to distant ages in proof of this hypothesis, although it is fully exemplified in the productions of India, Egypt,
2 INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
and the new world; the remains of which, by their sublimity of conception, blended with the beauty of their execution, still excite the admiration and astonishment of mankind. Within little more than a century from our own times, we have sufficient evidence to show, that, when Speculative Masonry refused to flourish amidst the rank weeds of ignorance, superstition, and vice, which disfigured the soil of our native land, Operative Masonry shone forth in all its glory, and produced specimens of art which will convey the names of our eminent brothers, Sir Christopher Wren, Inigo Jones, Archbishop Sheldon, Sir John Vanbrugh, and others, with honour to posterity. The splendid churches, palaces, and public edifices which were erected by these ingenious masons, are master‑pieces of architectural science as it was understood and practised in the age when they flourished. St. Paul's Cathedral, with all its defects, constitutes a triumph of the art; for it was begun and completed, in the space of thirty‑five years, by one architect, the great Sir Christopher Wren; one principal mason, Mr. Strong; and under one Bishop of London, Dr. Henry Compton; whereas St. Peter's, at Rome, the only structure that can bear a competition with it, continued one hundred and fifty‑five years in building, under twelve successive architects, assisted by the police and interests of the Roman See, and attended by the best artists in sculpture, statuary, painting, and mosaic work.' 1 Anderson's Book of Constitutions, p. 169. Edit. 1784.
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.3
In this age, Speculative Masonry was little known. At the Revolution, in 1688, only seven Lodges were in existence, and of them there were but two that held their meetings regularly, and these were chiefly Operative. This declension of the order may be attributed to the low scale of morality which distinguished the latter end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century. And how, indeed, could Freemasonry, pure and spotless as it is, continue to flourish at a time when the literature and morals of this country were in a state of semi-lethargy, and a taste for reading, or the pursuits of science and philosophy, had scarcely begun to manifest itself amongst the middle classes of society? A modern writer says, " Though the reign of Queen Anne has been generally termed the Augustan age of literature in this kingdom, owing to the co‑existence of a few celebrated writers, it is astonishing how little, during the greatest part of that period, was the information of the higher and middle classes o f society. To the character of the gentleman, neither education nor letters were thought necessary; and any display of learning, however superficial, was, among the fashionable circles, deemed rudeness and pedantry. ' That general knowledge,' observes Johnson, ' which now circulates in common talk, was then rarely to be found. Men, not professing learning, were not ashamed of ignorance; and in the female world, any acquaintance with books was distinguished only to be censured: When we reflect, that to express con‑
INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION tempt for all literary acquirement was then a certain proof of gentility, and ignorance the characteristic of superior station‑a statement which, I believe, previous to the publication of the Tatler, is nearly correct ‑ we ought to hesitate in assigning the epithet of Augustan to this era of our history." And again; 2 He who aspired to reputation in the circles of gallantry, assumed that laxity of morals and looseness of manners which he had so frequently contemplated and admired upon the stage; whilst to be known to have devoted arty leisure to the duties of devotion, to the study o f the classics, or the acquisition of science, would have ruined him for ever in the estimation, of the fashionable world. Nor, after all these sacrifices at the shrine of dissipation and vice, were the accomplishments and address of these gentlemen entitled to the praise of either refinement or grace. On the contrary, their manners were coarse, their conversation obscene, and their amusements frequently so gross that bull‑baiting, bear‑baiting, and prize‑fighting were considered as appropriate recreations for the highest ranks; 'They were not only attended,' remarks an annotator upon the Tatler, 4 by butchers, drovers, and great crowds of all sorts of mob, but likewise by dukes, lords, knights, squires, &c. There were seats particularly set apart for the quality, ornamented with old tapestry hangings, into which none were admitted under half ‑a‑crown, at least. The neighbourhood of these amusements was famous for sheltering
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.5
thieves, pick‑pockets, and infamous women, and for breeding bull‑dogs.' 112 This state of things was very unfavourable to a cultivation of the philosophy of Freemasonry.
But a taste for the refinements of literature and science had made a rapid progress before the middle of the eighteenth century. The periodical writers of the day, particularly Addison and Steele, in the Tatlers, Spectators, and Guardians, contributed to produce this effect. The operation of these moral Drake's Essays, pp. 32, 34. As a necessary consequence of such examples, a very great laxity of morals prevailed amongst the inferior classes of society. The historian has recorded that "England wBs at this period infested with robbers, assassins, and incendiaries; the natural consequences of degeneracy, corruption, and the want of police in the interior government of the kingdom. This defect, in a great measure, arose from an absurd notion, that laws necessary to prevent those acts of cruelty, violence, and rapine, would be incompatible with the liberty of British subjects; a notion that compounds all distinctions between liberty and brutal licentiousness; as if that freedom was desirable in the enjoyment of which people find no security for their lives or effects. The peculiar depravity of the times was visible even in the conduct of those who preyed upon the commonwealth. Thieves and robbers were now become more desperate and savage than ever they had appeared since mankind was civilized. In the exercise of their rapine, they wounded, maimed, and even murdered the unhappy sufferers, through a wantonness of barbarity. They circulated letters, demanding sums of money from certain individuals, on pain of reducing their houses to ashes and their families to ruin; and even set fire to the house of a rich merchant in Bristol, who bad refused to comply with their demand. The same species of villany was practised in every part of the kingdom." (Smollett's England, vol. ii. p. 454.)
6INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION essays is thus described, in a letter to a friend, by a contemporary writer, speaking from personal experience. 2 It is incredible to conceive the effect these writings have had on the town; how many thousand follies they have either quite banished, or given a very great check to; how much countenance they have added to virtue and religion; how many people they have rendered happy, by showing them it was their own fault if they were not so; and lastly, how entirely they have convinced our fops and young fellows of the value and advantages of learning."And again : 2 These writings have set all our wits and men of letters upon a new way of thinking, of which they had little or no notion before; and, though we cannot yet say that any of them have come up to the beauties of the original, I think we may venture to affirm that every one of them writes and thinks more justly than they did some time since." This testimony is highly honorable to the candour of its author, and to the talents, and undaunted perseverance in the cause of religion and virtue, by which the above amiable writers were animated. And it will not be conceding too much to the influence of their immortal productions, if we admit that the revival of Freemasonry, in 1717, was owing, in a great measure, to their operation on public taste and public morality.
There was, however, one degrading vice, which appears to have taken too deep a root to be extir‑
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.7
pated by the simple process of moral teaching, or ingenious raillery. I mean the pleasures of the bottle; which continued to prevail long after this reformation of public opinion had taken place.Even our great moralists themselves were not proof against its seductive influence. The contagion of convivial habits had found its way into the Mason 3 It was considered a mark of distinction to be called a threebottle man; and a disgrace to retire from a public dinner sober. And it is a melancholy fact, that this vice was not uncommon amongst men eminently gifted with great and commanding talents. " Sir Richard Steele spent half his time in a tavern; in fact, he may be said to have measured time by the bottle; for it is on record that being sent for by his wife, be returned for answer that he would be with her in half‑a‑bottle. The like may be said of that great genius, Savage the poet; and even Addison was dull and prosy till he was three parts drunk. It is also recorded of Pitt, but I cannot vouch for the truth of it, that two bottles of port wine per diem were his usual allowance, and that it was to this alone he was indebted for the almost superhuman labour be went through during his short, but actively employed life. His friend and colleague, Harry Dundas, afterwards Lord Melville, went the same lengths. Sheridan latterly, without wine was a driveller. He sacrificed to it, talents such as no man I ever heard or read of possessed, for no subject appeared to be beyond his reach. The learned Porson was a drunkard, so was Robert Burns the poet."‑(Frazer's Magazine, vol. ii., p. 730.) The vice has completely disappeared from among that class; and a gentleman, a tradesman, or a scholar, would now consider it an indelible disgrace to be seen drunk. This is a striking feature in the progress of good manners at the present day; and is one great reason why the interval between the rich and the poor is said to be widened in recent times, by the moral ascendancy which is derived from strict propriety of conduct. All mental improvement, however, is progressive. A hundred
8INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION lodge, notwithstanding which, the fraternity were very tenacious of their peculiar secrets. An impassable barrier was formed round the tyled lodge, and the tremendous procul est proi fani was rigidly enforced. The idea of committing any of the laws, usages, or transactions of Freemasonry to print, was not so much as entertained : it was deemed a crime so monstrous as to admit neither of palliation nor excuse. An universal consternation was therefore produced amongst the fraternity, when, in 1718, Grand Master Payne, at the annual grand festival, desired ail old writings and records which might be in the possession of any of the brethren throughout England, to be delivered up to the Grand Lodge, preparatory to the compilation of a body of Masonic Constitutions for the use of the lodges under its jurisdiction. The alarm was so great, that papers in abundance were secreted, and even destroyed, lest they should fall into the hands of the Grand Lodge, and be made public; a measure which they conceived would be highly injurious to the interests of the Craft.‑Experience has proved that their fears were groundless; for Freemasonry made little or no progress until its claims to respect and vene years ago hard drinking was fashionable with the nobility and gentry; and to be sober, even at a ball or in a drawing‑room with the ladies, was not very common; thirty years ago it had descended to the middle classes; it now subsists almost solely with the operatives; in a few years we may anticipate that it will be confined to the very refuse of society‑trampers, vagabonds, and common thieves.
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.
9 ration were fairly laid before the world in a printed form.
In those times the public saw nothing of Freemasonry but its annual processions on the day of the grand feast. It was considered, therefore, merely as a variety of the club system which then prevailed amongst all ranks and descriptions of people; and as these institutions were of a convivial nature, Freemasonry was reduced, in public opinion, to the same level. And, to a certain extent, this conclusion was not very far from the truth. The practice of the lodges was principally of a social and companion.. able character. Sometimes the Master found leisure and inclination to deliver a charge, or a portion of the lectures; and such entries as the following are frequent in the minute‑books of that period : ~1 The R. W. Master delivered an elegant charge, or a portion of Martin Clare's lectures,,' as the case might 4 The Grand Lodge, in its Book of Constitutions, promulgated in 1722, inserted a law providing that " No brother shall presume to print, or cause to be printed, the proceedings of any lodge, or any part thereof, or the names of the persons present at such.lodge, but by the direction of the Grand Master, or his deputy, under pain of being disowned for a brother, and not to be admitted into any quarterly communication, or Grand Lodge, or any lodge whatsoever; and of being rendered incapable of bearing any office in the Craft." But the Grand Lodge regularly violated the law, by publishing an account of its own transactions.
Martin Clare was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and from Grand S. W. in 1741, rose to be Deputy Grand Master; and he composed, or compiled a lecture for the use of the lodges in the First Degree. Other lectures besides Martin Clare's were in
10INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
be, and the evening was spent in singing and decent merriment."' This propensity pervaded all the lodges in a greater or less degree. The usual penalty for a breach of the by‑laws was "a bottle of wine to be consumed on the spot;" and it was not an uncommon occurrence to expend the whole fee on a night of initiation in a supper and wine; although, on such occasions the lodge ought to have been clothed, or in other words, furnished with new aprons and gloves." And it may be here remarked, that none but grand officers were allowed to wear blue ribbons or aprons. The Master and Wardens of a private lodge had the privilege of lining their white aprons with silk of the same colour, and all the officers were ordered to wear their jewels suspended from white ribbons." A bon vivant was in use, for there was no uniformity in the London system at that period. The Grand Lodge at York was more particular.
6 The conviviality of our jovial forefathers was of rather a boisterous character; and the brethren of that day frequently introduced into their ceremonies a great deal of extrinsic matter, which being somewhat obstreperous, the cowan heard, but could not comprehend. This gave rise to many absurd conjectures, and confirmed old prejudices, which it will he unnecessary to enumerate in this place.
7 By the laws of the Grand Lodge, " OF MAKINGS," Art. 4, it was provided that ‑Every new brother, at his entry, is decently to clothe the lodge, that is, all the Brethren present; and to deposit something for the relief of indigent and decayed brethren, as the candidate shall think fit to bestow, over and above the small allowance that may be stated in the by‑laws '>of that particular lodge." " The dress of an English Master Mason was unassuming. It consisted simply of white stockings, gloves and aprons.‑
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.11
high request; and if any brother had a friend who possessed a large portion of vivacity and humour, was capable of singing a good song, or celebrated for his fund of anecdote and pun,9 he was sure to be invited to join the society, even if he were gratuitously initiated, in the hope that he would contribute his talents to the amusement of the brethren.1░ It was an error of these times that the brethren were not sufficiently guarded respect While the foreign lodges were remarkable for the splendour and elegance of their decorations. Thus, at their public festivals no expense was spared; their halls were furnished in the most superb taste, and hung round with the richest tapestry. The places set apart for the reception of Masons were covered with crimson velvet, and the Master's chair was enriched with embroidery and gold. Their aprons were richly embroidered, and decorated with gold and silver fringe and bullion; and some of them were beautifully embellished with the various insignia of the order, and other masonic emblems.
9 Punning was a species of wit which was much affected in these times, and kept up the conviviality of the lodges. Dr. Birch, Chancellor of Worcester, highly approved of it, because it promoted good‑humour in society. It was sometimes used in the pulpit; and, from the specimens which have descended to our times, the attempts at this kind of wit were of a very dull character.
10 Thus, in an old minute‑book of the Witham Lodge at Lincoln, under date of Jan. 2, 1.732, we find the following proposition. "Brother Every recommended Mr. Stephen Harrison, of the Close of Lincoln, music‑master, as a proper person to be a member of this society, and proposed to give a guinea towards the charges of his admission. Sir Cecil Wray proposed to give another guinea; Sir Christopher Hales, half‑a‑guinea; to which Sir Cecil Wray added another guinea. ‑And in regard Mr. Harrison might be useful and entertaining to the society, the lodge agreed to admit him for the said sum of f 3. 13s. 6d."
12INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
ing admissions; a practice which served to bring Masonry into disrepute, as well as to create a burden on its fund of benevolence." And the circumstance of the grand festivals being frequently celebrated at a tavern called " The Devil," gave rise to many frivolous and absurd suggestions, not very creditable to the order; because the same place was notorious for the orgies of another society of profligate persons, who had assumed the revolting name of " The Hell‑fire Club," and attracted public attention more particularly because its members were men of rank; and here, it is said, the celebrated John Wilkes spent his evenings in convivial amusements. 12 These practices were not 11 We have the evidence of Brother Smith. who lived about the middle of the eighteenth century, that there were in London a great number of indigent and unworthy Masons; which, be says, " is owing to the very little attention paid to candidates for initiation. The major part of Lodges rarely enquire into the character of the person proposed; if be can but pay the two guineas for his reception, that is all that is required, or even thought of. These are the set of men (for Masons they cannot be called) who almost immediately, or as soon as the laws of the fund of charity will permit, become a perpetual burden to the Society." 12 The inconvenience of meeting at taverns appears to have been keenly felt by the brethren of that period; and therefore, amongst the arguments for creating a fund (A.D. 1768) to be applied to the building of a Masonic Hall for the meeting of the Grand Lodge, we find the following. a Besides, our meeting at the houses of publicans gives us the air of a bacchanalian society, instead of that appearance of gravity and wisdom which our order justly requires. How properly might it be remarked on such conduct, that as almost all the companies that resort with so much formality to the city halls, have in view chiefly feasting and
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.13
calculated to produce a high opinion of the Craft amongst those who were disposed to think unfavorably of its claims to public estimation.
It is clear from all these facts that the Masonlodge was considered as an arena for the practice of conviviality. And this opinion would be increased by the consideration, that the celebrated John James Heidegger was the Arbiter Elegantiarum of the. Grand Lodge, and provided the festival dinners. 13 The world saw nothing beyond it, except in the annual processions of Grand Lodge, which were made first on foot, and afterwards, most absurdly, in carriages, with three separate bands of music. This attempt at display excited the envy of other clubs, which expended itself in satirical attacks from the press and the print‑shop. Thus, on the 27th of April, 1742, the grand festival was celebrated at Haberdasher's‑hall, previously to which the Earl of jollity; so Masons assemble with an air of festivity at taverns, to perform the serious duties of their profession, under the regulations of morality and philosophy. Such conduct, in the eyes of every thinking man, must appear ridiculous and absurd." 13 John James Heidegger was a Swiss, who long figured in England as the manager of public amusements. He went through a variety of singular adventures before lie arrived at this high station. But he had sufficient talent to retain it through a life extended to ninety years. The nobility caressed him so much, and had such an opinion of his taste, that all splendid arid elegant entertainments given upon particular occasions, and all private assemblies by subscription, were submitted to his direction.From the emoluments of these employments he gained a considerable income, amounting, it is said, to ϊ 5000 a‑year, which he expended with much liberality.
14INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION Moreton,'{ G. M., with Martin Clare, his deputy, and other grand officers, the stewards, and a great number of other brethren, waited on Lord Ward, the Grand Master elect, at his house in Upper Brook‑street, and after being entertained by him at breakfast, made the procession from thence in carriages, and with three bands of music playing before them, to the aforesaid hall.
In ridicule of this procession, a print was published, entitled, a 11 Geometrical View of the Grand Procession of Scald Miserable Masons, designed as they were drawn up over against Somerset‑house, in the Strand, on the 27th of April, 1742." This was followed, some time afterwards, by a broadsheet, headed with a wood‑cut, representing a procession of pseudo‑Masons, some being mounted on asses, and others in carts and coaches drawn by the same animals; all wearing the Masonic insignia, and attended by three bands of music.15 It was 14 It may be needless to say that many of the nobility were enrolled amongst the fraternity. We have not only the evidence of this fact in the Book of Constitutions; in Matthew Birkhead's song, (which Smith erroneously attributes to Dean Swift;) but collaterally in an ancient manuscript in the British Museum, written in the fourteenth century, which has been recently published by J. 0. Halliwell, Esq., F. R. S. This document affords a testimony to the same fact at every period of the art from the time of Athelstan. It says By old tyme wryten ye fynde, That the prentes schulde be of gentyl kynde; And so sumtyme grete lordys blod Take thys gemetry that ys ful good.
15 These were the instruments. Four cow's horns; six hottentot hautbois; four tea‑canisters with broken glass in them;
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.15
called " The solemn and stately Procession of the Scald Miserable Masons." 's Anderson thus notices the circumstance : " Some unfaithful brethren, disappointed in their expectations of the high offices and honors of the society, had joined a number of the buffoons of the day, in a scheme to exhibit a mockery of the public procession to the grand feast. This, as may well be supposed, furnished mirth to the gaping crowd, and disgust to the fraternity; who, wisely recollecting themselves, determined in
four shovels and brushes; two double‑bass dripping‑pans; a tenor frying‑pan; a salt‑box in delasol; and a pair of tubs.
to The letter‑press is too extensive to introduce here; but it may be interesting to subjoin an extract from the Remonstrance of the Right Worshipful the Grand Master of the Scald Miserable Masons. " Whereas, by our manifesto some time past, dated from our lodge in Brick‑street, we did, in the most explicit manner, vindicate the ancient rights and privileges of this society, and, by incontestable arguments, evince our superior dignity and seniority to all other institutions, whether GrandVolgi, Gregorians, Hurlothrumbians, Ubiquarians, Hiccubites, Lumber Troopers, or Freemasons; yet, nevertheless, a few persons, under the last denomination, still arrogate to themselves the usurped titles of Most Ancient and Honourable, in open violation of truth and justice; still endeavour to impose their false mysteries (for a premium) on the credulous and unwary, under pretence of being part of our brotherhood; and still are determined, with drums, trumpets, gilt chariots, and other unconstitutional finery, to cast a reflection on the primitive simplicity, and decent economy, of our ancient and annual peregrination We, therefore, think proper, in justification of ourselves, publickly to disclaim all relation or alliance whatsoever, with the said society of Freemasons, as the same must manifestly tend to the sacrifice of our dignity, the impeachment of our understanding, and the disgrace of our solemn mysteries," &c. &c. &c.
16INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION future to confine their operations within the limits of their own assembly;" and the public processions of the society were discontinued by an order of Grand Lodge.
And these were not the only attacks upon the supposed bibulous propensities of the Masonic fraternity." The great moral painter of the age introduced the subject into one of his great pictures ‑NIGHT‑which is thus explained by Ireland " The wounded Freemason, who, in zeal of brotherly love, has drank bumpers to the Craft till unable to find his way home, is under the guidance of a waiter. The Salisbury flying coach is overset and broken by passing through a bonfire. The butcher, and little fellow, who are assisting the passengers, are Free and Accepted Masons. One of them has a mop1e in his hand; the pail is out of sight." Hogarth ridiculed the Masons in another picture, which he styled, " The mystery of Masonry brought to light by the Gormagons."
'7 The following law is found amongst the old regulations of the Grand Lodge. " Caernarvon, G.M., December 4, 1755. It was unanimously agreed, that no brother, for the future, shall smoke tobacco in the Grand Lodge, at the quarterly communication, or committee of charity, till the lodge shall be closed." Is The origin of 2 the mop " may be ascribed to the Masonic persecution in Germany, in the early part of the century, when several eminent Masons associated themselves together to preserve the order from dissolution. They were called Mopses, from the German word mops, which signified a young mastiff, and was deemed a proper emblem of the mutual fidelity and attachment of the brethren.
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.17 Freemasonry, however, was too noble in its nature and design to be affected by these impotent attacks. It steadily progressed to the middle of the century, when a grievous schism arose which created much confusion amongst the fraternity. It originated out of the anomaly of two Grand Lodges; one at York, which was styled, " The Grand Lodge of all England;" and the other in London, which more modestly called itself, 11 The Grand Lodge of England." Before the year 1717, warrants were unknown. Any number of Masons within a district, provided they were sufficiently numerous to open a lodge according to ancient usage, were competent to meet, and perform all the functions of Masonry without any public sanction. But when the desire of initiation became universally prevalent, a Grand Lodge was formed in London‑the quarterly communications were revived, and a code of laws was agreed on for the government of the fraternity. For several years after the above date, the two Grand Lodges acted under their own respective powers. But, as the Grand Lodge of London increased in rank and respectability, that at York declined, and ultimately ceased to assemble. Unfortunately, when the schism had made some progress, the London Grand Lodge proceeded to extremities; and, after expelling some of the prominent members, endeavoured to neutralize its effects by a slight alteration in the tests of the two First Degrees. This measure succeeded in excluding the schismatics from the regular lodges; but it gave
l8INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION rise to a distinction which vexed Freemasonry for nearly a century, before the wound was healed.19 About this time, viz., in 1738, several patents were issued by the Grand Lodge of England, for introducing Masonry amongst the continental nations; and it flourished there with various degrees of success. In Protestant countries it rapidly progressed, and was so highly prized, that initiation could only be procured by the payment of exorbitant fees; 20 while in Roman Catholic countries it 19 A great outcry was made against this trivial alteration, which was merely adopted as a temporary mark of distinction to prevent the seceders from visiting the regular lodges. It was a matter of perfect indifference; and was thus explained in an address to the Duke of Athol : 11 I would beg leave to ask, whether two persons standing in the Guildhall of London, the one facing the statues of Gog and Magog, and the other with his back turned on them, could, with any degree of propriety, quarrel about their situation; as Gog must be on the right of one, and Magog on the right of the other. Such, then, and far more insignificant, is the disputatious temper of the seceding brethren, that on no better grounds than the above, they choose to usurp a power, and to act in open and direct violation of the regulations they had solemnly engaged to maintain, and, by every artifice possible to be devised, endeavoured to increase their numbers." 2A In Prussia, it was ordained that `1 every member should pay 25 rix‑dollars (C4. 3s.) for the First Degree; 50 rix‑dollars on his being passed to the Second Degree; and 100 rix‑dollars on his being raised to the degree of a Master Mason; amounting, together with a few subsidiary payments, to ϊ30 in the whole. From a German book, published by authority in 1.777, it appears that the King of Prussia was termed the Protector of Masons; Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, Grand Master; his most Serene Highness Frederick Augustus, Prince of Brunswick and Lunenburgh, Provincial Grand Master; his most Serene Highness Prince Maximilian Julius Leopold, of Brunswick, Deputy
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.19
was prohibited and discountenanced, and could only be practised in secret.21 This persecution abroad, as well as the schism in our own country, proved, in their effects, favourable to the progressive increase of Freemasonry. A spirit of inquiry was engendered, which led to one uniform result : the dissemination Provincial Grand Master; his most Serene Highness Prince Charles, Landgrave of Hesse‑cassel, Provincial Grand Master in Denmark; his Royal Highness Charles Christian Joseph, Duke of Courland, Protector of Masons in Courland, &c. From these appointments, the estimation in which Freemasonry was held in the northern nations of Europe may be easily conjectured.
Y1 In the year 1738, a formidable bull was thundered from the Conclave, not only against Freemasons themselves, but against all those who promoted or favoured their cause; who gave them the smallest countenance or advice, or who were, in any respect, connected with a set of men who, in the opinion of his Holiness, were enemies to the tranquillity of the state, and hostile to the spiritual interest of souls. This bull was followed by an edict, dated 14th January, 1739, containing sentiments equally bigoted and enactments equally severe. The servitude of the gallies, the tortures of the rack, and a fine of 1000 crowns in gold, were threatened to persons of every description who were daring enough to breathe the infectious air of a masonic assembly. It was under the provisions of this bull that poor Coustos was immured and tortured by the Inquisition, at Lisbon. And, strange to tell, the fraternity is proscribed in the Peninsula even at the present day. In a work quoted by Mr. Young, the writer says, " I heard a noted preacher, at a festival, at Santerem, preach a sermon, in which he made use of many curious expressions. The following I distinctly heard. This political priest said, that he would grasp the sword till his nails should grow through the palm of his hand, to deliver the earth from the Freemasons: a set of men, who had hair growing upon their hearts since their souls bad left them; that to kill a Freemason was an act of charity to God." (Monthly Mag., 1829, p. 46.)
20INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION of the science. Animated by this feeling, men became active partisans in a cause which apathy might have induced them to abandon, if no such stimuli had existed.
In 1748, public attention was called to Freemasonry as a science, in a small pamphlet consisting of twelve octavo pages, which was published at Frankfort, entitled, Ein brief bonbem berticijmten Perm Perm f jobann 1ocde, betreffenb tic ,free .Taureren. 50 auf einem *tbrieb=' l t cb tines berstorbnen 38rubers 1st gefunben tuorben.22 This famous manuscript possesses the reputation of having converted the learned Locke, who was initiated after carefully perusing and analysing it. Before any faith can be placed on this invaluable document, it will be necessary to say a word respecting its authenticity. I admit that there is some degree of mystery about it, and doubts have been entertained whether it be not a forgery. We have the strongest presumptive proofs that it was in existence about the middle of the last century, because the utmost publicity was given to it, and as at that time Freemasonry was beginning to excite a considerable share of public attention, the deception, had it been such, would have been publicly exposed by its opponents.
But no attempt was ever made to invalidate its 22 A letter of the famous Mr. John Locke, relating to Freemasonry, found in the desk or scrutoire of a deceased brother. A copy of this pamphlet is inserted at the end of the present work.
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.21 claim to be a genuine document. It was first published at Frankfort, in 1748, and appeared in the " Gentleman's Magazine" in 1753, whence it found its way into " Hearne's Life of Leland." It was printed A. D. 1769, with the Earl of Pembroke's name attached, in an octavo vol. on Freemasonry, by Wellins Calcott, dedicated to the Duke of Beaufort. In 1775, Hutchinson introduced it into his " Spirit of Masonry," which contains the imprimature of Lord Petre, the Grand Master, and the sanction of the Grand Lodge. Jn 1784, it was embodied in the " History and Constitutions of Masonry," printed officially by the Grand Lodge of England. It appears in Dermott's " Ahiman Rezon," and in the fifteen editions of " Preston's Illustrations." Being thus universally diffused, had it been a suspected document, its exposure would certainly have been attempted; particularly about the close of the last century, when the progress of Masonry was sensibly checked by the publication of works which charged it with being the depository of principles fatal alike to the peace and religion of civil society; and, if a forgery, it would have been unable to have endured the test of a critical examination. But no such attempt was made, and the presumption therefore is, that the document is authentic.
I should be inclined to pronounce, from internal evidence only, that the letter and annotations were written by Locke; but there are corroborating facts which appear conclusive, for this great philosopher
22INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION was actually residing at Oates, the country seat of Sir Francis Masham, at the time when the paper is dated, and shortly afterwards he went up to town, where he was initiated into Masonry. These facts are fully proved by Locke's letters to Mr. Molyneux, dated March 30, and July 2, 1696. For these reasons I entertain no doubt of the genuineness and authenticity of this valuable manuscript.
This publication led the way to several others; for the fraternity began to discover that the more Freemasonry was known the better it was respected, and the more rapidly its benefits were promulgated. A sermon was preached in St. John's church at Gloucester in 1752, which follows up the principles of Dr. Anderson's "Defence," and appears to have produced a considerable sensation amongst the brethren. It is a talented production, and enters on the question of Freemasonry, or its substitute, amongst those who had abandoned the true worship of God. The contents of this sermon are a decisive evidence that a knowledge of the genuine principles of Masonry was entertained by a select few; and it appears to form a pivot on which the subsequent publications turn. The eagerness of the brethren for masonic information at this period may be gathered from the fact that the " Freemason's Pocket Companion," though a mere transcript from " Anderson's Constitutions," reached a third edition in 1764. Five years afterwards Calcott published his " Candid Disquisitions on the Practices and Principles of Masonry," which was dedicated to the Duke of
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.23 Beaufort, M. W. Grand Master, and patronized by upwards of a thousand subscribers. This was the first printed effort at illustrating the science to any extent; and from its success the Grand Lodge became sensible that incalculable benefits would arise from the practice of instilling into the brethren at large, by means of authorized publications, a taste for the morality and science of Freemasonry. "‑And hence, in 1774, the application of Brother Hutchinson for leave to publish a series of lectures on the nature and principles of the science, to be called '1 The Spirit of Masonry," was answered by a direct sanction to the scheme.
The work was received with enthusiasm, as the only masonic publication of real value then in existence. It was the first efficient attempt to explain, in a rational and scientific manner, the true philosophy of the order. Dr. Anderson and the writer of the Gloucester sermon indicated the existence of the mine,‑Calcott opened it, and Hutchinson worked it. In this book he gives to the science its proper value. After explaining his design, he enters copiously on the rites, ceremonies, and institutions of ancient nations. Then he dilates on the lodge, with its ornaments, furniture, and jewels; the 23 The science was so highly esteemed on the Continent at this period, that Count T‑ could say to his son, when congratulating him on his initiation, ░1 The obligations which influ enced the first Brutus and Manlius to sacrifice their children to the love of their country, are not more sacred than those which bind me to support the honour and reputation of this venerable order."
24INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION q building of the temple; geometry; and after explaining the third degree with a minuteness which is highly gratifying, he expatiates on secresy, charity, and brotherly love; and sets at rest all the vague conjectures of cowans and unbelievers, by a description of the occupations of Masons, and a masterly defence of our peculiar rites and ceremonies. It is truly termed " The Spirit of Masonry," for it is replete with an interest which applies to all time; and must have been of incalculable value at a period when Masonry was a sealed book, and no knowledge could be acquired but by oral communication. The opportunities, even of this mode of acquiring information, occurred at very remote and uncertain periods; for the researches of the philosophical Mason were obstructed by the almost universal practice of conviviality and indulgence which characterized the lodges generally; and which a masonic writer of the day candidly confesses were the chief purposes of our association.24 Under these circumstances, Hutchinson stood forward to vindicate the Craft from the unfounded aspersions which had been preferred against it, by 24 Lawrence Dermott, who wrote the " Ahiman Rezon," says, that, at the time I have been speaking of above, " It was thought expedient to abolish the old custom of studying geometry in the lodge; and some of the young brethren made it appear, that a good knife and fork in the hands of a dexterous brother, over proper materials, would give greater satisfaction, and add more to the conviviality of the lodge, than the best scale and compasses in Europe. There was another old custom that gave umbrage to the young architects; which was, the wearing of aprons,
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.25 a candid disquisition on our lodge pursuits. And his labours are of such general utility, that there are few masonic works which exceed his book in interest. It is true, the author has fallen into a few errors, but this could not be avoided. Masonic knowledge was imperfect, and one of the earliest attempts at improvement, though accomplishing much, must necessarily be, in some respects, defective. The work effected a revolution in Masonry, which soon produced visible fruits. Freemason's Hall, in Great Queen Street, was erected in the following year, when the celebrated oration was pronounced by the Rev. Dr. Dodd, Grand Chaplain.25 The book was transmitted to our eastern dependencies, and the eldest son of the Nabob of the Carnatic was initiated in 1776. At the Grand Lodge, in February 1778, it was ordered that in which made the gentlemen look like so many mechanics. Therefore it was proposed that no brother, for the future, should wear an apron. This proposal was objected to by the oldest members, who declared that the aprons were the only signs of Masonry then remaining amongst them, and for that reason they would keep and wear them " 25 Every part of this oration is replete with the fervour of masonic zeal. I subjoin a passage selected at random, as a spe, cimen. " Masonry must and will always keep pace, and run parallel with the culture and civilization of mankind. Nay, we may pronounce with strict truth, that where Masonry is not, civilization will never be found. And so, in fact, it appears; for in savage countries and barbarous climes, where Operative Masonry never lays the line, nor stretches the compass; where skilful architecture never plans the dome, nor rears the wellordered column; on those benighted realms liberal science never smiles, nor does ingenious art exalt, refine, embellish, and soften
26INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION consideration of the flourishing state of the society, the elegance of the new hall, and in order to render the appearance of the assembly adequate to the structure in which all the public meetings of Masonry are hereafter to be held, a robe of distinction shall be worn in the Grand Lodge for the future, by the Grand Master and his officers, to be provided at their own expense, and that past grand officers should be at liberty to wear a robe in like manner, if they think proper .26 The sterling value of Hutchinson's work cannot be better evidenced than by the fact that it passed through several editions; that Smith, who wrote in 1778, adopted his theories, and made copious extracts from the book itself; that Dr. Ashe, who wrote in 1814, did the same; and that it still retains its value in these times of superior knowledge and research.
Such was the state of Masonry when this publication appeared. But to complete the view, it may be necessary to offer a few observations on its technical arrangement. My opinions on the general system are well known, but I am not prepared to defend the extreme antiquity of its rites, legends, and doctrines, as they are practised at the present time. I have some doubts whether the master's the mind." I am grieved as a Mason, to add, that circumstances should have rendered the following entry in the Grand Lodge books for the year 1777, respecting this highly talented individual necessary. '░ On a representation that the Rev. W. Dodd, LL.D., Grand Chaplain, had been convicted of forgery, and was confined in Newgate, he was unanimously expelled the society." 25 Noorth. Const., p. 327.
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.27
degree, as now given, can be traced three centuries backwards; although the legend itself, differently modified, is of undoubted antiquity.27 It will indeed be admitted that there are many obstacles to surmount in demonstrating the existence of any series of facts, when the transmission has been exclusively oral, and the time extends more than half a century beyond human memory. Lawrence Dermott expressly asserts that a new modification of ceremonies took place at the revival of Masonry in 1717; 28 but as his book was written for a party purpose, his testimony is to be distrusted. It is evident that there was, in ancient times, a master's 27 There is a tradition in one of our degrees, that during the building of King Solomon's Temple, the Master Mason's degree being in abeyance, the king ordered twelve fellow‑crafts to go to a certain place, and watch for the rising of the sun; promising that he who first saw it, should be the third master mason, and that one of them succeeded by turning his back to the east, and discovering the earliest beams of the sun on the western hills.
2s His words are : ░1 About the year 1717, some joyous companions, who had passed the degree of a craft, though very rusty, resolved to form a lodge for themselves, in order, by conversation, to recollect what had been formerly dictated to them; or if that should be found impracticable, to substitute something new, which might for the future pass for Masonry amongst themselves. At this meeting the question was asked, whether any person in the assembly knew the master's part; and being answered in the negative, it was resolved, that the deficiency should be made up with a new composition, and what fragments of the old order could be found amongst them should be immediately reformed, and made more pliable to the humours of the people." It will be observed that by 2 the master's part," was meant the catechism of the third degree.
28INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
degree; 29 and Dermott accordingly asserts that it was exclusively retained and perpetuated by the Athol Masons. Yet notwithstanding Dermott's unqualified assertion that "they differed exceedingly in makings, ceremonies, knowledge, masonic language, and installation," it was found at the union in 1811, that the two systems assimilated in every important particular, which is a proof that no material innovation had been made in either. This constitutes a sufficient authority for the existence of the master's ceremonial in the 17th century.
29 There is one insulated fact which affords a presumptive evidence that the legend of the third degree was used by the masons who built our cathedral and collegiate churches in the I lth and 12th centuries. In almost all these magnificent specimens of architectural taste, is a mutilated tradition, which is thus retailed by the cicerone in Lincoln Cathedral. It will be observed that at each end of the great transept, is a splendid rose window. One of them, it is said, was executed by the master mason himself, and that he exercised the utmost ingenuity upon it, that it might remain an immortal monument of his superior taste and genius. When it was completed, he was called away to a distant part of the country; and during his absence, one of the apprentices filled up the corresponding window with the fragments of the broken glass which his master had cast aside; and he disposed them with such admirable effect, that when the master returned, and saw that the superior talent of the apprentice had eclipsed his own performance, and neutralized his claim to superior exce'.lence; in despair he cast himself from the scaffold, and was dashed in pieces on the stones below. This destruction of the master by the apprentice, may have a reference to some secret legend existing amongst the masons who constructed these edifices; for it could have no relation to facts; because the same occurrence could scarcely have happened in every cathedral that
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.29
It should appear, however, that great irregularities existed amongst Masons at this period. Men who had been expelled the society for misdemeanours, opened lodges without authority, and initiated persons into the order for small and unworthy considerations, which brought Masonry into disrepute. In 1740, three of the Grand Stewards were admonished for being present and assisting at these irregular meetings." And it was determined in Grand Lodge, on the motion of Lord Crauford, G. M., " That no extraneous brother, that is, not regularly made, but clandestinely, nor any assisting at such irregular makings, shall be ever qualified to partake of the Mason's general charity. 113' This was built in this or any other country, which retains a similar tradition. In the present instance, history is at variance with the fact, for Richard de Stow was the master mason at the building of the great transept, and he died a natural death. The tradition must therefore be sought elsewhere; and it is not improbable but it may be traced to the legend of 'the third degree, which was indicated by a word which signified, '1 the builder is smitten." 30 Several lodges were struck out of the list for not attending the quarterly communications. Between the years 1742 and 1748, upwards of forty were thus expunged.
31 Even the Athol Masons, against whom the above censures and disqualifications were partly directed, complain of the same irregularities. The Ahiman Rezon has the following observations on this practice:‑" Men excluded from their lodges for transgressing the general laws; who, being deemed unworthy of so noble a society, endeavour to make the rest of mankind believe that they are good and true, and have full power and authority to make Freemasons, when and where they please. These traders, though but few in number, associate together, and for any mean consideration, admit any person to what little they know of the Craft. Some of these excluded men can neither
30INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION clearly shows, that the Grand Lodge, as it was then constituted, was unable to suppress these illegal practices, or they would have adopted more stringent measures to prevent them.
If I am not prepared to defend the extreme antiquity of our present arrangement of the three degrees,32 much less can I undertake to trace the origin of those subsidiary degrees known by the names of Ark, Mark, Link, Wrestle, Babylonish Pass, Intendant, Noachites, Sublime Scotch Masonry, Excellents,33 Prussian Blue, the various read nor write; and surely a person who cannot write his name, can have no pretence to suppose himself qualified to become a member of our order." (Edit. 1813, p. 24.) 32 There is an old Masonic tradition, which, if correct, proves the existence of Speculative Masonry in the 16th century.` Queen Elizabeth hearing the Masons bad certain secrets that could not be revealed to her, (for that she could not be Grand Master), and being jealous of all secret assemblies, &c., she sent an armed force to break up their annual Grand Lodge at York, on St. John's‑day, the 27th of December, 1561. Sir Thomas Sackville, then Grand Master, instead of being dismayed at such an unexpected visit, gallantly told the officers that nothing could give him greater pleasure than seeing them in the Grand Lodge, as it would give him an opportunity of convincing them that Freemasonry was the most useful system that was ever founded on divine and moral laws. The consequence of his arguments were, that he made the chief men Freemasons; who, on their return, made an honourable report to the queen, so that she never more attempted to dislodge or disturb them, but esteemed them as a peculiar sort of men, that cultivated peace and friendship, arts and sciences, without meddling in the affairs of church and state." 33 The Athol Masons had a regulation to the following effect '~ That a general uniformity of the practice and ceremonies of the ancient Craft may be preserved and handed down unchanged
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.31
Elected, Architectural, Priestly, and Crucial degrees, red, white, and black, the Knightly Orders, and Mediterranean Pass, the Kadosh, Provost and Judge, Black Mark, Order of Death, Perfection, and innumerable others, 14 which have been constructed in comparatively recent times, for the purpose, probably, of forming a chain of connexion which may gradually transmit Freemasonry from its commencement amongst the patriarchs and Jews, to its perfect completion in the person of Jesus Christ, and the establishment of his religion." to posterity, the lodges in London and Westminster shall be required to recommend a brother from each lodge, who must be a Master or Past Master, and otherwise well skilled in the Craft, to be put in nomination at the Grand Chapter, in October of each year, to be elected one of the nine Excellent Masters, who are allowed to visit the lodges; and should occasion require, they are to report thereon to the Grand Chapter, or the right worshipful Deputy Grand Master, who will act as he shall deem necessary." 34 What connexion the Hurlothrumbians, Ubiquarians, Hiccubites, Gormagons, and others mentioned in a previous page, might have with Masonry, I am not prepared to state. Pritchard, an expelled member, who wrote in 1730, says, " From the Accepted Masons sprang the real Masons; from both sprang the Gormagons, whose Grand Master, the Volgi, deduces his original from the Chinese; whose writings, if to be credited, maintained the hypothesis of the Pre‑Adamites, and consequently, must be more antique than Masonry. The most free and open society is that of the Grand Kaiheber, which consists of a select company of responsible people, whose chief discourse is concerning trade and business, and promoting mutual friendship." 3s It is probable that many of the subsidiary degrees were instituted in France about the latter end of the 17th, or the beginning of the 18th century; because at this time Freemasonry assumed, amongst our continental neighbours, a very remarkable form. " The attachment of that people," says
32INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
The above degrees were little known at the time when our author flourished, if the printed works of the period are any criterion on which a correct opinion may be formed." These publications were intended for the information of the Craft; and as the authors have made no secret of a certain series of moral disquisitions, founded on the rites and symbols of the order, and have copiously illustrated their subject, it may be fairly conjectured that those points which have been left untouched, formed no part of the system as it then existed.
Laurie, '1 to innovation and external finery, produced the most unwarrantable alterations upon the principles and ceremonies of the order. A number of new degrees were created, and the officebearers of the Craft were arrayed in the most splendid and costlyattire." The French Grand Lodge consisted of the following officers, who were all of the nobility, and their dresses and decorations are described as being extremely magnificent and rich. Grand master, administrator‑general, grand conservator, representative of the grand master, senior grand warden, junior grand warden, grand orator, grand secretary, grand treasurer, senior grand expert, junior grand expert, grand seal keeper, grand record keeper, grand architect, grand master of the ceremonies, grand introductor, grand hospitaller, and grand almoner.
36 Great innovations were attempted in Germany about the middle of this century, by the introduction of principles and conceits quite new in Masonry. The propagators of these novelties first appeared at the conclusion of the war, and most of them being necessitous persons, they, in a manner, subsisted upon the spoils of their deluded adherents. They pretended to a superior knowledge in the science of Masonry, and took upon themselves the appellation of 2 The Reform of the North," under which name they assembled for some time; but at last their principles were inquired into by the brethren, and as they were found to be inconsistent with true and good Masonry, they fell to the ground.
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.33 The lectures of Masonry contain a series of moral aphorisms and illustrative remarks, in which beauty and usefulness are judiciously combined. They are easy of attainment, and a very little attention to their delivery will suffice to make every intelligent brother acquainted with them. The catechetical form has been adopted for this very purpose; and the consecutive points have been made to introduce each other in a natural and graceful order. It is to be presumed, therefore, that as the above writers could not be ignorant of any part of the lectures, they have honestly illustrated every portion of them which were rehearsed at the ordinary lodge meetings.
The intelligent brother will discover and regret the omission, in the following work, of many subjects connected with the Craft; and especially those sublime particulars in the third lecture, which explain the tabernacle of Moses and its furniture. There is no reference to the cherubim, the ark, and mercy‑seat, masonic number, and other important matters, which form a part of the ritual that bath been delivered to us, in what are called, " The Old York Lectures;" and their omission by our intelligent author, makes it doubtful whether they be not recent additions.
It is also surprising that the author has omitted all reference to the two great masonic transactions in the life of Abraham, which are so prominently recorded in our lectures, particularly as they form indispensable land‑marks to the whole system. I
I,I 34INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
mean his festival, by which we illustrate the difference between bond and free; and his grand offering, the latter forming an essential part of his own system, which very properly assimilates Freemasonry with Christianity; and the offering of Isaac being one of the most striking types of the Crucifixion which the sacred writings contain. 17 37 I may also here express my regret that the clause in the first section of the E. A. P. Lecture, which contains an explanation of the origin of bond and free amongst us, although most important to Freemasonry, has been entirely suppressed in the last revision of the lectures by Dr. Hemming. But happily, the masters of lodges are at liberty to pursue their own system of lecturing, provided the ancient land‑marks are preserved (see the quarterly communication for December, 1819); and, therefore, I hope still to see so much of the system restored as may serve to render our illustrations perfect and complete. To show the value of this clause, it may not be unimportant to remark, that it instructs us in the requisites to form the character of a Mason‑the historical fact is recorded which conferred on the order the honourable title of 11 Free and Accepted;"‑the universal bond of brotherhood is illustrated and explained;.‑_the principal links in the Masonic chain are specified, including the grades of rank by which civil society is cemented and held together;‑kings, senators, wise and skilful artists, men of inferior talents and attainments in the humbler classes of society. And it truly asserts, that all are equally brothers while they continue virtuous, because virtue is true nobility, &c. And thus it is that all Masons are equal, not merely by their creation, as children of a common parent, but more particularly by the strength of their obligation. The clause also includes another historical fact of great importance, to demonstrate and explain why it is necessary that a candidate for Masonry should be able to declare that he is the son of a free‑woman. This privilege, as Masons, as Christians, as subjects of a state whose institutions are free and beneficent, we may at all times refer to with honest pride and perfect satisfaction.
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.35 The work before us contains scarcely any vestige of a reference to the Royal Arch. This is rather remarkable, because in a general work on Masonry, a judicious explanation of certain particulars in this degree, is essential to a right understanding of the whole system. There can be no doubt but it was practised when Hutchinson wrote; but as it appears that Masons usually received the Third Degree in Grand Lodge, so also the Royal Arch might be confined, at that time, to its members only; and, perhaps, to a few privileged brethren of rank or superior talent; and, therefore, not accessible to the brethren of distant lodges.3' Or it maybe that brother Hutchinson's design was to confine his disquisitions to Craft Masonry only; and, therefore, he purposely omitted any reference to other parts of the system. This conjecture is, however, rather doubtful, from other circumstances connected with the work, to which I am about to allude. The want of evidence in all these matters is a necessary consequence of the secret design of the order, and its transmission solely by oral communication.
38 When Hutchinson published his fifth edition, in 1796, there were only fifty‑five chapters under the constitution of England, many of which were in foreign parts. The patrons of the Arch at this period were, His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland; His Most Serene Highness, Ferdinand Duke of Brunswick; His Most Serene Highness, Charles Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz, Germany. A provincial superintendant was appointed for the southern counties of England, and another for Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, and South Wales. Few chapters existed in other provinces.
II 367INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
The military degrees appear to have been much more prevalent, for most of the writers of these times have freely expatiated upon them. 39 Hutchinson does not term them " The Knightly Order," but the " Higher Order," and thinks the institution had its origin in Scotland. In this respect he follows the example of the continental Masons, who term it, " Du rit ecossais ancien accepte." It has thirtythree degrees, some of which are, I fear, political. And there is at Paris a Grand Commandery of the Order. 40 It is to be presumed, however, that 39 The Athol Masons repudiated the idea of introducing into a Craft‑lodge any appearance of warlike weapons. They condemned, and I think justly, the practice of displaying a drawn sword in open lodge. Thus Derwott says, " There is now in Wapping a large piece of scrolework, ornamented with foliage, painted and gilt, the whole at an incredible expense, and placed before the master's chair, with a gigantic sword fixed therein, during the communication of the members; a thing contrary to all the private and public rules of Masonry, all implements of war and bloodshed being confined to the lodge‑door, from the day that the flaming sword was placed in the east end of the Garden of Eden, to the day that the sagacious modern placed his grand sword of state in the midst of his lodge." 40 Their symbol is, three triangles conjoined, producing nine points within a circle. I have before me a very interesting account of a grand festival of the order, holden on the 23rd Jan., 1836; the Baron Freteau de Peny, Pair de France, Lieut. Grand Commander, on the Throne. It commences as follows ,, A la gloire du G . ς. A . ς. de 1'Univers, au nom et sons les auspices du Supreme Conseil, pour la France, des T T T . .
III.‑.et TTT.ς. PPP .ς. SSS.ς. GGG.ς. III .ς.
G G G .. du 33e et dernier degre du rit ecossais ancien accepte S . ς. S .. S . ς. L' Ill . ς. Grande Loge centrale de France regulidrement convoquee au nombre de cinquante membres, s'est
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.37
Masonry, as it was practised in the middle of the 18th century, was principally confined to the three degrees; and few were raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason, until they had been elected to the chair of a lodge.
The master's degree, in ancient times, was not conferred indiscriminately, as it is now. By the old charges it was only necessary that a brother should be a Fellow Craft to be eligible to the office of Warden or Master; and even this degree qualified a noble brother for the Grand Mastership of England." Indeed, no one was called a Master reunie sous le point geometrique correspondant du 480 501 145, latitude nord, et o longitude du meridien de Paris, daps un lieu tres eclaire, tres regulier, et tres fort, asile du mystere, de la verite, et de l'union fraternelle, sous la voute celeste du zenith, le 5e jour de la lune de Schehath, l le mois de 1'an de la V .'. Lum . ς. 5836. (23 Janvier, 1836). L'objet de la reunion etait la celebration de la fete, d' ordre du solstice d' hiver, a laquelle, par decision de la commission administrative du 20 Decembre dernier, se trouvait reunie une commemoration, funebre en 1' honneur des T . ς. III . ς. F F . ς. General Lafayette, Skier, marechal Due de Trevise, membre du Sup. ς. Cons . ς. de France, et Don Castro Alves, membre du Sup .ς. Cons . ς. de 1'empire du Bresil. Le temple est richement de core, &c." 41 It is thought, however, by some brethren, that even after the third degree had been conferred, the brother was still called a Fellow Craft, until he had actually passed the chair; and then his name was changed from Lewis or Louftyn, to Cassia. The Ashmole papers seem to render this doubtful. That eminent brother, in his diary, says, .1 I was made a Freemason at Warrington, Lancashire, with Colonel Henry Mainwaring, of Kerthingham, in Cheshire, by Mr. Richard Penket, the Warden, and the Fellow Crafts, Oct. 16th, 1616." And again, " On March the 10th, 1682, about 5 hor. post mer., I received a summons to
49 38INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
Mason till he had become the master of his lodge.42 In the 18th century, a Fellow Craft, or even an E.A.P., was allowed to offer his opinion in Grand Lodge, and consequently possessed a vote .4' And the old constitutions provided, that all motions made in Grand Lodge should be submitted to the perusal even of the youngest Apprentice; the approbation and consent of the majority of all the brethren. present being absolutely necessary to make the same binding and obligatory. And any one, above the degree of an E.A.P., was capable of representing
appear at a lodge to be held the next day at Mason's Hall, in London, March 11; accordingly I went, and about noon, was admitted into the fellowship of Freemasons; Sir William Wilson, Knight; Captain Richard Borthwick; Mr. William Woodman; Mr. William Grey; Mr. Samuel Taylour; and Mr. William Wise. I was the Senior Fellow among them, it being thirty‑five years since I was admitted; there were present, besides myself, the Fellows after named, Mr. Thomas Wise, Master of the Mason's company this present year; Mr. Thomas Shorthose, &c. We all dined at the Half Moon Tavern in Cheapside, at a noble dinner prepared at the charge of the new Accepted Masons." 42 Thus in the old charges, a N. B. appended to iv.‑Of Masters, Wardens, Fellows, and Apprentices; informs us that " In ancient times no brother, however skilled in the Craft, was called a Master Mason until he had been elected into the chair of a lodge." 43 In the old regulations of the Grand Lodge, it was provided that, " The Grand Master shall allow any brother, a Fellow Craft, or Entered Prentice, to speak, directing his discourse to his worship in the chair; or to make any motion for the good of the fraternity, which shall be either immediately considered, or else referred to the consideration of the Grand Lodge at their next communicatiorn, stated or occasional."
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.39
the Master or Wardens in Grand Lodge, in their absence, provided he attended with the proper jewel of office."' It appears, therefore, that a brother might enjoy all the privileges of the Craft, without being a Master Mason, provided he had served with freedom, fervency, and zeal‑the symbols of which, at this period, were chalk, charcoal, and earthen pan. Again, at the constitution of a new lodge, it was ordered that, " the lodge being opened, the new Master and Wardens being yet amongst the Fellow Crafts,45 the Grand Master shall ask his deputy whether he has examined them," &c.
Thus our brethren of the eighteenth century seldom advanced beyond the first degree. Few were passed, and fewer still were raised from their " mossy bed." The Master's degree appears to have been much less comprehensive than at present.4' And for some years after the revival of 44 '1 Carnarvan, G. M., Art. 8. If an officer cannot attend, he may send a brother of that lodge (but not a mere E. A. P.) with his jewel, to supply his room, and support the honour of his lodge." 45 It may be here observed, that every Fellow Craft was considered to be master of his work.
46 This is a forbidden subject, on which I dare not enlarge; and therefore, it is impossible to state particulars. I may, however, remark, that '1 The Masters' Part," as it was called, or, in other words, the third lecture, consisted only of seven questions, with very brief replies, exclusive of the lodge examination on the principal points, which have the same reference as our present third degree, but shorn of all their beauty. Yet I cannot help expressing a wish that some of the ceremonies were still further simplified. They are too complicated to produce a chaste and striking effect. I may, in this place, be allowed to quote a
40INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
Masonry, the third degree was unapproachable to those who lived at a distance from London; for, by the laws of the Grand Lodge, Art. X., it was passage from " The Defence of Masonry, 1731," by Dr. Anderson, the author of " The History and Constitutions of Masonry. "‑" The accident," says he, " by which the body of Master Hiram was found after his death, seems to allude, in some circumstances, to a beautiful passage in the sixth book of Virgil. Anchises had been dead for some time, and Eneas, his son, professed so much duty to his departed father, that he consulted with the Cumaean sybil whether it were possible for him to descend into the shades below, in order to speak with him. The prophetess encouraged him to go; but told him he could not succeed, unless he went into a certain place, and plucked a golden bough or shrub, which he should carry in his hand, and by that means obtain directions where he should find his father. Anchises, the great preserver of the Trojan name, could not have been discovered but by the help of a bough, which was plucked with great ease from the tree; nor, it seems, could Hiram, the Grand Master of Masonry, have been found, but by the direction of a shrub, which came easily up. The principal cause of Eneas's descent into the shades was to inquire of his father the secrets of the fates which should some time be fulfilled among his posterity. The occasion of the brethren's searching so diligently for their Master was, it seems, to receive from him the secret Word of Masonry, which should be delivered down, as a test, to their fraternity of after ages. This remarkable verse follows : ' Praeterea jacet exanimum tibi corpus amici, Heu nescis !' The body of your friend lies near you dead, Alas, you know not how ! This person was Misenus, that was murdered and buried, monte sub aerio, under a high hill, as Master Hiram was. But there is another story in Virgil, that stands in a nearer relation to the case of Hiram, and the accident by which he is said to have been discovered, which is this :‑Priamus, king of Troy, in the begin_
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.41 ordered that '1 Apprentices must be admitted Fellow Crafts, and Masters only here (in Grand Lodge), unless by a dispensation from the Grand Master." And accordingly, in 1731, his Royal Highness Francis Duke of Lorrain, afterward Grand Duke of Tuscany and Emperor of Germany, was made an Entered Apprentice and FellowCraft, at the Hague, by virtue ‑of a deputation for a lodge there, consisting of the Rev. Dr. Desaguliers, Master, John Stanhope, Esq., and John Holtzendorff, Esq., Wardens, and other brethren. But he came over to England that he might be raised to the third degree by the Grand Master himself. And although this provision was subsequently found inconvenient and rescinded, yet, even so recently as the year 1783, on the question of the hall‑fund, it was resolved 2 That every lodge which has already subscribed, or shall hereafter subscribe, the like sum of X25 to the hall‑fund, shall have the privilege of sending one of its members, being a Master Mason, to every future Grand Lodge, beside the Master and Wardens, as representatives of the lodge, until the money advanced is repaid. But as some brethren who have not arrived to the degree n f Master Masons may subscribe to this fund, all ping of the Trojan war, committed his son, Polydorus, to the care of Polymnestor, king of Thrace, and sent with him a great sum of money; but, after Troy was taken, the Thracian, for the sake of the money, killed the young prince, and privately buried him. Eneas, coming into that country, and accidentally plucking up a shrub that was near him, on the side of a hill, discovered the murdered body of Polydorus."
42INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION such subscribers shall be members of the Grand Lodge, when they become Master Masons." It should appear therefore, that the third degree had not yet come into the general use which it now obtains. Indeed Smith, who wrote his " Use and Abuse of Masonry," in 1778, expressly asserts that " no private lodge, at this time, had the power of passing or raising Masons; nor could any brother be advanced to either of these degrees but in the Grand Lodge, with the unanimous consent of all the brethren in communication assembled." This concise view of the state of Masonry in the 18th century, will, it is hoped, form an useful appendage to the perusal of the following work. In introducing a new edition to the Masonic world, I have found it necessary to account for some omissions, and to explain a few varieties which might have been incomprehensible to the Masons of the present day. For though Masonry is unchanged and unchangeable, yet, as a standing law of the Grand Lodge, agreed to at its revival, provides that " every annual Grand Lodge has an inherent power and authority to make new regulations or to alter these, for the real benefit of this ancient fraternity, provided always that the old landmarks be carefully preserved," certain variations have, from time to time, been introduced into the lectures and mode of working; 4' which, though "7 Dr. Anderson says, that in his time '░ the system, as taught in the regular lodges, may have some redundances or defects, occasioned by the indolence or ignorance of the old members.
ON THE STATE OF FREEMASONRY.43
unimportant as respects the general system, have created a diversity in the minuter details, to meet the gradual improvements which ingenious men have effected in the arts and sciences.4' The revision of the Lectures by Wright, Shadbolt, Hemming, and others, under the above authority, has had only a partial operation, and while their version
And, indeed, considering through what obscurity and darkness the mystery has been delivered down; the many centuries it has survived; the many countries, and languages, and sects, and parties it has run through, we are rather to wonder it ever arrived to the present age without more imperfections. In short, I am apt to think that Masonry, as it is now explained, has in some circumstances declined from its original purity. It has run long in muddy streams, and, as it were, under ground; but notwithstanding the great rust it may have contracted, and the forbidding light it is placed in by its enemies, there is (if I judge right) much of the old fabric still remaining; the foundation is still entire, the essential pillars of the building may be discovered through the rubbish, though the superstructure may be overrun with moss and ivy, and the stones, by length of time, disjointed. And therefore, as the busto of an old hero is of great value among the curious, though it has lost an eye, the nose, or the right hand, so Masonry, with all its blemishes and misfortunes, instead of appearing ridiculous, ought (in my bumble opinion) to be received with some candour and esteem, from a veneration to its antiquity." 48 The reason assigned by the Grand Lodge, at the Union, for such alterations is, " That there may be the most perfect unity of obligation, of discipline, of working the lodges, of making, passing, and raising; instructing and clothing brothers; so that but one pure, unsullied system, according to the genuine landmarks, laws, and traditions of the Craft, shall be maintained, upheld and practised, throughout the Masonic world" (Art. of Union, 3).
44INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.
has been received by a portion of the fraternity,49 others residing at a distance from the metropolis, still retain the old system; and thus a perfect uniformity has not been successfully accomplished.,Under such circumstances, these preliminary remarks will not be without their use; and I refer their consideration to the candid judgment of the fraternity at large.
THE EDITOR.
49 In a Dutch work, quoted in the " Freemasons' Quarterly Review" for the present year, I find the following passage:" Some time before the total destruction of the order of the Templars, a certain junior prior of Montfaucon, called Carolus de Monte Carmel, was murdered by three traitors, whereby it is thought that the first death‑blow was struck at the order; from the events which accompanied and followed this murder, some are of opinion that the mystical and ritual part of a great portion of Freemasonry is derived; for the prior was murdered by three traitors, and by this murder an irreparable loss was inflicted on the order. The murderers of Charles de Monte Carmel concealed his body under the earth, and in order to mark the spot, planted a young thorn‑tree upon it. The knights of the temple, in searching for the body, had their attention drawn to that particular spot by the tree, and in that manner they discovered his remains," &c.
50 To explain my meaning, I shall quote the words of a correspondent to the " Freemasons' Quarterly Review," vol. i. New Series, p. 45. " I am residing 200 miles from London, and about a fortnight ago, a very intelligent brother and Past Master, from one of the eastern counties (Norfolk, I think), visited our lodge, where he witnessed an initiation according to the union system. He afterwards expressed his surprise to me, at the great difference between his own and our mode; and said he had never seen the ceremony performed in that mariner before.'
43 LECTURE I.
THE DESIGN.
TiiL design of the following lecture is to investigate the orders of Freemasonry; and, under distinct heads, to arrange my observations on the nature of this Society.
On initiation, I was struck with the ceremonials; and immediately apprehended there was more conveyed by them than appeared to the vulgar eye; attention to the matter convinced me my first impressions were just; and by researches to discover their implications, some degree of knowledge hath been acquired touching the origin of Masonry, the reasons which supported its several institutions, the meaning and import of its various symbols, together with the progress of the profession.
It is known to the world, but more particularly to the brethren, that there are three degrees of Masons‑Apprentices, Craftsmen, and Masters;their initiation, and the several advancements from the order of Apprentices, will necessarily lead us to observations in three distinct channels.
How the several mysteries are revealed to Masons, they alone know;‑so stedfastly have the
46THE DESIGN.
fraternity preserved their faith for many ages, that this remains a secret to the world, in defiance of the corruptions and vices of mankind.
In order to comprehend the nature of our profession, we must look back into the remotest antiquity, and from thence collect the several parts which have been united in the forming of our Order‑in the first place, we must give our attention to the creation of man, and the state of our first parents in the garden of Eden.' It is not to be doubted, when Adam came from out the hand of his Creator, the image of God, from whom he immediately proceeded, that he was perfect in symmetry and beauty; 2 that he was made in the highest degree of excellence that human nature was capable of on earth ‑calculated for regions of felicity and paradise, where sin or sorrow had not known existence‑made in such per , " And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him. And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good. And the Lord God formed the man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Gen. i. 26, 31; ii. 7.) 2 The Rabbins entertained a curious opinion respecting the creation of man. Thus the R. Manasseh ben Israel says, after R. Sam. bar Nacham, that " woman was jointly created with man, being attached to his back; so that the figure of Adam was double‑man before, and woman behind. And therefore it should not be translated‑God took one of his ribs, but one of his sides; or in other words, that he cut or separated the two figures, and closed up, or healed the flesh which had been wounded in the operation."‑EDITOR.
THE DESIGN.47 fection of body and mind, that he could endure the presence of God; and was capable of conversing with the Almighty face to face,'‑so much was he superior to the chosen ones of Israel. He was endowed with understanding suitable to his station, as one whom the Almighty deigned to visit; and his heart was possessed of all the virtues unpolluted; endowments of an heavenly temper‑his hours were full of wisdom, exultation, and transport‑the book of Nature was revealed to his comprehension, and all her mysteries were open to his understandinghe knew whence and what he was. Even this was but a minute degree of his capacity; for, astonishing as it may appear to us, yet it is an incontrovertible truth, that he had a competent knowledge of the Almighty, the tremendous Creator of the universe; he saw him with his natural eyes, he heard his voice, he understood his laws, and was present to his Majesty.
To this first example of human perfection and wisdom we must necessarily look back for all the science and learning which blessed the earliest ages of the world‑calculated for such exalted felicity and elevated enjoyments, placed in regions of peace, where angels ministered and the Divinity walked abroad, was the great parent of mankind. But, alas, he fell ! 4 By disobedience, he forfeited all 3 Gen. ii. 16, 17, 19; iii. 9, 10, 11, 12, 17.
4 Our first parents thus forfeited all the blessings they enjoyed by a violation of the covenant on which the tenure was suspended. In the form of a serpent the evil principle assailed the woman with the subtle and prevailing logic, that instead of death,
48THE DESIGN.
his glory and felicity; and, wonderful to recount, in the midst of this exalted state, Satan prevailed ! 5 If we presume to estimate the change which befell Adam, on his expulsion from Paradise, by the deformity that took place on the face of the earth, we should be apt to believe the exile, though not distorted in body, was yet darkened in understanding,‑instead of confidence and steady faith, that distrust and jealousy took place, and doubtfulness confounded even testimony; that argument was deprived of definition, and left to wander in eccentric propositions; that confusion usurped the throne of wisdom, and folly of judgment; thorns and thistles grew up in the place of those excellent flowers of science which flourished in Eden; and darkness clouded the day of his capacity.
It is not possible to determine, from any evidence she would enjoy life, and knowledge, and happiness, by tasting the delicious, but forbidden fruit; and that she and her partner would become as gods, and be able to distinguish between good and evil.‑EDITOR.
5 Thus originated the introduction of a serpent among the,, symbols of Freemasonry, not only to commemorate the unhappy defection of our first parents, through the wiles of that crafty reptile, but also to keep perpetually in our recollection the Redeemer, who should bruise the serpent's head. Serpent_ worship derived its origin from the same source; and even the name, applied with a transmitted authority to the destructive power, has reached our times. Thus the Deva or Dive of the East, who was the serpent‑tempter; the Diu of ancient Hibernia, the Armoric Due, and the Gaelic Dhu, was no other than the Dioholus of the Greeks and Latins, and the English Devil.‑EDITOR.
THE DESIGN.49
given us, in what degree disobedience and sin immediately contracted the understanding of Adam; but we are certain that great and dreadful effects very early took place on Adam's posterity. We may conclude memory was retained by our first parent in all its energy‑a terrible portion of the punishment his disobedience had incurred; restoring to him perfect images and never‑dying estimates of what he had lost, and thereby increasing the bitterness of what he had purchased. Through the endowments of memory, Adam would necessarily teach to his family the sciences which he had comprehended in Eden, and the knowledge he had gained of Nature and her God. It will follow that some of them would retain those lessons of wisdom, and faithfully transmit them to posterity. No doubt the family of Cain (who bore the seal of the curse on his forehead) was given up to ignorance.' 6 " And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord," (Gen. iv. 16). They were doubtless ignorant of the true God, for Sanchoniatho says, they worshipped the sun, under the name of Beelsamen. But they excelled in the arts of civil and social .ife; and it was to the descendants of Cain that mankind were .ndebted for the earliest knowledge of architecture, music, and other useful sciences. Tubal Cain taught the art of working in metals, to increase worldly comfort and worldly possessions. And, as an old MS. in the British Museum informs us, (Harl. 1942,), " Adah, the first wife of Lamech, bare two sons, Jabal and Jubal. Jabal was the inventor of geometry, and the first who built houses of stone and timber; and Jubal was the inventor of music and of harmony. Zillah, his second wife, bare Tubal Cain, the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron; and a daughter, called Naamah, who was the first founder of the weavers' craft. "‑EDITOR.
.5aTHE DESIGN.
Tradition would deliver down the doctrines of our first parents with the utmost truth and certainty, whilst the antediluvians enjoyed the longevity of which the books of Moses give evidence; but when men came to multiply exceedingly upon the face of the earth, and were dispersed to the distant regions of the globe, then the inestimable lessons of knowledge and truth, taught by the first men, fell into confusion and corruption with many, and were retained pure and in perfection but by few; those few, to our great consolation, have handed them down to after ages; they also retained the universal language, uncorrupted with the confusion of the plains of Shinar, and preserved it to posterity.
Thus we must necessarily look back to our first parent as the original professor of the worship of the true God, to whom the mysteries of Nature were first revealed, and from whom all the wisdom of the world was in the beginning derived.? In those times, when the rules and maxims of Freemasonry had their beginning, men had adopted allegories, emblems, and mystic devices, wherein peculiar sciences, institutions, and doctrines, in many nations were wrapt up; this was an invention of the earliest ages. The priests of Egypt secreted the mysteries of their religion from the vulgar by symbols and hieroglyphics, comprehensible alone to those of their own order. The priests of Greece and Rome practised other subtleties, by which their 7 Appendix A.
THE DESIGN.51
divinations were enveiled; a and their oracles were made intelligible only to their brethren, who expounded them to the people.
Those examples were wisely adapted for the purposes of concealing the mysteries of Masonry. Like the sibyl's leaves, the secrets of the brotherhood, if revealed, would appear to the world as indistinct and scattered fragments, while they convey to Masons an uniform and well‑connected system.
In forming this society, which is at once religious and civil, great regard has been given to the first knowledge of the God of Nature, and that acceptable service wherewith he was well pleased.
This was the first and corner‑stone on which our originals thought it expedient to place the foundation of Masonry; they had experienced that by religion all civil ties and obligations were compacted, 6 In plain language, they were the conjurors of the day; and very artful fellows they were. Nor were these tricks confined entirely to the priesthood. Ben Wasbih, in his book of Alphabets, has enumerated some of them, and favoured us with the names of their inventors_ Thus it is stated that Costoodjis wrote 360 books on talismans, astrology, magic, influence of planets, and the conjuration of spirits; that Colphotorios, the philosopher, was deeply learned in the knowledge of spirits, cabalistic spells, talismans, astrological aspects, and in magic and the black art, which he concealed under hieroglyphical symbols; that Philaos invented the art of fumigations of spirits; that Saaa, the soothsayer king, was one of the seven great magicians of Egypt; that Cophtrim was a great master in the art of constructing talismans and admirable alarm‑posts, treasure‑spells, and wonderful images; with numerous absurdities of the same nature, which gulled the multitude, and sealed their own power and profit.‑EDITOR.
52THE DESIGN.
and that thence proceeded all the bonds which could unite mankind in social intercourse : thence it was that they laid the foundation of the edifice on the bosom of religion : " Religious all ! descending from the skies To wretched man, the goddess in her left Holds out this world, and in her right the next Religion ! the sole voucher man is man; Supporter sole of man above himself; Ev'n in the night of frailty, change, and death, She gives the soul a soul that acts a god, Religion ! Providence! an after state ! Here is firm footing; here is solid rock; This can support us; all is sea besides; Sinks under us; bestorms, and then devours. His hand the good man fastens on the skies, And bids earth roll, nor feels her idle whirl." (Young's Night Thoughts.)
In the earliest ages, after the deluge, in the nations made known to us, the service of the true God was clouded with imagery, and defiled by idolatry. Men who had not been taught the doctrines of truth by those who retained the wisdom of the antediluvians, but were left to the operations of their own judgment, perceived that there was some great cause of Nature's uniformity, and of the wonderful progressions of her works : suitable to their ignorance, they represented the author of those works by such objects as struck their observation, for their powerful effects on the face of the world‑ from whence the sun and moon became the symbols of the Deity.' 9 The posterity of Ham forsook the doctrines of their predecessors; for the deity whose adoration he taught, they soon
THE DESIGN.53
Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians;'░ he was initiated in all the knowledge of the wise men of that nation, by whom the learning of antiquity had been retained and held sacred; wrapped up from the eye of the wicked and vulgar in symbols and hieroglyphics, and communicated to men of their own order only, with care, secrecy, and circumspection. This secrecy is not in any wise to substituted the symbol, and for the original worshipped the sun, which was regarded in the first ages after the deluge, as the type or emblem of the Divinity. " The descendants of Chus, called Cuthites, were those emigrants who carried their rites, religions, and customs, into various quarters of the globe; they were the first apostates from the truth, yet great in worldly wisdom;‑they were joined in their expeditions by other nations, especially by the collateral branches of their family, the Mizraim, Caphtorim, and the sons of Canaan;‑these were all the line of Ham, who was held by his posterity in the highest veneration; ‑they called him Amon, and having in process of time raised him to a divinity, they worshipped him as the sun, and from this worship they were styled Amonians. The deity which they worshipped was the sun, but they soon conferred his titles upon some of their ancestors; whence arose a mixed worship. They particularly deified the great patriarch who was the head of their line, and worshipped him as the fountain of light; making the sun the emblem of his influence and power." (Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology.) 10 And there can be no doubt but the Egyptians were a very learned people. The old writers tell us that they taught Moses the seven liberal sciences to qualify him for the public administra. tion of state affairs. They taught him a knowledge of hieroglyphics in their spurious Freemasonry; and the arts of painting and sculpture. They trained him up to martial exercises; and endued him with a knowledge of moral and political economy, that he might assume and maintain the dignified station to which he was destined, as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.‑EDITOR.
54THE DESIGN.
be wondered at, when we consider the persecution which would have followed a faith unacceptable to the ignorance of the nations who were enveloped in superstition and bigotry; and more particularly, as those sages were in possession of that valuable knowledge of the powers of nature, of the qualities of matter and properties of things, so dangerous to be communicated to wicked and ignorant men, from whose malevolence the most horrid offences might be derived:" of which we may judge by the extraordinary and astonishing performances even of those impious and unenlightened men who contended with Moses, in the miracles he performed under the immediate impression and influence of the Deity. 12 Moses purged divine worship of its mysteries and images, 13 and taught the Jews the knowledge of the God of the universe, unpolluted with the errors of the nations of the earth, and uncorrupted with the devices and ludicrous ceremonies instituted by the people of the East, from whom he derived his first comprehension and knowledge of the Divinity.14 11 The uneducated people were deceived and oppressed by their aruspices, augurs, and magicians, down to the very period of their suppression by Theodosius, A. D. 387. In the mysteries practised at Alexandria, children of both sexes were slain, that divination might be effected from their entrails, and their flesh was devoured. (Socrat. 1. 3, c. 13.)‑EDIToa.
12 Exodus, vii. 11, 12, 22; viii. 7‑18.
13 Clemeus Alexandrinus (Strom. 1.) says that "the enigmas of the Egyptians were very similar to those of the Jews."‑En.
13 The author of "Dissertation on the Ancient Pagan Mysteries," defending Dr. Warburton's positions against Dr. Leland, writes thus.‑,, That to the Pagan divinities there was not only
THE DESIGN.55
The second stage of Freemasonry is derived from this period‑the temple at Jerusalem receives the probation of the Craftsmen.
Moses was also possessed of knowledge superior to that of the Egyptian teachers, through the revelations and inspirations of the Deity; he had acquired the comprehension of, and was instructed to decipher all the hieroglyphical characters used by that people in their records : it was no doubt a part of
an open and public worship, but also a secret worship paid to them, to which none were admitted but those who had been selected by preparatory ceremonies, called Initiation. This secret worship was termed the Mysteries. Of these there were two sorts, the greater and lesser: according to the Bishop of Gloucester, the lesser taught, by certain secret rites and shews, the origin of society, and the doctrine of a future state; they were preparatory to the greater, and might be safely communicated to all the initiated, without exception. The Arcana of the greater mysteries were the doctrine of the Unity, and the detection of the errors of the vulgar Polytheism; these were not communicated to all the aspirants, without exception, but only to a small and select number, who were judged capable of the secret. The initiated were obliged, by the most solemn engagements, to commence a life of the strictest piety and virtue; it was proper, therefore, to give them all the encouragement and assistance necessary for this purpose. Now in the Pagan world there was a powerful temptation to vice and debauchery, the profligate example of their gods. Ego homuncio hoc non facerem, was the absolving formula, whenever any one was resolved to give a loose to his passions. This evil the mysteries remedied, by striking at the root of it; therefore such of the initiated as were judged capable, were made acquainted with the whole delusion. The mystagogue taught them, that Jupiter, Mercury, and Bacchus, Venus, Mars, and the whole rabble of licentious deities, were only dead mortals; subject, in life, to the same passions and
56THE DESIGN.
the original knowledge to express by characters to the eye the thoughts and sentiments of the mindbut this was obscured and debased in after ages by symbols and hieroglyphics :15 yet by the immediate infirmities as themselves; but having been on other accounts benefactors to mankind, grateful posterity had deified them, and, with their virtues, had indiscreetly canonized their vices. The fabulous gods being thus rooted out, the Supreme cause of all things naturally took their place. Him they were taught to consider as the Creator of the universe, who pervaded all things by his virtue, and governed all by his providence. But here it must be observed, that the discovery of this Supreme cause was so made, as to be consistent with the notion of the local tutelary deities, beings superior to them, and inferior to God, and by him set over the several parts of his creation. This was an opinion universally holden by antiquity, and never brought into question by any theist. What the Arcana of the mysteries overthrew, was the vulgar Polytheism, the worship of (lead men." It was natural for these politicians to keep this a secret in the mysteries; for, in their opinion, not only the extinction, but even the gradation of their false gods, would have too much disconcerted and embroiled the established system of vulgar Polytheism. From hence we may be led to determine, that to Moses the secret of the Egyptian mythology was divulged by his preceptors, and the knowledge of the only God revealed to him, divested of all the symbols and devices which engaged the vulgar.
15 Until very recently there existed a lamentable ignorance on the subject of these symbols. Spineto asks 11 What were they? Was it a language ? Did it consist of words? Was it made out of an alphabet ? Was it a language spoken? Was it a dead language? If a living language, what living language? Was it a language known only to the priests themselves, as the sanscrit of India was once supposed to be?‑How endless were these fields of inquiry ! Many writers offered their reasonings and conjectures on the subject, but unfortunately, the study of Egyptian antiquities, and of hieroglyphics in particular, was carried on in a direction totally different from truth."‑EDITOR.
THE DESIGN.57 dispensation of Heaven, Moses attained a knowledge of those original characters; by which he was enabled to reveal to his people, and preserve to posterity, the commandments of God, delivered to him on the mount, by inscribing them on tables of stone.16 It is natural to conceive that the Israelites would be instructed in this art, by which the will of the Deity was communicated; they would be led to write the doctrines of their leader, and his expositions of the law, that they should be preserved to their children; and if we give credit to the observations and conjectures of the learned travellers, the written mountains remain monuments of the peregrinating Hebrews to this day.
But to return to the progressions of our profession. It is not to be presumed, that we are a set of men, professing religious principles contrary to the revelations and doctrines of the Son of God, reverencing a Deity by the denomination of the God of Nature, and denying that mediation which is graciously offered to all true believers. The members of our society at this day, in the third stage of Masonry, 16 " And he gave unto Moses, when he bad made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. And the Lord said unto Moses, hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon, these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. And the Lord said unto Moses, write thou these words; for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." (Exod. xxxi. 18; xxxiv. 1, 27 )
JSTHE DESIGN.
confess themselves to be Christians, " The veil of the temple is rent, the builder is smitten, and we are raised from the tomb of transgression." I humbly presume, it is not to be understood, that the name of Mason in this society denotes that the origin or rise of such society was solely from builders, architects, or mechanics : at the times in which Moses ordained the setting up of the sanctuary,17 and when Solomon was about to build the temple at Jerusalem, they selected from out the people those men who were enlightened with the true faith, and being full of wisdom and religious fervor, were found proper to conduct these works of piety. It was on those occasions that our predecessors appeared to the world as architects, and were formed into a body, under salutary rules, for the government of '7 41 See, I have called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass. And in cutting of stones to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. And in the hearts of all that are wise‑hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee. The tabernacle of the congregation. Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise‑hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding, to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the Lord bad commanded. And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise‑hearted man, in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it." (Exod. xxxi. 2‑7; xxxvi. 1, 2. )
THE DESIGN. 59 those who were employed in these great works :11 since which period builders have adopted the name of masons, as an honorary distinction and title to their profession. I am induced to believe the name of mason has its derivation from a language, in which it implies some strong indication or distinction of the nature of the society; and that it has not its relation to architects." The French word maison signifies a family or particular race of people : it seems as if the name was compounded of Maw fwav, quero salvuni and the title of Masonry no more than a corruption of MEo‑ovpaveco, sum in medio cceli, or MaCovvooO, signa ccelestia; 20 which conjecture 18 This was the undoubted union of Speculative and Operative Masonry. (See the Theocratic Philosophy, lect. viii.)‑EDITOR.
19 This observation is scarcely correct. In the Privy Seal Book of Scotland is an entry which distinctly proves that the office‑bearers of the society were Speculative Masons, but that they were invested with authority to administer justice, and promote regularity amongst Operative Masons. It consists of a letter, dated from Holyrood House, 25th Sept., 1590, and granted by King James VI. "to Patrick Copland of Udaught, for using and exercising the office of Wardanrie over the Art and Craft of Masonry, over all the boundis of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kincardine, to haud warden and justice courts within the same boundis, and there to minister justice, &c."‑EDITOR.
20 We still retain all the names by which the science has been distinguished in every age of the world, either in its speculative or operative form. Whether it were characterised by the appellation of Lux, as in the patriarchal age; or Geometry, as it was called by Euclid; or Philosophy, as Pythagoras named it; or Mesouraneo, or by any other title; a memorial of such designation has been embodied in the system. We say Freemasonry is a system of Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty, and the definition, was adopted from our ancient G. M. King Solomon, who called
60 THE DESIGN.
is strengthened by our symbols." I am inclined to determine, that the appellation of Mason implies a member of a religious sect, and‑a professed devotee of the Deity, "who is seated in the centre of Heaven." To prove these several propositions in Masonry to be true, and to demonstrate to Masons the importance of their order, shall be the subject of the following lectures. The principles of Morality are rigorously enjoined us; charity and brotherly love are our indispensable duty how they are prescribed to us, and their practice the science WISDOM; which by the cabalists was subsequently denominated l3aphomet. And he defines it thus : " Wisdom is the worker of all things; she is the brightness of the everlasting Light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness. She is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of stars : being compared with the light, she is found before it." (Wisd. vii. 26, 29.) " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. She bath builded her house; she bath hewn out her seven pillars. I, Wisdom, dwell with Prudence; I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment." (Prov. ix. 10; 1. viii. 12, 20.) What is all this but a just description of Speculative Freemasonry ?‑EDITOR.
21 The title of Masons and Masonry most probably were derived from the Greek language, as the Greek idiom is adopted by them; and is shewn in many instances in the course of this work. The Druids, when they committed anything to writing, used the Greek alphabet; and I am bold to assert, the most perfect remains of the Druids' rites and ceremonies are preserved in the ceremonials of Masons, that are to be found existing among mankind. My brethren may be able to trace them with greater exactness than I am at liberty to explain to the public. The original names of Masons and Masonry may probably be derived from, or corrupted of, MvsiPiov, res arcana, mysteries, and Musr7s, sacris initiatus mysta, those initiated to sacred mysteries.‑ED.
THE DESIGN.61 enforced, will also be treated of in the following pages.
My original design in these lectures was not only to explain to my brethren the nature of their profession, but also to testify to the world, that our mysteries are important; and to take away the reproach which hath fallen upon this society by the vices, ignorance, or irregularities of some profligate men, who have been found among Masons. Should the errors of a few stain and render ignominious a whole society, or bring infamy and contempt on a body of men; there is no association on earth, either civil or religious, which might not be affected.
62
LECTURE II.
ON THE RITES, CEREMONIES, AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE
ANCIENTS.
TxERE is no doubt that our ceremonies and mysteries were derived from the rites, ceremonies, and institutions of the ancients, and some of them from the remotest ages. Our morality is deduced from the maxims of the Grecian philosophers, and perfected by the Christian revelation.
The institutors of this society had their eyes on the progressive advancement of religion, and they symbolized it, as well in the first stage, as in the succeeding orders of Masons. The knowledge of the God of Nature forms the first estate of our profession; the worship of the Deity, under the Jewish law, is described in the second stage of Masonry; and the Christian dispensation is distinguished in the last and highest order.
It is extremely difficult, with any degree of certainty, to trace the exact origin of our symbols, or from whence our ceremonies or mysteries were particularly derived. I shall point out some ancient institutions from whence they may have been deduced.
ON THE RITES OF THE ANCIENTS.63
The Assideans (a sect among the Jews, divided into two denominations, the merciful and the just,) were the fathers and predecessors of the Pharisees and Essenes : they preferred their traditions before the written word, and set up for a sanctity and purity that exceeded the law : they at last fell into the error of the Sadducees, in denying the resurrection, and the faith of rewards and punishments after this life.
The Essenes' were of very remote antiquity; and 1 2 The etymologies of the names Essni, or Esseni, i. e. Essenes, are divers; that which I prefer is from the Syriac Asa, signifying Oepaaevew, to heal or cure diseases; for though they gave themselves chiefly to the study of the Bible, yet withal they studied physic. Concerning the beginning of this sect, from whom or when it began, it is hard to determine. Some make them as ancient as the Rechabites, and the Rechabites to have differed only in the addition of some rules and ordinances from the Kenites, mentioned in Judges i. 16, and thus, by consequence, the Essenes were as ancient as the Israelites' departure out of Egypt : for Jethro, Moses' father‑in‑law, as appears by the text, was a Kenite; but neither of these seemeth probable, for the Kenites are not mentioned in scripture as a distinct order or sect of people, but a distinct family, kindred, or nation. (Numb. xxiv. 2.)‑Secondly, the Rechabites did not build houses, but dwelt in tents; neither did they deal in husbandry; they sowed no seeds, nor planted vineyards, nor had any. (Jer. xxxv. 7. ) The Essenes, on the contrary, dwelt not in tents, but in houses, and they employed themselves especially in husbandry. One of the Hebrew doctors saith, that the Essenes were Nazarites; but that cannot be, because the law enjoined the Nazarites, when the time of the consecration was on, to present themselves at the door of the tabernacle or temple. (Numb. vi.) Now the Essenes had no access to the temple; when, therefore, or from what author, this sect took its beginning is uncertain. The first that I find mentioned by the name of an Essene
64ON THE RITES
it hath been argued by divines, that they were as ancient as the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt. They might take their rise from that dispersion of their nation which happened after their being carried captive into Babylon. The principal
(Josephus, lib. xiii., c. 19) was one Judas, who lived in the time of Aristobulus, the son of Jannus Hyrcanus, before our Saviour's birth about one hundred years : however, this sect was of greater antiquity, for all three, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, were in Jonathan's time, the brother of Judas Maccabeus, who was fifty years before Aristobulus. Certain it is, that this sect continued until the days of our Saviour and after; Philo and Josephus speak of them as living in their times. What might be the reason, then, that there is no mention made of them in the New Testament? I answer, first, the number of them seemeth not to have been great in Philo and Josephus' time, about four thousand, which, being dispersed in many cities, made the faction weak : and haply in Jerusalem, when our Saviour lived, they were either few or none. Secondly, if we observe histories, we shall find them peaceable and quiet, not opposing any, and therefore not so liable to reproof as the Pharisees and Sadducees, who opposed each other, and both joined against Christ. Thirdly, why might they not be passed over in silence in the New Testament (especially containing themselves quietly without contradiction of others), as the Rechabites in the Old Testament, of whom there is mention only once, and that obliquely, although their order continued about three hundred years before this testimony was given of them by the prophet Jeremy: for between John (with whom Jonadab was coetanean) and Zedekia, chronologers observe the distance of many years. Lastly, though the name of Essenes be not found in scripture, yet we shall find in St. Paul's Epistles many things reproved, which were taught in the school of the Essenes : of this nature was that advice given to Timothy, (1 Tim. v. 13.) Drink no longer water, but use a little wine. Again, (1 Tim. iv. 3.) Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, is a doctrine of devils‑but especially Coloss. 2d, in many passages
OF THE ANCIENTS.65
character of this sect was, that they chose retirement, were sober, were industrious; had all things in common; paid the highest regard to the moral precepts of the law, but neglected the ceremonial, any further than what regarded bodily cleanliness, the observation of the sabbath, and making an annual present to the temple at Jerusalem. They never associated with women, nor admitted them into their retreats. By the most sacred oaths, though they were in general averse to swearing, or to requiring an oath, they bound all whom they initiated among them to the observance of piety, justice, fidelity, and modesty; to conceal the secrets of the fraternity, preserve the books of their instruc the apostle seemeth to point directly at them : Let no man condemn you in meat and drink, (ver. 16.) Let no man bear rule over you, by humbleness of mind, and worshipping of angels, (ver. 18,) To Soy╡aTL("Eo0E, why are ye subject to ordinances, (ver. 20.) The apostle useth the word Soy╡aTa, which was applied by the Essenes to denote the ordinances, aphorisms, or constitutions. In the verse following he gives an instance of some particulars Touch not, taste not, handle not, (ver. 21.) Now the junior company of the Essenes might riot touch their seniors : and, in their diet, their taste was limited to bread, salt, water, and hyssop and these ordinances they undertook, Sea iro9ov oo(pias, saith Philo, for the love of wisdom; but the apostle concludeth, (ver. 23,) that these things had only Aoyov oo~pLas, a show of wisdom. And whereas Philo termed the religion of the Essenes by the name of OEpaiΗia, which word signifieth religious worship, the apostle termeth in the same verse, EBEAOBpYJO'KElav, voluntary religion, or will‑worship : yea, where he termeth their doctrine aaTpwv 4nAooo0Lav, a kind of philosophy received from their forefathers by tradition, St. Paul biddeth them beware of philosophy, (ver. 8.)" (Godwyn's 'Moses and Aaron.)
66ON THE RITES tors, and with great care to commemorate the names of the angels. They held, that God was surrounded by spiritual beings, who were mediators with him, and therefore to be reverenced. Second, that the soul is defiled by the body, and that all bodily pleasures hurt the soul, which they believed to be immortal, though they denied the resurrection of the body, as it would consequently give back the soul to a state of sin. Third, that there was a great mystery in numbers, particularly in the number seven; 2 they therefore attributed a natural holiness to the seventh or sabbath‑day, which they observed more strictly than the other Jews. They spent their time most in contemplation, and abstained from every gratification of the senses. The Essenes introduced their maxims into the Christian church; and it is alleged by the learned, that St. Paul, in his epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, particularly censures the tenets of this sect.
Of these Essenes there were two sorts; some were Theoricks, giving themselves wholly to speculation; others Practicks, laborious and painful in the daily exercise of those r.rts or manufactures in which they were most skilful. Of the latter Philo treated in his book, intituled, 2 Quod omnis Vir Probus : " of the former, in the book following, intituled, 2 De Vita Contemplativa." 2 In the History of Initiation, new edit., p. 165, will be found a copious dissertation on the origin, design, and universal applica tion of this sacred number.‑EDITOR.
OF THE ANCIENTS.67 The Essenes were denied access to the Temple.
The Practicks and Theoricks both agreed in their aphorisms or ordinances; but in certain circumstances they differed. The Practicks dwelt in the cities; the Theoricks shunned the cities, and dwelt in gardens and solitary villages. The Practicks spent the day in manual crafts, keeping of sheep, looking to bees, tilling of ground, &c., they were artificers. The Theoricks spent the day in meditation and prayer; whence they were, from a kind of excellency, by Philo termed supplicants. The Practicks had every day their dinner and supper allowed them; the Theoricks only their supper. The Practicks had for their commons every one his dish of water‑gruel and bread; the Theoricks only bread and salt : if any were of a more delicate palate than others, to him it was permitted to eat hyssop; their drink for both was common water.
Some are of opinion that these Theoricks were Christian monks; but the contrary appeareth for these reasons. In the whole book of Philo, concerning the Theoricks, there is no mention either of Christ or Christians, of the Evangelists or Apostles. The Theoricks, in that book of Philo's, are not any new sect of late beginning, as the Christians at that time were, as is clearly evinced by Philo's own words, in calling the doctrine of the Essenes lrarpcav (iAoooccav, a philosophy derived unto them by tradition from their forefathers.
In Grecian antiquity, we find a festival cele‑
68ON THE RITES brated in honour of Ceres, 3 at Eleusis, a town of Attica, where the Athenians, with great pomp and 3 1' It was the most celebrated and mysterious solemnity of any in Greece; whence it is often called, by way of eminence, the Mysteries; and so superstitiously careful were they to conceal the sacred rites, that if any person divulged any of them, he was thought to have called down some divine judgment upon his head, and it was accounted unsafe to abide in the same house with him; wherefore he was apprehended as a public offender, and suffered death. Such also was the secrecy of these rites, that if any person, who was not lawfully initiated, did but out of ignorance or mistake chance to be present at the mysterious rites, he was put to death. The neglect of initiation was looked upon as a crime of a very heinous nature; insomuch, that it was one part of the accusation for which Socrates was condemned to death. Persons convicted of witchcraft, or any other heinous crime, or had committed murder, though involuntary, were debarred from these mysteries. In later times, certain institutions called the lesser mysteries, were used as preparative to the greater; for no persons were initiated in the greater, unless they had been purified at the lesser. The persons who were to be admitted to the greater mysteries made their sacrifice a year after purification, the secret rites of which (some few excepted, to which only priests were conscious) were frankly revealed to them. The manner of initiation was thus; the can. didates, being crowned with myrtle, had admittance by night into a place called Mva‑ruKOr vr7KOV, i. e. the mystical temple, which was an edifice so vast and capacious, that the most ample theatre did scarce exceed it. At their entrance, they purified themselves by washing their bands in holy water, and at the same time were admonished to present themselves with minds pure and undefiled, without which the external cleanness of the body would by no means be accepted. After this the holy mysteries were read to them out of a book called Herpw╡a, which word is derived from rrerpa, a stone; because the book was nothing else but two stones fitly cemented together. Then the priest that initiated them, called Iepo4avrrls, proposed certain questions, to which OF THE ANCIENTS.69 many ceremonies, attended the mystic rites. 4His
torians tell us, that these rites were a mystical representation of what the mythologists taught of that goddess; and were of so sacred a nature, that no less than death was the penalty of discovery.
There was another festival celebrated by the Greeks at Platwa, in honour of Jupiter Eleutherius. The assembly was composed of delegates from almost all the cities of Greece; and the rites which were instituted in honour of Jupiter, as the guardian of liberty, were performed with the utmost magnificence and solemn pomp.
In Balsara, and along the banks of Jordan, a sect of Christians are known, who call themselves Christians of St. John; but, as they profess no they returned answers in a set form, as may be seen in Meursius's 'Treatise on this festival. This done, strange and amazing objects presented themselves : sometimes the place they were in seemed to shake round them, sometimes appeared bright and resplendent with light and radiant fire; and then again covered with black darkness and horror; sometimes thunder and lightning, sometimes frightful noises and bellowings, sometimes terrible apparitions astonished the trembling spectators. The garments in which they were initiated were accounted sacred, and of no less efficacy to avert evils than charms and incanta. tions. The chief person that attended at the initiation was called Hierophantes, i. e., a revealer of holy things. The Hierophant had three assistants, the first of which was called from his office the torch‑bearer; the second was called the crier; the third ministered at the altar, and for that reason was named O e7rt Bo╡co. Hierophantes is said to have been a type of the great Creator of all things,‑ Daduchus, of the Sun; Cerux, of Mercury; and CEpiboma, of the Moon." 4 See the History of Initiation, lect. vi., for a copious account of these ceremonies.
70ON THE RITES knowledge of the union of the third person in the Trinity, I am induced to believe no part of our profession was derived from them. Their ceremonies and mysteries are founded on traditions, and they permit no canonical book to be received amongst them.
In the institution of the orders of knighthood the eyes of the founder were fixed on various religious ceremonies, being the general mode of ancient times. Knights of the Bath had their hair cut and beards shaven, were shut up in the chapel alone all night preceding their initiation, there to spend the solemn hours in fasting, meditation, and prayer they offered their sword at the altar, as devotees to the will of Heaven, and assumed a motto, expressive of their vow, 1' Tres in Uno," meaning the unity of the three theological virtues. 5 Various orders of knights wear a cross on their cloaks : those of the order of Christ in Livonia, instituted in 1205, wore this ensign, and were denominated Brothers of the Sword; and those of the order of the Holy Ghost wear a golden cross.
An ancient writing, which is preserved amongst Masons with great veneration, s requires my attention in this place, as it discovers to us what the ancient Masons regarded as the foundation of our
s Perhaps it had a more sublime reference; for every candidate for knighthood was received in the name of the Holy Trinity. " In nomine S. S. Trinitatis, Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti (et beatoe Marine, et Omnium Sanctorum), to recipio et do tibi habitum Templi." This was the formulary.‑EDITOR.
r, Appendix, M.
OF THE ANCIENTS.71 profession. This writing is said to have come from the hand of King Henry the Sixth, who began his reign in 1422: it is in the form of an inquisition for a discovery of the nature of Masonry. From this ancient record we are told, " that the mystery of Masonry is a knowledge of nature and its operations. That this science arose in the East."' From the East, it is well known, learning first extended itself into the western world, and advanced into Europe. " The East" was an expression used by the ancients to imply Christ: in this sense we find AvaroAp used in the Prophets. "That the Phoenicians first introduced this science. e That 7 " And behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the East : and his voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth shined with his glory. The East gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it, because the glory of the God of Israel bath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the Prince. The Prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord." (Ezek. xliii 2; xliv. 2, 3.) The propriety of our references to the East, is discussed at some length in the " Star in the East," p. 150.
8 It is the opinion of many great antiquaries, that the Druids were established in Britain, before they gained any footing in Gaul; to quote the authorities for this would render my work too prolix. To shew how early the maxims and principles of the eastern nations may be communicated to this land, I must mention some observations of learned men. Arthur Agard, deputy chamberlain of the exchequer, 1570, (vide Bibl. Cotton. Faustina, E. V.) speaking of the admeasurement of lands in this country, says, " Our nation having their origin from the Tyrians, brought from thence the same order as was observed in that country; our lands were measured by hides, the etymology whereof is derived from Dido's act, mentioned in Virgil, the word hyda not being to be found in any other language but ours.'
7 2ON THE RITES Pythagoras journeyed' into Egypt and Syria, and brought with him these (mysteries into Greece." 9 It is known to all the learned that Pythagoras travelled into Egypt,'░ and was initiated there into several different orders of priests, who in those days kept all their learning secret from the vulgar. He made every geometrical theorem a secret, and admitted only such to the knowledge of them as
It is the opinion of the learned Dr. Stukely, " that there is no doubt our first ancestors were of the progeny of Abraham, in the Arabian line, by Hagar and Keturah, the Ishmaelites and Midianites who came hither with the Tyrian Hercules to seek for tin." After naming many evidences and authorities to support this assertion, he adds, " And these matters mutually prove one another, both that they came hither by sea from the coast of Phoenicia, and they brought the arts mentioned with them from the East." Admitting that there is merely a probability in these opinions, it will follow, that from thence the Druids would at once derive their theological principles and their religious rites,‑the sacred groves, the unhewn altars, the stone pillars, the consecrated circles, emblematical of eternity, were adopted from the manners of the Hebrews and the eastern nations.
s Appendix, N.
10 The wisdom and learning of Pythagoras were so far beyond the age when he flourished, that his biographers, Porphyry and lamblichus, have attributed to him the possession of supernatural powers. Thus, they say, he was able to control the most ravenous beasts. He fondled the Daunian bear, which was a terror to the whole country; and, after feeding it with bread and acorns, forbad it in future from preying upon flesh; and it obeyed the injunction, living quietly in the woods, upon herbage and fruits. And when he was at Tarentum, seeing an ox eat green beans, he desired the herdsman to forbid it, who replied that he did not understand the language of oxen. Pythagoras then whispered in the ox's ear; on which he left the field, and never eat beans again. (Porph. vit. Pyth., num. 23; Iambl., c. 13.)‑EDITOR.
OF THE ANCIENTS.7 3
had first undergone a five years' silence. He is supposed to be the inventor of the 47th proposition of Euclid," for which, in the joy of his heart, it is said he sacrificed a hecatomb.12 He knew the true system of the world, revived by Copernicus.
11 The 47th proposition of Euclid, which is attributed to Pythagoras, is contained in the first book, and is as follows:
In geometrical solutions and demonstrations of quantities, this proposition is of excellent use, and the example is held by us as memorial of Pythagoras.
12 There is no wonder that Pythagoras plumed himself on this discovery; for it contains a solution of all mathematical, mechanical, and philosophical knowledge, and forms a key to the doctrine of proportion of the powers of quantities, whether arithmetical, geometrical, or algebraic. It may be applied to construct figures of duplicate ratios to other given figures. He called it the Eureka, to denote its superior importance. And hence it is delineated on the jewel worn by the expert Master 'Mason who has passed the chair of his lodge. ‑ EDITOR.
74ON THE RITES The record also says, that Pythagoras formed a great lodge at Crotona, in Grecia Magna, and made many Masons; some of whom journeyed to France, and there made Masons; from whence, in process of time, the art passed into England. From whence it is to be understood, that the pupils of this philosopher, who had been initiated by him, in the Crotonian school, in the sciences and the study of nature, which he had acquired in his travels, dispersed themselves, and taught the doctrine of their preceptor,13 The same record says, that Masons teach mankind the arts of agriculture, architecture, astronomy, geometry, numbers, music, poesy, chemistry, government, and religion.
I will next observe how far this part of the record corresponds with that which Pythagoras taught.
The Pythagoric tetractys 14 were, a point, a line, a surface, and a solid.15 His philosophical system is that, in which the sun is supposed to rest in the centre of our system of planets, in which the earth is carried round him annually, being the same with the Copernican. It seems as if this system was professed by Masons, in contradistinction to those who held the Mosaic system.
13 From hence it would seem that our Druids received their origin in Gaul; but antiquaries of late years have been of opinion that they originated in Britain.
14 The Tetractys of Pythagoras was in reality the same as the Jewish Tetragrammaton, or sacred name of God.‑EDITOR.
15 In the Theocratic Philosophy, lect. vi., is a copious dissertion on the entire system of Pythagoras, so far as it applies to Freemasonry.‑EDITOR.
OF THE ANCIENTS.75 Among the Jews were a set of men who were called Masorites. In Godwin's "Moses and Aaron," this account is given of them, " that their name was derived from the Hebrew word masar, signifying tradere, to deliver, and masor, a tradition delivered from hand to hand to posterity, without writing, as the Pythagoreans and Druids were wont to do." Pythagoras lived at Samos, in the reign of Tarquin the Proud, the last king of the Romans, in the year of Rome 220; or, according to Livy, in the reign of Servius Tullius, in the year of the world 3472. From his extraordinary desire of knowledge, he travelled in order to enrich his mind with the learning of the several countries through which he passed. He was the first that took the name of philosopher, that is, a lover of wisdom; which implied that he did not ascribe the profession of wisdom to himself, but only the desire of professing it,16 His maxims of morality were 16 In Godwyn's "Moses and Aaron," treating of the Essenes, we have the following comparisons between their principles and the maxims of Pythagoras : Their dogmata, their ordinances or constitutions, did symbolize in many things with Pythagoras," therefore my purpose is, first to name Pythagoras, and then to proceed with the Essenes; they follow thus; 11 The Pythago. reans professed a communion of goods; so did the Essenes; they had one common purse or stock‑none richer, none poorer, than others. Out of this common treasury every one supplied his own wants without leave, and administered to others; only they might not relieve any of their kindred, without leave from the overseers. They did not buy or sell among themselves, but each supplied the other's want by a kind of commutative bartering; yea, liberty was granted to take, one from another, what
76ON THE RITES
admirable, for he was for having the study of philosophy tend solely to elevate man to a resemblance of the Deity. He believed that God is a soul, they wanted, without exchange. They performed offices of ser. vice mutually one to another; for mastership and service cannot stand with communion of goods. When they travelled, besides weapons of defence, they took nothing with them; for in whatsoever city or village they came, they repaired to the fraternity of the Essenes, and were there entertained as members of the same. And, if we do attentively read Josephus, we may observe that the Essenes of every city joined themselves into one common fraternity or college. Every college had two sorts of officerstreasurers, who looked to the common stock, provided their diet, appointed each his task, and other public necessaries; others, who entertained their strangers. 2. The Pythagoreans shunned pleasures; so did the Essenes. To this belonged their avoiding of oil, which, if they touched unawares, they wiped it off presently. 3. The Pythagoreans' garments were white; so were the Essenes' white also‑modest, not costly. When once they put on a suit, they never changed it till it was worn out, or torn. 4. The Pythagoreans forbad oaths; so did the Essenes. They thought him a noted liar who could not be believed without an oath. 5. The Pythagoreans had their elders in singular respect; so had the Essenes. The body, or whole company of the Essenes, were distinguished in four ranks, or orders, according to their seniority; and, haply, if any of the superior ranks had touched any of the inferior, he thought himself polluted as if be touched a heathen. 6. The Pythagoreans drank water; so did the Essenes water only‑wholly abstaining from wine. 7. The Pythagoreans used inanimate sacrifices; so did the Essenesthey sent gifts to the temple, and did not sacrifice, but preferred the use of their holy water thereto; for which reason the other Jews forbade them all access to the temple. 8. The Pythagoreans ascribed all things to fate or destiny; so did the Essenes. In this aphorism all the three Jewish sects differed from each other; the Pharisees ascribed some things to fate, and other things to man's free will; the Essenes ascribed all to fate; the Saducees wholly denied fate, and ascribed all things to
OF THE ANCIENTS.77 diffused through all nature, and that from him human souls are derived; that they are immortal and that men need only take pains to purge themselves of their vices, in order to be reunited to the man's free will. 9. The Pythagoreans, the first five years, were not permitted to speak in the school, but were initiated perquinque annorum silentium, and not until then suffered to come into the presence of, or sight of Pythagoras. To this may be referred the Essenes' silence at table, straightly observed, decent simul sedentibus, nemo loquitur invitis novem. Drusius renders it, that ten of them sitting together, none of them spake without leave obtained of the nine. When any did speak, it was not their custom to interrupt him with words, but by nods of the head or beckonings, or holding their finger, or shaking their heads, and other such like dumb signs and gestures, to signify their doubtings, disliking, or approving, the matter in hand. And to the time of silence among the Pythagoreans,‑that it must be five years,‑may be referred to the imitation of the Essenes; for amongst them none were presently admitted into their society, without full trial and four years' probation. The first year they received dolobellum, a spade; perezonia, a pair of breeches used in bathing; and vestem al bam, a white garment which the sect affected. At this time they had their commons allowed them; but without, not in the common hall. The second year they admitted them to the participation of holy matters, and instructed them in the use of them. Two years after, they admitted them in full manner, making them of their corporation, after they had received an oath truly to observe all the rules and orders of the Essenes. If any broke his oath, one hundred of them, being assembled together, expelled him; upon which expulsion commonly followed death within a short time; for none, having once entered this order, might receive alms or any meat from other; and themselves would feed such a one only with distasteful herbs, which wasted his body and brought it very low. Sometimes they would re‑admit such a one, being brought near unto death: but commonly they suffered him to die in that manner. 10. The Essenes worshipped towards the
78ON THE RITES OF THE ANCIENTS.
Deity. He made unity the principle of all things, and believed that between God and man there are various orders of spiritual beings, who are the ministers of the Supreme Will. He condemned all images of the Deity, and would have him worshipped with as few ceremonies as possible. His disciples brought all their goods into a common stock, contemned the pleasures of sense, abstained from swearing, eating nothing that had life, and believed in the doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls.
Some eminent writers deny that Pythagoras taught that souls passed into animals. Reuchlin, in particular, denies this doctrine, and maintains that the metempsychosis of Pythagoras implied nothing more than a similitude of manners and desires formerly existing in some person deceased, and now revived in another alive. Pythagoras is said to have borrowed the notiQn of metempsychosis from the Egyptians, others say from the ancient Brachmans.
sun rising. 11. The Essenes bound themselves, in their oath, "to preserve the name of angels;" the phrase implying a kind of worshipping of them. 12. They were, above all others, strict in the observation of the Sabbath‑day; on it they would dress no meat, kindle no fire, remove no vessels out of their place, no nor ease nature; yea, they observed every seventh week a solemn pentecost; seven pentecosts every year." From the great similitude in the principles of the Pythagoreans and Essenes, it seems as if they were derived from one origin, varying in some few particulars suitable to the constitutions of the people; and most probably they first sprang from the Egyptian tenets and maxims.
79 LECTURE 111.
ON THE RITES, CEREMONIES, AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE
ANCIENTS.
THE disciples of Pythagoras were divided into two classes; the first were simple hearers, and the last such as were allowed to propose their difficulties, and learn the reasons of all that was taught. The figurative manner in which he gave instructions was borrowed from the Hebrews, Egyptians, and other orientals.
If we examine how morality, or moral philosophy, is defined, we shall find that it is a conformity to those unalterable obligations which result from the nature of our existence, and the necessary relations of life; whether to God as our Creator, or to man as our fellow‑creature; or it is the doctrine of virtue in order to attain the greatest happiness.
Pythagoras shewed the way to Socrates, though his examples were very imperfect, as he deduced his rules of morality from observations of nature; a degree of knowledge which he had acquired in his communion with the priests of Egypt. The chief aim of Pythagoras' moral doctrine was to
80ON THE RITES purge the mind from the impurities of the body, and from the clouds of the imagination. His morality seems to have had more purity and piety in it than the other systems, but less exactness; his maxims being only a bare explication of divine worship, of natural honesty, of modesty, integrity, public spiritedness, and other ordinary duties of life. Socrates improved the lessons of Pythagoras, and reduced his maxims into fixed or certain principles. Plato refined the doctrine of both these philosophers, and carried each virtue to its utmost height and accomplishment, mixing the idea of the universal principle of philosophy through the whole design.
The ancient Masonic record also says, that Masons knew the way of gaining an understanding of Abrac. On this word all commentators (which I have yet read) on the subject of Masonry have confessed themselves at a loss. Abrac, or Abracar, was a name which Basilides, a religious of the second century, gave to God, who he said was the author of three hundred and sixty‑five.
The author of this superstition is said to have lived in the time of Adrian, and that it had its name after Abrasan, or Abraxas, the denomination which Basilides gave to the Deity. He called him the Supreme God, and ascribed to him seven subordinate powers or angels, who presided over the heavens : and also, according to the number of days in the year, he held that three hundred and sixty‑five virtues, powers, or intelligences, existed
OF THE ANCIENTS.81
as the emanations of God : ' the value, or numerical distinctions, of the letters in the word, according to the ancient Greek numerals, make three hundred and sixty‑five -
With antiquaries, Abraxas is an antique gem or stone, with the word abraxas engraven on it. There are a great many kinds of them of various figures and sizes, mostly as old as the third century. Persons professing the religious principles of Basilides, wore this gem with great veneration, as an amulet; from whose virtues, and the protection of the deity to whom it was consecrated, and with whose name it was inscribed, the wearer presumed he derived health, prosperity, and safety.
In the British Museum is a beryl stone, of the form of an egg. The head is in cameo, the reverse in
[1] The heathen idols were constructed, or perhaps consecrated with astronomical observances, if we may believe Bishop Syrmesius. He says, The hierophants who had been initiated into the mysteries, do not permit the common workmen to form idols or images of the gods; but they descend themselves into the sacred caves, where they have concealed coffers containing certain spheres, upon which they construct those images secretly, arid without the knowledge of the people, who despise simple and natural things, and wish for prodigies and fables."
[2] The solar deity of the Druids, worshipped under the name of Belenus, produces the same result, to represent the time occupied by the annual course of the sun. For this purpose it is written thus
taglio. The head is supposed to represent the image of the Creator, under the denomination of Jupiter Ammon.3 The sun and moon on the
[3] Jupiter Ammon, a name given to the Supreme Deity, and who was worshipped under the symbol of the Sun. He was painted with horns, because with the astronomers the sign Aries in the zodiac is the beginning of the year; when the sun enters into the house of Aries, he commences his annual course. Heat, in the Hebrew tongue Hammab, in the prophet Isaiah Hammamin, is given as a name of such images. The error of depicting him with horns grew from the doubtful signification of the Hebrew word, which at once expresses heat, splendor, or brightness, and also horns. The Sun was also worshipped by the House of Judah, under the name of Tamuz; for Tamuz, saith Hierom, was Adonis, and Adonis is generally interpreted the Sun, from the Hebrew word Adon, signifying dominus. the same as Baal or Moloch formerly did, the lord or prince of the planets. The month which we call June was by the Hebrews called Tamuz; and the entrance of the sun into the sign Cancer was in the Jews' astronomy termed Tekupha Tamuz, the revo lution of Tamuz. About the time of our Saviour, the Jews held it unlawful to pronounce that essential name of God Jehovah, and instead thereof read Adonai, to prevent the heathen blaspheming that holy name, by the adoption of the name of Jove, &c., to the idols. Concerning Adonis, whom some ancient authors call Osiris, there are two things remarkable, aoavto j or, the death or loss of Adonis, and evpevcs, the find ing him again : as there was great lamentation at his loss, so was there great joy at his finding. By the death or loss of Adonis, we are to understand the departure of the Sun; by his finding again, the return of that luminary. Now he seemeth to depart twice in the year; first when be is in the tropic of Cancer, in the farthest degree northward; and, secondly, when he is in the tropic of Capricorn, in the farthest degree southward. Hence we may note, that the Egyptians celebrated their Adonia in the month of November, when the sun began to be farthest southward, and the house of Judah theirs in the month of June, when the sun was farthest northward; yet both were for the same reasons. Some authors say, that this lamentation was performed over an image in the night season; and when they had sufficiently lamented, a candle was brought into the room, which ceremony might mystically denote the return of the sun; then the priest, with a soft voice, muttered this form of words, ' Trust ye in God, for out of pains salvation is come unto us."' (Godwyn's Moses and Aaron, p. 149.)
[4] The Marquis Spineto, in his Lectures on Hieroglyphics, (iv. 139,) is equally plain and express. The circumstances," says he, "recorded in the lives of Isis and Osiris, and the ceremonies which accompanied the mysteries, bad an analogy to events, the memory of which they were originally intended to perpetuate. These were, the creation of the world; the fall of man; the destruction of mankind by the flood; the preservation of Noah and his family; the unity of God, and the promise he made to that patriarch, and consequently the necessity of abjuring the worship of idols, which properly constituted the end of the mysteries, and obtained for them the name of Regeneration; and for the initiated the proud appellation of the regenerated."‑ Ed.
OF THE ANCIENTS.83
reverse, the Osiris and Isis' of the Egyptians; and were used hieroglyphically to represent the omnipotence, omnipresence, and eternity of God. The star' seems to be used as a point only, but is an emblem of Prudence, the third emanation of the Basilidian divine person. The scorpion," in hiero 5 " Our next inquiry is, what idol was meant by Chiun and Remplian, otherwise, in ancient copies, called Repham. By Chiun we are to understand Hercules, who, in the Egyptian language, was called Chon. By Repham, we are to understand the same Hercules; for Rephaim, in holy tongue, signifieth giant. By Hercules, we may understand the planet of the sun. There are etymologists that derive Hercules' name from the Hebrew Hiercol, illuminavit omnia : the Greek etymology rlpar KXeo , aeris gloria, holds correspondency with the Hebrew, and both signify that universal light which floweth from the sun, as water from a fountain. Porphyry iuterpreteth Hercules' twelve labours, so often mentioned by the poets, to be nothing else but the twelve signs of the zodiac, through which the sun passes yearly. But some may question whether the name of Hercules was ever known to the Jews? It is probable it was; for Hercules was a god of the Tyrians, from whom the Jews learned much idolatry, as being their near neighbours. It is apparent, that in the time of the Maccabees the name was commonly known unto them; for Jason the high priest sent three hundred drachmas of silver to the sacrifice of Hercules, (2 Mae. iv. 19.) The Star of Remphan is thought to be the star which was painted in the forehead of Moloch; neither was it unusual for the heathen to paint their idols with such symbolica additamenta." (Godwin's Moses and Aaron, p. 148.) The Egyptian Apis was to bear such a mark.
6 I own myself doubtful of the implication of these hieroglyphics. I am inclined to believe the whole of them implied the tenets of the Egyptian philosophy; that the scorpion represents Egypt, being her ruling sign in the zodiac; and that the serpent represents a religious tenet. The learned Mr. Bryant proves to us, that it was adopted among the ancients, as the most sacred and salutary symbol, and rendered a chief object of adoration; insomuch, that the worship of the serpent prevailed so, that many places as well as people received their names from thence.
OF THE ANCIENTS.85
glyphics, represented malice and wicked subtlety, and the serpent,' an heretic;' the implication whereof seems to be, that heresy, the subtleties and vices of infidels, and the devotees of Satan, were subdued by the knowledge of the true God. The inscription I own myself at a loss to decypher; the characters are imperfect, or ill‑copied. I 7 In the coins of Constantine we find the labarium, or banner of the cross, surmounted by the sacred monogram, erected on the body of a prostrate serpent. A striking emblem of Christianity triumphant over the ophite idolatry, and a proof that serpent worship was prevalent at that period.‑EDITOR.
8 " The corruptions flowing from the Egyptian philosophy, when adapted to Christianity, were these :‑they held that the God of the Jews was the Demiurgus; that to overthrow and subvert the power and dominion of this Demiurgus, Jesus, one of the celestial .lons, was sent by the Supreme Being to enter into the body of the man Christ, in the shape of a dove : that Christ, by his miracles and sufferings, subverted the kingdom of the Demiurgus; but when he came to suffer, the sEon Jesus carried along with him the soul of Christ, and left behind upon the cross only his body and animal spirit : that the serpent who deceived Eve ought to be honoured for endeavouring to rescue men from their slavery to the Demiurgus." (Key to the New Testament, p. 29.) 9 I have obtained two constructions of the inscriptions on the Abrax. The one is, " the earth shall praise thee, 1305," purporting the date of the sculpture. This date can have no relation to the Christian era; Basilides existed in the earliest age of Christianity, and the insignia with which the gem is engraven have relation, most evidently, to the Egyptian philosophy; which renders it probable this antique owes its creation to very remote ages. The other construction, without noticing the numeral, is, " Terra declarat laudem magnificientiamque team." Both these gentlemen say the characters are very rude and imperfect. As to the numerals, computing the date from the
The Moon, with divines, is an hieroglyphic of the Christian Church, who compared Jesus Christ to the Sun, and the church to the Moon,'░ as receiving all its beauty and splendour from him.
In church history, Abrax is noted as a mystical term, expressing the Supreme God; under whom the B4silideans supposed three hundred and sixtyfive dependent deities : " it was the principle of the gnostic hierarchy; whence sprang their multitudes of Thteons. From Abraxas proceeded their primogoenial ‑mind; from the primogeenial mind, the logos or word; from the logos, the phronaesis, or prudence; from phronaesis, sophia, and dynamis, or wisdom and strength; from these two proceeded principalities, powers, and angels; and from these, other angels, of the number of three hundred and deluge, it will relate to that remarkable era of David's conquest of Jerusalem, and settling the empire and royal seat there. The descendants of Ham would probably take their date from the departure of Noah's sons from the ark.
10 In the Jewish economy the moon was compared to the kingdom of David; and, according to the Rabbins, infers that in the same manner as the moon increases for 15 days, and then decreases for 15, so was Israel enlightened in an increasing manner for 15 generations, reckoning `from Abraham to Solomon, in whose reign this light was at the full; and from him, like the moon, it waned for 15 generations, to Zedekiah, with whom the lamp of Israel may be said to have been extinguished.‑EDITOR. . I' The Egyptian Hercules has the credit of having first found out the exact number of days in which the earth performs her annual revolution; and accordingly added 5 days to the 360, which former calendars erroneously contained. For this service his countrymen erected statues to his honor, under the appellation of Hercules Salvator.‑EDITOR.
sixty‑five, who were supposed to have the government of so many celestial orbs committed to their care. The Gnostics 12 were a sect of Christians having 12 ~, Of the Gentiles who were converted to Christianity, the most dangerous and pernicious kind were those who were infected with the Egyptian philosophy; a system, as it was then taught, entirely chimerical and absurd. The Christians of this sort assumed to themselves the name of Gnostics; a word of Greek extraction, implying in it a knowledge of things much superior to that of other men. This word doth not occur in the New Testament; but the Nicolaitans, made mention of in the apocalypse of St. John, seem to have been of the gnostic sect; and most of the errors maintained by Cerinthus, and opposed in the gospel of St. John, may be derived from the same source. When we say the gentile converts were chiefly liable to the gnostic infection, we must not be understood to exclude those of the Jewish race, many of whom were tainted with it, but they seem to have derived it from the Essenes. The maintainers of the Egyptian philosophy held, that the Supreme Being, though infinitely perfect and happy, was not the creator of the universe, nor the only Independent Being; for, according to them, matter too was eternal. The Supreme Being, who resides in the immensity of space, which they call Pleroma, or fulness, produced from himself, say they, other immortal and spiritual natures, styled by them .ons, who filled the residence of the Deity with beings similar to themselves. Of these beings some were placed in the higher regions, others in the lower. Those in the lower regions were nighest to the place of matter, which originally was an inert and formless mass, till one of them, without any commission from the Deity, and merely to show his own dexterity, reduced it into form and order, and enlivened some parts of it with animal spirit. The being who achieved all this they called the Demiurgus, the operator, artificer, or workman; but such was the perverseness of matter, that when brought into form, it was the source of all evil. The Supreme Being, therefore, never intended to have given it a form, but as that bad been now done, he, in order to prevent mischief as much as possible, added to the animal spirit of many of the
88ON THE RITES particular tenets of faith; they assumed their name to express that new knowledge and extraordinary light to which they made pretensions; the word gnostic implying an enlightened person.
The gnostic heresy, here pointed out, represents to us the degrees of ethereal persons or emanations of the Deity. This leads me to consider the hierarchy of the Christian Church in its greatest antiquity, which, in the most remote times, as a society, consisted of several orders of men, viz., rulers, believers, and catechumens : the rulers were bishops, priests, and deacons; the believers were perfect Christians, and the catechumens imperfect.
Catechumens were candidates for baptism. They were admitted to the state of catechumen by the imposition of hands, and the sign of the cross. Their introduction to baptism was thus singular; some days before their admission, they went veiled`; and it was customary to touch their ears, saying, " be opened;" and also to anoint their eyes with clay both ceremonies being in imitation of our Saviour's practice, and intended to shadow out to the candidates their ignorance and blindness before their initiation. They continued in the state of cate
enlivened parts, rational powers. The parts, to whom rational powers were thus given, were the original parents of the human race; the other animated parts were the brute creation. Unluckily, however, the interposition of the Supreme Being was in vain; for the Detniurgus grew so aspiring, that be seduced men from their allegiance to the Supreme Being, and diverted all their devotion to himself." (Key to the New Testament, p. 28.)
OF THE ANCIENTS.89 chumen, until they proved their proficiency in the catechistic exercises, when they were advanced to the second state, as believers.
As the Druids 13 were a set of religious peculiar 13 Tacitus says, " Among the Britons there is to be seen, in their ceremonies and superstitious persuasions, an apparent conformity with the Gauls." Both nations had their Druidae, as both Caesar and Tacitus evidence; of whom Caesar thus recordeth; " The Druidle are present at all divine services; they are the overseers of public and private sacrifices, and the interpreters of religious rites and ceremonies. They are the preceptors of youth, who pay them the highest honour and esteem. They determine all controversies, both public and private. In the case of heinous offences, murder, or manslaughter, they judge of the matter, and give rewards, or decree penalties and punishments. They determine disputes touching inheritance and boundaries of lands. If either private person or body politic obey not their decree, they debar them from religious ceremonies as excommunicate, which is esteemed by this people as a grievous punishment. Whoever are under this interdict are esteemed wicked and impious persons, and are avoided by all men, as fearing contagion from them; they have no benefit of the law, and are inca. pacitated from holding any public office. Of the Druidae there is a chief, who bath the greatest authority amongst them; at his death the most excellent person amongst them is elected as his successor; but, upon any contest, the voice of the Druida is required; sometimes the contest is determined by arms. They, at a certain season of the year, hold a solemn session within a consecrated place in the Marches of the Carmites(near Chartres, in France); hither resort, as unto the term, from all parts, all persons having controversies or suits at law; and the decree and judgment there delivered are religiously obeyed. Their learning and profession is thought to have been first devised in Britain, and so from thence translated into France; and, in these days, they that desire more competent learning therein go there for instruction. The Druids are free from tributes and service in war, and, like these immunities, they are also exempt from all
90ON THE RITES to Gaul and Britain, it may not be improper to cast our eyes on the ceremonies they used; their antiquity and peculiar station render it probable some
state impositions. Many, excited by such rewards, resort to them to be instructed. It is reported that they learn by heart many verses. They continue under this discipline for certain years, it being unlawful to commit any of their doctrines to writing. Other matters which they trust to writing is written in the Greek alphabet. This order they have established, I presume, for two reasons; because they would not have their doctrines divulged, nor their pupils, by trusting to their books, neglect the exercise of the memory. This one point they are principally anxious to inculcate to their scholars, that man's soul is immortal, and, after death, that it passeth from one man to another. They presume, by this doctrine, men will contemn the fear of death, and be stedfast in the exercise of virtue. Moreover, concerning the stars and their motions, the greatness of heaven and earth, the nature of things, the power and might of the Eternal Divinity, they give many precepts to their pupils." From Pliny we learn, " The Druidae," for so they call their diviners, wise men, and priests, "esteem nothing in the world more sacred than misleto, and the tree which produces it, if it be an oak. The priests choose groves of the oak for their divine service; they solemnise no sacrifice, nor celebrate any sacred ceremonies, without the branches and leaves of oak; from whence they may seem to claim the name of Dryadae in Greek. Whatsoever they find growing to that tree, besides its own proper produce, they esteem it as a gift sent from heaven, and a sure sign that the Deity whom they serve hath chosen that peculiar tree. No wonder that misleto is so revered, for it is scarce and difficult to be found; but, when they do discover it, they gather it very devoutly, and with many ceremonies. To that end they observe that the moon be just six days old, for, on that day, their months and new years commence, and also their several ages, which have their revolutions every thirty years. They call the misleto all‑heal, for they have an opinion that it is an universal remedy against all diseases. When they are about to gather it, after
OF THE ANCIENTS.91 of their rites and institutions might be retained, in forming the ceremonies of our society. In so modern an sera as one thousand one hundred and forty, they were reduced to a regular bodyy of religious in France, and built a college in the city of Orleans. They were heretofore one of the two estates of France, to whom were committed the care of providing sacrifices, of prescribing laws for worship, and deciding controversies concerning rights and properties.
In the most distant antiquity in ancient Gaul and Britain, they were elected out of the best families, and were held, both from the honours of their birth and office, in the greatest veneration. Their study was astrology, geometry, natural history, politics, and geography : 14 they had the administration of all sacred things, were the interpreters of religion, and the judges of all matters indifferently. They had a chief or arch‑druid in every country. They had the tutorage of youth, and taught them many verses, they have duly prepared their sacrifices and festivals under the tree, they bring thither two young bullocks, milk‑white, whose horns are then, and not before, bound up; this done, the priest, arrayed in a surplice or white vesture, climbeth the tree, and, with a golden bill, cutteth off the misleto, which those beneath receive in a white cloth; they then slay the beasts for sacrifice, pronouncing many orisons and prayers, ' that it would please God to bless these his gifts to their good on whom he bad bestowed them."' 14 I refer the curious brother to the History of Initiation, lect. ix., where he will find a full account of all the ceremonies, discipline, and doctrine, which were used by the Druids in the practice of their occult mysteries.‑EDITOR.
92ON THE RITES
which they caused them to learn by heart, without the assistance of writing; in which manner they instructed them in the mysteries of their religion, the sciences, and politics. ls At the conclusion of each year they held a general festival and assembly, in which they paid their adoration, and offered gifts to the God of Nature, bringing with them misleto and branches of oaks, in mystic verses, supplicating for approaching spring, and renewing the year. At their sacrifices,16 and in their religious offices, they 15 They studied astronomy as a science, and this led to the practice of judicial astrology, the pronunciation of oracles, and the prediction of future events. For this purpose their Spurious Freemasonry was a tremendous engine in the hands of a learned and politic priesthood. Hence sprang the pretensions to magical arts and divinations, for which practices the priests of idolatry attained great celebrity; and which, notwithstanding all the advantages derived from education and science in our own times, is far from being extinguished; as witness the absurdities of palmistry, phrenology, animal magnetism, idle predictions, and the interpretation of dreams.‑EDITOR.
16 I cannot quit the subject of the Druids' worship without taking notice of the charge made against them by Solinus and Dio Cassius, "that they offered human victims, or men's flesh, in their sacrifices." If we examine this charge with candour, we will not impute to them so great an offence against the God of Nature and Humanity as appears at first sight; they were judges of all matters, civil and religious; they were the executors of the law : as being the ministers of God, to them was committed the administration of justice. I shall admit that they used human sacrifices, but those sacrifices were criminals, offenders against society, obnoxious to the world for their sins, and adjudged to be deserving of death for their heinous wickedness. The great attribute of God, to which they paid the most religious deference, was justice: to the God of Justice they offered up those offenders who bad sinned against the laws :
OF THE ANCIENTS.93
wore white apparel;" and the victims were two white bulls. They opened a sessions once a year, in a certain consecrated place, in which all causes were tried and determined. They worshipped one Supreme God, immense and infinite; but would not continue their worship to temples built with human hands; professing the universe was the temple of the Deity; esteeming any other inconsistent with his attributes. Their whole law and religion were taught in verse. Some Druids spent punishments by death were of very early date, and such punish_ ments have never been esteemed a stigma on the states in which they were used. Such executions, by the Druids, were at once designed as punishments and examples; the utmost solemnity, and the most hallowed rites, preceded and prepared this tremen. dous exhibition, to impress on the minds of the spectators the deepest religious reverence; and the utmost horror of the s offerings, and detestation of the crimes for which they suffered, were endeavoured to be instilled into the hearts of those who were present at this execution, by the doctrine of the Druids. The criminals were shut up in an effigy of wicker work, of a gigantic size, in whose chambers of tribulations they suffered an ignominious death, by burning. This effigy represented the Tyrian Hercules, whose name of Remphan, in the Hebrew tongue, implies a giant. With him came the Phoenicians to this land, from whom the Amonian rites and Hebrew customs were taught to the Druids. Under this name, worship was also paid to the God of Nature, symbolized by the Sun. In honour and commemoration of him, the criminals were committed to his effigy, as being delivered to the God of Justice.
17 Diodorus, however, informs us that divination was exercised among the Druids in a very cruel manner; for it was their custom to immolate human victims by thrusting a sharp instrument through their body above the diaphragm, and to take presages from his fall, his palpitation, the issuing of the blood, and sometimes of the body.‑EDITOR.
94ON THE RITES
twenty years in learning to repeat those sacred and scientific distichs, which it was forbidden to commit to writing, by which means they were withheld from the vulgar. Such was the aversion and enmity entertained by the Romans against the Druids, that, as Suetonius says, their rites were prohibited by Augustus, and totally abolished by Claudius Cwsar.
Many probable conjectures have been made that the Pheenicians18 visited this land in very early When we speak of the Phoenicians, we must distinguish the times with accuracy. These people possessed originally a large extent of countries, comprised under the name of the land of Canaan. They lost the greatest part of it by the conquests of the Israelites under Joshua. The lands, which fell in division to the tribe of Asher, extended to Sidon; that city, notwithstanding, was not subdued. If the conquests of Joshua took from the Phoenicians a great part of their dominion, they were well paid by the consequences of that event. In effect, the greatest part of the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, seeing themselves threatened with entire destruction, had recourse to a flight to save themselves. Sidon afforded them an asylum. By this irruption of the Hebrew people, the Sidonians were enabled to send colonies wherever they thought proper. Sidon lent them ships, and made good use of these new inhabitants to extend their trade and form settlements. From hence that great number of colonies which went from Phoenicia to spread themselves in all the country of Africa and Europe. We may date this event about the year of the world 2553, and 1451 years before Christ. Spain was not the only country beyond the Pillars of Hercules which the Phoenicians penetrated. Being familiarised with the navigation of the ocean, they extended themselves to the left of the Straits of Cadiz as far as the right. Strabo assures us that these people had gone over a part of the western coast of Africa a little time after the war of Troy. We might, perhaps, determine their passage into England by a reflection which the reading
OF THE ANCIENTS.95 ages. It has been attempted to be proved, from the similarity of the habit worn, and staff carried, by the western Britons."' This staff was used by the Druids, and has the name of Diogenes' staff In a description, given by Mr. Selden, of some statues of Druids which were dug up at Wichtelberg, in Germany, it is particularly mentioned. The Phoenicians most probably introduced to those teachers the laws and customs known amongst the ancient Hebrews, and specified in the Levitical institutions. The altars or temples of the Druids, and also their obelisks, or monuments of memorable events, of which many remains are to be seen at this day, bear the greatest similarity to those mentioned in the Old Testament :20‑" And Jacob of the writers of antiquity furnishes us with; they are persuaded that all the tin that was consumed in the known world came from the isles of Cassiterides; and there is no doubt that these isles were the Sorlingues, and a part of Cornwall. We see, by the books of Moses, that, in his time, tin was known in Palestine. Homer teaches us also that they made use of this metal in the heroic ages. It should follow, then, that the Phoenicians had traded to England in very remote antiquity." (D. Gogues on the Original of Arts and Sciences.) t9 " It would be endless," says Sammes, (Brit. p. 113,) "to speak of the divers and barbarous customs of the wild Britons, which they took up after the Romans had reduced them to a savage and a brutish life, insomuch that the Altacotti, a British nation, fed upon man's flesh; nay, so much were they given to it that, when they lit upon any flocks of sheep or herds of cattle, they preferred the buttock of the herdsman before the other prey; and accounted the paps and dugs of women the most delicious diet."‑EDITOR.
20 At Stanton Drew, in Somersetshire, are the remains of an august druid temple, to which the devotional feelings of the
96ON THE RITES awaked out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place lr this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it."" "And, if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for, if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house."" "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel."" 2 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt‑offerings of oxen unto the Lord. And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones. Therefore it shall be when ye go over Jordan that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day in Mount Ebal.
people were so strongly wedded, that it became necessary to consecrate it to Christianity by the erection of a church and nunnery on its site. And again, Abury Church was not only built on the site of the ancient temple, but was constructed of the very stones which composed the sanctuary. Almost all our English churches are erected on hills, or artificial mounds, which had previously been the scene of druidical superstitions.‑EDITOR.
R1 Gen. xviii. 16‑1.8.22 Exod. xx. 25. 23 Exod. xxiv. 4, 5.
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And there thou shalt build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones : thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones, and thou shalt offer burnt‑offerings thereon unto the Lord thy God. 1124 It was usual to give those places the name of the house of the Lord. " This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burntoffering for Israel." 25 This is said of the altar erected by David, where afterwards the brazen altar stood in Solomon's temple.
The oak 26 was held sacred by the Druids, under 24 Deut. xxvii. 2, 6.25 1 Chron. xxii. 1.
26 Diodorus Siculus termeth the Gaulish priests 2apovd3av, which betokeneth an oak. Bryant, in his " Analysis," speaking of those who held the Amonian rites, says:‑" In respect to the names which this people in process of time conferred either upon the deities they worshipped, or upon the cities they founded, we shall find them either made up of the names of those personages, or else of the titles with which, in the process of time, they were honoured." He proceeds to class those, and reduce them to radicals, as he terms them, and, inter alies, gives the monosyllable Sar. " Under the word Sar," says he, " we are taught that, as oaks were styled Saronides, so likewise' were the ancient Druids, by whom the oak was held sacred. This is the title which was given to the priests of Gaul, as we are informed by Diodorus Siculus; and, as a proof how far the Amonian religion was extended, and how little we know of druidical worship, either in respect of its essence or its origin." (Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology.) Maximus Tyrius says, " The Celts (or Gauls) worshipped Jupiter, whose symbol or sign is the highest oak." The Saxons called their sages Dhy, from the Druids. [The Saxon sages were called Drottes.
E DITOR.
98ON THE RITES whose branches they assembled, and held their solemn rites. The oak and groves of oak were also held in great veneration by the Hebrews and other ancient nations. The French Magi held their Apes, or oak '27 in great veneration .28 The Celtae revered the oak as a type or emblem of Jupiter.29 I have been thus particular on this subject, as it encourages a conjecture that the Druids gained their principles and maxims from the Phoenicians, as 27 " Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree. And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire, and ye shall bew down their graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place." (Dent. xii. 2, 3.) " The flesh he put into a basket, and he put the broth into a pot, and he brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it." (Judges, vi. 19.) " And the prophets of the groves four hundred." (1 Kings, xviii. 19.) "For he built up again the high places, which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he reared up altars for Baal, made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he set a graven image of the grove which he had made." (2 Kings, xxi. 3, 7.) " He removed her from being queen, because she made an idol in a grove. But the high places were not taken away out of Israel." (2 Chron. xv. 16, 17.) "Ye shall destroy their altars and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God." (Dent. vii. 5; xvi. 21.) " Ye shall destroy their altars, and break their images, and cut down their groves." (Exod. xxxiv. 13.) "And the children of Israel, &c., served Baalim, and the groves." (Judges, iii. 7.) 28 Plin. Nat. Hist.29 Maximus Tyrius.
OF THE ANCIENTS.99 appears from those similarities before remarked;30 and thence, it may be conceived, they also received from them the doctrines of Moses, and the original principles of wisdom and truth, as delivered down from the earliest ages.
The oak, hieroglyphically, represents strength, virtue, constancy, and sometimes longevity : under these symbolical characters, it might be revered by the Druids; and the misleto, which they held in the highest veneration, has excellent medicinal qualities, which, in those days of ignorance, might form the chief of their materia medica, being a remedy for epilepsies, and all nervous disorders, to which the Britons, in those ages, might be peculiarly subject, from the woodiness of the country, the noxious respiration proceeding from the large forests, the moisture of the air from extensive uncultivated lands, and the maritime situation of this country.
From all these religious institutions, rites, cus
30 '░ In the plain of Tormore, in the isle of Arran, are the remains of four circles, and, by their sequestrated situation, this seems to have been sacred ground. These circles were formed for religious purposes. Boethius relates, that Mainus, son of Fergus I., a restorer and cultivator of religion, after the Egyptian manner (as he calls it), instituted several new and solemn ceremonies, and caused great stones to be placed in the form of a circle; the largest was situated towards the south, and served as an altar for the sacrifices to the immortal gods. (Boethius, lib. ii. p. 15). Boethius is right in part of his account: the object of the worship was the Sun; and what confirms this is the situation of the altar, pointed towards that luminary in his meridian glory. (Penant's Voyage to the Hebrides.)
100ON THE RITES OF THE ANCIENTS.
toms, and ceremonies, which bear in many degrees a striking similarity to those of this society,31 we may naturally conjecture that the founders of our maxims had in view the most ancient race of Christians, as well as the first professors of the worship of the God of Nature. Our ancient record, which I have mentioned, brings us positive evidence of the Pythagorean doctrine and Basilidean principles making the foundation of our religious and moral rules. The following lectures will elucidate these assertions, and enable us, I hope, with no small degree of certainty, to prove our original principles.
31 The druidical order was composed of three classes‑tbe druids, the bards, and the eubates. The former were habited in white robes, while those of the bards were sky‑blue; the one an emblem of peace and truth, the other of innocence. The person of the bard was so sacred, that he might pass in safety through hostile countries. He never appeared in an army but as a herald, or under the modern idea of a flag of truce, and never bore arms, neither was a naked weapon to be held in his presence. (Owen's Dict. v. Barz.)‑EDITOR.
101
LECTURE IV.
THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
I Now take upon me to prove my first proposition, and to show that the first state of a Mason is representative of the first stage of the worship of the true God.
The lodge, when revealed to an entering Mason, discovers to him a representation of the world;' in which, from the wonders of nature, we are led to contemplate the Great Original, and worship Him for his mighty works; and we are thereby also moved to exercise those moral and social virtues, I In like manner, the cavern of initiation into the spurious Freemasonry of Persia, projected by Zoroaster, was intended to represent the universal system of nature. It was a dome, and the sun was placed in the centre of the roof, which, being by some process illuminated, exhibited an appearance so superb as to induce a candidate to exclaim, '1 Nocte medio vidi solem candido coruscantem lumine ! " while around him the planets were arranged in their several spheres; the constellations were depicted on the walls; and the zodiac was conspicuously displayed on a broad belt encompassing the whole. (Porph. de Ant. Nymph. p. 254; Apul. Metam. lib. 1.) In honour of these revolving luminaries, circular monuments were used by all nations for the celebration of their mysteries; for the circle was an emblem of the Divinity. ‑EDITOR.
102THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
which become mankind as the servants of the Great Architect of the world, in whose image we were formed in the beginning.
The Creator, designing to bless man's estate on earth, opened the hand of his divine benevolence with good gifts. He hath spread over the world the illumined canopy of heaven. The covering of the tabernacle,' and the veil of the temple at
2 " The proportion of the measures of the tabernacle proved it to be an imitation of the system of the world; for that third part thereof, which was within the four pillars to which the priests were not admitted, is as it were an heaven peculiar to God; but the space of the twenty cubits is as it were sea and land, on which men live; and so this part is peculiar to the priests only. When Moses distinguished the tabernacle into three parts, sand allowed two of them to the priests, as a place accessible and common, he denoted the land and the sea; for these are accessible to all. But when he set apart the third division for God, it was because heaven is inaccessible to men. And when he ordered twelve loaves to be set on the table, he denoted the year, as distinguished into so many months. And when he made the candlesticks of seventy parts, he secretly intimated the decani or seventy divisions of the planets. And as to the seven lamps upon the candlesticks, they referred to the course of the planets, of which that is the number. And for the veils, which were composed of four things, they declared the four elements_ For the fine linen was proper to signify the earth, because the flax grows out of the earth; the purple signified the sea, because that colour is dyed by the blood of a sea shell‑fish; the blue is fit to signify the air; and the scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire. Now the vestment of the high priest, being made of linen, signified the earth; the blue denoted the sky, being like lightning in its pomegranates, and in the noise of the bells resembling thunder. And for the ephod, it showed that God had made the universe of four elements; and as for the gold interwoven, I supposed it related to the
THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.103
Jerusalem, were representations of the celestial hemisphere, and were "of blue, of crimson, and
splendour by which all things are enlightened. He also appointed the breast‑plate to be placed in the middle of the ephod, to resemble the earth; and the girdle which encompassed the high priest round, signified the ocean. Each of the sardonyxes declares to us the sun and the moon; those, I mean, which were in the nature of buttons on the high priest's shoulders. And for the twelve stones, whether we understand by them the months, or whether we understand the like number of the signs of that circle, which the Greeks call the zodiac, we shall not be mistaken in their meaning. And for the mitre, which was of a blue colour, it seems to me to mean heaven; for how otherwise could the name of God be inscribed upon it? That it was also illustrated with a crown, and that of gold also, is because of that splendour with which God is pleased." (Josephus's Antiq. c. vii.) In another place, Josephus says the candlestick was emblematical of the seven days of creation and rest. ░' The tabernacle set up by the Israelites in the desert may, nevertheless, give some ideas of the manner in which, at that time, the Egyptian temples were constructed. I believe, really, that there must have been some relation between the taste which reigned in these edifices and the tabernacle. The tabernacle, though only a vast tent, had a great relation with architecture. We ought to look upon it as a representation of the temples and palaces of the East. Let us recollect what we have said before of the form of government of the Hebrews. The Supreme Being was equally their God and King. The tabernacle was erected with a view to answer to that double title. The Israelites went there, sometimes to adore the Almighty, and sometimes to receive the orders of their sovereign, present in a sensible manner in the presence of his people. I think, then, we ought to look upon the tabernacle as a work which God would have, that the structure should have relation with the edifices destined in the East, whether for the worship of the gods or the habitation of kings. The whole construction of the tabernacle presented, moreover, the model of an edifice, regular, and distributed with much skill. All the dimensions and proportions appeared to
104THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
purple; " and such is the covering of the lodge.' As an emblem of God's power, his goodness, omnipresence, and eternity, the lodge is adorned with the image of the sun,' which he ordained to arise from the east, and open the day; thereby calling forth the people of the earth to their worship, and exercise in the walks of virtue.
The great Author of all hath given the Moon to govern the night; a fit season for solemn meditation. When the labours of the day are ended, and man's mind is abstracted from the cares of life, then it is for our soul's recreation to have been observed with care, and perfectly well adapted." (De Goguet. ) 3 ░' And he made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and wrought cherubims thereon." (2 Chron. iii. 14.) See also Josephus.
4 Besides what is already noted, touching the Amonian rites and the worship of the sun, the doctrine of the Magians was, 2 The Original Intelligence, who is the first principle of all things, discovers himself ‑to the mind and the understanding only; but he bath placed the sun as his image in the visible universe, and the beams of that bright luminary are but a faint copy of the glory that shines in the higher heavens." It appears to the man studying nature, that the sun is the most probable place in the universe for the throne of the Deity: from whence are diffused throughout creation light and heat‑a subtle essence, inexhausting and self‑subsisting‑conveying, or in themselves being, the operative spirits which conduct the works of God through all the field of nature. f[ Bless the Lord, 0 my soul. O Lord, my God, thou art very great, thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment. Who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind. Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire." ( Psalm civ. 1‑4.)
THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.105 walk forth, with contemplative mind, to read the great works of the Almighty in the starry firmament, and in the innumerable worlds which are governed by his will; and thence to meditate on his omnipotence. 5 Our thoughts returning from this glorious scene towards ourselves, we discern the diminutive
ness of man, and by a natural inference, confess the benevolence of that God, who regardeth us (such minute atoms) in the midst of his mighty works; whose universal love is thus divinely expressed, 11 That not a sparrow shall fall without your father; but the very hairs of your head are all numbered." When the world was under the hands of her great Architect, she remained dark, and without form; but the divine fiat was no sooner pronounced, than behold there was light; 6 creation was delivered
" 0 majestic night ! Nature's great ancestor ! day's elder born ! And fated to survive the transient sun; By mortals, and immortals, seen with awe! A starry crown thy raven brow adorns, Au azure zone thy waist : clouds in heaven's loom Wrought thro' varieties of shape and shade, In ample folds of drapery divine, Thy flowing mantle form, and heaven throughout Voluminously pour thy pompous train. Thy gloomy grandeurs (Nature's most august Inspiring aspect) claim a grateful verse. And like a sable curtain starr'd with gold, Drawn o'er my labours past shall close the scene ! " (Young's Night Thoughts.) 6 ca Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace, Said then th' omnific word, your discord end;
106THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
from darkness, and the sun shot forth instantaneous rays over the face of the earth. He gave that great constellation to the espousal of nature, and vegetation sprang from the embrace; the moon yielded her influence to the waters, and attraction begat the tides.
Remembering the wonders in the beginning, we; Nor stay'd, but, on the wings of cherubim, Uplifted in paternal glory, rode Far into Chaos, and the world unborn; For Chaos heard his voice; him all his train Follow'd in bright procession, to behold Creation and the wonders of his might.
Then stay'd the fervid wheels, and, in his hand, He took the golden compasses, prepar'd In God's eternal store, to circumscribe This universe and all created things; One foot he centr'd, and the other turn'd Round thro' the vast profundity obscure, And said, thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, This be thy just circumference, 0 world.
" Let there be Light, said God, and forthwith light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure Sprung from the deep, and from her native East To journey tbro' the aery gloom began, Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the Sun Was not; she, in a cloudy tabernacle, Sojourn'd the while.
=' Thus was the first day ev'n and morn; Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung By the celestial quires, when orient Light Exhaling first from darkness they beheld Birth‑day of heaven and earth; with joy and shout The hollow universal orb they fill'd, And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd God and his works, Creator, him they sung." (Milton's Paradise Lost.)
THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.107 claiming the auspicious countenance of heaven on our virtuous deeds, assume the figures of the sun and moon, as emblematical of the great Light of Truth discovered to the first men, and thereby implying that, as true Masons, we stand redeemed from darkness, and are become the sons of Light, acknowledging in our profession our adoration of him who gave light unto his works. Let us then, by our practice and conduct in life, show that we carry our emblems worthily; and, as the children of Light, that we have turned our backs on works of darkness, obscenity and drunkenness, hatred and malice, Satan and his dominions; preferring charity, benevolence,' justice, temperance, chastity, and brotherly love, as the acceptable service on which the great Master of all, from his beatitude, looks down with approbation.
The same divine hand, pouring forth bounteous gifts, which hath blessed us with the sight of his glorious works in the heavens, hath also spread the earth with a beauteous carpet; he bath wrought it in various colours; fruits and flowers, pastures and meads; golden furrows of corn, and shady dells, mountains skirted by nodding forests, and valleys flowing with milk and honey : he hath wrought it "as it were in mosaic work," giving a pleasing variety to the man : he bath poured upon us his gifts in abundance, not only the necessaries of life, but also " wine to gladden the heart of man, and oil to 7 Appendix, B.
108THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
give him a cheerful countenance : s and that he might still add beauty to the scene of life wherein he hath placed us, his highly favoured creatures, he hath skirted and bordered the earth with the ocean; for the wise Creator having made man in his own image, not meaning in the likeness of his person, but spiritually, by breathing into his nostrils the breath of life, and inspiring him with that resemblance of the Divinity, an intellectual spirit. He skirted the land with the ocean, not only for that salubrity which should be derived from its agitation, but also that to the genius of man, a communication should be opened to all the quarters of the earth; and that, by mutual intercourse, men might unite in mutual good works, and all become as members of one society. These subjects are represented in the flooring of the Lodge.
The universe is the temple of the Deity whom we serve : Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty are about his throne, as the pillars of his works; for his wisdom is infinite, his strength is in omnipotence, and beauty stands forth through all his creation in symmetry and order: he bath stretched forth the heavens as a canopy, and the earth he hath planted as his footstool: he crowns his temples with the stars, as with a diadem, and in his hand he extendeth 8 All this is genuine Masonry. Wherever we turn,‑whether to contemplate the splendid lights of heaven, or the works of nature and art on earth,‑every thing we behold is an illus tration of our noble science. Whether a star in the sky, or a rough stone in the pavement, it is still a symbol of masonic research.‑EDITOR.
THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.109
the power and the glory : the sun and moon are messengers of his will, and all his law is concord. The pillars supporting the Lodge are representative of these divine powers. A lodge, where perfect masons are assembled, represents these works of the Deity.
We place the spiritual Lodge in the vale of Jehoshaphat, implying thereby, that the principles of Masonry are derived from the knowledge of God, and are established in the judgment of the Lord; the literal translation of the word Jehoshaphat,' from the Hebrew tongue, being no other than those express words. The highest hills '░ and lowest valleys" were from the earliest times esteemed
s There was a firm belief amongst the early Christians that the duration of this world would terminate in the year 1000 of our era, and that the valley of Jehoshaphat would be the scene of the general judgment.‑EDITOR.
10 " At length, to beautify those hills, the places of the idolatrous worship, they beset them with trees, and hence came the consecration of groves and woods, from which their idols many times were named. At last some choice and select trees began to be consecrated. Those French Magi, termed Dryadae, worshipped the oak, in Greek Apvs, and thence had their names. The Etrurians worshipped an holm‑tree; and, amongst the Celtm, a tall oak was the idol or image of Jupiter. Among the Israelites, the idolatry began under the Judges Othniel and Ehud (Judges iii. 7,) and, at the last, became so common in Israel, that they had peculiar priests, whom they termed prophets of the grove (1 Kings xviii. 19), and idols of the grove; that is, peculiar idols, unto whom their groves were consecrated. (2 Kings xxi. 7; 2 Cbron. xv. 16. ") Godwyn's Moses and Aaron.
11 In the " Freemasons' Quarterly Review" for 1842, will be found a series of disquisitions, by the Editor of this work, on the right application of the traditional hill and valley of Freemasonry.‑EDITOR.
110THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
sacred, and it was supposed the spirit of God was peculiarly diffusive in those places. " Upon the top of the mountain, the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy." It is said, in the Old Testament, that the spirit of God buried Moses in a valley in the land of Moab, implying that from divine influence he was interred in such hallowed retirement. On Elijah's translation, the sons of the Prophets said to Elisha, "' Behold now there be with thy servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master, lest, peradventure, the spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley." Hence was derived the veneration paid to such places in the earliest ages, and hence the sacred groves of the Orientals and Druids. They chose those situations for their public worship, conceiving that the presence of the Deity would hallow them they set up their altars there, and shadowed them with groves, that there, as it was with Adam, they might 11 bear the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden." In the corruption and ignorance of after ages those hallowed places were polluted with idolatry;12 the unenlightened mind mistook the type for the 12 as The vulgar, losing sight of the emblematical signification, which was not readily understood but by poets and philosophers, took up with the plain figures as real divinities. Stones, erected as monuments of the dead, became the place where posterity paid their venerations to the memory of the deceased. This increased into a peculiarity, and at length became an object of worship." (Lord Kame's Sketches of ‑Alan.)
THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.111 original, and could not discern the light from darkness; the sacred groves and hills became the objects of enthusiastic bigotry and superstition; the devotees bowed down to the oaken log 13 and the graven image as being divine. Some preserved themselves from the corruptions of the times, and we find those sages and select men, to whom were committed, and who retained, the light of understanding and truth, unpolluted with the sins of the world, under the denomination of Magi among the Persians; wise men, soothsayers, and astrologers, among the Chaldeans; philosophers among the Greeks and Romans; bramins among the Indians; druids and bards among the Britons : and, with the chosen people of God, Solomon shone forth in the fulness of human wisdom.
The Master of each lodge should found his government in concord and universal love;" for, as the great Architect moves the system with his finger, and touches the spheres with harmony, so that the morning stars together sing the songs of gratitude, and the floods clap their hands, amidst the invariable beauties of order; so should we, rejoicing, be of one accord, and of one law, in unanimity, in charity, 13 The Druids worshipped rough stones, and many of these deified idols still remain in this country, and retain the names of abomination. In some districts they are called Drake Stones, from Draig (Br.) a serpent or dragon; the devil. In other places the name is less equivocal. " The devil's quoits;" 11 the devil's arrows;" " the devil's den;" &c. &c., are the appellations by which they are still distinguished.‑EDITOR.
14 Appendix, C.
112THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
and in affection, moving by one unchanging system, and actuated by one principle, in rectitude of manners.
A Mason, sitting the member of a lodge, claiming these emblems as the testimonies of his order, ought, at that instant, to transfer his thoughts to the august scene which is there imitated, and remember that he then appears professing himself a member of the great temple of the universe, to obey the laws of the mighty Master of all, in whose presence he seeks to be approved.
The ancient record which I have before quoted expresses that the first Masons received their knowledge from God; by which means they were endowed with the due understanding of what is pleasing to him, and the only true method of propagating their doctrines.
The few who remained uncorrupted with the sins of nations, and who served the only and true God, despised the fables and follies of idolaters;15 others, who were emerging from the ignorance and blindness in which they had been overwhelmed, contemplated
's These fables and follies were so gross and absurd that we cannot wonder that they excited the pain and disgust of the true Freemason. The heathen priests abused the credulity of the people to the gratification of their own sensual appetites. And so outrageous did these worthies become, fastu et altitudine turgent, as to persuade themselves that they were really the deities they personated. Thus the physician Menecrates assumed the title of Jupiter; Nicostratus took that of Hercules; and Nicagoras actually constructed for himself a pair of wings, and would be called Mercury.‑EDITOR.
THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.113 the wonders displayed in the face of Nature, and traced the Divinity through the walks of his power, and his mighty deeds. Contemplation at first went forth admiring, but yet without comprehension from whence all things had their existence; Contemplation returned, glowing with conviction, that one great Original, of infinite power, of infinite intelligence, and of benevolence without bounds, was the master of all. They beheld him in his works, they read his Majesty in the heavens, and discovered his miracles in the deep : every plant that painted the face of nature, and every thing having the breath of life, described his presence and hia power. Such men were afterwards made known to the enlightened, and were united with them in the perfection of truth." As the servants of one God, our predecessors professed the temple, wherein the Deity approved to be served, was not of the work of men's hands. In this the Druids copied after them; the universe, they confessed, was filled with his presence, and he was not hidden from the most distant quarters of creation; they looked upwards to the heavens as his throne, and, wheresoever under the sun they worshipped, they regarded themselves as being in the dwelling. place of the Divinity, from whose eye 16 2 Thus," as our noble author says, " through a long maze of errors, man arrived at true religion, acknowledging but one Being, supreme in power, intelligence, and benevolence, who created all other beings, to whom all other beings are subjected, and who directs every event to answer the best purposes." (Lord Kame's Sketches of Man.)
114THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
nothing was concealed. The ancients not only refrained from building temples, but even held it utterly unlawful, because they thought no temple spacious enough for the sun, the great symbol of the Deity. " Mundus universes est templum solis" was their maxim; they thought it profane to set limits to the infinity of the Deity;" when, in later ages, they built temples, they left them open to the heavens, and unroofed.
The true believers, in order to withdraw and distinguish themselves from the rest of mankind, especially the idolators with whom they were surrounded, adopted emblems and mystic devices, together with certain distinguishing principles, whereby they should be known to each other, and also certify that they were servants of that God in whose hands all creation existed. By these means they also protected themselves from persecution, and their faith from the ridicule of the incredulous vulgar. To this end, when they rehearsed the principles of their profession, they pronounced 2 that they were worshippers in that temple whose bounds were from the distant quarters of the uni 17 The heathens gained a knowledge of one great superintending power from the light of nature, although they could neither define nor comprehend his attributes. The regularity of the solar system; the wondrous orbs moving in their several spheres with such admirable order; the propagation of plants and animals, and the general system of nature, convinced them that they were all under the governance of some superior and superintending power. It was in this sense that our G. Al. David said, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. "‑EDITOR.
THE NATYJRE OF THE LODGE.115 verse; whose height was no otherwise limited than by the heavens, and whose depth was founded on that axis on which the revolutions of the starry zodiac were performed." The Egyptians were the first people known to us who, in the early ages of the world‑after the flood‑advanced to any high degree of knowledge in astronomy, arts, and sciences; these were the means of discovering to them the existence of the Divinity; and they worshipped the author of those sublime works which they contemplated, but, through national prejudices, soon began to represent the attributes of the Deity in symbols; and, as the visible operations of his omnipotence were chiefly expressed in the powers of the sun and moon, whose influence they perceived through all the field of nature, they depicted the Deity by those heavenly bodies, and at length, under the names of Osiris and Isis," adored the God of Nature." 18 A curious story is told by Dr. Kellet, (Tricoen. Christ., p. 596,) about the worship of Isis :‑" The image of Isis was on an ass's back; the people kneeled, and fell down to it. The ass grew proud, as if the honour had been done to him. The people (which was a greater ass) spake to his brother ass, "Non tibi, sed religioni,"‑we worship not thee, but Isis. And yet it stood with more reason to worship the ass, which had sense' rather than the image, which had none. "‑EDITOR.
19 Dr. Owen divides the whole of idolatrous worship into Sabaism and Hellenism; the former consists in the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, and the host of heaven (which only is to my present purpose), which it is probable a few ages after the flood had its beginning. Dr. Prideaux says, 11 the true
116THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
As we derived many of our mysteries, and moral principles, from the doctrines of Pythagoras, who had acquired his learning in‑Egypt, and others from religion which Noah taught his posterity was that which Abraham practised‑the worshipping of one God, the supreme governor of all things, through a Mediator. Men could not determine what essence contained this power of mediation, no clear revelation being then made of the Mediator whom God appointed, because as yet he had not been manifested in the world, they look upon them to address him by mediators of their own choosing; and their notion of the sun, moon, and stars being, that they were habitations of intelligencies, which animated the orbs in the same manner as the soul animates the body of man, and were causes of their motion : and that these intelligencies were of middle sort between God and them; they thought these the properest things to be the mediators between God and them; and therefore the planets, being the nearest of all the heavenly bodies, and generally looked on to have the greatest influence on this world, they made choice of them, in the first place, as their gods' mediators, who were to mediate with the Supreme God for them, and to procure from him mercies and favours, which they prayed for." Herodotus says that Osiris and Isis were two great deities of the Egyptians; and almost the whole mythology of that ancient people is included in what their priests fabled of them. Plutarch conceives, that by Osiris the sun is to be understood; and this Macrobius confirms, adding that Osiris, in the Egyptian language, signifies many‑eyed, and Isis the ancient, or the moon. Osiris, according to Banier, is the same as Misraim, the son of Cham, who peopled Egypt some time after the deluge. And Dr. Cumberland, Bishop of Peterborough, says Misraim, the son of Cham, grand‑child of Noah, was the first king of Egypt, and founder of their monarchy; and that Osiris was an appropriated title, signi. fying the prince, and Isis is Ishah, his wife. Diodorns Siculus, who has transmitted down to us with great care the most ancient traditions of the Egyptians, asserts this prince is the same with Menes, the first king of Egypt. Perhaps, at his apotheosis his
THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.117
the Phoenicians, who had received the Egyptian theology in an early age, it is not to be wondered
name was changed to that of Isiris, according to some historians. As the images of Osiris were very resplendent to represent the beams of light from the sun, so in their hymns of praise they celebrate him as resting in the bosom of the sun. From the authority of Banier, and other historians, we learn, that the gods of the Egyptians were adopted by the Phoenicians; that their theology was propagated by the Phoenicians into the East and in the West; and some traces of them are found in every island of the Mediterranean. In Syria we find the same theology, the sun under the name of Adonis, and the moon of Ashtaroth. The festival of Adonis is mentioned in Baruch, (chap. vii. 30, 31.) " The priests of the city sat in their temples uncovered and shaven, and mourning as at a feast for the dead." The Prophet complains that Solomon went after Ashtaroth, and after Melcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. The Chaldeans and Babylonians paid adoration to Fire, and held the Sabaism worship. The Persians worshipped the Sun and Fire. St. Cyril, writing on the Pythagorean principles, says, " We see plainly that Pythagoras maintained that there was but one God, the original and cause of all things, who enlightens every thing, animates every thing, and from whom every thing proceeds, who has given being to all things, and is the source of all motion." Pythagoras thus defines the Divinity : "God is neither the object of sense nor subject to passion; but invisible, purely intelligible, and supremely intelligent. In his body he is like the light, and in his soul he resembles truth. He is the universal spirit that pervades and diffuses itself over all nature. All beings receive their life from him. There is but one God, who is not, as some are apt to imagine, seated above the world, beyond the orb of the universe; but being all in himself, he sees all the beings that inhabit his immensity. He is the sole principle, the light of heaven, the Father of all; he produces every thing; he orders and disposes every thing; he is the reason, the life, and the motion of all beings." Plutarch says, ░1 Osiris
118THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
that we should adopt Egyptian symbols" to represent or express the attributes of the Divinity.
The Pythagorean system of philosophy also points out to us a reason for the figure of the sun being introduced into the lodge, as being the centre of the planetary system which he taught, as well as the emblem of the Deity which he served. This grand Meo‑ovpaveco was a symbol expressing the first and greatest principle of his doctrines. This was also a representation of the Abrax which governed the stellary world and our diurnal revolutions.
In the books of Hermes Trismegistus, who was an Egyptian, and said to be contemporary with Abraham's grandfather, is this remarkable passage; speaking of the Deity, he says, '1 But if thou wilt see him, consider and understand the sun, consider is neither the sun, nor the water, nor the earth, nor the heaven; but whatever there is in nature well disposed, well regulated, good and perfect, all that is the image of Osiris." Seneca the stoic says, " It is of very little consequence by what name you call the first nature, and the divine reason that presides over the universe, and fills all the parts of it,‑he is still the same God, He is called Jupiter Stator, not, as historians say, because he stopped the flying armies of the Romans, but because he is the constant support of all beings. They call him Fate, because he is the first cause on which all others depend. We stoics sometimes call him Father Bacchus, because he is the universal life that animates nature; Hercules, because his power is invincible; Mercury, because he is the eternal reason, order, and wisdom. You may give him as many names as you please, provided you allow but one sole principle, every where present." 20 A dissertation on the Egyptian symbols will be found in the Theocratic Philosophy, lect. vi.‑EDITOR.
THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.119 the course of the moon, consider the order of the stars." Oh thou unspeakable, unutterable, to be praised with silence." From hence we are naturally led to perceive the origin of the Egyptian symbolization, and the reason for their adopting those objects as expressive of the might, majesty, and omnipresence of the Deity.22 Posterity, to record the wise doctrines and religious principles of the first professors of the true worship, have adopted these descriptions of the lodge in which they assemble; and maintain those religious tenets which nature dictates, gratitude to him under whom we exist; and working in the acceptable service of him, who rejoiceth in the upright man.
21 This was a more sensible practice than that of the Manichaeans, who, as we are told by Augustine, worshipped the sun and moon, under a supposition that God's virtue dwelt in the former, and his wisdom in the latter. They believed that God resided only in the light; forgetting that he had said he would dwell in the thick darkness, (2 Chron. vi. 1;) that darkness.was under his feet; and that he made darkness his secret place; and his pavilion round about him. (Psalm xviii. 9, 11.)‑EDITOR.
22 The learned Dr. Stukeley, speaking of Stonehenge, says he took his dimensions of this monument by the Hebrew, Phoenician, or Egyptian cubit, being twenty inches and three‑fourths of an inch English measure. He dates this erection from the time of Cambyses's invasion of Egypt, before the time of building the second temple at Jerusalem, at an sera when the Phoenician trade was at its height; and he presumes that when the priests fled from Egypt under the cruelties committed by that invader, they dispersed themselves to distant parts of the world, and introduced their learning, arts, and religion, among the Druids of Britain.
120THE NATURE OF THE LODGE.
As such it is to be a Freemason; as such is a lodge of Masons; as such are the principles of this society; as these were the original institutions of our Brotherhood, let the ignorant laugh on, and the wicked ones scoff. And that these are true solutions of our Emblems, I am convinced myself; and, with humble deference to the rest of my brethren, offer them for their attention.
121
LECTURE V.
THE FURNITURE OF THE LODGE.
IT is with pleasure I pursue the duty I have imposed upon myself to give the solutions of the mysteries in Masonry; which, to minds inattentive to the real import of the objects in their view, might remain undiscovered; and the professor of Masonry might pass on without receiving a just sense of those dignities which he hath assumed. I have defined what is intended to be represented by a lodge, and its origin and nature; it is now my duty to discover to you the import of the Furniture of a Lodge.
As Solomon, at Jerusalem, carried into the Jewish temple all the vessels and instruments requisite for the service of Jehovah, according to the law of his people, so we Masons, as workers in moral duties, and as servants of the Great Architect of the world, have before us those emblems which must constantly remind us of what we are, and what is required of us.
The third emanation of Abrax, in the Gnostic hierarchy, was Phronaesis, the emblem of Prudence, which is the first and most exalted object that demands our attention in the lodge. It is placed
122THE FURNITURE in the centre, ever to be present to the eye of the Mason, that his heart may be attentive to her dictates, and stedfast in her laws; for Prudence is the rule of all virtues; Prudence is the path which leads to every degree of propriety; Prudence is the channel whence self‑approbation flows for ever; she leads us forth to worthy actions, and, as a blazing star, enlightens us through the dreary and darksome paths of this life.
Virtue, by moralists, is defined to be "that stedfast purpose and firm will of doing those things which Nature hath dictated to us as the best and most salutary; a habit of the soul by which mankind are inclined to do the things which are upright and good, and to avoid those that are evil." In short, virtue is moral honesty, and comprehends good principles. Of the virtues, of which Prudence is the rule, these are called Cardinal Virtues, of which, properly, a Mason should be possessed‑Fortitude, Temperance, and Justice; for, without these, the name of Mason is an empty title, and but a painted bubble.
That Fortitude should be the characteristic of a Mason we need not argue; by which, in the midst of pressing evils, he is enabled always to do that. which is agreeable to the dictates of right reason. Temperance, also, must be one of his stedfast principles, being a moderating or restraining of our affections and passions, especially in sobriety and chastity. We regard Temperance, under the various definitions of moralists, as constituting honesty,
OF THE LODGE.123 decency, and bashfulness; and, in its potential parts, instituting meekness, clemency, and modesty. We profess Justice as dictating to us to do right to all, and to yield to every man what belongs to him.
The cardinal virtues, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice, hold, in their train, the inferior powers of peace, concord, quietness, liberty, safety, honour, felicity, piety, and charity, with many others which were adored by the ancients in those ages, when they confounded mythology with the worship of the Divinity. Within the starry girdle of prudence all the virtues are enfolded.
We may apply this emblem to a still more religious import : it may be said to represent the star which led the wise men to Bethlehem, proclaiming to mankind the nativity of the Son of God, and here conducting our spiritual progress to the Author of redemption.
As the steps of man tread in the various and uncertain incidents of life; as our days are chequered with a strange contrariety of events, and our passage through this existence, though sometimes attended with prosperous circumstances, is often beset by a multitude of evils; hence is the lodge furnished with Mosaic work to remind us of the precariousness of our state on earth : to‑day our feet tread in prosperity, to‑morrow we totter on the uneven paths of weakness, temptation, and adversity. Whilst this emblem is before us we are instructed to boast of nothing; to have compassion and give aid to those who are in adversity; to walk
124THE FURNITURE uprightly and with humility; for such is human existence, that there is no station in which pride can be stably founded : all men, in birth and in the grave, are on the level. Whilst we tread on this Mosaic work let our ideas return to the original which it copies; and let every Mason act as the dictates of reason prompt him, to live in brotherly love.' As more immediate guides for a Freemason, the lodge is furnished with unerring rules, whereby he shall form his conduct; the book of his law is laid before him, that he may not say, through ignorance he erred; whatever the great Architect of the world hath dictated to mankind as the mode in which he would be served, and the path in which man is to tread to obtain his approbation; whatever precepts he hath administered, and with whatever laws he hath inspired the sages of old, the same are comprised in the book of the law of Masonry. That book, which is never closed in any lodge, reveals the duties which the great Master of all exacts from us; open to every eye, comprehensible to every mind : then, who shall say among us that he knows not the acceptable service? But, as the frailty of human nature constantly wages war with truth, and man's infirmities struggle with his virtues,‑to aid and conduct every Mason, the master holds the compass, limiting the distance, progress, and circumference of the work; he dictateth the manners, he giveth the direction of the I Appendix, D.
OF THE LODGE.125 design, and delineates each portion and part of the labour; assigning to each his province and his order. And such is the mastership, that each part, when asunder, seems irregular and without form; yet, when put together, like the building of the temple at Jerusalem, is connected and framed in true symmetry, beauty, and order.
The moral implication of which is, that the master in his lodge sits dictating such salutary laws, for the regulation thereof, as his prudence directs; assigning to each brother his proper province; limiting the rashness of some, and circumscribing the imprudence of others; restraining all licentiousness and drunkenness, discord and malice, envy and reproach: and promoting brotherly love, morality, charity, cordiality, and innocent mirth; that the assembly of the brethren may be conducted with order, harmony, and love.
To try the works of every Mason, the square is presented, as the probation of his life, proving, whether his manners are regular and uniform; for Masons should be of one principle and one rank, without the distinctions of pride and pageantry intimating, that from high to low, the minds of Masons should be inclined to good works, above which no man stands exalted by his fortune.
But superior to all, the lodge is furnished with three luminaries; 2 as the golden candlestick in 2 The particular attention paid by the ancients to the element of fire is in no wise to be wondered at, when we consider, that whenever the Deity deigned to reveal himself to the human senses,
126THE FURNITURE the tabernacle of Moses was at once emblematical of the spirit of God, whereby his chosen people were enlightened, and prophetical of the churches; or otherwise Josephus says, representative of the planets and the powerful works of God : so our three lights shew to us the three great stages of Masonry, the knowledge and worship of the God of nature in the purity of Eden‑the service under the Mosaic law, when divested of idolatry‑and the Christian revelation : but most especially our lights are typical it was under this element. "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush : and he looked, and behold the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way. and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light : to go by day and night. There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. (Exod. iii. 2, 4; xiii. 21; xix. 16, 8; xxiv. 17; xxix. 13.) That thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. (Num. ix. 16.) The Lord talked to you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire. For ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount. These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire. For the mountain did burn with fire. And we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. For who is there of all flesh that bath heard the voice of the living God, speaking out of the midst of the fire (as we have), and lived?" (Deut. v. 4‑24.) To these may be added the shechiuah in the temple. It would, from a kind of parity in circumstances, naturally follow, that men would
OF THE LODGE.127 of the holy Trinity. And as such is the furniture of the lodge;' such the principles dictated to us as Masons; let us rejoice in the exercise of those excellencies, which should set us above the rank of other men; and prove that we are brought out of darkness into light. And let us show our good works unto the world, that through our light so shining unto men, they may glorify the Great Master of the Universe; and therefore 11 do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God."
look up to the sun, as the throne of the Divinity, from whence his ministering spirits dispensed his will to the distant quarters of the universe. Fire became the general emblem of the Divinity among the eastern nations‑was in great esteem with the Chaldeans and Persians. The Persians used consecrated fire as the emblem of the Supreme Being; to whom they would not build temples, or confine the Divinity to space. The ethereal fire was preserved in the temple of the Jews, and in the taber. nacle, with great reverence. The druid priests in their worship looked towards the sun : they retained many of the Amonian rites: they are said to have made mystical processions round their consecrated fires sunwise, before they proceeded to sacrifice.
3 Technically speaking, the furniture of the lodge is the Bible, Square, and Compass only.‑EDITOR.
128 LECTURE VI.
THE APPAREL AND JEWELS OF MASONS.
MASONS, as one of the first principles, profess Innocence: they put on white apparel as an emblem of that character, which bespeaks purity of soul, guiltlessness, and being harmless.
We have the following passage in the Biographia Ecclesiastica : " The ancients were also wont to put a white garment on the person baptised, to denote his having put off the lusts of the flesh, and his being cleansed from his former sins, and that he had obliged himself to maintain a life of unspotted innocency. Accordingly, the baptised are, both by the Apostle and the Greek fathers, styled I~wrt o╡evoc, the enlightened, because they professed to be the children of light, and engaged themselves never to return again to the works of darkness.' This white garment used to be delivered to them with this solemn charge : I Receive the white and undefiled garment, and produce it without spot before the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may ' " The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them bath the light shined." (Isaiah ix. 2.)
THE APPAREL AND JEWELS.
129 obtain eternal life. Amen.' They were wont to wear these white garments for the space of a week after they were baptised, and then put them off and laid them up in the church, that they might be kept as a witness against them if they should violate the baptismal covenant." Whilst the apron,' with which we are clothed, indicates a disposition of innocence, and belies not the wearer's heart, let the ignorant deride and scoff on; superior to the ridicule and malice of the wicked, we will enfold ourselves in the garb of our own virtue, and, safe in self‑approving conscience, stand unmoved amidst the persecutions of adversity.
The raiment, which truly implies the innocence of the heart, is a badge more honourable than ever was devised by kings. The Roman eagle, with all the orders of knighthood, are inferior : they may be prostituted by the caprice of princes; but innocence is innate, and cannot be adopted.
To be a true Mason is to possess this principle; or the apparel which he wears is an infamy to the apostate, and only shows him forth to shame and contempt.
That innocence should be the professed principle of a Mason occasions no astonishment, when we consider that the discovery of the Deity leads us to the knowledge of those maxims wherewith he may be well pleased. The very idea of a God is 2 See the as Signs and Symbols," for a lecture (x.) on the Masonic Apron.‑EDITOR.
130THE APPAREL succeeded with the belief that he can approve of nothing that is evil; and when first our predecessors professed themselves servants of the Architect of the world, as an indispensable duty they professed innocency, and put on white raiment as a type and characteristic of their conviction, and of their being devoted to his will.' The Druids were apparelled in white at the time of their sacrifices and solemn offices. The Egyptian priests of Osiris wore snowwhite cotton. We do not find that priests of other nations, noted for antiquity, were singular in this, except that in the service of Ceres, under whom was symbolized the gift of Providence in the fruits of the earth, the Grecian priests put on white.
Every degree of sin strikes the rational mind of man with some feelings of self‑condemnation.Under such conviction, who could call upon or claim the presence of a Divinity, whose demonstration is good works ? Hence are men naturally led to conceive that such Divinity will only accept of works of righteousness. Standing forth for the approbation of Heaven, the servants of the first revealed God bound themselves to maxims of purity and virtue; and, as Masons, we regard the principles of those who were the first worshippers of the true God, imitate their apparel, and assume the badge of innocence.
Our jewels or ornaments imply that we try our
3 King Solomon recommended white garments, as being indi
cative of mental purity. " Let thy garments be always white," (Eccles. Ix. 8.)‑EDITOR.
AND JEWELS.131 affections by justice, and our actions by truth, as the square tries the workmanship of the mechanic; that we regard our mortal state,‑whether it is dignified by titles or not, whether it be opulent or indigent,‑as being of one nature in the beginning, and of one rank in its close. In sensations, passions, and pleasures, in infirmities, maladies, and wants, all mankind are on a parallel. Nature hath given us no superiorities : it is wisdom and virtue that constitute superiority. From such maxims we make estimates of our brother, when his calamities call for our council or our aid. The works of charity are from sympathetic feelings, and benevolence acts upon the level. The emblem of these sentiments is another of the jewels of our society.
To walk uprightly before Heaven and before men, neither inclining to the right or to the left, is the duty of a Mason; neither becoming an enthusiast or a persecutor in religion, nor bending towards innovation or infidelity. In civil government, firm in our allegiance, yet stedfast in our laws, liberties, and constitution. In private life, yielding up every selfish propensity, inclining neither to avarice or injustice, to malice or revenge, to envy or contempt with mankind; but, as the builder raises his column by the plane and perpendicular, so should the Mason carry himself towards the world.
To rule our affections by justice and our actions by truth, is to wear a jewel which would ornament 4 Appendix, E.
1:32THE APPAREL the bosom of the highest potentate on earth.Human nature has her impulses from desires which are often too inordinate : love binds us with prejudices, and resentment burns with fevers; contempt renders us incredulous, and covetousness deprives us of every generous and humane feeling. To steer the bark of life upon the sea of passion, without quitting the course of rectitude, is one of the highest excellencies to which human nature can be brought, aided with all the powers of philosophy and religion.
Yet merely to act with justice and truth, is not all that man should atttempt; for even that excellence would be selfishness : that duty is not relative, but merely proper; it is only touching our own character, and doing nothing for our neighbour; for justice is an indispensable duty in each individual. We were not born for ourselves alone, only to shape our course through life in the tracks of tranquillity, and solely to study that which should afford peace to the conscience at home; but men were made as mutual aids to each other: no one among us, be he ever so opulent, can subsist without the assistance of his fellow‑creatures. Nature's wants are numerous, and our hands are filled with very little of the warfare of necessity : our nakedness must be clothed, our hunger satisfied, our maladies visited. Where shall the proud man toil for sustenance, if he stands unaided by his neighbour? When we look through the varied scene of life, we see our fellow‑creatures attacked with innumerable cala‑
AND JEWELS.133 mities; and, were we without compassion, we should exist without one of the finest feelings of the human heart. To love and to approve, are movements in the soul of man which yield him pleasure; but to pity, gives him heavenly sensations; and to relieve, is divine. Charity thus hath her existence : her rise is from the consciousness of our similarity in nature; the level on which mortality was created in the beginning; its progress is in sympathetic feelings, from the affections of the heart breathing love towards our brother, coupled with the touch of original estimation in our minds, which proves all our species to be brethren of one existence. Its conclusion is, from comparison producing judgment, we weigh the necessities of our suffering fellow‑creatures by our natural equality, by coinpassion, our sympathy, and our own abilities, and dispense our gifts from affection. Pity and pain are sisters by sympathy.
To be an upright man, is to add still greater lustre to the Mason's character. To do justice, and to have charity, are excellent steps in human life; but to act uprightly gives a superlative degree of excellence, for in that station we shall become examples in religious, in civil, and in moral conduct. It is not enough that we are neither enthusiasts nor persecutors in religion, neither bending towards innovation or infidelity‑not to be in the passive only, but we should appear in the active character; we should be zealous practisers, observers of, and steadfast members in, religious duties. In civil
134THE APPAREL AND JEWELS.
matters, we should not only submit to, but execute the laws of our country; obey all their ordinances, and perform all their precepts; be faithful to the constitution of the realm, and loyal to our king; true soldiers in the defence of our liberty, and of his crown and dignity." In morality, it requires of us, not only that we should not err, by injuring, betraying, or deceiving, but that we should do good in every capacity in that station of life wherein kind Providence has placed us.' By such metes let the Mason be proved, and testify that his emblematical jewels are ensigns only of the inward man; thence he will stand approved before Heaven and before men, purchasing honour to his profession and felicity to the professor.
5 This is a complete refutation of the opinion of Pivati, who averred (according to Laurie, for I have not seen his book,) that Freemasonry was instituted by Oliver Cromwell, for republican purposes; that the level was a symbol of political equality; that its chief design was to build a temple to liberty; to extirpate monarchy, and introduce in its stead a pure democracy, EDITOR.
c Appendix, F,Appendix,, G.
135 LECTURE VII.
THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM.
THE first worshippers of the God of Nature in the east, represented the Deity by the figures of the sun and moon, from the influence of those heavenly bodies on the earth; professing that the universe was the temple in which the Divinity was at all times and in all places present.
They adopted those, with other symbols, as a cautious mode of preserving or explaining divine knowledge. But we perceive the danger arising from thence to religion; for the eye of the ignorant, the bigot, and enthusiast, cast up towards these objects, without the light of understanding, introduced the worship of images; and, at length, the idols of Osiris and Isis became the gods of the Egyptians,' without conveying to their devotees ' " It would occupy too much of our time," says Spineto, ~6 to give the whole account of them both; of their exploits; of the benefits they conferred upon Egypt; of the persecution and murder of Osiris by Typhon, and the anxiety and labours undergone by Isis to collect his scattered limbs, and to have them buried. This foolish story, which in process of time became a legend, was in the beginning, without the least doubt, a regular
136THE TEMPLE the least idea of their great Archetype. Other nations (who had expressed the attributes of the Deity by outward objects, or who had introduced images into the sacred places as ornaments, or rather to assist the memory, claim devout attention, and warm the affections) ran into the same error, and idols multiplied upon the face of the earth.
Amongst the ancients, the vulgar worshippers of idols throughout the world had at last entirely lost the remembrance of the original, of whose attributes their images were at first merely symbols; and the second darkness in religion was more tremendous than the first, as it was strengthened by prepossession, custom, bigotry, and superstition.
Moses had acquired the learning of the Egyptians, and derived the doctrines of truth from the righteous ones of the nations of the east; he being also led by divine influence, and thence‑truly comprehending the light from out the darkness‑taught the people of Israel the worship of the true God, without the enigmas and pollutions of the idolatrous nations which surrounded them.
This was the second era of the worship of the God of Nature; and at this period the second stage of Masonry arises.
The Ruler of the Jews, perceiving how prone the minds of ignorant men were to be perverted by fable, recording one of the greatest truths transmitted and preserved by tradition amongst mankind, of the sad event of the fall of man, and of the destruction of the world by the deluge." EDITOR.
AT JERUSALEM.137 show and ceremony; and that the eye, being caught by pomp and solemn rites, debauched the judgment, and led the heart astray; and being convinced that the magnificent festivals, processions, sacrifices, and ceremonials of the idolatrous nations, impressed the minds of mankind with a wild degree of reverence and enthusiastic devotion, thought it expedient, for the service of the God of Israel, to institute holy offices, though in an humbler and less ostentatious mode; well judging that the service and adoration of the Deity, which was only clothed in simplicity of manners and humble prayer, must be established in the conviction of the heart of man; with which ignorance was ever waging war.
In succeeding ages, Solomon built a temple for the service of God, and ordained its rites and ceremonies to be performed with a splendour equal to the most extravagant pomp of the idolaters.
As this temple 2 received the second race of the servants of the true God, and as the true craftsmen were here proved in their work, we will crave your attention to the circumstances which are to be gathered from holy writ, and from historians, touching this structure, as an illustration of those secrets in Masonry, which may appear to such of our brethren as are not learned in antiquity, 2 " The east gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, bath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince : the prince shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord. Then brought he me by the way of the north gate before the house." (Ezek. xliv. 2‑4.)
138THE TEMPLE dark or insignificant, unless they are proved from thence.
In the first book of Kings, we are told that ~~ Hiram, King of Tyre, sent his servants unto Solomon : and Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, Behold I intend to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God. And Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel, and the levy was thirty thousand men. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the levy. And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burthens, and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains, besides the chief of Solomon's officers which were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people which wrought in the work. And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house. And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stone‑squarers or gibilites. In the fourth year was the foundation of the house laid, and in the eleventh year was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Napthali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass. He cast two pillars of brass, with two chapiters which were of lily‑work, and he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple. And he set up the right
AT JERUSALEM.139
pillar, and he called the name thereof Jachin.; and he set up the left pillar, and called it Boaz." 3 In the second book of Chronicles, we read that " he set three hundred and ten thousand of them to be bearers of burthens, and fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountains, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people to work. And Solomon sent to Hiram, King of Tyre, to send him a man cunning to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in purple, in crimson, and in blue, and skilful in engravings. And Hiram sent unto him a cunning man, endowed with the understanding of Hiram his father. And he made the veil of the temple of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen. And he made before the house two pillars,' and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and that on the left Boaz." 5
3 In Al. Clavel's Picturesque Masonry, he informs us that in the dome of Wortzberg, in front of the entrance to the chamber of the dead, we see on one side, on the chapiter of a column, the mysterious inscription Jachin; and at the other side, the word Boaz, on the shaft of a pillar. And the figure of Christ, which occupies the top of the portal of the church of St. Denis, has his hand placed in a position well known to all existing Freemasons.‑EDITOR.
4 These pillars were not set up for worship, but for ornament and commemoration; because the adoration of such obelisks was an abomination expressly forbidden in the Mosaic law.
Ye shall not place in your land, a stone to be looked on in the way of adoration." (Levit. xxvi. 1.)‑EDITOR.
s The raising pillars and obelisks was a custom of the eastern nations, and of Egypt in particular; the use of which, we are told, was to record the extent of dominion, and the tributes of
140THE TEMPLE
When this splendid structure was finished, " Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord, in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands and said, 0 Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven and in the earth : 0 Lord my God, hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee : 0 Lord God, turn not away the face of thy anointed." In the conduct of this great work, we must admire the sagacity of this pious architect; he discerned the necessity there was to assign to portions of his people, the particular labour they were
nations subject to the Egyptian empire, &c., or in commemoration of memorable events. Diodorus tells us, that Sesostris signalized his reign by the erection of two obelisks, which were cut with a design to acquaint posterity of the extent of his power, and the number of nations he had conquered. Augustus, according to the report of Pliny, transported one of these obelisks to Rome, and placed it in the Campus Martius. Pliny says, the Egyptians were the first devisers of such monuments, and that Mestres, King of Heliopolis, erected the first. Marsham and others attribute the invention to Sesostris. The obelisk of Shannesses exceeded all that had preceded it: Constantine, and Constans, his son, caused it to be removed to Rome, where it remains the noblest piece of Egyptian antiquity existing in the world. Solomon had pursued this custom in erecting his pillars in the porch of the temple, which he designed should be a memorial to the Jews as they entered the holy place, to warm their minds with confidence and faith; by this record of the promises made by the Lord unto his father David, and which were repeated unto him in a vision, in which the voice of God proclaimed (1 Kings, ix, 5,) '1 I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever."
AT JERUSALEM.141 to pursue; he gave them particular signs and secret tokens,' by which each rank should be distinguished, in order that the whole might proceed with propriety, and without confusion; he selected those of most enlightened minds and comprehensive understandings, religious men, piously zealous in good works, as masters to superintend the workmen; men skilful in geometry and proportions, who had been initiated and proved in the mystical learning of the ancient sages; those lie made overseers of the work : the whole was conducted with that degree of holy reverence, that even the noise of, a tool or instrument was not permitted to disturb the sacred silence on Moriah, sanctified by the presence of the Almighty, and by his miraculous works.Was it not reasonable, then, to conceive under this exalted degree of pious attention, that no part of the structure was to be formed, but by men of pure hands and holy mind, who had professed themselves devoted to the service of the true God, and had enrolled themselves under the banner of true religion and virtue. As the sons of Aaron alone were admitted to the holy offices, and to the sacrificial rites, so none but devotees were admitted to this labour. On this stage we see those religious who had received 6 These were meant for the better conduct of the work, and were totally abstracted from those other principles which were the foundation of our profession. They were manual proofs of the part each was stationed to perform; the light which had possessed the soul, and which was the first principle, was in no wise to be distinguished by such signs and tokens, or revealed. expressed, or communicated thereby.
14GTHE TEMPLE
the truth, and the light of understanding as possessed by the first men, embodied as artificers, and engaged in this holy work as architects. This, together with the construction of the tabernacle under Moses, are the first instances of our predecessors being exhibited to the world as builders for, although it is not to be doubted, the sages amongst the Hebrews, Egyptians, Persians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Romans, Bramins, Druids, and Bards, understood geometry and the rules of proportion and numbers, yet we have no evidence of their being the actual executors of any plan in architecture; 7 and yet, without question, they were 7 Modern discoveries in Egypt, and other countries have contributed to prove that the most stupendous specimens of architecture have been erected by all the above people. In Egypt, particularly, such works have been found, which in magnitude and sublimity, exceed the comprehension, and excite the wonder of modern artists. Respecting Thebes, Belzoni says, that ░' this most sublime of all ruins is in appearance a city of giants, who, after a long conflict which ended in their destruction, left the ruins of their habitations behind them as a memorial." Browne fully confirms the statement of Diodorus, which has been so much disputed, viz., that the houses of Thebes were four or five stories high, and that the circuit was nine leagues. If so, it must have been the largest mass of buildings ever known in the world, without excepting Babylon. So much for magnitude. And with respect to the elegance of the Egyptian details, Denon informs us that at Tentyra are the representations of the peristyles of temples in caryatides, which are executed in paintings at the baths of Titus, and have been copied by Raphael, and which we constantly ape in our rooms, without suspicion that the Egyptians have given us the first models.‑EDITOR.
AT JERUSALEM.143 the projectors and superintendents of such works in every age and nation.
Without such regulations as Solomon had devised for the government of his servants, without such artificers, and a superior wisdom overruling the whole, we should be at a loss to account for the beginning, carrying on, and finishing that great work in the space of seven years and six months, when the two succeeding temples, though much inferior, employed so much more time; and when we have good authority to believe that the Temple of Diana, at Ephesus, a structure not comparable to the Temple of Jerusalem, was two hundred and twenty years in building.
The building being conducted by a set of Religious, makes it natural to conceive that, from devotion and pious fervour, as well as emulation, those employed had unceasing motives to prompt their diligence, and preserve harmony and order; as their labour was probationary, and led to an advancement‑and superior privileges, higher points of knowledge, and, at the last, to that honourable pre‑eminence, a master of the holy work.
Solomon, himself, was an extraordinary personage, and his wisdom and magnificence had gained him the wonder and attention of the neighbouring nations; but this splendid structure, the wonder of the earth, thus raised by the pious hands of men, labouring in the worship and service of the God of Israel, would of consequence extend his fame, and attract the admiration of the more distant parts of
144THE TEMPLE the world : his name and his artificers would become the wonder of mankind, and his works their example and emulation : 8 from thence the masons of Solomon would be dispersed into different states, to superintend the works of other princes; and they would, in consequence, convert infidels, initiate brethren in their mysteries, and extend their order over the distant quarters of the known world.
We find that the like distinctions were retained on rebuilding the temple in the reign of Cyrus, and that the work was performed by the religious of the Israelites, and not by ordinary mechanics; for they refused to admit the Samaritans to a share of the work, although they petitioned for it under the denomination of servants of the same God : yet they were rejected, as unworthy of works of piety, and unacceptable to the God of Israel; for, though they professed themselves to be servants of the true God, they polluted their worship by idols.
Josephus, in his '1 History of the Antiquities of the Jews," speaking of Solomon's going about to erect the temple at Jerusalem, gives copies of the epistles 8 An ancient masonic tradition relates that our G. M. King Solomon, struck with the harmony produced by the admirable arrangements which had been adopted amongst the workmen, conceived the idea of forming an universal bond of brotherly love, which should unite all nations in the pursuits of virtue and science. For this purpose, he admitted to his system those illustrious sages who visited Jerusalem from every part of the globe, and allowed them to participate in his mysteries. And hence, when they returned home, they diffused Freemasonry over the whole face of the earth.‑EDITOR.
AT JERUSALEM.143
which passed between Solomon and Hiram, King of Tyre, on that matter; and which, he says, remained in his days, preserved in their books, and amongst the Tyrians also;' which epistles are as follow: SOLOMON TO KING HIRAM.
" Know thou, that my father would have built a temple to God, but was hindered by wars and continual expeditions; for he did not leave off to overthrow his enemies, till he made them all subject to tribute. But I give thanks to God for the peace I at present enjoy; and, on that account, I am at leisure, and design to build an house to God: for God foretold to my father that such an house should be built by me; wherefore I desire thee to send some of thy subjects with mine to Mount Lebanon, to cut down timber; for the Sidonians are more skilful than our people in cutting of wood : as for wages for the hewers of wood, I will pay whatsoever price thou shalt determine." HIRAM TO KING SOLOMON.
" There is reason to bless God that he has committed thy father's government to thee, who art a wise man, and endowed with all virtues. As for myself, I rejoice at the condition thou art in, and will be subservient to thee in all thou requirest; for when, by my servants, I have cut down many and large trees of cedar and cypress wood, I will send them to sea, and will order my subjects to make floats of them, and to sail to what place soever of thy country thou shalt desire, and leave them there; after which thy servants may carry them to Jerusalem : but do thou take care to procure corn for this timber, which we stand in need of, because we inhabit an island." Josephus, speaking of the progress of the building, '░ says, " Solomon sent for an artificer out of Tyre, whose name was Hiram, by birth of the tribe 9 Eusebus Preparat. Evangel. ix. 34, has these letters, though greatly disguised by Eupolemus, from whom Eusebius had his copies.
10 Appendix, H.
146THE TEMPLE of Naphthali, on the mother's side. This man was skilful in all sorts of works; but his chief skill lay in working in gold, in silver, and brass; the one of the pillars which he set at the entrance of the porch, at the right hand, he called Jachin, and the other, at the left hand, he called Boaz." Solomon was wise in all the learning of the ancients : he was possessed of all the mystical knowledge of the eastern nations; and, to perfect the same, was enlightened by the immediate gift of heaven. It was also the mode and manners of the times, in which the temple of Jerusalem was erected, to use emblematical and symbolical ornaments in public edifices; a fashion derived from the hieroglyphic monuments of the Egyptians, and the mysterious mode in which their sages concealed their wisdom and learning from the vulgar eye, and communicated science to those of their own order only.
The pillars erected at the porch of the temple were not only ornamental, but also carried with them an emblematical import in their names." '1 And more than this, like the Palladium of Troy, they appear to have been essential to the well‑being of the structure. Thus, at the time when the temple was abandoned by Jehovah, he is represented magnificently, as standing upon the altar, and commanding the angel of destruction to strike the heads or chapiters of these two pillars, and the total ruin, not only of the temple, but of Jerusalem, and of the entire system of Jewish polity, should ensue. (Amos, ix. 1.) As their destruction was thus comprehensive and significant, so was their erection symbolical of the magnitude and splendour of the Jewish nation under Solomon. And this reference was embodied in their names.‑EDITOR.
AT JERUSALEM.147 Boaz being, in its literal translation, "in thee is strength;" and Jachi n, " it shall be established;" which, by a very natural transposition, may be put thus : 0 Lord, thou art mighty, and thy power is established from everlasting to everlasting; or otherwise they might imply, as Boaz was the great grandfather of David, the house of David shall be established for ever. I am justified in this latter application, by the express words of Nathan, the prophet, unto David, inspired by the vision of the Lord, "And, when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever." 12 In commemoration of this great promise to the faithful, we ornament the entrance into our lodges with these emblematical pillars, from our knowledge of the completion of that sacred sentence accomplished in the coming of our Redeemer.
12 2 Sam. vii. 12‑16.
148 LECTURE VIII.
ON GEOMETRY.
IT is now incumbent upon me to demonstrate to you the great signification of the letter G, wherewith lodges and the medals of Masons are ornamented.
To apply it to the name of God only, is depriving it of part of its masonic import; although I have already shewn that the symbols used in lodges are expressive of the Divinity's being the great object of Masonry, as Architect of the world.
This significant letter denotes Geometry, which, to artificers, is the science by which all their labours are calculated and formed; and, to Masons, contains the determination, definition, and proof of the order, beauty, and wonderful wisdom of the power of God in his creation.
Geometry is said originally to have signified nothing more than the art of measuring the earth, or any distances or dimensions within it; but, at present, it denotes the science of magnitude in general, comprehending the doctrine and relations of whatsoever is susceptible of augmentation or diminution. So to geometry may be referred the construction not only of lines, superficies, and
ON GEOMETRY.149 solids, but also of time, velocity, numbers, weight, and many other matters.
This is a science which is said to have its rise, or, at least, its present rules, from the Egyptians, who by nature were under a necessity of using it, to remedy the confusion which generally happened in their lands by the overflowing of the Nile, which carried away yearly all boundaries, and effaced all limits of their possessions. Thus this science, which consisted only in its first steps of the means of measuring lands, that every person might have his property restored to him, was called Geometry, or the art of measuring land; and it is probable that the draughts and schemes the Egyptians were annually compelled to make, helped them to discover many excellent properties of those figures, and which speculation continually occasioned to be improved.
From Egypt geometry passed into Greece, where it continued to receive new improvements in the hands of Thales, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Euclid, and others. The elements of geometry, which were written by Euclid,' testify to us the great perfection I An old MS. on Masonry says, '1 Euclid was the pupil of Abraham, and in his time the river Nile overflowed so far that many of the dwellings of the people of Egypt were destroyed.
Euclid instructed them in the art of making mighty walls and ditches, to stop the progress of the water; and, by geometry, measured out the land, and divided it into partitions, so that each man might ascertain his own property." The MS. is incorrect in making Euclid cotemporary with Abraham; but. it truly adds that he gave to Masonry the name of Geometry.EDITOR.
150ON GEOMETRY.
to which this science was brought by the ancients, though much inferior to modern geometry; the bounds of which, by the invention of fluxions, and the discovery of an infinite order of curves, are greatly enlarged.
The usefulness of geometry extends to almost every art and science; by the help of it, astronomers turn their observations to advantage, regulate the duration of time, seasons, years, cycles, and epochas, and measure the distance, motions, and magnitude of the heavenly bodies. It is by this science that geographers determine the figure and magnitude of the whole earth, and delineate the extent and bearing of kingdoms, provinces, oceans, harbours, and every place upon the globe. It is adapted to artificers in every branch; and from thence, as I said before, architects derive their measures, justnesses, and proportions.
This naturally leads me to conjecture why the square is had by Masons as one of the lights of Masonry, and part of the furniture of the lodge .2 To explain my ideas on that matter, I will only repeat to you the words of a celebrated author, treating of the rise and progress of sciences. He says :‑" We find nothing in ancient authors to direct us to the exact order in which the fundamental principles of measuring surfaces were discovered. They probably began with those surfaces which terminated by right angles, and amongst 2 Appendix, I.
ON GEOMETRY.151 these with the most simple. It is hard, indeed, to determine which of those surfaces, which are terminated by a small number of right lines, are the most simple. If we were to judge by the number of sides, the triangle has indisputably the advantage; yet I am inclined to think that the square was the figure which first engaged the attention of geometricians. It was not till some time after this that they began to examine equilateral triangles, which are the most regular of all triangular figures. It is to be presumed that they understood that rectilinear figure first, to which they afterwards compared the areas of other polygons, as they discovered them. It was by that means the square became the common measure of all surfaces; for, of all ages, and amongst all nations of which we have any knowledge, the square has always been that in planimetery which the unit is in arithmetic; for though in measuring rectilinear figures we are obliged to resolve them into triangles, yet the areas of these figures are always given in the square." Thence I am led to determine that the square was the first and original figure in geometry, and as such was introduced to our lodges.3 The square was the 3 The square was the first geometrical figure which was brought into practical use by operative masons. In the construction of cities and private dwellings, camps and fastnesses, right angles were generally used; as in the ark of Noah, the camp of the Israelites, the cities of Babylon and Nineveh, with the temples of Egypt and India, or the established form of a Mason's lodge. The square is a symbol of perfection and
152ON GEOMETRY.
figure under which the Israelites formed their encampments in the wilderness, and under which they fortified or defended the holy tabernacle, sanctified with the immediate presence of the Divinity! As we before declared it to be our opinion that this society was never formed for, or of, a set of working architects or masons, but as a religious, social, and charitable establishment, and that the members thereof never were embodied or exhibited to the world as builders,' save only under Moses, and at the temple at Jerusalem, where, with holy hands, they executed those works of piety, as the patriarchs erected altars to the honour of the Divinity, for their sacrifices and religious offices; 6 happiness, arising out of morality and justice; and, with this meaning in view, it has been assigned to the Worshipful Master. Plutarch informs us, that 11 the incense offered at the evening sacrifice in Egypt is composed of no less than sixteen different ingredients; because their number forms the square of a square, and is the only number which, having all its sides equal, makes its perimeter equal to its area; and also on account of the rich aromatic nature of those ingredients. "‑EDITOR.
4 The square is formed by uniting the hypothenuse, or side subtending the right angle of two right angled isoceles triangles. Of trilateral and quadrilateral figures, none are admissible into symbolical geometry but those whose respective lines and angles bear the relation of equality, or such integral proportions as may be adequately expressed by some of the numerical terms of the tetractys.‑EDITOR.
5 See the notes to lecture xiii.
6 Genesis, iv. 3, 4; viii. 20; xxii. 9: xxviii. 18; xxxi. 7; xxxiii. 20. Exodus, xx. 24; xxvii. I; xxx. 1. Joshua, xxii. 10,11.
ON GEOMETRY.
153 so we are persuaded that the adoption of geometry by Masons, or any emblem of that science, implies no more than a reverence for such device of the mind of man as should demonstrate the wisdom of the Almighty in his works, whereby the powers of Abrax are defined, and the system of the starry revolutions in the heavens determined.
If we should look upon the earth with its produce, the ocean with its tides, the coming and passing of day, the starry arch of heaven, the seasons and their changes, the life and death of man, as being merely accidents in the hand of nature, we must shut up all the powers of judgment, and yield ourselves to the darkest folly and ignorance. The august scene of the planetary system, the day and night, the seasons in their successions, the animal frame, the vegetation of plants, all afford us subject for astonishment; the greatest too mighty, but for the hand of a Deity, whose works they are ‑the least too miraculous, but for the wisdom of their God.
Then how much ought we to esteem that science through whose powers it is given to man to discover the order of the heavenly bodies, their revolutions, and their stations, thereby resolving the operations of the Deity to an unerring system, proving the mightiness of his works, and the wisdom of his decrees ? It is no wonder, then, that the first institutors of this society, who had their eye on the revelation of
154ON GEOMETRY.
the Deity, from the earliest ages of the world unto the days of its perfection under the ministry of the Son of God, that they should hold that science hallowed amongst them, whereby such lights were obtained by man, in the discovery of the great wisdom of the Creator in the beginning.
15.5
LECTURE IX.
THE MASTER MASON'S ORDER.
As we at first proposed to investigate the three progressive orders of masons, Apprentices, Craftsmen, and Masters,' by a definition and description of the several circumstances which attended the worshippers of the true God, so have we, in the former lectures, shown, that, by the Apprentices' order, is implied the first knowledge of the God of nature, in the earliest ages of man. Under the Craftsmen, we have shown the Mosaic legation and the building of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem;
By the Articles of Union, "it is declared and pronounced that pure ancient Masonry consists of THREE DEGREES, and no more, viz., those of the E.A.P., the F. C., and the M. M., including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch." After these Articles of Union were ratified, a new Book of Constitutions appeared under the denomination of '1 Part the Second." The First Part, containing a general history of Masonry, was promised from the pen of Bro. Williams, P. G. M. for Dorset, and he was well qualified for the task; but it has not appeared. The design was probably frustrated by his death. But where are the papers? The Grand Lodge will surely not abandon a a work so much wanted in the Craft. If no person better qualified shall appear, I should not object, under the above sanction, to execute the design.‑EDITOR.
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together with the light which men received, for the discovery of divine wisdom, by geometrical solutions. We now proceed to the third stage,‑the most sacred and solemn order of Masons,‑the Master Mason's order.
Under the Jewish law the service of God became clouded and obscured by ceremonies and rites, which had daily crept in upon it, through imitation of the neighbouring heathen. When the morals of the Jewish nation were corrupted, civil jurisdiction reeled upon its throne, innovations sapped the religious rule, and anarchy succeeded. No sooner was this compact loosened, than the strength of the Jews was dissolved, and the heathen triumphed in Jerusalem.
The gracious Divinity, perceiving the ruin which was overwhelming mankind, in his benevolence was moved to redeem us. He saw that the revelation which he had deigned to make of his divinity, might, majesty, and wisdom, to the nations of the earth, and more especially to the Jewish tribes, was not sufficient to preserve them in their duty; he weighed the frailty of mankind in the balance which his justice suspended, and to their imperfections he held out his mercy. The Egyptians had abused their learning and wisdom; the Jews had polluted God's ordinances and laws; and sin had made her dominion in the strong places of the earth.
Piety, which had planned the temple at Jerusalem, was expunged; the reverence and adoration
THE MASTER MASONS ORDER.157 due to the Divinity was buried in the filth and rubbish of the world; persecution had dispersed the few who retained their obedience; and the name of the true God was almost totally lost and forgotten among men. Religion sat mourning in Israel, in sackcloth and ashes; and Morality was scattered, as it were, by the four winds of the air.
In this situation, it might well be said, "That the guide to heaven was lost, and the master of the works of righteousness was smitten." The nations had given themselves up to the grossest idolatry;Solomon had fallen;‑and the service of the true God was effaced from the memory of those who had yielded themselves to the dominion of sin.
In order that mankind might be preserved from this deplorable estate of darkness and destruction, and as the old law was dead and become rottenness, a new doctrine and new precepts were wanting to give the key to salvation, in the language of which we might touch the ear of an offended Deity, and bring forth hope for eternity. True religion was fled; " Those who sought her through the wisdom of the ancients were not able to raise her; she eluded the grasp, and their polluted hands were stretched forth in vain for her restoration." Those who sought her by the old law were frustrated, for " Death had stepped between, and Corruption defiled the embrace; " Sin had beset her steps, and the vices of the world had overwhelmed her.
The great Father of All, commiserating the miseries of the world, sent his only Son, who was
158THE MASTER MASONS ORDER.' innocence itself, to teach the doctrine of salvation; by whom man was raised from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; from the tomb of corruption unto the chambers of hope; from the darkness of despair to the celestial beams of faith; and not only working for us this redemption, but making with us the covenant of regeneration,whence we are become the children of the Divinity, and inheritors of the realms of heaven.
We Masons, describing the deplorable estate of religion under the Jewish law, speak in figures. 2 Her tomb was in the rubbish and filth cast forth of the temple, and Acacia wove its branches over her monument;' aKasta being the Greek word for innocence, or being free from sin; implying that the sins and corruptions of the old law and devotees of the Jewish altar, had hid religion from those who sought her, and she was only to be found where innocence survived, and under the banner of the divine Lamb, and as to ourselves professing that we were to be distinguished by our Acacy, or as true Acacians in our religious faith and tenets.2 2 Acacia‑AKAKIA, in antiquity, a roll or bag, represented on the medals of the Greek and Roman emperors; some think it is only a handkerchief, which they used as a signal; others take it for a volume or roll of memorandums or petitions; and others will have it ‑to be a purple bag, filled with earth, to remind the prince of his mortality. Acacians (Acaciani), in church history, the name of a sect of religious and professed Christians, some of whom maintained that the Son was only of a like, not the same substance with the Father; and others, that he was not only of a distinct, but also of a dissimilar substance. Acacy (in Johnson's Dictionary), aKaKCa Gr. innocence, or being free from sin.
THE MASTER MASONS ORDER.159 The acquisition of the doctrine of redemption is expressed in the typical character of Euramen, (Hvpa╡ev, inveni,) and by the applications of that name with Masons it is implied, that we have discovered the knowledge of God and his salvation, and have been redeemed from the death of sin and the sepulchre of pollution and unrighteousness.3 Thus the Master Mason represents a man, under the Christian doctrine, saved from the grave of iniquity and raised to the faith of salvation. As the great testimonial that we are risen from the state of corruption, we bear the emblem of the Holy Trinity, as the insignia of our vows and of the origin of the Master's order. On receiving this ensign, the Mason professeth himself in a short distich, in the Greek language, which, from the rules of our order, we are forbidden to commit to writing; the literal meaning of which is, 2 Vehementer cupio vitam,"‑ardently I wish for life meaning the everlasting life of redemption and regeneration; an avowal which carries with it the most religious import, and must proceed from a pure faith. The ceremonies attending this stage of 3 The Mason, advancing to this state of Masonry, pronounces his own sentence, as confessional of the imperfection of the second stage of his profession, and as probationary of the exalted degree to which he aspires in this Greek disticb, Tup$oXoeco, Struo tumulum,‑" I prepare my sepulchre; I make my grave in the pollutions of the earth; I am under the shadow of death." This distich has been vulgarly corrupted among us, and an expression takes its place scarcely similar in sound, and entirely inconsistent with Masonry, and unmeaning in itself.
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our profession are solemn and tremendous, during which a sacred awe is diffused over the mind, the soul is struck with reverence, and all the spiritual faculties are called forth to worship and adoration. Thus our order is a positive contradiction to the Judaic blindness and infidelity, and testifies our faith concerning the resurrection of the body.
The divine construction put upon this emblem of the Master's order, which he declares, is the principle by which he is raised from darkness; so it is also the emblem of moral duties professed by the Mason, and which in former ages were most religiously performed. These, also, are principles immediately resulting from the Christian doctrine. The Master Mason imposes a duty on himself, full of moral virtue and Christian charity, by enforcing that brotherly love which every man should extend to his neighbour.
First‑That when the calamities of our brother call for our aid, we should not withdraw the hand that might sustain him from sinking; but that we should render him those services, which, not encumbering or injuring our families or fortunes, charity and religion may dictate for the saving of our fellow‑creature.
Second‑From which purpose indolence should not persuade the foot to halt, or wrath turn our steps out of the way : but forgetting injuries and selfish feelings, and remembering that man was born for the aid of his generation, and not for his own enjoyments only, but to do that which is
THE MASTER MASON'S ORDER.161 good; we should be swift to have mercy, to save, to strengthen, and execute benevolence.
Third‑As the good things of this life are variously dispensed, and some are opulent whilst others are in distress; such principles also enjoin a Mason, be he ever so poor, to testify his good‑will towards his brother. Riches alone are not the only means of doing good; virtue and benevolence are not confined to the walks of opulence: the rich man, from his many talents, is required to make extensive works under the principles of virtue; and yet poverty is no excuse for an omission of that exercise; for as the cry of innocence ascendeth up to heaven, as the voice of babes and sucklings reach the throne of God, and as the breathings of a contrite heart are heard in the regions of dominion, so a Mason's prayers, devoted to the welfare of his brother, are required of him.
Fourth‑The fourth principle is never to injure the confidence of your brother, by revealing his secrets; for perhaps that were to rob him of the guard which protects his property or life. The tongue of a Mason should be void of offence, and without guile; speaking truth with discretion, and keeping itself within the rule of judgment; maintaining a heart void of uncharitableness, locking up secrets, and communing in charity and love.
Fifth‑Of charity, so much is required of a Mason, in his gifts, as discretion shall limit charity begins at home; but like a fruitful olive tree, planted by the side of a fountain, whose boughs
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overshoot the wall, so is charity. It spreads its arms abroad from the strength and opulence of its station, and lendeth its shade for the repose and relief of those who are gathered under its branches. Charity, when given with imprudence, is no longer a virtue; but, when flowing from abundance, it is glorious as the beams of morning, in whose beauty thousands rejoice. When donations, extorted by pity, are detrimental to a man's family, they become sacrifices to superstition, and, like incense to idols, are disapproved by Heaven.
As Moses was commanded to pull his shoes from off his feet, on Mount Horeb, because the ground whereon he trod was sanctified by the presence of the Divinity, so the Mason, who would prepare himself for this third stage of Masonry, should advance in the naked paths of truth, be divested of every degree of arrogance, and come as a true Acacian, with steps of innocence, humility, and virtue, to challenge the ensigns of an order, whose institutions arise on the most solemn and sacred principles of religion.
163 LECTURE X.
THE SECRECY OF MASONS.
IN this age, when things serious are too often received with laughter, things religious treated with contempt, and what is moral spurned from the doors of the polite; no wonder if our intention to prove this society of religious as well as civil institution, should be ridiculed and despised.
It is not to be doubted many assemblies of Masons were held before the Christian era : the first stage of Masonry took its rise in the earliest times, was originated in the mind of Adam, descended pure through the antediluvian ages, was afterwards taught by Ham, and from him, amidst the corruptions of mankind, flowed unpolluted and unstained with idolatry to these our times, by the channel of some few of the Sons of Truth, who remained uncontaminated with the sins of nations, saving to us pure and spotless principles, together with the original symbols. Those ancients, enlightened with original truth, were dispersed through many states; they were called to join the Jewish nation, and many of them became united with that people. The wise‑hearted were employed in the construe‑
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tion of the tabernacle of Moses; they were embodied at the building of the temple at Jerusalem, and might from thence emigrate into different countries, where they would superintend other religious works. The ceremonies now known to Masons prove that the testimonials and insignia of the Master's order, in the present state of Masonry, were devised within the ages of Christianity; and we are confident there are not any records in being, in any nation, or in any language, which can show them to be pertinent to any other system, or give them greater antiquity.
In this country, under the Druids, the first principles of our profession most assuredly were taught and exercised : how soon the second stage and its ceremonials were promulgated after the building of the temple at Jerusalem, we have no degree of evidence. As to the third and most sacred order, no doubt it was adopted upon the conversion of those who attended the Druidical worship, who had professed the adoration of the one Supreme Being, and who readily would receive the doctrines of a Mediator; a system in religion which had led the sages of old into innumerable errors, and at last confounded them with idolatry.
Under our present profession of Masonry, we allege our morality was originally deduced from the school of Pythagoras, and that the Basilidean system of religion furnished us with some tenets, principles, and hieroglyphics; but these, together with the Egyptian symbols and Judaic monuments,
THE SECRECY OF MASONS.165
are collected only as a successional series of circumstances, which the devotees of the Deity, in different and distant ages of the world, had professed; and are all resolved into the present system of Masonry, which is made perfect in the doctrine of Christianity: from these united members gaining alone that evidence of antiquity, which shows that we are descendants of the first worshippers of the Deity.
That there were builders of cities, towers, temples, and fortifications, from the earliest ages, is indis putable; but that the artificers were formed into bodies, ruled by their own proper laws, and knowing mysteries and secrets which were kept from the world, we are greatly doubtful :' for so plain, easy, i On this point, I am reluctantly obliged to differ from our talented Brother. The Operative Craft, in those days, adopted every secret measure, even holding their lodges in the crypts of cathedrals and churches, to prevent the great principles of their science, by which their reputation was secured and maintained, from being publicly known. Even the workmen, the E. A. P., the F. C., were unacquainted with the secret and refined mechanism which cemented, and imparted the treasures of wisdom to the expert Masters of the art They were profoundly ignorant of the wisdom which planned, the beauty which designed, and knew only the strength and labour which executed the work. The pressure and counter pressure of complicated arches was a mystery which they never attempted to penetrate. They were blind instruments in the hands of intelligent Master Masons, and completed the most sublime undertakings by the effect of mere mechanical skill and physical power; without being able to comprehend the secret which produced them; without understanding the nice adjustment of the members of a building to each other, so necessary to accomplish a striking and permanent effect; or without being able to enter into the science exhibited in the complicated details which were necessary to form a harmonious and proportionate whole.‑EDITOR.
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and intelligible is the mechanic art of building, that it is comprehensible to any capacity, and needed not to be wrapped up in mystic rules; neither was there any occasion for the artificers to go about as conjurers, professing a science unrevealed to the world.
Man would be taught building by the animals daily under his observation : the fox, the rabbit, and many other creatures, form themselves caves; the beaver is an architect in wood, and builds hovels and sheds; the birds, at a season for their increase, prepare their nests for the protection of their young; the bee labours in constructing cities and storehouses; the ants are cloistered in their little mount, perforated with labyrinths, where their provender and progeny are secured. All these would instruct men in building; so that whilst our race were reaping the first rudiments of knowledge from the book of nature, after the darkness which had overwhelmed them in their disobedience, this could remain no secret.
Besides, if we should be esteemed merely the successors of mechanics, and, as such, should take our grand progress from the building of the temple at Jerusalem, we shall find, that Hiram, who was sent from Tyre to assist in that structure, had not his excellence in architecture only, but in molten work, and also in dying, as is said in Chronicles 11 He was skilful to work in silver and gold, in brass, in iron, in stone, and timber, in purple, in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave all manner of graving." He was the subject of a state wherein the worship of idols was established. This kind
THE SECRECY OF MASONS.167 of religion gave encouragement to, and greatly advanced the fine arts, as it employed statuaries, sculptors, painters, and those who made graven images. Solomon ornamented his temple with cherubims and palm‑trees, fruits and flowers; from whence we do not doubt Hiram's knowledge was in the business of a statuary and painter, that he made graven images of stone and wood, and molten images in metals. In Kings it is said only, 2 that Hiram was filled with wisdom and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass." As to Solomon's part in this great structure, he being inclined to this mighty work of piety through the ordinances of Heaven, and the promises made to his father David, was truly the executor of that plan which was revealed to him from above; he called forth the sages and religious men amongst his people to perform the work; he classed them according to their rank in their religious profession; as the priests of the temple were stationed in the solemn rites and ceremonies instituted there. This distinction was maintained in most religious societies, but especially with the primitive Christians. The chosen ones of Solomon, as a pious and holy duty, conducted the work. If we regard them as architects by profession, by reason of this duty, so we may Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David, by reason of the building of their altars, which were no other than works of piety and devotion.2 From those 2 Laurie thought the Dionysian workmen were employed at the building of Solomon's Temple. He says, " the mysteries of
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circumstances, we are bold to say, that if we trace the antiquity of Masonry on operative principles, and derive such principles from the building of Solomon's temple, we may as well claim all the professions which Hiram excelled in: but we will leave this speculation for more material subjects.
Some masters of design3 have brought their works to a singular justness, symmetry, and order, in Egypt and Greece, in Italy and many other European states; but they, like proficients in painting and music, had their excellence from a degree of genius and taste peculiar to themselves. It was a singular gift, and they needed not mysteries to keep it secret; for as men's geniuses are as various as their features, so was an excellence in design as free from usurpation as if it had been wrapt up in profound magic.' Ceres and Bacchus were instituted about 400 years before the reign of Solomon; and there are strong reasons for believing that even the association of the Dionysian architects assisted Solomon in building that magnificent fabric which he reared to the God of Israel. "‑EDITOR.
3 Appendix, K.
4 Willing to lay before our readers every degree of evidence, whether contrary to, or consistent with, our maxims, that they may judge for themselves, we give the following extract from a very, scarce book; The holy war gave the Christians, who bad been there, an idea of the Saracen works, which were afterwards imitated by them in the west, and they refined upon it every day as they proceeded in building churches. The Italians (among whom were some Greek refugees), and with them the French, Germans, and Flemings, joined into a fraternity, procured papal bulls for their encouragement, and particular privileges; they styled themselves Freemasons, and ranged from nation to nation
THE SECRECY OF MASONS.169 We are persuaded there was no occasion to form such secret rules for the compact of operative Masons. Solomon, for the conduct of such a multitude, wisely preserved the order of the religious, and the mysteries of their initiation, for the rule of his people employed in the temple. Assuredly, the secrets revealed to us were for other uses than what relate to labouring up masses of stone; and our society, as it now stands, is an association on religious and charitable principles; which principles were instituted, and arose, upon the knowledge of God, and in the Christian revelation.
Soon after Christianity became the established religion of this country, the professors of it employed themselves in founding religious houses, and in the building of places of public worship. On any reform of religion, it is observable the first professors are inclinable to enthusiasm. Such was the case in this land on the advancement of the Christian doctrine; a fervour for endowments infatuated the minds of the converted; certain days were assigned for the purpose of attending to religious works and edifices, called haly‑werk‑days; on which no man, as they found churches to be built (for very many, in those days, were every where in building) through the piety of multitudes; their government was regular; and, where they fixed near a building, they made a camp of hills, a surveyor, governor‑in‑chief; and every tenth man was called a warden, and overlooked each nine. The gentlemen of the neighbourhood, either out of charity or commutation of penance, gave the materials and carriage, and hence were called Accepted Masons. It is admirable with what economy, and how soon they erected such considerable structures." (From a book of Architecture by Mr. Rion, of Canterbury.)
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of what profession, rank or estate soever, was exempt from attending that duty. Besides, there were a set of men called haly‑werk‑folk,' to whom were assigned certain lands, which they held by the service of repairing, defending, or building churches and sepulchres; for which pious labours they were exempt from all feodal and military services. These men, being stone‑cutters and builders, might also be of our profession, and most probably they were selected from thence, the two being in no wise incompatible with each other. The County of Durham' entertained a particular set of those halywerk‑folk, who were guards of the patrimony and holy sepulchre of St. Cuthbert. Those men come the nearest to a similitude of Solomon's Masons, and the title of Free and Accepted Masons, of any degree of architects we have gained any knowledge of: but whether their initiation was attended with peculiar ceremonies, or by what laws they were regulated, we have not been able to discover; and must lament, that in the church records of Durham, or in any public office there, there are not the least remains of evidence touching those people and the constitution of their society. It was a matter to be coveted by us studying this subject, as most probably such constitution or evidence would have confirmed 5 " De Hermitorio Finchaiensis Ranulphus Dei gratia Dunel_ mensis Episcopus omnibus hominibus suis Francis et Anglis de haly were folc salutem," &c. Many other grants are in the author's possession of this kind. Ralph Flambard was consecrated Bishop of Durham in 1099.
6 Hist. Dunelm. apud Wartoni Aug. Sax.
THE SECRECY OF MASONS.171 every hypothesis we have raised on the definition of our emblems and mysteries.
The emblems used by these people very much resembled the emblems of our society, several tokens of which have been found of late years in pulling down old ruined monasteries. It is much to be wished that those noblemen, &c., in whose possession ancient abbeys stand, would, on all occasions of pulling down or repairing, give instructions to their workmen to preserve, with care, any antique marks, characters, or emblems, they may find. There are double walls, or hollow pillars, in which such things were deposited. Few men will be at the expense of digging to the foundations of such buildings, where valuable marks and curious inscriptions would be found on the foundation, or what was called the angle‑stone, which formed a perfect cube .7 This was a very ancient custom the unbelieving Jews accused our Saviour of having 7 At the building of Solomon's temple, every F. C., or at least every F. C.'s lodge, undoubtedly had a particular mark, and was therefore a Mark‑mason, or rather a Mark‑man. The Markmaster was a grade, or perhaps two, higher; for he had passed the chair of his lodge. The Masters and Wardens of F. C.'s lodges used the mark, for they were Operative Masons; but the Mark‑masters, having ceased to be artificers, were Speculative Masons. These were the Masters of Master‑masons' lodges, which could not have been formed till long after the foundations of the temple had been laid. But once constituted, numbers of approved and accepted F. C.'s would be admitted into them. The same arrangement was adopted amongst the architects and builders of our ecclesiastical edifices, both here and in other countries; and hence arose the private marks by which all wrought stones were designated.‑EDITOR.
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stolen the mystic word, the Tetragrammaton,6 or Urim and Thummim, from the foundation of the temple at Jerusalem, which, they said, he carried concealed about him, whereby he was enabled to work his miracles. 9 Soon after the progress of Christianity in England, all Europe was inflamed with the cry and madness of an enthusiastic monk, who prompted the zealots in religion to the holy war; in which, for the purpose of recovering the holy city and Judea out of the hands of infidels, armed legions of saints, a The name of the Deity has a peculiar reference in some of the highest degrees of Masonry; and it is extraordinary that while the true knowledge of God was lost in most of the nations of the ancient world, there were few but retained vestiges of his name. Hale, deduces this name, in many nations, from the primitive Hebrew root, AL (~K,) signifying power. Hence were derived Aloh, potentate; Alah, in Syriac; ALAlah, or by contraction of the article Al prefixed, Allah, in Arabic; Ullah, in Ethiopic; Aloh, in the South Sea islands, where Captain Cook found Alo Alo, the name of the supreme god in Hapaee, one of the Friendly islands, similar to the Hebrew Al Alohim, god of gods. From the same root was doubtless derived the Greek HXLov, the sun; whilst their Theos (whence the Latin Deus) sprang from the Egyptian Theutb.‑EDITOR.
s The divine economy with respect to the establishment and protection of the Jewish nation was so remarkable, that every great event was contemplated by the heathen with philosophical accuracy: but they always fell into the error of attributing the miracle to the agent or second cause, instead of the first. Thus the use of gems and mysterious amulets was adopted, as symbols of protection, from a tradition of the stones in Aaron's breastplate, within which the Urim and Thummim was concealed, as a medium of communication between God and his people.EDITOR.
THE SECRECY OF MASONS.173 devotees, and enthusiasts, in tens of thousands, poured forth from every state of Europe, to waste their blood and treasure in a purpose as barren and unprofitable, as impolitic.
It was deemed necessary that those who took up the ensign of the cross in this enterprise should form themselves into such societies as might secure them from spies and treacheries, and that each might know his companion and brother‑labourer as well in the dark as by day. As it was with Jeptha's army at the passes of Jordan, so also was it requisite in these expeditions that certain signs, signals, watchwords, or pass‑words, should be known amongst them; for the armies consisted of various nations and various languages. We are told, in the book of Judges, " that the Gileadites took the passes of Jordan before the Ephraimites; and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over, that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite ? If he said nay, then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth; and lie said Sibboleth, for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took them and slew them at the passage of Jordan." '░ 10 The application which is made of the word Sibboleth amongst Masons, is as a testimony of their retaining their original vow uninfringed, and their first faith with the brother hood uncorrupted. And, to render their works and phrases more abstruse and obscure, they selected such as, by acceptation in the scriptures or otherwise, might puzzle the ignorant by a double implication. Thus Sibboleth, should we have adopted the Eleusinian mysteries, would answer as an avowal of our pro‑
174THE SECRECY OF MASONS.
No project or device could answer the purposes of the crusaders better than those of Masonry: the maxims and ceremonials attending the Master's order had been previously established, and were materially necessary on that expedition; for, as the Mahomedans were also worshippers of the Deity, and as the enterprisers were seeking a country where the Masons were, in the time of Solomon, called into an association, and where some remains would certainly be found of the mysteries and wisdom of the ancients and of our predecessors, such degrees of Masonry as extended only to the acknowledgment of their being servants of the God of Nature, would not have distinguished them from those they had to encounter, had they not assumed the symbols of the Christian faith.
All the learning of Europe, in those times, as in fession, the same implying ears of corn; but it has its etymology or derivation from the following compounds in the Greek tongue, as it is adopted by Masons, viz., Etf3o, Colo, and AiOov, Lapis; so Ec(3oXtOov, Sibbolithon, Colo Lapidem, implies that they retain and keep inviolate their obligations, as the Juramentum per Jovem Lapidem, the most obligatory oath held amongst the heathens. << The name Lapis, or, as others write, Lapideus, was given to Jupiter by the Romans, who conceived that Juramentum per Jovem Lapidem, an oath by Jupiter Lapis, was the most obligatory oath; and it is derived either from the stone which was presented to Saturn by his wife Ops, who said that it was Jupiter, in which sense Eusebius says that Lapis reigned in Crete : or from lapide sauce, the flint stone, which, in making bargains, the swearer held in his hand, and said, ' If knowingly I deceive, so let Diespeter, saving the city and capital, cast me away from all that is good, as I cast away this stone.' Whereupon he threw the stone away,"
THE SECRECY OF MASONS.175 the ages of antiquity, was possessed by the religious; they had acquired the wisdom of the ancient,., and the original knowledge, which was in the beginning, and now is, the truth; many of them had been initiated into the mysteries of Masonry; they were the projectors of this enterprise; and, as Solomon, in the building of the temple, introduced orders and regulations for the conduct of the work, which his wisdom had been enriched with from the learning of the sages of antiquity, so that no confusion should happen during its progress, and so that the rank and office of each fellow‑labourer might be distinguished and ascertained beyond the possibility of deceit; in like manner the priests, projecting the crusades, being possessed of the mysteries of Masonry, the knowledge of the ancients, and of the universal language which survived the confusion of Shinar, revived the orders and regulations of Solomon, and initiated the legions therein who followed them to the Holy Land : hence that secrecy which attended the crusaders.
Among other evidence which authorises us in the conjecture that Masons went to the holy wars, is the doctrine of that order of Masons called the higher order : we are induced to believe that order was of Scottish extraction; separate nations might be distinguished by some separate order, as they were by singular ensigns : but, be that as it may, it fully proves to us that Masons were crusaders.
As the intention of this lecture was not only to speculate on the ancient secrecy among Masons,
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but also to treat of the secrecy of Masons in this age, we must therefore turn our thoughts to the importance secrecy is now of amongst us, when there are no holy wars to wage, and nothing but charity and brotherly love to cherish among Masons.
This institution; which was first founded in the mysteries of religion, as we have before rehearsed to you, is now maintained by us on the principles of lending mutual aid and consolation to each other. How should we be able to discern the brethren of this family but through such tokens as should point them out from other men ? Language is now provincial, and the dialects of different nations would not be comprehensible to men ignorant and unlettered. Hence it became necessary to use an expression which should be cognizable by people of all nations. So it is with Masons; they are possessed of that universal expression, and of such remains of the original language, that they can communicate their history, their wants, and prayers, to every brother Mason throughout the globe : " from whence, it is certain, that multitudes of lives 11 " Is it not within the reach of every one's calculation," says Calcott, 2 that there is a meaning in many acts and gestures; and that Nature has endowed mankind with particular motions to express the various intentions of the mird_ We all understand weeping, laughing, shrugs, frowns, &c., as forming a species of universal language. Applications are many times made, and a kind of dialogue maintained only by casts of the eye, and motions of the adjacent muscles. We read even of feet that speak (Prov. vi. 13), and of a philosopher (Sextus Empiricus) who answered an argument only by getting up and walking." EDITOR.
THE SECRECY OF MASONS.177 had been saved in foreign countries, when shipwreck and misery have overwhelmed them; when robbers had pillaged; when sickness, want, and misery, had brought them even to the brink of the grave, the discovery of Masonry bath saved them; the discovery of being a brother bath staid the savage hand of the conqueror, lifted in the field of battle to cut off the captive; bath withheld the sword, imbrued in carriage and slaughter, and subdued the insolence of triumph, to pay homage to the craft.
The importance of secrecy with us is such, that we may not be deceived in the dispensing of our charities; that we may not be betrayed in the tenderness of our benevolence, or that others usurp the portion which is prepared for those of our own family.
To betray the watch‑word, which should keep the enemy from the walls of our citadel, in order to open our strongholds to robbers and deceivers, is as great a moral crime 12 as to show the common 12 Professor Robison, amongst a great deal of trash which he collected or invented as evidence against Freemasonry, presents his readers with the following improbable story, which he pre tends to have quoted from a French writer. A candidate for reception into one of the highest orders, after having beard many threatenings denounced against all who should betray the secrets of the order, was conducted to a place where be saw the dead bodies of several who were said to have suffered for their treachery. He then saw his own brother bound hand and foot, beseeching them to have mercy on him. He was informed that his brother having betrayed the secrets, was to be punished by death, and that he (the candidate) was to be the instrument of
178THE SECRECY OF MASONS.
thief the weaknesses and secret places of our neighbours' dwelling‑houses, that he may pillage their goods; nay, it is still greater, for it is like aiding the sacrilegious robber to ransack the holy places, and steal the sacred vessels and consecrated elements, devoted to the most sacred rites of religion. It is snatching from the divine hand of charity the balm which she holds forth to heal the distresses of her children; the cordial cup of consolation which she offers to the lip of calamity, and the sustenance her fainting infants should receive from the bosom of her celestial love.
As this, then, is the importance of the Mason's secrecy, wherefore should the world wonder that the most profligate tongue that ever had expression bath not revealed it? The sport is too criminal to afford delight even to the wickedest of mankind; for it must be wantonness only which could induce any man to divulge it, as no profit could arise therefrom, nor selfish view be gratified. It was mentioned by divine lips as a crime not in nature 11 What man is there of you, who, if his son ask for bread, will give him a stone; or, if he ask a fish, will give him a serpent?" Then, can there be a their vengeance, as a trial of his fortitude and zeal. He was told, however, that as the sight of his brother might cause some degree of compunction, a bandage must be placed over his eyes.
Being hoodwinked, a dagger was placed in his right hand, and his left being laid on the heart of his brother, he was told to strike home. He did so‑the blood spouted from the woundthe bandage was removed‑and he found that he had only stabbed a lamb."‑EDITOR.
THE SECRECY OF MASONS.179 man so iniquitous among Masons, as to guide the thief to steal from a sick brother the medicine which should restore his health ? the balsam which should close his wounds ? the clothing which should shield his trembling limbs from the severity of the winter? the drink which should moisten his fainting lip ? the bread which should save his soul alive ? Such is the importance of our secrecy : were there no other ties on our affections or consciences than merely the sense of the injury we should do to the poor and the wretched, by a transgression of this rule, we are persuaded it would be sufficient to lock up the tongue of every man who professeth himself to be a Mason.
180 LECTURE XI.
ON CHARITY.
As Charity is one of the principal characteristics of a Mason, we will treat of it in this lecture. We do not mean to make strictures on that modern error of indiscriminately dispensing alms to all supplicants, without regard to their real wants or real merits; whereby the hypocrite and knave often eat the bread which virtue in distress ought to be relieved by. This is a mistaken character of charity, in which she is too often abused. Though the bounties of benevolence and compassion are given with a righteous wish, yet they should be ruled by discretion.
The ancients used to depict the virtue Charity in the character of a goddess, seated in a chair of ivory, with a golden tire upon her head, set with precious stones : her vesture, like the light of Heaven, represented universal benevolence; her throne was unpolluted and unspotted by passions and prejudices; and the gems of her fillet represented the inestimable blessings which flowed variously from her bounty.
They also represented the charities, otherwise
ON CHARITY.181 called the Graces, under three personages : one of these was painted with her back towards us, and her face forward, as proceeding from us; and the other two with their faces towards us to denote, that for one benefit done, we should receive double thanks they were painted naked, to intimate that good offices should be done without dissembling and hypocrisy : they were represented young, to signify that the remembrance of benefits should never wax old : and also laughing, to tell us that we should do good to others with cheerfulness and alacrity. They were represented linked together, arm in arm, to instruct us that one kindness should prompt another; so that the knot and band of love should be indissoluble. The poets tell us, that they used to wash themselves in the fountain Acidalius, because benefits, gifts, and good turns, ought to be sincere and pure, and not base and counterfeit.
Charity in the works of moralists, is defined to be the love of our brethren, or a kind of brotherly affection one towards another. The rule and standard that this habit is to be examined and regulated by, among Christians, is the love we bear to ourselves, or that the Mediator bore towards us; that is, it must be unfeigned, constant, and out of no other design than man's happiness.
Such are the general sentiments which the ancients entertained of this virtue, and what the modern moralists and Christians define it to be at this day.
In what character Charity should be received
182ON CHARITY.
among Masons, is now our purpose to define, as it stands limited to our own society.' Being so limited, we are not subject to be imposed on by false pretences; and are certain of its proper and merited administration. It is hence to be hoped, that charity subsists with us without dissembling or hypocrisy, and is retained in sincerity and truth : that benefits received impress a lively degree of gratitude and affection on the minds of Masons, as their bounties are bestowed with cheerfulness, and without the frozen finger of reluctance : the benevolence of our society is so mutual and brotherly, that each render good offices as readily as he would receive them 2 I The principles which alone should attend a candidate for initiation to our society are pathetically represented in the following psalm. ░' Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle ? who shall dwell in thy holy bill ? He that walketh uprightly and worketb righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighhour; nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent.‑He that doetb these things shall never be moved." (Ps. xv. 1‑5.) 2 " The misplacing of a benefit is worse than the not receiving of it; for the one is another man's fault, but the other is mine. The error of the giver does oft times excuse the ingratitude of the receiver; for a favour ill placed is rather a profusion than a benefit. It is the most shameful of losses, an inconsiderate bounty. I will choose a man of integrity, sincere, considerate, grateful, temperate, well‑natured, neither covetous nor sordid; and when I have obliged such a man, though not worth a groat in the world, I have gained my end. If we give only to receive, we
ON CHARITY.183
In order to exercise this virtue, both in the character of Masons and in common life, with propriety, and agreeable to good principles, we must forget every obligation but affection; for otherwise it were to confound charity with duty. The feelings of the heart ought to direct the hand of Charity. To this purpose we should be divested of every idea of superiority, and estimate ourselves as being of equality, the same rank and race of men; in this disposition of mind we may be susceptible of those sentiments which Charity delighteth in, to feel the woes and miseries of others with a genuine and true sympathy of soul : Compassion is of heavenly birth; it is one of the first characteristics of humanity. Peculiar to our race, it distinguishes us from the rest of creation.' lose the fairest objects for our charity : the absent, the sick, the captive, and the needy. The rule is, we are to give as we would receive‑cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation : for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers. A benefit should be made acceptable by all possible means, even to the end that the receiver, who is never to forget it, may bear it in his mind with satisfaction. It is not the value of the present, but the benevolence of the mind, that we are to consider : that which is given with pride and ostentation is rather an ambition than a bounty." (Seneca. Of Benefits.) a << Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge. and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind;
181ON CHARITY.
He whose bosom is locked up against compassion is a barbarian; his manners are brutal, his mind gloomy and morose, and his passions as savage as the beasts of the forest.
What kind of man is he who, full of opulence, and in whose hand abundance overflows, can look on virtue in distress, and merit in misery, without pity? Who could behold, without tears, the desolate and forlorn estate of the widow, who in early life, brought up in the bosom of a tender mother, without knowing care, and without tasting of necessity, was not befitted for adversity; whose soul is pure as innocence, and full of honour; whose mind had been brightened by erudition under an indulgent father; whose youth, untutored in the school of sorrows, had been flattered with the prospect of days of prosperity and plenty; one who, at length, by the cruel adversity of winds and seas, with her charity envieth riot; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophecy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then I shall know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." (1 Cor. xiii.)
ON CHARITY.185 dying husband, is wrecked in total destruction and beggary; driven, by ill fortune, from peace and plenty; and, from the bed of ease, changes her lot to the dank dunghill, for relief of her weariness and pain; grown meagre with necessity, and sick with woe; at her bosom hanging her famished infant, draining off the dregs of parental life for sustenance, bestowed from maternal love; yielding existence to support the babe. Hard‑hearted covetousness and proud titles, can ye behold such an object, dry‑eyed? Can avarice grasp the mite which should sustain such virtue? Can high life lift its supercilious brow above such scenes in human life; above such miseries sustained by a fellow‑creature ? If, perchance, the voice of the unfortunate and wretched widow is heard in complainings, when wearied patience and relaxing resignation breathe a sigh, whilst modesty forbids her supplication, is not the groan, the sigh, more pathetic to your ear, you rich ones ! than all the flattering petitions of a cringing knave, who touches your vanity and tickles your follies; extorting from your very weaknesses the prostituted portion of debased charity ? Perhaps the fatal hour is at hand when consolation is required to close the last moments of this unfortunate one's life; can the man absorbed in pleasure roll his chariot‑wheels past the scene of sorrow, without compassion, and, without pity, see the last convulsion and the deadly gaze which paint misery rwpon the features of an expiring saint? If angels weep in heaven, they weep for such; if they know
186ON CHARITY.
contempt, they feel it for the wealthy, who bestow not of their superfluities, and snatch not from their vices what would gladden souls sunk in the woes of worldly adversity. The eyes of cherubims view with delight the exercise of such benevolence as forms the character of the good Samaritan; saints touch their golden lyres to hymn Humanity's fair history in the realms of bliss; and approbation shines upon the countenance divine of Omnipresence, when a man is found in the exercise of virtue.
What should that human wretch be called who, with premeditated cruelty and avarice, devises mischief, whilst he is conscious of his neighbour's honesty; whilst he sees him industriously, day by day, labouring with sweaty brow and weary limbs, toiling with cheerfulness for bread; on whose exerted labour an affectionate and virtuous wife and healthy children, crowding his narrow hearth with naked feet, depend for sustenance; whilst he perceives them, with integrity more than human, taking scrupulously his own, and wronging no man to satisfy,his hunger or his wants; whilst he sees him with fatigued sinews, lengthen out the toil of industry from morning to night, with unremitting ardour, singing to elude repining, and smoothing his anxieties and pain with hope that he shall reward his weariness by the overflowings of his wife's cheerful heart, and with the smiles of his feeding infants ? What must he be who knows such a man, and, by his craft or avarice, extorts unjust demands, and brings him into beggary? What must he be who
ON CHARITY.187 sees such a man deprived by fire or water of all his substance, the habitation of the infants lost, and nothing left but nakedness and tears, and, seeing this, affords the sufferer no relief ? Surely, in nature, no such wretches do exist!‑but, if such be, it is not vain presumption to proclaim, that, like accursed Cain, they are distinguished as the outcasts of God's mercies, and are left on earth to live a life of punishment.
The objects of true charity are merit and virtue in distress; persons who are incapable of extricating themselves from misfortunes which have overtaken them in old age; industrious men, from inevitable accidents and acts of Providence, rushed into ruin; widows left survivors of their husbands, by whose labour they subsisted; orphans in tender years left naked to the world.
What are not the claims of such on the hand of charity, when you compare them to the miscreants who infest the doors of every dwelling with their importunities ? ‑ wretches wandering from their homes, showing their distortions and their sores, to prompt a false compassion; with which ill‑gotten gains, in concert with vagabonds, they revel away the hours of night, which conceals their iniquities and vices.
Charity, when misapplied, loses her titles, and, instead of being adorned with the dress of virtue, assumes the insignificance, the bells and feathers of folly.
188 LECTURE XII.
ON BROTHERLY LOVE.
W E will speak of brotherly love in this lecture in that degree which solely appertains to Masons. The necessity there is for the exertion of brotherly regard among Masons in the lodge is obvious to every one; peace, regularity, and decorum are indispensible duties there; all resentment and remembrance of injuries should be forgotten, and that cordiality ought to be warm, among us which brings with it cheerfulness and rejoicing. The true worshippers of the Deity, men who held just notions of the principles of nature in the times of barbarous ignorance, durst not publicly practise the one, or promulgate the other; but happy is our estate in this lettered age and this land of liberty : we profess our sentiments with freedom, and without fear; we exercise our religious principles under a full toleration; and, as social beings, we assemble in the lodge, to enjoy the pleasures of friendship, and the breathings of true benevolence.
After the business of the lodge is dispatched, we are assembled to open out the cheerfulness of our hearts without guile; for there are no tale‑bearers,
ON BROTHERLY LOVE.189 censors, or revilers among us:' our lodge is sacred to silence, hence we may say, figuratively, 2 It is situate in the secret places, where the cock holds not his watch, where the voice of wailing reaches not, where‑ brawling, as the intemperate wrath of women, cannot be heard." Without suspicion of being betrayed in our words, or ensnared in the openness of our dealings, our mirth here is undisguised, is governed by prudence, tempered with love, and clothed in charity; thus it stands void of offence; no malicious mind warps innocent expressions to wicked constructions, or interprets unmeaning jests into sarcasms or satires; but as every sentiment flows full of benevolence, so every ear here is attuned to the strain, in harmonious concord, and tastes the pleasures of festivity so pure that they bear our reflections in the morning, without remorse.
Peace, regularity, and decorum, which we observed were indispensable duties here, are not the offspring of control, or the issue of authority, but a voluntary service which every man brings to the lodge.
There are seasons, indeed, in which authority is properly exercised; man is frail; the most prudent may sometimes deviate. It was a maxim of the ancient philosophers, ,that to err is human; "therefore in the lodge there ought to be a constant governor, who should restrain the improprieties Appendix, 0.
190ON BROTHERLY LOVE.
which may creep in among us by any brother coming here after an intemperance in liquor.
Another degree of brotherly love which should prevail here is, to hear the petitions of every member of this society with tenderness and attention. Where there is at any time a brother of our community sick or in distress, the case of his calamities should come here represented by a brother who will neither deceive us, nor hold back any part of his merits; and the lodge must testify all due regard, by receiving the petition patiently, and giving relief according to the deserts.
The most material part of that brotherly love which should subsist among Masons is that of speaking well of each other to the world, more especially it is expected of every member of this fraternity that he should not traduce his brother. Calumny and slander are detestable crimes against society. Nothing can be viler than to traduce a man behind his back : it is like the villany of an assassin, who has not virtue enough to give his adversary the means of self‑defence, but, lurking in darkness, stabs him whilst he is unarmed, and unsuspicious of an enemy.
Of this crime, Shakspeare has given a just description : " Who steals my purse steals trash; ' Twas mine, 'tis his, and may be slave to thousands; But he who pilfers from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, But makes me poor indeed."
ON BROTHERLY LOVE.191 Calumny has this direful consequence, that it carries with it not a momentary effect only, but endures for time uncounted. The wickedness of the world is such that it is greedy of scandal; and when once the voice of defamation has uttered its poison, like a pestilence it smites and contaminates; it spreads jealousies in families, division and wrath among friends, urges fathers against children, and brother against brother. When once the pernicious tale gets birth, it cannot be recalled; and thence the sinner's penitence is not capable of expiation; for the evil consequences may lay dormant in the womb of futurity, and become an intail of sorrow on the third and fourth generation of him that 6 injured. What malice and mischief, what infernal disposition, must actuate the mind which is capable of defaming the innocent ! There is no crime of which such a wretch might not be the perpetrator; against such a villain there is no armour for defence; he assaults the naked and unsuspicious, and, like the contagion of some horrid disease, he smites whilst the victim sleeps. Justice is disarmed against such a sinner, as concealment is his safeguard, and only the eye of heaven discovers his iniquity.
It is not only expected of Masons that they should, with a conscientious soul, refrain from evil speaking, but also that they should speak well of each other.
To give a man his just and due character is so easy a duty that it is impossible for a benevolent mind to avoid it; it is a degree of common justice
192ON BROTHERLY LOVE.
which honesty itself prompts one to. It is not enough that we refrain from slander; but it is required of Masons that they should speak graciously and with affection, withholding nothing that can be uttered to a brother's praise or good name with truth. What a pleasure does it give the heart feeling benevolent dispositions, to give praises where due! There is a selfish joy in good speaking, as self‑approbation succeeds it. Besides, the breast of such a man feels enlarged whilst he utters the praise due to his neighbour; and he experiences all the finest sensations of love whilst he moves others to feel for the same object.
The neutral disposition‑frigid and reservedneither tends to good or evil; but the man tasting brotherly love is warm to commend. It is an easy and cheap means of bestowing good gifts and working good works; for, by a just praise to industry, you recommend the industrious man to those to whom he might never be known, and thereby enlarge his credit and his trade. By a just commendation of merit, you may open the paths of advancement through those whose power might never have been petitioned. By a proper praise of genius and art, you may arouse the attention of those patrons to whom the greatest deservings might have remained a secret. It is a degree of justice which every man has a right to from his brother, that his virtues be not concealed.
To shroud the imperfections of our friend, and cloak his infirmities, is Christian‑like and charitable,
ON BROTHERLY LOVE.193 consequently, befitting a Mason. Even the truth should not be told at all times; for, where we cannot approve, we should pity in silence. What pleasure or profit can there arise by exposing the secrets of a brother? To exhort him is virtuous; to revile him is inhuman; and to set him out as an object of ridicule, is infernal.
From hence we must necessarily determine that the duty of a good man leads to work out the works of benevolence; and his heart is touched with joy whilst he acts within these precepts. Let us, therefore, be steadfast and immoveable in our ordinances, that we be proved to have a tongue of good report.
194 LECTURE XIII.
ON THE OCCUPATIONS OF MASONS.
IN‑ the former lectures we have declared it to be the opinion that Masons, in the present state of Masonry, were never a body of architects.' By the Book of Constitutions, published by authority, we see no grand communication held in form, till of very late date; neither is there any evidence therein to contradict the positions we have laid down. The succession therein described is by no means to be accepted and understood in a literal sense, but as a pedigree or chronological table of the servants of the Deity working the duties of righteousness.
We ground a judgment of the nature of our profession on our ceremonials, and flatter ourselves every Mason will be convinced that they have not any relation to building and architecture, but are Aliquando bonus Homerus dormitat. Our worthy brother has overlooked that proposition on which the revival of Masonry was founded, viz., 1░ That the privileges of Masonry should no longer be restricted to operative masons, but extend to men of various professions, provided they were regularly approved and initiated into the order.‑EDITOR.
THE OCCUPATIONS OF MASONS.195 emblematical, and imply moral, and spiritual, and religious tenets. It appears self‑evident that the situation of the lodge and its several parts are copied after the tabernacle and temple, and are representative of the universe, implying that the universe is the temple in which the Deity is every where present; our mode of teaching the principles of our profession is derived from the Druids; our maxims of morality from Pythagoras; our chief emblems originally from Egypt; to Basilides we owe the science of Abrax, and the characters of those emanations of the Deity which we have adopted, and which are so necessary for the maintenance of a moral society. We believe that our present ceremonies were more generally taught, and more candidates were initiated therein, on the opening of the crusades, than any other era, or on any other known occasion.
The English historians agree, that in the reign of Henry the Second, and the year 1188, at an interview between the Kings of England and France; attended by the prelates and nobility of both nations, the Archbishop of Tyre pronounced such a melancholy account of Saladine's successes in the Holy Land, and the miseries of the Christians in that country, that the audience was greatly affected with the relation, and the two kings agreed to convert their whole attention to the relief of those adventurers. They received the cross from the hands of the archbishop, resolving to go there in person; and their example was followed by Philip, Count of
196THE OCCUPATIONS Flanders, and a great number of the prelates and nobility there present : a plenary indulgence was published in the Pope's name, for all those who would make a fair confession of their sins, and engage in the crusade : the different nations assumed crosses of a different colour, and rules and orders were established for preventing riot, luxury, and disorder on the enterprise.
These were the principal rules made for the regulation of the crusaders. We may conjecture, these religious campaigns being over, that men initiated in the mysteries of Masonry, and engaged and enrolled under those rules and orders which were established for the conduct of the nations in the holy war, would form themselves into lodges, and keep up their social meetings when returned home, in commemoration of their adventures and mutual good offices in Palestine, and for the propagation of that knowledge into which they had been initiated.
As a further argument that builders and architects were not the original members of our society, the Masons of the city of London obtained their incorporation and charter in the reign of King Henry the Fifth, in or about the year 1419; they taking on themselves the name of Freemasons. By their charter they are governed by a Master and two Wardens, with twenty‑five assistants. Of this incorporated body, sixty‑five are of the livery of London.
It has never been pretended, that the society of
OF MASONS.197 Free and Accepted Masons have in any manner been connected, or much less have united themselves, with the incorporated body of Masons enchartered; but, on the contrary, have kept themselves totally apart.2 It has been alleged, that in the reign of King Henry the Sixth, a law was enacted, setting forth, " That by the yearly congregations and confederacies made by Masons in their general assemblies, the good course and effects of the statute of labourers were openly violated and broken, and making the future holding of their chapters and congregations felony." It is impossible that this statute should relate to any other persons, than the incorporated body of working masons; who, under an exclusive charter, by secret combinations raised the prices of their labour, and prevented craftsmen of their fraternity, not members of the charter, from exercising their trade within the limits of London; which might occasion a grievance worthy of parliamentary redress, but in what manner the statutes of labourers could be affected by the associations of our fraternity, is not in our power to comprehend. Our records
2 And yet a document has been produced by Halliwell which shows that the name of Freemason was given to those who practised the actual trade. " In the year 1506, John Hylmer and Wilson Vertue, Freemasons, were engaged to vaulte, or doo to beer vaulted with freestone, the roof of the quere of the College Roiall of our Lady and St. George, within the castell of Wyndsore, according to the roof of the body of the said College." ‑EDITOR.
198THE OCCUPATIONS
give us no evidence of any such convocations, at the time mentioned.3 By the charter of Masons, they assumed the title of Freemasons, being entitled to the franchises of the city of London. Why the title of Free is annexed to our society, or that of Accepted, we hope we may be allowed to conjecture, was derived 3 It is, however, well known that about the time when the Norman dynasty was established in this kingdom, the study of architecture, as a science, was enjoined on the bishops and other dignitaries of the church; because it was under their superintendence that ecclesiastical edifices rose in all the pride of gorgeous splendour; and the profession of Masonry was fostered and encouraged throughout Christendom. The Roman pontiffs conferred on the fraternity many valuable privileges, and induced its members to form themselves into lodges, where they practised those peculiar ceremonies by which they not only secured to their own body the essential benefits of companionship, to the exclusion of all the world besides, but also framed their own rules, settled their own wages, and enjoyed the proud satisfaction of knowing that they contributed, by their art, in no small degree, to the dignity and security of kingdoms; while the superb structures which they raised, dazzling with every rich variety of ornamental decoration, confirmed the superiority which they assumed in the walks of genius and learning, and secured for them the distinction and respect which always attend superior talent. Indeed, the appearance of so many stately ecclesiastical edifices spread over the island in all the unparalleled magnificence of Gothic architecture, during an age of semi‑barbarism, could scarcely fail to impress upon the ignorant serf, an idea that their builders were possessed of more than mortal powers. And this feeling would not he diminished by the impenetrable veil which was thrown over their transactions in tyled lodges; their habits of secrecy and taciturnity; and the profound deference which was always paid to their opinions by the rich and powerful, both in church and state.‑EDITOR.
OF MASONS.199 from the crusades.' There the volunteers entering into that service must be freemen, born free, and not villains or under any vassallage; for it was not until long after the crusades, that vassallage and feudal services, together with the slavish tenures, were taken away.
They were entitled to the style of Accepted, under that plenary indulgence which the Pope published for all that would confess their sins, and enlist in the enterprise of the holy war; whereby they were accepted and received into the bosom of the father of the church. Some authors have presumed to tell us, that it was the original design of the Christian powers, in their enterprise in the Holy Land, to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem; but we cannot discover any good authority for this assertion .5 In modern Masonry it is given as a principle, why our dedication of lodges is made to St. John, that the Masons who engaged to conquer the Holy Land 4 We assign a different reason for those appellations. It is said that the masons who were selected to work at Solomon's temple, were declared free, and invested with other privileges. But the posterity of these masons being carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, when the time was expired, they were set at liberty by Cyrus, and received permission to erect a new temple out of the ruins of the old one. This is the reputed origin of the title of Freemasons.‑EDITOR.
5 There is no good authority for this assertion. The Templars were originally established to defend the pilgrims in their passage to and from the Holy Land; during which they were subjected to insult and injury from Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics. And having erected their domicile on Mount Moriab within the precincts of the temple, they were styled Templars.‑EDITOR.
200THE OCCUPATIONS OF MASONS.201 chose that saint for their patron. We should be sorry to appropriate the Balsarian sect of Christians to St. John as an explanation of this principle; St. John obtains our dedication, as being the proclaimer of that salvation which was at hand by the coming of Christ; and we, as a set of religious assembling in the true faith, commemorate the proclamations of the Baptist. In the name of St. John the Evangelist, we acknowledge the testimonies which he gives, and the divine Xoyov, which he makes manifest. But to return to the subject of the crusaders.
It is probable that the same enthusiastic spirit which engaged men to enter into the crusades, at the vast expense and hazard which history describes, also led them into as enormous a folly in the building of religious houses: during the reign of Henry the Second, when the English first engaged in the holy war, there were not less than one hundred and eleven abbeys, nunneries, and religious houses, founded in this kingdom; during the reign of Richard the First, eighteen; and during the reign of Henry the Third, forty; which shows the religious infatuation which had totally overrun the minds of the people in those reigns. The ecclesiastics, in imitation of the works of Solomon, might become the masters of those works, and superintend and conduct the labours of the inferior sect of haly‑werkfolk; 6 that by acceptable hands such pious works s The rules prescribed for these haly‑werk.folk clearly prove that they were both Operative and Speculative Masons. In an might be conducted, and from whence the ignorant and profane might be rejected, like the Samaritans; these might assume the honorary title of Masons, which from vulgar acceptation, would naturally confound them with ordinary mechanics.
In the Anglo‑Norman Antiquities it is said of Freemasons that they were an association of religious, who engaged in the founding and erecting of churches and religious houses in Palestine.We have already mentioned the religious sect who were really architects and builders of churches, the old MS. in the British Museum, ('llarl. 1942), they are thus stated. " You shall not take any work to do at any excessive and unreasonable rates, or deceive the owner thereof; but so as he may be truly and faithfully served with his own goods. You are to honour God and his holy church : and use no heresy or error, or discredit men's teaching. You are to be true to our sovereign lord the king; committing no treason; misprision of treason, &c. No person shall be accepted a Freemason, unless he shall have a lodge of five Freemasons, at least; whereof one to be Master or Warden of that limit or division wherein such lodge shall be kept; and another of the trade of Freemasonry. No person shall be accepted a Freemason, but such as are of able body, honest parentage, good reputation, and observers of the laws of the land. No person shall be accepted a Freemason, or know the secrets of the said society, until he hash first taken the oath of secrecy hereafter following:‑1, A. B., do, in the presence or Almighty God, and my fellows and brethren here present, promise and declare, that I will not at any time hereafter, by any art or circumstance whatever, directly or indirectly, publish, discover, reveal, or make known, any of the secrets, privileges, or counsels of the fraternity or fellowship of Freemasonry, which at this time, or any time hereafter, shall be made known unto me. So help me God, and the holy contents of this book." This MS. is said to be a copy of one which was written in the 10th century.‑EDITOR.
202THE OCCUPATIONS haly‑werk‑folk, with no small degree of respect; they were a body of men subsisting before the crusades;' they were maintained by the church, under which they held lands for the service of erecting and repairing churches, and for the guarding the sepulchres of saints. It is not improbable, that when the rage of holy works, and holy wars, and the desire of Palestine, fired the minds of all Europe, but a body of those people might embark in the enterprise, and be transported thither to build churches, for the better planting or propagating the Christian doctrine, or to guard and maintain the holy sepulchre. We would be ready at all times to admit that these emigrants might possess some rules and ceremonies for initiation peculiar to themselves, so far as the bearers of burthens were admitted under Solomon in the building at Jerusalem, and that they might retain their singular maxims and principles in secrecy; and, it may also be admitted that, in honour of that gradation of Masonry and of their profession, they should claim the greatest antiquity‑from Solomon's temple at least : they might even be more than a collateral branch of the Free and Accepted Masons, as we have before admitted, and be initiated in the mysteries of Masonry, their occupation being in no wise incompatible with our profession; and they 7 " The two institutions," says Laurie, " of Telnplarism and Freemasonry, were intimately connected. The former took its origin from the latter, and borrowed from it, not only some of its ceremonial observances, but the leading features, and the general outline of its constitution."‑EDITOR.
OF MASONS.203 might be known and distinguished by the title of Operative Masons, as the Essenes were divided into Theoricks and Practicks. But, from the writings of the author of the Anglo‑Norman Antiquities, we are convinced he was not a Free and Accepted Mason himself; arid, as the secrecy of that society had attracted the attention of many, who, as their curiosity was exercised, raised conjectures on the name of Masons to discover their origin and principles, or to reconcile their own opinions; from whence nothing was more likely to strike the attention of an historian than this body of men; the haly‑werk‑folk, rambling in Palestine, were to his purpose.
Were we claimants only of the title of mechanics, we might have chose as ancient and a more honourable branch of the arts and sciences; we might have substituted geometry to a more worthy duty, and have honoured our Maker in some profession more expressive of our sense of his power and dignity.
Our origin in this country is thought to be from the Phcenicians, who came here with the Tyrian Hercules, and introduced the doctrines of Ham and the Amonian rites, together with the Hebrew customs; s and afterwards the emigrants from the Holy Land, who taught us the rules instituted by Solomon at the temple of Jerusalem; and finally, the propagators of the Christian doctrine, who brought with them the principles of the Master's a A full account of both may be found in the Theocratic Philosophy of Freemasonry, lecture vii.‑EDITO1t.
204THE OCCUPATIONS Order, and taught the converted those sacred mysteries which are typical of the Christian faith, and professional of the hope of the resurrection of the body, and the life of regeneration. Yet we fear few among us are equal to the character we have assumed. Our lodges are not now appropriated to worship and religious ceremonies; we meet as a social society, inclined to acts of benevolence, and suffer the more sacred offices to rest unperformed. Whether this neglect is to our honour, we presume not to determine, in our present state professing ourselves Free and Accepted Masons. We are totally severed from architects, and are become a set of men working in the duties of charity, good offices, and brotherly love‑Christians in religion‑sons of liberty and loyal subjects : we have adopted rules, orders, emblems, and symbols, which enjoin us to live a life of morality; we have furnished our lodges with those striking objects which should at once intimate to us the mightiness and wisdom of God, the instability of the affairs of man, and the various vicissitudes of human life, and have set before our eyes preceptors of moral works; and to strengthen our faith, we have enlightened our lodge with the emblem of the Trinity.
It is well known to us, that there is scarce a state in Europe in which our fraternity have not formed a body.9 The wisdom of the ancients would 9 A medal was struck, in 1835, to commemorate the third centenary of a lodge of Freemasons at Cologne; and a book was published, which records the names of nineteen European
OF MASONS.205 pass abroad into many regions; and those who had assisted in the pious labours at Jerusalem would, like Pythagoras, teach the sciences and mysteries which they professed, and communicate the system to which they had been initiated : religious men would retain the doctrines and mysteries with reverence, and with caution reveal them to those they thought worthy to receive; hence the original knowledge would pass into many countries. But there is no accounting for this universality of the society upon the principles of architecture and operative masonry: the rage of church‑building had not contaminated all Europe as it had England.; neither are there any probable means to be deduced from architecture and the practice of builders, why in every tongue and in every kingdom the ceremonials of being made a Mason should be the same. If the honour of architecture was all that was to be regarded in the society, various would be the devices by which the members in each nation would profess it. As architecture, according to its present orders, had its progress from Egypt and Greece, some nations would have borrowed symbols and ensigns peculiar to those people; or we should have had in our ceremonies, or in our workings, some devices which might have distinguished to us the beauties, orders, ornaments, proportions, or
lodges, with their Masters, which in 1,535 were in fraternal communication with each other. One of these lodges was in London, over which Lord Carlton presided; and another at Edinburgh, under the superintendence of John Bruce.‑ED.
206THE OCCUPATIONS symmetries, of some or all of the rules, modes, or orders of architecture, either from the plains of Shinar, from Egypt, Jerusalem, T admore, or Greece; or have retained some geometrical pro blems, on which the general principles of proportion in architecture were grounded or demonstrated but, instead of that, it is well known to us that there is nothing of that kind revealed. On the contrary, our mysteries are totally abstracted from the rules of mechanics; they are relative to religion and morality, and are conducive to pious works; they are unfurnished with any type, symbol, or character, but what appertains to demonstrate the servants and devotees of the great Mevovpavew.
There is not an instance of the European states uniting in any one enterprise, save the holy war; and from thence, we most rationally must conceive, the present number of Masons, dispersed over the face of Europe, was principally derived. The Amonian rites are almost totally extinguished, religious zeal has imbrued the sword in carnage, and Europe has groaned under persecutions; the Romans extirpated the Druids, Christians have glutted their cruel hands with slaughter; bigotry and enthusiasm, in every age, have reigned in bloodshed. By the crusades, the number of our society would be greatly augmented; the occasion itself would revive the rules of Masonry, they being so well adapted to that purpose, and also professional of the Christian faith, from whence sprang the spirit of the enterprise. After these pursuits sub‑
OF MASONS.207 sided, bodies of men would be found in every country from whence the levies were called; and what would preserve the society in every state, even during the persecutions of zealots, the Master Mason's Order, under its present principles, is adapted to every sect of Christians. It originated from the earliest era of Christianity, in honour to, or in confession of, the religion and faith of Christians, before the poison of sectaries was diffused over the church.
To the ancient rules, deduced from Solomon, other laws, rules, and ordinances were added, during the enterprises of the crusaders, for the prevention of riot, luxury, and disorder; and for the maintaining that necessary subordination, which the command of such armies required. Many of those rules we retain in the conduct and government of our lodge, which can in no wise be deduced from any other original.
208 A LECTURE XIV.
A COROLLARY.
WE will conclude these lectures with collecting into one view the propositions and maxims which have engaged our attention throughout the whole work; thereby to give a clear idea of the mysteries of Masonry, the progression and spirit of its institution, origin, and present state.
We may have seemed prolix, and appear to have filled our arguments or representations with repetitions; but where that seeming impropriety takes place, it was necessary to urge a position which contended with some accepted error, prepossession, or vulgar prejudice.
From the ancient rites and ceremonies which we have laid before you, it will be easy for you to trace the origins of our own rites, and to discover the foundations on which our society was erected.
It is evident they had their progress in the postn diluvian world from Ham. We have been under a necessity sometimes to use terms of art, or expressions which to others may not carry distinct and clear images; but to the brethren breathe an energy which flows from the united force of technical
A COROLLARY.209 terms, symbols, and hieroglyphics. When we speak of Masons under the denomination of a society, we mean Masons as embodied in lodges, according to the present manners in which such lodges are held. Our antiquity is in our principles, maxims, language, learning, and religion : those we derive from Eden,' from the patriarchs, and from the sages of the east; all which are made perfect under the Christian dispensation. The light and doctrines which we possess are derived from the beginning of time, and have descended through this long succession of ages uncorrupted; but our modes and manners are deduced from the different eras of paradise, the building of the temple at Jerusalem, and the Christian revelation.
We have explained to you, that the structure of the lodge is a pattern of the universe, and that the first entry of a Mason represents the first worship of the true God. We have retained the Egyptian symbols of the sun and moon, as emblems of God's power, eternity, omnipresence, and benevolence;2 1 ░' WISDOM preserved the first formed father of the world, that was created alone, and brought him out of his fall, and gave him power to rule all things " (Wisd. x. 1, 2.)‑EDITOR.
2 In fact, among all people, a circle was the symbol of the Deity. Thus Hermes Trismegistus, as Alan. Copo (Max. Propos. vii.) asserts, defined God to be an intelligible sphere, whose centre is every where, but whose circumference is indefinable; because, being eternal, no computation of time can estimate his existence. And David said, to the same effect, << Thou art the same, and thy years will have no end." In some countries he was called as the circle of heaven," because the expanse which he was supposed to fill, is boundless.‑EDITOR.
210A COROLLARY.
and thereby we signify, that we are the children of light, and that the first foundation of our profession is the knowledge and adoration of the Almighty, Meo‑ovpaveco, who seateth himself in the centre of the heavens. We derive from the Druids many of the Amonian rites; and are bold to say, that we retain more of the ceremonials and doctrines of the Druids than is to be found in the whole world besides;' and have saved from oblivion many of their religious rites, in our initiation to the first degree of Masonry, which otherwise would have slept in eternity. These we seem to have mixed and tempered with the principles of the Essenes, who are a sect as ancient as the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt. The philosophy of the Egyptians, and the manners, principles, and customs of the Hebrews, were introduced to this land by the Phoenicians, and make a part of our profession, so far as they are adapted to the worship of Nature's great Author, unpolluted by idolatry.
We hold our grand festival on the day of St. John, which is Midsummer‑day; 4 in which we celebrate 3 The knowledge of astronomy, which the Druids undoubtedly possessed, is a strong argument in proof, not only of the primitive population of this island by the very first descendants of the Noachic Ogdoad, who were well versed in this sublime science, but also that this knowledge was accompanied by the patriarchal system of religion; and there can be little doubt but these priests had acquired a proficiency in the science, which cannot be otherwise accounted for; and applied its principles to the practice of Masonry, as is fully exemplified in the remains of their sacred edifices.‑ EDITORς 4 Appendix, A.
A COROLLARY.211 that season when the sun is in its greatest altitude, and in the midst of its prolific powers : the great type of the omnipotence of the Deity.
The famous lawyer, Lord Coke, in his Treatise on Littleton's Institutes, says, 1' Prudent antiquity did, for more solemnity and better memory and observation of that which is to be done, express substances under ceremonies." It has been pointed out to you, that the furnitures of the lodge are emblems excitive of morality and good government : prudence shines in the centre; or if you would apply this object to more sacred principles, it represents the blazing star which conducted the wise men to Bethlehem, and proclaimed the presence of the Son of God. It is here placed in your view, that you may remember to work out the works of salvation, which is at hand : and that you may pass on in acts of strict propriety with great alacrity, the Tessalata or Mosaic‑work intimates to you the chequered diversity and uncertainty of human affairs; that you may not set your hearts on the things of this world, but lay up your treasures where the rust cannot deface their polish and lustre, neither cart the moth despoil the garment for the weddingfeast.
To protect and support us under the infirmities of nature, and lead us to the paths of propriety, the book of true knowledge is in the lodge; the Master circumscribes you, as with the sweep of the compass; and the square is your trial, whereby you
'? 12A COROLLARY.
shall prove the rectitude and uniformity of your manners.
In the next lecture it was demonstrated to you that, to be a worthy servant in the temple of God, you must be clothed with innocence, that your service may stand in approbation, and you may be accepted in heaven. Our jewels are emblems of that good working in a moral mind which adorns the life of man‑faith, charity, and uprightness.
In the succeding lecture you were led to a discernment of the second race of the servants of God under the Mosaic law, the truth being stripped of the errors of idolatry. This stage is adapted to the second gradation of Masonry.
We have argued for the propriety of our adopting geometry in this society, as being a science from whence the mighty powers of God are revealed and demonstrated to mankind.
Afterwards the estate of the worshippers of the Deity was attended to under the corruptions of the house of Israel, and under the rottenness of the old law. In this assembly of Christians, it is nowise requisite to attempt an argument on the necessity which there was upon earth for a Mediator and Saviour for man; in the rubbish, superstitions, ceremonials, and filth of the Jewish temple, the true worship of God was buried and confounded, and innocence became only the ornaments of its monument. Then it was that the Divinity, looking down with an eye of commiseration on the deplorable state of man, in his mercy and love sent us a
A COROLLARY.213 Preceptor and Mediator, who should teach to us the doctrine of regeneration, and raise us from the sepulchre of sin, to which the human race had resigned themselves; he gave to us the precepts of that acceptable service wherewith his father should be well pleased; he made the sacrifice of expiation, and, becoming the first fruits of them that slept, manifested to mankind the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. In the Master's order this whole doctrine is symbolized, and 'the Christian conduct is by types presented to us.
We Masons have adopted three particular characteristics ‑secrecy, charity, and brotherly love. Our sense of these three great duties has been explained, and of what especial import they are of to Masons, or to men who have separated themselves from the rest of mankind, and professed that they are servants of Him who ruleth in the midst of heaven.
Lastly, we have attempted to examine into the origin of our society, and in many instances, wandering without evidence, have been left to probability in conjecture only. It doth not now seem material to us what our originals and predecessors were, if we occupy ourselves in the true Spirit of Masonry; in that divine spirit which inspired the patriarchs when they erected altars unto the Lord; if we are true servants to our king, faithful and true to our chartered liberties, Christians in profession and in practice, and to each other, and mankind in general, affectionate and upright.
214A COROLLARY.
Whether Masons were originally builders5 or religious, it matters not to us in this age : comparing these works with the righteousness to which you have been exhorted, the honour of antiquity would be swallowed up in the virtues of practice, and in the splendour of that light of acceptation, which at once proclaims to the world that we are servants of the true God, who saves our souls alive.
If our ceremonies mean not the matter which has been expressed; if they imply not the moral and religious principles which we have endeavoured to unveil; it may be asked of you, Masons, what they do imply, import, or indicate ? Can we presume so many learned and noble personages would, for many successive ages, have been steady members of this fraternity, if the mysteries were unimportant, and the ceremonies unintelligible? It cannot be; take away their spirit, and they become ridiculous.
Hath it been for ages a maxim of foolish sport, to introduce men to a silly snare, in which the guide, having been entrapped into ridicule, longs to laugh at another for revenge ? It is too ridiculous to be presumed. Besides, if it was only so, the snare might be formed and ornamented with simple things, and there was no need to introduce sacred matters into the device. This renders the conjecture so absurd, that it will bear no further animadversion.
We Masons profess that we are pilgrims in 5 Appendix, P.
A COROLLARY.215 progression from the east. The Almighty planted a garden in the east, wherein he placed the perfection of human nature, the first man full of innocence and divine knowledge, and full of honour, even bearing the image of God.
Learning had its first progression from the east after the Flood; the Egyptians were the first who represented the zodiac, and the first who demonstrated the wisdom of the great Architect of the World in the revolutions of the Heavens; they were the first projectors of the science of Geometry.
In regard to the doctrine of our Saviour and the Christian revelation, it proceeded from the east. The star which proclaimed the birth of the Son of God appeared in the east. The east was an expression used by the prophets to denote the Redeemer. From thence it may well be conceived that we should profess our progress to be from thence; if we profess by being Masons, that we are a society of the servants of that Divinity, whose abode is with the Father co‑eternal, in the centre of the Heavens. But if we profess no such matter, then why should not we have alleged our progress to have been from the north, and the regions of chaos and darkness? But we will, my brethren, forbear all further argument, and close the labours of the year with a sincere exhortation, that you will continue to act in this society as upright and religious men : that you will exert yourselves in the promotion of its honour;
216A COROLLARY.
and let the wicked and ignorant revile ever so maliciously, be strenuous in your duties, as Masons and as Brethren : exercise your benevolence with openness of heart, and your charity with cordiality, and not as hypocrites: with attention endeavour to arrive at the utmost knowledge of your profession, the end of which, we boldly proclaim to you, is to work out the works of righteousness.
APPENDIX.
CONTENTS.
A. A CHARGE FOR THE FESTIVAL OF ST. JOHN.
B. AN ADDRESS FOR A VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION. C. AN ADDRESS TO A BODY OF FREEMASONS.
D. AN ADDRESS AFTER THE EXPULSION OF A MEMBER. E. A CHARGE BY THE W. M. ON LEAVING THE CHAIR.
F. A CHARGE DELIVERED ON THE INSTALLATION OF A W. M. G. AN ADDRESS TO THE NEWLY‑INSTALLED OFFICERS.
H, AN ORATION AT THE DEDICATION OF A NEW MASONIC HALL. I. AN ORATION ON MASONRY.
K. AN ORATION AT THE DEDICATION OF FREEMASONS HALL, IN SUNDERLAND JULY 16, 1778.
L. LETTER FROM MR. LOCKE TO THE EARL OF PEMBROKE. M. AN OLD MANUSCRIPT ON FREEMASONRY. N. REMARKS ON THE OLD MANUSCRIPT.
O. A VINDICATION OF FREEMASONRY.
R A LESSON FOR FREEMASONS.
220APPENDIX.
whose wisdom cannot mistake our happiness, whose goodness cannot contradict it.
It directs us to be peaceable subjects, to give no umbrage to the civil powers, and never to be concerned in plots and conspiracies against the well being of the nation; and as political matters have sown the seeds of discord among the nearest relations and most intimate friends, we are wisely enjoined, in our assemblies, never to speak of them.
It instructs us in our duty to our neighbour; teaches us not to injure him in any of his connections, and, in all our dealings with him, to act with justice and impartiality. It discourages defamation; it bids us not to circulate any whisper of infamy, improve any hint of suspicion, or publish any failure of conduct. It orders us to be faithful to our trusts; not to deceive him who relies upon us; to be above the meanness of dissimulation; to let the words of our mouths express the thoughts of our hearts; and whatsoever we promise religiously to perform.
It teaches inviolable secrecy; bids us never to discover our mystic rites to the unenlightened, nor betray the confidence a brother has placed in us. It warms our hearts with true philanthropy, which directs us never to permit a wretched fellowcreature to pass unnoticed. It makes us stifle enmity, wrath, and dissention; and nourishes love, peace, friendship, and every social virtue. It tells us to seek our happiness in the happiness we bestow, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.
APPENDIX.221 It informs us that we are children of one Father; that man is an infirm, short‑lived creature, who passes away like a shadow; that he is hastening to that place where human titles and distinctions are not considered; where the trappings of pride will be taken away, and virtue alone have the preeminence; and, thus instructed, we profess that merit is the only proper distinction. We are not to vaunt ourselves upon our riches or our honours, but to clothe ourselves with humility; to condescend to men of low estate; to be friends of merit, in whatever rank we find it. We are connected with men of the most indigent circumstances, and, in the lodge (though our order deprives no man of the honour due to his dignity or character), we rank as brethren on a level; and, out of a lodge, we consider the most abject wretch as belonging to the great fraternity of mankind; and, therefore, when it is in our power, it is our duty to support the distressed and patronise the neglected.
It directs us to divest ourselves of confined and bigoted notions, and teaches us that humanity is the soul of religion. We never suffer any religious disputes in our lodges; and, as Masons, we only pursue the universal religion, the religion of nature. Worshippers of the God of Mercy, we believe that, in every nation, he that fears Him and works righteousness is accepted of Him. All Masons, therefore, whether Christians, Jews, or Mahomedans, who violate not the rule of right, written by the Almighty upon the tables of the heart, who do fear
222APPENDIX.
Him and work righteousness, we are to acknowledge as brethren; and, though we take different roads, we are not to be angry with or persecute each other on that account. We mean to travel to the same place; we know that the end of our journey is the same; and we all affectionately hope to meet in the lodge of perfect happiness. How lovely is an institution fraught with sentiments like these !How agreeable must it be to Him who is seated on a throne of everlasting mercy !‑to that God who is no respecter of persons ! It instructs us, likewise, in our duty to ourselves. It teaches us to set bounds to our desires; to curb our sensual appetites; to walk uprightly.
Our order excludes women; not that it refuses to pay a proper regard to the lovely part of the creation, or that it imagines they would not implicitly obey the strictest laws of secrecy; but we know, if they were admitted to our assemblies, that our bosoms must often be inflamed by love; that jealousy would sometimes be the consequence; that then we should be no longer kind brethren but detestable rivals; and that our harmonious institution would by that means be weakened, if not subverted. But, though our order excludes women, it does not forbid our enjoying the pleasures of love; yet it bids us enjoy them in such a manner as the laws of conscience, society, and temperance permit. It commands us, for momentary gratification, not to destroy the peace of families; not to take away the happiness (a happiness with which grandeur
APPENDIX.22 and riches are not to be compared) which thoa experience whose hearts are united by love‑not t profane the first and most holy institution of nature To enjoy the blessings sent by divine beneficence it tells us, is virtue and obedience; but it bids us t avoid the allurements of intemperance, whose sho; hours of jollity are followed by tedious pain an reflection; whose joys turn to madness, and lead t diseases, and to death. Such are the duties whic our order teaches us; and Masonry, the heaven] genius, seems now thus to address us: " The order I have established in every part it, shows consummate wisdom, founded on mor and social virtue; it is supported by strength, ai adorned by beauty; for every thing is found in that can make society agreeable. In the mo striking manner, I teach you to act with proprie: in every station of life; the tools and implemen of architecture, and every thing about you, I ha's contrived to be most expressive symbols to coi vey to you the strongest moral truths. Let yoi improvement be proportionable to your instruction Be not content with the name only of Freemason invested with my ancient and honourable badge ,1 Masons indeed. Think not that it consists only i meeting, and going through the ceremonies which have appointed; these ceremonies, in such an ordi as mine, are necessary, but they are the most imm~ terial part of it, and there are weightier matte which you must not omit, To be Masons indeed, to put in practice the lessons of wisdom and moralit;
224APPENDIX.
" With reverential gratitude, therefore, cheerfully worship the Eternal Providence; bow down yourselves in filial and submissive obedience to the unerring direction of the Mighty Builder; work by his perfect plans, and your edifices shall be beautiful and everlasting.
" I command you to love your neighbour; stretch forth the hand of relief to him, if he be in necessity; if he be in danger, run to his assistance; tell him the truth, if he be deceived; if he be unjustly reproached and neglected, comfort his soul, and sooth it to tranquillity. You cannot show your gratitude to your Creator in a more amiable light than in your mutual regard for each other.
" Pride not yourselves upon your birth (it is of no consequence of what parents any man is born, provided he be a man of merit); or your honours (they are the objects of envy and intemperance, and must, ere long, be laid in the dust); or your riches (they cannot gratify the wants they create); but be meek and lowly of heart. I reduce all conditions to a pleasing and rational equality pride was not made for man; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.
" I am not gloomy and austere; I am a preacher of morality, but not cruel and severe; for I strive to render it lovely to you by the charm of pleasures which leave no sting behind; by moral music, rational joy, and harmless gaiety. I bid you not to abstain from the pleasures of society, or the innocent enjoyments of love and wine : to abstain
APPENDIX.Zl from them is to frustrate the intentions of Provi dence. I enjoin you not to consecrate your hour to solitude : society is the true sphere of humai virtue : and no life can be pleasing to God bu what is useful to man. On this festival, in whit: well pleased, my sons, I see you assemble to hone me, be happy; let no pensive looks profane th general joy, let sorrow cease, let none be wretched and let pleasure and her bosom friends attend th social board. Pleasure is a stranger to every malig nant and unsocial passion; is formed to expanc to exhilarate, and to humanise the heart. Bu pleasure is not to be met with at the table c turbulent festivity : at such meetings there is ofte the vociferation of merriment, but very seldom th tranquillity of cheerfulness; the company inflam their imaginations to a kind of momentary jollit by the help of wine and riot; and consider it a the first business of the night to stupify recollec tion, and lay that reason asleep which disturb their gaiety, and calls upon them to retreat fror ruin. True pleasure disclaims all connection wit indecency and excess, and declines the society c riot‑roaring in the jollity of heart. A sense of th dignity of human nature always accompanies it, an it admits not of any thing that is degrading. Tern perance and cheerfulness are its constant attendant at the social board; but the too lively sallies of th latter are always restrained by the moderation c the former. And yet, my sons, to what do thes
226APPENDIX.
restraints of Masonry, and the instruction I give you with respect to pleasure, amount ? They may all be comprised in a few words, not to hurt yourselves, and not to hurt others, by a wrong pursuit of pleasure. Within these bounds pleasure is lawful; beyond them it is criminal, because it is ruinous. Are these restraints any other than what a Mason would choose to impose on himself ? I call younot to renounce pleasure, but to enjoy it with safety. Instead of abridging it, I exhort you to pursue it on an extensive plan. I propose measures for securing its possession, and for prolonging its duration.
'1 On this festival, I say, Be happy ! But, remember now, and always remember, you are MASONS; and act in such a mariner, that the eyes of the censorious may see nothing in your conduct worthy of reproof, and that the tongue of the slanderer may have nothing to censure, but be put to silence. Be models of virtue to mankind, (examples profit more than precepts), lead uncorrupt lives, do the thing which is right, and speak the truth from your heart; for truth is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and sits upon our lips, and is ready to drop out before you are aware : whereas a lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack; and one falsehood needs a great many more to support it. Slander not your neighbour, nor do him any other evil; but let your good actions con‑
APPENDIX.22 vince the world of the wisdom and advantages of my institution. Oh, my sons ! the unworthiness o: some of those who have been initiated into my order; but who have not made themselves acquainted wits me, and who, because I am a friend to rational gaiety, have ignorantly thought excesses might be indulged in, have been disgraceful to themselves; and have discredited me.
" I therefore warn you to be particularly cautious not to initiate any but such as are worthy; be well assured that their conduct is regulated by virtue; and their bosoms inflamed with the love of knowledge. All are not proper to be initiated intc Masonry, whose influence ought to be universal; but whose privileges should not be made too common; and you are well convinced that there are some amongst us who take the shadow for the substance, who are acquainted with the ceremonies, but catch not the spirit of the profession.
" At the initiation of a candidate, you ought to explain to him the nature and advantages of the order, that his mind may be early and agreeably impressed with its great importance. With the different lectures it is your duty to be well acquainted, and you should constantly endeavour to display the beauties, and to illustrate the difficult parts of them in the most agreeable manner. Then will the man of genius and liberal education associate with you, and contribute to your mutual pleasure and improvement.
228APPENDIX, " Ye are connected, my sons, by sacred ties; I warn you never to weaken, never to be forgetful of them. I have only to add, that I wish you happy. Virtue, my sons, confers peace of mind here, and happiness in the regions of immortality." B.
AN ADDRESS FOR A VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION.
Charity, in the works of moralists, is defined to be the love of our Brethren, or a kind of brotherly affection, by which we are to understand that generous principle of the soul, which respects the human species as one family, created by an All‑wise Being, and placed on this globe for the mutual assistance of each other; it must be unfeigned, constant, and out of no other design than their happiness : this is the attractive principle, or power, that draws men together and unites them in bodies politic, families, societies, and the various orders and denominations among men. Such are the general sentiments entertained of this virtue, and what the moralists define it to be at this day.
But as most of these are partial, contracted, or confined to a particular country, religion, or opinion; our order, on the contrary, is calculated to unite mankind as one family : every individual of which is cemented with the rest, and has a just claim to friendship and regard.
You are taught that the Divine Artificer has thus
APPENDIX.2: cemented you, for the preservation of harmony, that system of things which his unerring wisdo has thought fit to establish : that it is not your o% immediate endeavours to which you are indebti for what you enjoy; the diligence by which yi have acquired, or the genius by which you ha commanded the goods of fortune, were given to p by the Supreme Benevolence; and given not emoluments to yourselves only, or only to employed for your own advantage; that he is t. common Father of all; that he regards the whc species as his children, nor excludes the mean( from his paternal care; and that his mercies (ho' ever partially they may seem to be bestowed) a not given for the advantage of a few, but of t. whole : if he, therefore, have dealt more favourak with you than with thousands around you, equal the works of his hands, and who have the sat claim to his beneficence, look upon yourselves the happy agents employed by him for distributi; his goodness to others; show, by your love to ms your gratitude to God; be truly thankful, and ob his precepts. " Ye are only the stewards of l unlimited bounty," and are, therefore, to look up every human creature, " whatever has the charact of a man, and wears the same image of God tl you do," as truly your brethren, and having a ji claim to your kindness.
The objects of true charity, among Masons, merit and virtue in distress; persons who are capable of extricating themselves from misfortui
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in the journey through life; industrious men, from inevitable accidents and acts of providence, fallen into ruin; widows left survivors of their husbands, by whose labours they subsisted; orphans, in tender years, left naked to the world; and the aged, whose spirits are exhausted, whose arms are unbraced by time, and thereby rendered unable to procure for themselves that sustenance they could accomplish in their youthful days.
For which purpose, the feelings of the heart ought to direct the hand of charity, which requires us to be divested of every idea of superiority, and to estimate ourselves as being of the same rank and race of men. In this disposition of mind we may be susceptible of those sentiments which charity delighteth in; and feel the woes and miseries of others with a genuine and true sympathy of soul in sincerity and truth, and without dissimulation or hypocrisy, we should be always ready to commiserate distress; our hand ever ready to relieve it, and bind up the hearts which sorrow has broken; and thus experience the exalted happiness of communicating happiness to others.
Whilst free from care, we are enjoying the blessings of Providence, we should not forget to raise the drooping spirits, and exhilarate the desponding hearts of our indigent brethren; and whilst we know one worthy brother deprived of the necessaries of life, we ought not to revel in its superfluities.
The very key‑stone, as it were, of our mystical fabric is Charity. Let us cherish this amiable
APPENDIX.231 virtue, let us consider it as the vital principle o: the society, the constant rule of our actions, ant the just square by which we regulate our dealing with all mankind. And though pity may plead in more tender and eloquent terms, for the dis tresses of a brother, yet let us be ready to extent the hand of relief, as far as our circumstances wil admit, to misfortunes of every kind, wherever the; meet us.
But money is not the only thing the unfortunate stand in need of; compassion points out man resources, to those who are not rich, for the relie of the indigent; such as consolation, advice, pro tection, &c. The distressed often stand in neec only of a tongue to make known their complaints they often want no more than a word which the cannot speak, a reason they are ashamed to give or entrance at the door of a great man, which the, cannot obtain.
Therefore, whilst you are in plenty, regaling any enjoying the blessings sent you by a beneficen Parent of the universe, you will not be deaf to th pathetic voice of compassion, or divest yourselve of benevolent thoughts and social affections; yoi will not shut out from your minds the calamities c distressed brethren, to whom a morsel of bread i wanting; nor forget your obligations as men, you obligations as Masons, to relieve them.
When you have afforded the children of misfortun such consolation as prudence directs, you will enjo the pleasures presented to you with greater relish
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I say as prudence directs; for you are not under such obligations to liberality that nothing will excuse you from it: Masonry teaches you, that charity must be preceded by justice : and unless a distressed brother's calamities call for instant assistance, when humanity prompts you to bestow bounties; or when others call upon you so to do; you must not be unmindful of those whom Nature has more immediately connected to you.
If you cannot bestow alms on the necessitous, you may recommend them to those who can; you may drop a tear over their misfortunes, and in something or other be serviceable to them; and in whatever way you can contribute your mite. Charity with pleasure will accept of it; she will consider the principles by which you were influenced, and if these were proper, she will tell you, you have done your duty, that you have her applause, and that, in due time, you will plenteously gather the happy fruits of your benevolence.
The man who loves his fellow‑creatures, who sympathises in their miseries, and who anxiously wishes it was in his power to relieve them, though his circumstances allow him to give no pecuniary assistance, is very charitable : for gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence of this virtue. A man may bestow great sums on the poor and indigent without being charitable; and may be charitable when he is not able to bestow any thing. Charity, therefore, is a habit of good‑will or benevolence in the soul, which disposes us to the love,
APPENDIX.28 assistance, and relief of mankind, especially o1 those who stand in need of it.
By inspiring gladness into a heart oppressed with want, you receive the most rapturous, the most durable pleasure, of which the heart is capable and so far as you are thoroughly sensible of the satisfaction which arises from doing good, and that the best way of enlarging human happiness is b) communicating it to others, so truly are you Masons and as such you will always have a tear of tenderness ready to shed over the unfortunate, and be ever ready to do them kind offices; your hands will never be shut when benevolence commands them to bt opened; and when a collection is to be made for charitable purposes, you will cheerfully throw it your mite to increase it.
Whatever collection is now made, you may bt assured will be religiously appropriated for tht purposes for which you design it; industrious, but unfortunate brethren, and not the idle and dissolute will be partakers of it : some part of it will go tc the dwellings of poverty and disease, there to pro, cure bread for the hungry, and medicines for the sick; and some part of it will rejoice the hearts o the aged.
C.
AN ADDRESS TO A BODY OF FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS.
The chief pleasures of society, viz., good con versation, and the consequent improvements, are rightly presumed, brethren, to be the principa
284APPENDIX, motive of our first entering into, and then of propagating our craft; wherein those advantages, I am bold to say, may be better met with, than in any society now in being : provided we are not wanting to ourselves, and will but consider, that the basis of our order is indissoluble friendship, and the cement of it, unanimity and brotherly love.
That these may always subsist in this society is the sincere desire of every worthy brother; and that they rnav do so in full perfection here, give me leave to lay before you a few observations, wherein are pointed out those things which are the most likely to discompose the harmony of conversation, especially when it turns upon controverted points. It is, brethren, a very delicate thing to interest one's self in a dispute, and yet preserve the decorum due to the occasion. To assist us a little in this matter is the subject of what I have at present to offer to your consideration; and I doubt not but the bare mention of what may be disagreeable in any kind of debate will be heedfully avoided by a body of men,.united by the bonds of brotherhood, and under the strictest ties of mutual love and forbearance.
By the outward demeanor it is that the inward civility of the mind is generally expressed; the manner and circumstances of which, being much governed and influenced by the fashion and usage of the place where we live, must, in the rule and practice of it, be learned by observation, and the carriage of those who are allowed to be polite and well‑bred. But the more essential part of civility
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235 lies deeper than the outside, and is that general good‑will, that decent regard, and personal esteem, for every man, which makes us cautious of showing in our carriage towards him any contempt, disrespect or neglect. It is a disposition that makes us ready on all occasions to express, according to the usual way and fashion of address, a respect, a value, and esteem for him, suitable to his rank, quality, and condition in life. It is, in a word, a disposition of the mind visible in the carriage, whereby a man endeavours to shun making another uneasy in his company.
For the better avoiding of which, in these our conventions, suffer me, brethren, to point out to you four things, directly contrary to this the most proper and most acceptable conveyance of the social virtues; from some one of which incivility will generally be found to have its rise; and of consequence, that discord and want of harmony in conversation are too frequently to be observed.
The first of these is a natural roughness, which makes a man unpleasant to others; so that he retains no deference, nor has any regard to the inclinations, temper, or condition of those he converses with. It is the certain mark of a clown not to mind what either pleases or offends those he is engaged with. And yet, one may sometimes meet with a man, in clean and fashionable clothes, giving an absolute, unbounded swing to his own humour herein, and suffering it to jostle or overbear every thing that stands in its way, with a perfect indiffer‑
236APPENDIX.
ence how people have reason to take it. This is a brutality every one sees and abhors. It is what no one can approve, or be easy with; and therefore it finds no place with those who have any tincture of good‑breeding; the end and design of which is to supple our natural stiffness, and to soften men's tempers, that they may bend and accommodate themselves to those with whom they have to do.
Contempt is the second thing inconsistent with good‑breeding, and is entirely averse to it. And if this want of respect be discovered, either in a man's looks, words, or gestures, come it from whom it will, it always brings uneasiness and pain along with it for nobody can contentedly bear to be slighted.
A third thing of the like nature is censoriousness, or a disposition to find fault with others. Men, whatever they are guilty of, would not choose to have their blemishes displayed and set in open view. Failings always carry some degree of shame with them; and the discovery, or even imputation of any defect, is not borne by them without uneasiness.
Raillery must be confessed to be the most refined way of exposing the faults of others; and, because it is commonly done with some wit, in good language, and entertains the company, people are apt to be led into a mistake, that where it keeps within fair bounds, there is no incivility in it. The pleasantry of this sort of conversation introduces it often, therefore, among people of the better sort; and such talkers, it must be owned, are well heard, and generally'applauded by the laughter of the standers
APPENDIX.237 by: but it ought at the same time to be considered, that the entertainment of the company is at the cost of the person made the object of ridicule; who, therefore, cannot be without some uneasiness on the occasion, unless the subject on which he is rallied be matter of commendation; in which case, the pleasant images which make the raillery carry with them praise as well as sport; and, the rallied person finding his account in it, may also take a part in the diversion.
But in regard to the right management of so nice a point, wherein the least slip may spoil all, is not every body's talent, it is better that such as would be secure of not provoking others, should wholly abstain from raillery, which, by a small mistake, or wrong turn, may leave upon the minds of those who are stung by it the lasting memory of having been sharply, though wittily, taunted, for something censurable in them.
Contradiction is also a kind of censoriousness, wherein ill‑breeding much too often shows itself. Complaisance does not require that we should admit of all the reasonings, or silently approve of all the accounts of things that may be vented in our hearing. The opposing the ill‑grounded opinions, and the rectifying the mistakes of others, is what truth and charity sometimes require of us; nor does civility forbid it, so it be done with proper caution and due care of circumstances. But there are some men who seem so perfectly possessed, as it were, with the spirit of contradiction and perverseness, that
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they steadily, and without regard either to right or wrong, oppose some one, and perhaps every of the company, in whatsoever is advanced. This is so evident and outrageous a degree of censuring, that none can avoid thinking himself injured by it.
All sort of opposition to what another man says is so apt to be suspected of censoriousness, and is so seldom received without some sort of humiliation, that it ought to be made in the gentlest manner, and couched in the softest expressions that can be found, and such as, with the whole deportment, may express no forwardness to contradict. All possible marks of respect and good‑will ought to accompany it, that, whilst we gain the argument, we may not lose the good inclinations of any that hear, and especially of those that happen to differ from us.
And here we ought not to pass by an ordinary but a very great fault, that frequently happens in almost every dispute; I mean that of interrupting others while they are speaking. This is a failing which the members of the best regulated confraternities among us have endeavoured to guard against in the bye‑laws of their respective societies, and is what the W. person in the chair should principally regard, and see well put in execution. Yet, as it is an ill practice that prevails much in the world, and especially where less care is taken, it cannot be improper to offer a word or two against it here.
There cannot be a greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse; for if it be not impertinence and folly to answer a
APPENDIX.239 man before we know what he has to say, yet it is a plain declaration that we are weary of his discourse; that we disregard what he says, as judging it not fit to entertain the society with; and is, in fact, little less than a downright desiring that ourselves may have audience, who have something to produce better worth the attention of the company. As this is no ordinary degree of disrespect, it cannot but give always very great offence.
The fourth thing, brethren, that is against civility, and, therefore, apt to overset the harmony of conversation, is captiousness. And it is so, not only because it often produces misbecoming and provoking expressions and behaviour in a part of the company, but because it is a tacit accusation and a reproach for something ill taken from those we are displeased with. Such an intimation, or even suspicion, must always be uneasy to society; and as one angry person is sufficient to discompose a whole company, so, for the most part, all mutual happiness and satisfaction ceases therein on any such jarring. This failing, therefore, should be guarded against with as much care as either the boisterous rusticity and insinuated contempt, or the ill‑natured disposition to censure, already considered and disallowed of. For as peace, ease, and satisfaction, are what constitute the pleasure, the happiness, and are the very soul of conversation, if these be interrupted the design of society is undermined; and, in that circumstance, how should brotherly love continue? Certain it is that unless good order, decency, and
240APPENDIX.
temper be preserved by the individuals of society, confusion will be introduced, and a dissolution will naturally very quickly follow.
What, therefore, remains is to remind the brethren that Masons have ever been lovers of order. It is the business of their particular profession to reduce all rude matter to truth. Their aphorisms recommend it. The number of their lights, and the declared end of their coming together, intimate the frame and disposition of mind wherewith they are to meet, and the manner of their behaviour when assembled.
Shall it, then, ever be said, that those who by choice are distinguished from the gross of mankind, and who voluntarily have enrolled their names in this most ancient and honourable society, are so far wanting to themselves and the order they profess, as to neglect its rules? Shall those, who are banded and cemented together by the strictest ties of amity, omit the practice of forbearance and brotherly love? Or shall the passions of those persons ever become ungovernable who assemble purposely to subdue them ? We are, let it be considered, the successors of those who reared a structure to the honour of Almighty God, the Great Architect of the world, which for wisdom, strength, and beauty, has never yet had any parallel. We are intimately related to those great and worthy spirits who have ever made it their business and their aini to improve themselves and to inform mankind. Let us then copy
APPENDIX.241 their example, that we may also hope to obtain a share in their praise. This cannot possibly be done in a scene of disorder; pearls are never found but when the sea is calm, and silent water is generally deepest.
It has been long, and still is, the glory and happiness of this society to have its interest espoused by the great, the noble, and the honoured of the land : persons who after the example of the wisest and grandest of kings, esteem it neither condescension nor dishonourable to patronise and encourage the professors of the Craft. It is our duty, in return, to do nothing inconsistent with this favour; and, being members of this body, it becomes us to act in some degree suitable to the honour we receive from our illustrious Head.
If this be done at our general meetings, every good and desirable end will the better be promoted among us. The Craft will have the advantage of being governed by good, wholesome, and dispassionate laws; the business of the lodge will be smoothly and effectually carried on; your officers will communicate their sentiments, and receive your opinions and advice with pleasure and satisfaction; in a word, true Masonry will flourish; and those that are without will soon come to know that there are more substantial pleasures to be found, as well as greater advantages to be reaped, in our society, orderly conducted, than can possibly be met with in any other bodies of men, how magnificent soever their pretensions may be. For none can be so
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amiable as that which promotes brotherly love, and fixes that as the grand cement of all our actions; to the performance of which we are bound by an obligation both solemn and awful, and that entered into by our own free and deliberate choice; and, as it is to direct our lives and actions, it can never be too often repeated nor too frequently inculcated.
D.
AN ADDRESS AFTER THE EXPULSION OF A MEMBER, WHO HAD BEEN REPEATEDLY, BUT IN VAIN, ADMONISHED FOR BACKBITING AND SLANDERING HIS BRETHREN.
BRETHREN,‑As, in all numerous bodies and societies of men, some unworthy characters will ever be found, it can be no wonder that, notwithstanding the excellent principles and valuable precepts laid down and inculcated by our venerable institution, we have such amongst us; men who, instead of being ornaments or useful members of our body, I am sorry to say, are a shame and disgrace to it ! These are sufficiently characterised by a natural propensity to backbite and slander their brethren; a vice truly detestable in all men, and more particularly so in Freemasons, who, by the regulations of their institution, are especially exhorted and enjoined " to speak as well of a brother when absent as present; to defend his honour and reputation wherever attacked, as far as truth and justice will permit; and, where they cannot reasonably vindicate him, at least to refrain from contributing to condemn him."
APPENDIX.243 But, alas ! regardless of their duty in general, and of these laudable injunctions in particular, we frequently find such men assiduously employed in traducing the characters of their brethren; and, instead of rejoicing at their good fortune, pitying their misfortunes, and apologising for their weaknesses and errors, envying their prosperity, and (unaffected by their adversity), with a secret and malicious pleasure exploring and publishing their defects and failings; like trading‑vessels, they pass from place to place, receiving and discharging whatever calumny they can procure from others, or invent themselves.
As we have just now had a mortifying instance of the necessary consequence of such base conduct, in the expulsion of one of our members, permit me to deliver to you some sentiments of the great Archbishop Tillotson on the subject. He assigns various causes of this evil, and also furnishes directions, which, if adhered to, will greatly contribute to prevent and remedy it.
" If we consider the causes of this evil practice, we shall find one of the most common is ill‑nature; and, by a general mistake, ill‑nature passeth for wit, as cunning does for wisdom; though, in truth, they are as different as vice and virtue.
" There is no greater evidence of the bad temper of mankind than their proneness to evil‑speaking. For ' out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,' and therefore we commonly incline to the censorious and uncharitable side.
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" The good spoken of others we easily forget, or .eldotn mention; but the evil lies uppermost in our memories, and is ready to be published on all occasions; nay, what is more ill‑natured and unjust, though many times we do not believe it ourselves, we tell it to others, and venture it to be believed according to the charity of those to whom it is told.
" Another cause of the frequency of this vice is, that many are so bad themselves. For to think and speak ill of others is not only a bad thing, but a sign of a bad man. When men are bad themselves, they are glad of any opportunity to censure others, and endeavour to bring things to a level, hoping it will be some justification of their own faults if they can but make others appear equally guilty.
" A third cause of evil‑speaking is malice and revenge. When we are blinded by our passions we do not consider what is true, but what is mischievous; we care not whether the evil we speak be true or not : nay, many are so base as to invent and raise false reports, on purpose to blast the reputations of those by whom they think themselves injured.
" A fourth cause of this vice is envy. Men look with an evil eye upon the good that is in others, and do what they can to discredit their commendable qualities; thinking their own character lessened by them, they greedily entertain, and industriously publish, what may raise themselves upon the ruins of other men's reputations.
14 A fifth cause of evil‑speaking is impertinence
APPENDIX.244 and curiosity; an itch of talking of affairs which do not concern us. Some love to mingle themselves in all business, and are loath to seem ignorant o' such important news as the faults and follies o: men; therefore, with great care, they pick up it stories to entertain the next company they meet not perhaps out of malice, but for want of somethinΗ better to talk of.
" Lastly, many do this out of wantonness, and foi diversion; so little do they consider a man's repu. tation as too great and tender a concern to be jested with; and that a slanderous tongue bites like s serpent, and cuts like a sword. What can be sc barbarous, next to sporting with a man's life, as tc play with his honour and good name, which to some is better than life ? Such, and so bad, are the cause: of this vice.
" If we consider its pernicious effects we shall find that, to such as are slandered, it is a great injury, commonly a high provocation, but always matter of grief. It is certainly a great injury; and, if the evil which we say of them be not true, it is an injury beyond reparation. It is an injury that descends to a man's children; because the good or ill name of the father is derived down to them, and many times the best thing he has to leave them is an unblemished virtue. And do we make no conscience to rob his innocent children of the best part of his small patrimony, and of all the kindnesses that would have been done them for their father's sake, if his reputation had not been undeservedly
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stained ? Is it no crime, by the breath of our mouth, at once to blast a man's reputation, and to ruin his children, perhaps to all posterity ? Can we jest with so serious a matter? an injury so very hard to be repented of as it ought; because in such a case, no repentance will be acceptable without restitution, if in our power.
" Even supposing the matter of the slander true, yet no man's reputation is considerably injured, though never so deservedly, without great hurt to him; and it is odds but the charge, by passing through several hands, is aggravated beyond truth, every one being apt to add something to it.
"Besides the injury, it is commonly a high provocation; the consequence of which may be dangerous and desperate quarrels. One way or other the injured person will hear of it, and will take the first opportunity to revenge it. At best it is always a matter of grief to the person that is defamed; and Christianity, which is the best‑natured institution in the world, forbids us to do those things whereby we may grieve one another.
" A man's character is a tender thing, and a wound there sinks deep into the spirit even of a wise and good man; and the more innocent any man is in this respect, the more sensible he is of this uncharitable treatment; because he never treats others so, nor is he conscious to himself that he has deserved it. To ourselves the consequences of this vice are as bad or worse. He that accustoms himself to speak evil of others gives a bad character
APPENDIX.24 to himself, even to those whom he desires to pleas( who, if they be wise, will conclude that he speaks t them of others as he does of others to them.
"And this practice of evil‑speaking may be incor venient many other ways. For who knows in th chance of things, and the mutability of huma affairs, whose kindness he may stand in need ( before he dies? So that did a man only consu. his own safety and quiet he ought to refrain fror evil‑speaking.
" How cheap a kindness it is to speak well, a least not to speak ill, of others. A good word is a easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires on] our silence. Some instances of charity are chargΗ able; but, were a man ever so covetous, he inigf afford another his good word; at least, he inigl refrain from speaking ill of him, especially if it b considered how dear many have paid for a slander ous and reproachful word.
" No quality ordinarily recommends one more t the favour of men than to be free from this vic4 Such a man's friendship every one desires; an( next to piety and righteousness, nothing is thougl a greater commendation than that he was never, c very rarely, heard to speak ill of any. Let ever man lay his hand upon his heart and consider ho himself is apt to be affected with this usage. Nothin,, sure, is more equal and reasonable than that know rule, what thou wouldst have no man do to thee, thl do thou to no man.
"The following directions, if duly observed, wi
18APPENDIX.
eatly contribute to the prevention and cure of this peat evil. Never say any evil of another but what ╗ I certainly know. Whenever you positively ‑cuse a man of any crime, though it be in private id among friends, speak as if you were upon your Lth, because God sees and hears you. This, not ily charity, but justice demands of us. He that tsily credits a false report is almost as culpable as ie first inventor of it. Therefore never speak evil any upon common fame, which, for the most part, false, but almost always uncertain.
" Before you speak evil of another, consider hether he has not obliged you by some real kindass, and then it is a bad turn to speak ill of him iat has done you good. Consider also whether )u may not come hereafter to be acquainted with m, related to him, or in want of his favour, whom )u have thus injured, and whether it may not be his power to revenge a spiteful and needless word;~ a shrewd turn. So that if a man made no mscience of hurting others, yet he should, in prumce, have some consideration of himself. "Let us accustom ourselves to be truly sorry for Le faults of men, and then we shall take no pleasure publishing them. Common humanity requires is of us, considering the great infirmities of our Lture, and that we are also liable to be tempted; msidering likewise how severe a punishment every ime is to itself, how terribly it exposes a man to e wrath of God, both here and hereafter. 11 Whenever we hear any man evil spoken of, if
APPENDIX.249 we have heard any good of him, let us say that. It is always more humane and more honourable to vindicate others than to accuse them. Were it necessary that a man should be evil spoken of, his good and bad qualities should be represented together, otherwise he may be strangely misrepresented, and an indifferent man may be made a monster.
" They that will observe nothing in a wise man but his oversights and follies; nothing in a good man but his failings and infirmities, may render both despicable. Should we heap together all the passionate speeches, all the imprudent actions of the best man, and present them all at one view,‑concealing his virtues,‑he, in this disguise, would look like a madman or fury; and yet, if his life were fairly represented in the manner it was led, he would appear to all the world to be an amiable and excellent person. But how numerous soever any man's ill qualities are, it is but just that lie should have due praise for his few real virtues.
" That you may not speak ill, do not delight in hearing it of any. Give no countenance to busybodies: if you cannot decently reprove them because of their quality, divert the discourse some other way, or, by seeming not to mind it, signify that you do not like it. Let every man mind his own duty and concern. Do but in good earnest endeavour to mend yourself, and it will be work enough, and leave you little time to talk of others." In the foregoing sentiments, the backbiter and
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slanderer may see himself fully represented, as in a true mirror; and, detestable as the spectacle naturally appears, much more so does it seem when masonically examined. May all such, therefore, contemplate the nature and consequences of this abominable vice; and that they may still become worthy men and Masons, let them constantly pray with the royal Psalmist, " Set a watch, 0 Lord ! before my mouth, keep thou the door of my lips;" being assured, for their encouragement, that " He who backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour, shall abide in the tabernacle of the Lord, and shall dwell in his holy hill." E.
A CHARGE DELIVERED BY THE WORSHIPFUL MASTER ON
RESIGNING THE CHAIR.
WORTHY BRETHREN, ‑Providence having placed me in such a sphere in life as to afford me but little time for speculation, I cannot pretend to have made mankind my particular study, yet this I have observed, that curiosity is one of the most prevailing passions in the human breast. The mind of man is kept in a perpetual thirst after knowledge, nor can he bear to be ignorant of what he thinks others know. Any thing secret or new immediately excites an uneasy sensation, and becomes the proper fuel of curiosity, which will be found stronger or weaker in proportion to the opportunities that individuals have
APPENDIX.251 for indulging it. It is observable further that, when this passion is excited and not instantly gratified, instead of waiting for better intelligence, and using the proper means of removing the darkness that envelopes the object of it, we precipitately form ideas which are generally in the extremes. If the object promotes pleasure or advantage, we then load it with commendations; if it appears in the opposite view, or if we are ignorant of it, we then absurdly as well as disingenuously condemn, and pretend, at least, to despise it. This, my brethren, has been the fate of the most valuable institution in the world, Christianity excepted‑I mean Freemasonry. Those who are acquainted with the nature and design of it cannot, if they have good hearts, but admire and espouse it; and if those who are in the dark, or whose minds are disposed to evil, should slight or speak disrespectfully of it, it is certainly no disgrace. When order shall produce confusion, when harmony shall give rise to discord, and proportion shall be the source of irregularity, then, and not till then, will Freemasonry be unworthy the patronage of the great, the wise, and the good.
To love as brethren, to be ready to communicate, to speak truth one to another, are the dictates of reason and revelation; and you know that they are likewise the foundation, the constituent parts of Freemasonry.
None, therefore, who believe the divine original of the sacred volume, and are influenced by a spirit
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of humanity, friendship, and benevolence, can with the least propriety object to our ancient and venerable institution.
For my own part, ever since I have had the honour to be enrolled in the list of Masons, as I knew it was my duty, so I have made it my business, to become acquainted with the principles on which our glorious superstructure is founded. And, like the miner, the farther I have advanced the richer has been my discovery; and the treasure, constantly opening to my view, has proved a full and satisfactory reward of all my labours.
By the rules of this lodge, I am now to resign the chair. But I cannot do this with entire satisfaction until I have testified the grateful sense I feel of the honour I received in being advanced to it.
Your generous and unanimous choice of me for your Master demands my thankful acknowledgments, though, at the same time, I sincerely wish that my abilities had been more adequate to the charge which your kind partiality elected me to. But this has always been, and still is, my greatest consolation, that, however deficient I may have been in the discharge of my duty, no one can boast a heart more devoted to the good of the institution in general, and the reputation of this lodge in particular.
Though I am apprehensive I have already trespassed on your patience, yet, if I might be indulged, I would humbly lay before you a few reflections, adapted to the business of the day, which, being the
APPENDIX.2& effusions of a heart truly Masonic, will, it is hoped be received with candour by you.
Every association Of men, as well as this of Free masons must, for the sake of order and harmony be regulated by certain laws, and, for that purpose proper officers must be appointed, and empowerec to carry those laws into execution, to preserve degree of uniformity, at least to restrain any irre gularity that might render such associations incon sistent. For we may as reasonably suppose ar army may be duly disciplined, well provided, an( properly conducted, without generals and other officers, as that a society can be supported withou governors and their subalterns; or, which is the same, without some form of government to answer the end of the institution. And, as such an arς rangement must be revered, it becomes a necessar3 requisite that a temper should be discovered in the several members adapted to the respective station; they are to fill.
This thought will suggest to you, that those who are qualified to preside as officers in a lodge, will not be elated with that honour, but, losing sight of it, will have only in view the service their office demands. Their reproofs will be dictated by friendship, softened by candour, and enforced with mildness and affection; in the whole of their deportment they will preserve a degree of dignity, tempered with affability and ease. This conduct, while it endears them to others, will not fail to raise their own reputation; and as envy should not
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be so much as once named among Freemasons, it will effectually prevent the growth of it, should it unfortunately ever appear.
Such is the nature of our constitution, that as some must of necessity rule and teach, so others must of course learn to obey; humility therefore, in both, becomes an essential duty; for pride and ambition, like a worm at the root of a tree, will prey on the vitals of our peace, harmony, and brotherly love.
Had not this excellent temper prevailed when the foundation of Solomon's temple was first laid, it is easy to see that that glorious edifice would never have rose to a height of splendour which astonished the world.
Had all employed in this work been masters or superintendants, who must have prepared the timber in the forest, or hewn the stone in the quarry? Yet, though they were numbered and classed under different denominations, as princes, rulers, provosts, comforters of the people, stone‑squarers, sculptors, &c., such was their unanimity, that they seemed actuated by one spirit, influenced by one principle.
Merit alone then entitled to preferment; an indisputable instance of which we have in the Deputy Grand Master of that great undertaking, who, without either wealth or power, or any other distinction than that of being the widow's son, was appointed by the Grand Master, and approved by the people for this single reason‑because he was a skilful artificer.
APPENDIX.2.
Let these considerations, my worthy brethrf animate us in the pursuits of so noble a scieni that we may all be qualified to fill, in rotation, t most distinguished places in the lodge, and ke the honours of the craft, which are the just rewal of our labour, in a regular circulation.
And, as none are less qualified to govern th those who have not learned to obey, permit me, the warmest manner, to recommend to you all constant attendance in this place, a due obedien to the laws of our institution, and a respects submission to the direction of your officers, tl you may prove to mankind the propriety of yo election, and secure the establishment of this socie to the latest posterity.
F.
A SHORT CHARGE DELIVERED TO THE MASTER, ON BEING
INVESTED AND INSTALLED.
WORSHIPFUL SIR,‑‑By the unanimous voi of the members of this lodge, you are elected the mastership thereof for the ensuing half‑yea and I have the happiness of being deputed to inv4 you with this ensign of your office: be it ever your thoughts that the ancients particularly hf this symbol to be a just, a striking emblem of t Divinity. They said the gods, who are the authf of every thing established in wisdom, strength, a beauty, were properly represented by this figu May you, worthy brother, not only consider it mark of honour in this assembly, but also let
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ever remind you of your duty both to God and man. And, as you profess the sacred volume to be your spiritual tressel‑board, may you make it your particular care to square your life and conversation according to the rules and designs laid down therein.
You have been of too long standing, and are too good a member of our community, to require now any information in the duty of your office. What you have seen praiseworthy in others, we doubt not you will imitate; and what you have seen defective, you will in yourself amend.
We have therefore the greatest reason to expect you will be constant and regular in your attendance on the lodge, faithful and diligent in the discharge of your duty, and that you will make the honour of the supreme Architect of the universe, and the good of the craft, chief objects of your regard.
We likewise trust you will pay a punctual attention to the laws and regulations of this society, as more particularly becoming your present station; and that you will, at the same time, require a due obedience to them from every other member, well knowing that, without this, the best of laws become useless.
For a pattern of imitation, consider the great luminary of nature, which, rising in the east, regularly diffuses light and lustre to all within its circle. In like manner it is your province, with due decorum, to spread and communicate light and instruction to the brethren in the lodge.
APPENDIX.25; From the knowledge we already have of you] zeal and abilities, we rest assured you will dischargE the duties of this important station in such a manner as will redound greatly to the honour of yourself as well as of those members over whom you arΗ elected to preside.
G.
AN ADDRESS TO THE LODGE, IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE INVESTITURE AND INSTALMENT OT THE OFFICERS.
BRETHREN,‑I flatter myself there is no Mason of my acquaintance insensible of the sincere regard I ever had, and hope ever to retain, for our venerable institution; certain I am if this establishment should ever be held in little esteem by the members, it must be owing to the want of a due sense of the excellence of its principles, and the salutary laws and social duties on which it is founded.
But sometimes mere curiosity, views of selfinterest, or a groundless presumption, that the principal business of the lodge is mirth and entertainment, have induced men of loose principles and discordant tempers to procure admission into our community; this, together with an unpardonable inattention of those who proposed them, to their lives and conversations, have constantly occasioned great discredit and uneasiness to the craft; such persons being no ways qualified for a society founded upon wisdom, and cemented by morality and Christian love.
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Therefore, let it be your peculiar care to pay strict attention to the merit and character of those who, from among the circle of your acquaintance, may be desirous of becoming members of our society, lest, through your inadvertency, the unworthy part of mankind should find means to introduce themselves among you, whereby you will discourage the reputable and worthy.
Self‑love is a reigning principle in all men; and there is not a more effectual method of ingratiating ourselves with each other than by mutual complaisance and respect; by agreement with each other in judgment and practice. This makes society pleasing, and friendship durable; which can never be the case when men's principles and dispositions are opposite and not adapted for unity. We must be moved by the same passions, governed by the same inclinations, and moulded by the same morals, before we can please or be pleased in society. No community or place can make a man happy, who is not furnished with a temper of mind to relish felicity. The wise and royal Grand Master, Solomon, tells us, and experience confirms it, " that the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is to behold the sun." Yet, for this pleasure, we are wholly indebted to that astonishing piece of heavenly workmanship, the eye, and the several organs of sight. Let the eye be distempered, and all objects, which, though they remain the same in themselves, to us lose their beauty and lustre; let the eye be totally destroyed, then the sense which depends upon it is lost also,
APPENDIX.259 and the whole body is full of darkness. So is it with that Mason who has not a frame and temper of mind adapted to our institution, without which the blended allurements of pleasure and instruction to be found in the lodge must become tasteless and of no effect. Likewise, let his conduct and circumstances in life be such as may not have the least tendency to diminish the credit of the society; and be ye ever disposed to honour good men for their virtues, and wise men for their knowledge : good men for propagating virtue and religion all over the world, and wise men for encouraging arts and sciences, and diffusing them from east to west, and between north and south; rejecting all who are not of good repute, sound morals, and competent understanding. Hence you will derive honour and happiness to yourselves, and drink deeply of those streams of felicity which the unenlightened can never be indulged with a taste of.
For, by these means, excess and irregularity must be strangers within your walls. On sobriety your pleasure depends, on regularity your reputation; and not your reputation only, but the reputation of the whole body.
These general cautions, if duly attended to, will continually evince your wisdom by their effects; for it is known by experience that nothing contributes more to the dissolution of a lodge than too great a number of members indiscriminately made; want of regulation in their expenses, and keeping unseasonable hours.
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To guard against this fatal consequence we shall do well to cultivate the following virtues, viz., prudence, temperance, and frugality; virtues which are the best and properest supports of every community.
Prudence is the Queen and guide of all other virtues, the ornament of our actions, the square and rule of our affairs. It is the knowledge and choice of those things we must either approve or reject; and implies to consult and deliberate well, to judge and resolve well, to conduct and execute well.
Temperance consists in the government of our appetites and affections, so to use the good things of this life as not to abuse them; either by a sordid and ungrateful parsimony on the one hand, or a profuse and prodigal indulgence to excess on the other. This virtue has many powerful arguments in its favour; for, as we value our health, wealth, reputation, family, and friends, our characters as men, as Christians, as members of society in general, and as Freemasons in particular, all conspire to call on us for the exercise of this virtue; in short, it comprehends a strict observance of the Apostle's exhortation, "be ye temperate in all things;" not only avoiding what is in itself improper, but also whatever has the least or most remote appearance of impropriety, that the tongue of the slanderer may be struck dumb, and malevolence disarmed of its sting.
Frugality, the natural associate of prudence and temperance, is what the meanest station necessarily
APPENDIX.26 calls for, and the most exalted cannot dispense wit] It is absolutely requisite in all stations; it is high] necessary to the supporting of every desirab] character, to the establishment of every society, t the interest of every individual in the communit,i It is a moral, it is a Christian virtue. It impliE the strict observation of decorum in the seasons c relaxation, and of every enjoyment; and is the temper of mind which is disposed to employ ever acquisition only to the glory of the giver, our ow happiness, and that of our fellow‑creatures.
If we fail not in the exercise of these virtuE (which are essential supports of every lodge ( Free and Accepted Masons), they will effectual] secure us from those unconstitutional practicE which have proved so fatal to this society. Fc prudence will discover the absurdity and folly c expecting true harmony, without due attention t the choice of our members. Temperance wi check every appearance of excess, and fix ration, limits to our hours of enjoyment; and frugalit will proscribe extravagance, and keep our expens( within proper bounds.
The Lacedoemonians had a law among they that every one should serve the gods with as littl expense as he could, herein differing from all oth( Grecians; and Lycurgus, being asked for wh; reason he made this institution so disagreeable the sentiments of all other men ? answered, le the service of the gods should at any time I intermitted; for he feared if religion should be
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APPENDIX.263 expensive there as in other parts of Greece, it might some time or other happen that the divine worship, out of the covetousness of some, and the poverty of others, would be neglected. This observation will hold equally good with respect to Masons, and will, I hope, by them be properly applied.
I would not be understood here to mean that, because these three moral virtues are particularly pointed out as essentially necessary to the good discipline and support of a lodge, nothing more is required; for social must be united with moral excellencies. Were a man to be merely prudent, temperate and frugal, and yet be negligent of the duties of humanity, sincerity, generosity, &c., he would be at most but a useless, if not a worthless, member of society, and a much worse Mason.
In the next place, permit me to remind you that a due attendance on the lodge for your own improvement, and the reputation of Masonry in general, is absolutely necessary. For your own improvement; because the advantages naturally resulting from the practice of the principles therein taught, are the highest ornaments of human nature; and for the credit of the community, because it is your indispensable duty to support such a character in life as is there enjoined. The prevalency of good example is great, and no language is so expressive as a consistent life and conversation. These, once forfeited in a masonic character, will diminish a man, not only in the esteem of persons of sense, learning, and probity, but even men of inferior qualities will seldom fail of making a proper distinction.
You are well acquainted, that the envious and censorious are ever disposed to form their judgments of mankind according to their conduct in public life. So when the members of our society desert their body, or discover any inconsistency in their practice with their profession, they contribute to bring an odium on a profession which it is the duty of every member highly to honour. Indeed, instances of the conduct here decried I own are very rare, and I might say, as often as they do happen, tend still more to discover the malignity of our adversaries than to reflect on ourselves. For with what ill‑nature are such suggestions framed ? How weak must it appear in the eye of discernment to condemn a whole society for the irregularity of a few individuals.' But to return to my argument. One great cause of absenting ourselves from the lodge I apprehend to be this, the want of that grand fundamental principle, brotherly love ! Did we properly cultivate this Christian virtue, we should think ourselves the happiest when assembled together. On unity in affection unity in government subsists; for whatever 1 Though there should be Freemasons who coolly, and without agitation of mind, seem to have divested themselves of all affection and esteem for the craft, we only see thereby the effects of an exquisite and inveterate depravation; for the principle is almost always preserved, though its effects seem to be totally lost.
264.APPENDIX.
draws men into societies, it is that only can cement them.
Let us recollect that love is the first and greatest commandment. All the others are summarily comprehended in this. It is the fulfilling of the law, and a necessary qualification for the celestial lodge, where the supreme Architect of the universe presides, who is love. Faith, hope, and charity, are three principal graces, by which we must be guided thither; of which charity or universal love is the chief. When faith shall be swallowed up in vision, and hope in enjoyment, then true charity or brotherly love will shine with the brightest lustre to all eternity.
On the other hand, envy, pride, censoriousness, malice, revenge, and discord, are the productions of a diabolical disposition. These are epidemical disorders of the mind, and if not seasonably corrected and suppressed, will prove very pernicious to particular communities, and more especially to such an establishment as ours.
Now there is nothing so diametrically opposite to them, and so powerful an antidote against them, as charity or brotherly love. For instance, are we tempted to envy ? Charity guards the mind against it; charity envieth not. Are we tempted by pride Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Where this virtue is predominant, humility is both its companion and its delight; for the charitable man puts on bowels of mercy, kindness, and lowliness of mind. It is a certain remedy likewise against
APPENDIX.26 all censoriousness; charity thinketh no evil, bu believeth all things, hopeth all things, will eve incline us to believe and hope the best, especiall of a brother.
Therefore let a constant exercise of this Christia virtue, so essential to our present and future haf piness, prove our esteem for it; and, by its influenc on our lives and actions, testify to the world th cultivation of it amongst us, that they who think c speak evil of us may be thereby confounded an, put to open shame. And as it was a proverbih expression among the enemies of Christianity i its infancy, "See how these Christians love on another," may the same, with equal propriety, b said of Freemasons : this will convince the scoffe and slanderer that we are lovers of Him who said " If ye love me, keep my commandments;" ani " this is my commandment, that ye love one anothe as I have loved you." This will prove to ou enemies, that a good Mason is a good man and good Christian, and afford ourselves the greater comfort here, by giving us a well‑grounded hop ofd admittance into the lodge of everlasting felicit, hereafter.
H.
AN ORATION DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION OF A NEW
FREEMASONS' HALL.
Right Worshipful Grand Master, and ye, m; much‑esteemed Brethren,‑The appearance of s numerous and respectable an audience, and th
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infrequency of the occasion upon which it is assembled, induce me, before our ceremony commences, to say something of our art itself: a task the more pleasing as nothing can be truly said, ‑notwithstanding the ridiculous surmises of the ignorant and uninformed,‑but what must redound to her honour; for being born of Virtue, like her amiable parent, she need to be seen only, and she will raise our admiration : to be known, and she will claim our respect.
The antiquity, extensiveness, and utility of Masonry, are topics too curious for so incompetent a speaker, and too copious for so short a moment as the present opportunity affords. You will suffer me, therefore, to waive these points; and as we derive the origin of our craft‑though coeval with the Creation'‑more immediately from the building of Solomon's Temple, to moralize some circumstances attending it, which I am persuaded will not appear unsuitable to the occasion of our present convention.
We are told by the Jewish historian,' that , the foundation of Solomon's temple was laid prodigiously deep; and the stones were not only of the largest size, but hard and firm enough to endure all weathers; mortised one into another, and wedged into the rock." What a happy description is this of our mystical fabric, the foundation of which is laid 1 See Proverbs, vii., 22‑30.
2 Josepbus; the translation of which by L'Estrange is generally quoted, except where it is particularly faulty.
APPENDIX.267 in truth, virtue, and charity. Charity, like the patriarch's ladder, has its foot placed upon the earth and the top reacheth unto heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it !‑so deep and large is our eternal basis; and the superstructure, which sages and legislators, princes and potentates, have not disdained to assist, no trials, no persecutions will be able to shake it, The rains may descend, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat vehemently against it, yet it will stand firm and impregnable; because, like the wise man's house, it is founded upon a rock.
The next emblematical circumstance in Solomon's temple was the order of the fabric. The same historian tells us that '4 There are several partitions, and everyone had its covering apart, independent one of another; but they were all coupled and fastened together in such a manner that they appeared like one piece, and as if the walls were the stronger for them." It is just the same with our society, which is composed of different ranks and degrees, with separate views, separate connexions, separate interests; but we are all one body, linked and coupled together by the indissoluble bonds of friendship and brotherhood; and it is to this concord, this affinity, this union, that we must ever be indebted for our strength and consequence.
A third particular remark in Solomon's temple was the beauty of it. eL The walls," says the historian, " were all of white stone, wainscotted with
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cedar, and they were so artificially put together that there was no joint to be discerned, nor the least sign of a hammer, or of any tool, that had come upon them." Is it, I would ask, in the power of language‑those I would ask who are informed in Masonry‑ is it in the power of language to describe our institution in fitter terms than these Integrity of life and candour of manners are the characteristics, the glory of Masons; it is these that must render our names worthy of cedar; it is these that must immortalise our art itself. Adorned and inlaid with these, it has withstood the corrosion of time‑that worm whose cankering tooth preys upon all the fairest works of art and nature ‑ nay,3 Gothic barbarism itself, whose desolating hand laid waste the noblest efforts of genius, the proudest monuments of antiquity‑even Gothic barbarism itself was not able to destroy it. It was overcast, indeed, for several centuries by that worse than Egyptian darkness which brooded over all Europe, just as mists and clouds may obscure the sun, and the whole creation may droop for a while under his pale and sickly influence; but nothing can impair his intrinsic splendour‑he will again burst forth with bridal glory, and, as our immortal poet speaks, " Bid the fields revive, The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings." Alluding to the ravages of the Visigoths in the 5th century.
APPENDIX.269 Accordingly, since that disgraceful era, Masonry, to use the words of the same poet, " Has rear'd her drooping head, And trickt her beams, and with new spangled ore Flames in the forehead of the morning sky." To speak without metaphor, we now behold it, as this beautiful edifice testifies, in its fairest and most flourishing state; and may justly cry out, with the Roman orator, Behold a sight which God himself, intent upon his own work, may regard with pleasure !‑a society of men formed to support the interests of science, virtue, and benevolence, so closely cemented together, without compulsion or violence, that no flaw, no joint, can be discerned; but, as our historian speaks, 2 All things are so adjusted and accommodated one piece to another, that, upon the whole, it looks more like the work of Providence and Nature, than the product of art and human invention." But the circumstances which claim our most earnest and immediate attention are the ornaments of Solomon's temple,‑so applicable to our art, and so figurative of its excellence, that I trust it will be no trespass upon your time to dwell upon them more largely. We are told by the historian, that '4 it was overlaid with gold, interwoven with beautiful flowers and palm‑trees, adorned with painting and sculpture. Nothing is more observable in the history of mankind than that Masonry and civilization, like twin sisters, have gone hand in
.6 / V APPENDIX.
hand together; and that wealth, arts, and sciences, everything that could embellish and beautify human life, have followed their faithful steps and composed their train. The very orders of architecture mark the growth and progress of civilization. Dark, dreary, and comfortless were those times when Masonry had never yet laid her line nor extended her compass. The race of mankind, in full possession of wild and savage liberty, sullen and solitary, mutually offending, and afraid of each other, shrouded themselves in thickets of the woods, or dens and caves of the earth. In these murky recesses, these sombrous solitudes, Masonry found them out, and, pitying their forlorn and destitute condition, instructed them to build habitations for convenience, defence, and comfort. The habitations they then built' were, like their manners, rugged and unseemly, a prompt and artless imitation of simple and coarse nature. Yet, rude and inelegant as they were, they had this excellent effect, that, by aggregating mankind, they prepared the way for improvement and civilization. The hardest bodies will polish by collision, and the roughest manners by communication and intercourse. Thus they lost, by degrees, their asperity and ruggedness, and became insensibly mild and gentle, from fierce and barbarous nature. Masonry beheld and gloried in the change; and, as their minds expanded and softened, she showed them 4 First, Rustic, or Tuscan Order.
APPENDIX.271 new lights, and conducted them to new improvements. The rustic mansions pleased no more‑they aimed at something higher and nobler, and, deriving their ideas of symmetry from the human form divine, they adopted that as their model and prototype.' At this era, their buildings, though simple and natural, were proportioned in the exactest, manner, and admirably calculated for strength and convenience. Yet still there was a something wanting‑an ease, a grace, an elegance, which nothing but an intercourse with the softer sex could supply. It is from this most amiable and accomplished part of the creation that we catch all those bewitching delicacies, those nicer, gentler, inexpressible graces which are not to be taught by dull, dry precept, for they are far beyond all rules of art, but are communicated from them to us I know not how‑shall I say by contagion? Accordingly, the succeeding orders was formed after the model of a young woman, with loose, dishevelled hair, of an easy, elegant, flowing shape : a happy medium between the too massive and too delicate, the simple and the rich.
We are now arrived at that period when the human genius,‑which we have just seen in the bud, the leaf, the flower,‑ripened to perfection, and produced the fairest and sweetest fruit : every ingenious art, every liberal science, that could 5 Second, Doric Order.6 Third, Ionic Order.
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delight, exalt, refine, and humanise mankind.Now it was that Masonry 7 put on her richest robes, her most gorgeous apparel, and tricked herself out in a profusion of ornaments, the principal of which were eminently conspicuous in Solomon's Temple. And, to ! not satisfied with the utmost exertion of her own powers, she holds out her torch, and enlightens the whole circle of arts and science. Commerce flies to her on canvass wings, fraught with the produce and treasure of the whole universe; painting and sculpture strain every nerve to decorate the building she has raised; and the curious hand of design contrives the furniture and tapestry. Music, poetry, eloquence;‑but whither does this charming theme transport me ? The time would fail me to recount half the blessings accruing to mankind from our most excellent and amiable institution; I shall conclude this part of my subject, therefore, with just mentioning another ornament of Solomon's temple‑the two cherubims made of olive‑tree, whose wings expanded from one wall to the other, and touched in the midst. The olive, you know, is the symbol of peace; and the very essence of the cherubic order is said to be love. Let peace and love forever distinguish our society ! 7 Fourthly, the Corinthian Order, the capital of which took its origin, says Villapandus, from an order in Solomon's Temple, the leaves whereof were those of the palm‑tree. The Composite Order is not here taken notice of, for reasons too obvious to mention.
APPENDIX.273 ‑let no private animosities, or private divisions, pollute our walls ! " Drive off from hence each thing of guilt and sin ! " The very key‑stone, as it were, of our mystical fabric is charity; let us cherish this amiable virtue, let us make it the vital principle of our souls, "dear as the ruddy drops that warm our hearts," and it cannot fail to be the constant rule of our actions, the just square of our dealings with all mankind. And, though pity may plead in more tender and eloquent terms for the distresses of a poor brother, yet let us be ready to extend the hand of relief, as far as our circumstances afford, to misfortune of every kind wherever it meets us. It was an everlasting reproach to the Jews, that they contracted their benevolence within the narrow sphere of their own sect and party. Let ours be free and unconfined, ‑" Dropping, like the gentle rain from heaven, upon the place beneath." A good Mason is a citizen of the world; and his charity should move along with him, like the sensible horizon, wherever he goes, and, like that too, embrace every object as far as vision extends.
The temple, thus beautiful, thus complete, Solomon dedicated to the Lord, in a style of wonderful devotion and sublimity as far above the most rapturous flights of pagan eloquence as the religion of the Jews was superior to heathen idolatry and superstition.
L274APPENDIX.
1' Lord," says he, '1 thou that inhabitest eternity, and hast raised out of nothing the mighty fabric of this universe‑the heavens, the air, the earth, and the sea; thou that fillest the whole, and every thing that is in it, and art thyself boundless and incomprehensible, look down graciously upon thy servants, who have presumed to erect this house to the honour of thy name ! Let thy holy spirit descend upon it in the blessing of thy peculiar presence : thou that art every where, deign also to be with us ! Thou that seest and hearest all things, look down from thy throne of glory, and give ear to our supplications ! And if at any time hereafter thou shalt be moved in thy just displeasure to punish this people for their transgressions with any of thy terrible judgments, famine, pestilence, or the sword‑yet, if they make supplication, and return to thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, then hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling‑place, and forgive their sin, and remove thy judgments." With these words Solomon cast himself upon the ground in solemn adoration; and all the people followed his example with profound submission and homage. We are now going to dedicate this fair mansion to the noblest purposes ‑to Masonry, virtue, and benevolence; and I persuade myself, from the flattering attention with which you have heard me, that our ensuing ceremony will be regarded with becoming seriousness and decent solemnity. Whatever encourages the social duties,
APPENDIX.
275 whatever advances the interests of benevolence claims our respect as men; and it is no flattery t( our ancient and mystical institution to affirm that it has these two great points ever in view.
There cannot be a stronger argument in favour of our society than what may be collected from th( account' given us of certain solitaries, who, b3 secluding themselves from mankind, from friendl. communication and social intercourse, lost th( human figure and human sentiments, and becam( like beasts; they fed in the same manner wit] their fellow brutes, and if they saw any of th( human species, they fled away, and hid themselveo in caves and inaccessible holes.
If such be the miserable, abject consequence o retirement, whatever, like our institution, collect and consociates mankind, has a claim to our warmes esteem, as conducive to public and private utility Yet let us beware lest, in the unguarded moment of convivial cheerfulness, we give too large a scope to our social disposition. Reason is the true limit beyond which temperance should never wander;when misled with the " sweet poison of misuse( wine," we overpass this bound, we quench the spar] of divinity that is in us, we transform ourselves into brutes, and, like those who had tasted the fabulou cup of Circe, 8 See Evagrius, lib. i., Eccles. Hist.
1, Lose our upright shape, And downward fall into a grovelling swine."
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One word more, and I have done. This temple of Solomon looked towards the east; let us frequently direct our eyes to the same quarter, where the day‑spring from on high visited us, where the Sun of Righteousness rose with healing in his wings, and cherubs and seraphs ushered in the dawn of the evangelic day with this gracious song, 11 Glory be to God on high, and in earth, peace, good‑will towards men !" I.
AN ORATION ON MASONRY.
The ceremonies of this day, together with the duties of my office, call upon me to exhort the Brethren thus assembled to a due exertion of the principles of Masonry.
Fully to comprehend our profession is the most certain means of performing our duty. In forming the society of Free and Accepted Masons, which is at once religious and civil, the utmost attention has been given to the honour of God.
In those times, when Freemasonry had its rise, the minds of men were possessed of allegories, emblems, and mystic devices, in which peculiar sciences, manners, and maxims were wrapped up this was a project arising in the earliest ages; the Egyptian priests secreted the mysteries of their religion from the vulgar eye, by symbols and hieroglyphics, comprehensible only to those of their own order. The priests of Rome and Greece
APPENDIX.27 practised other subtleties, by which the powers c divination were enveiled; and their oracles wer intelligible alone to their brethren, who expoundei them to the people. Those examples were readil adopted for the purpose of concealing the mysterie of Masonry.
We do not regard ourselves as a society of met arising from mere architects and builders; but a men professing themselves servants of the Grea Architect of the World; and assuming symbol expressive of our being devoted to the service c the true God. Men had experienced that frorr, religion all civil ties and obligations were compactec and that thence proceeded the only bonds whic could unite mankind in social intercourse. Henc it was that our originals, the founders of thi society, laid the corner‑stone of the erection o the bosom of religion.
As a society professing ourselves servants of th Deity, the lodge in which we assemble, whe revealed, presents a representation of the worldthe Great Architect hath spread over the earth tl illuminated canopy of heaven‑such as the ve wherewith Solomon covered the temple at Jerusalen of blue, of crimson, and purple; and such is ti covering of the lodge. As an emblem of God power, his goodness, his omnipresence and eternit the lodge is adorned with the image of the sui which he ordained to rise from the east and op( the day, to call forth the people of the earth
278APPENDIX.
their worship, and to their exercise in the walks of virtue.
Remembering the wonders in the beginning, we wear the figures of the sun and moon; thence implying, that we claim the auspicious countenance of Heaven on our virtuous deeds; and, as true Masons, stand redeemed from darkness, and are become the sons of light‑acknowledging in our profession our reverence and adoration to Him who gave light into his works; and by our practice showing that we carry our emblems into real life, as the children of light, by turning our backs on works of darkness, obscenity and drunkenness, hatred and malice, Satan and his dominions; preferring charity, benevolence, temperance, chastity and brotherly love, as that acceptable service on which the Great Master of all, from his beatitude, looks down with approbation.
The same divine hand (pouring forth gifts of benevolence) which hath blest us with the sights of his glory in the heavens, bath also spread the earth with a beauteous carpet‑he hath wrought it, as it were, in Mosaic work; and that he might still add beauty to the earth, he hath skirted and bordered it with the wavy ocean.
As the steps of man tread incessantly in the various and uncertain incidents of life, as our days are chequered with innumerable events, and our passage through this existence is attended with a variety of circumstances, so is the lodge furnished
APPENDIX.27t with Mosaic work, to remind us of the precarious ness of our state on earth;‑to‑day our feet trea( in prosperity, to‑morrow we totter on the unevet paths of weakness, temptation, and adversity;whilst this emblem is before us, we are instructe( to boast of nothing, to have compassion, and ti give aid to those in distress; to walk uprightly, anm with humility.
The emblem of Prudence is placed in the centr of the lodge, and is the first and most exalte~ object there : ever to be present to the eye of th Mason, that his heart may be attentive to he dictates, and steadfast in her laws; for Prudence i the rule of all the virtues. Prudence is the channe where self‑approbation flows for ever. FortitudE Temperance, and Justice, are enfolded in he girdle. She leads us forth to worthy actions, anc as a blazing star, enlightens us through the doubt fulness and darkness of this world.
We Masons profess the principle of Fortitude, b which, in the midst of pressing evils, we are enable always to do that which is agreeable to the dictatE of right reason.
We profess the spirit of Temperance, as being moderating, or restraining of our affections an passions; especially in sobriety and chastity. VV regard temperance under the various definitions, moralists, as constituting honesty, decency, arr bashfulness; and in its potential parts, institutin meekness, clemency, and modesty.
280APPENDIX.
We profess Justice, as dictating to us to do right to all, and to yield to every man whatsoever belongeth to him.
We put on white raiment as a type of Innocence ‑that apparel which truly implies the innocency of the heart is a badge more honourable than ever was devised by kings‑the Roman Eagle, with all the orders of knighthood, are much inferior; they may be prostituted by the caprice of princes, but innocence is innate, and cannot be adopted.
That Innocence should be the professed principle of a Mason occasions no astonishment, when we consider that the discovery of the Deity whom we serve leads us to the knowledge of those maxims wherewith he may be well pleased;‑the very idea of a God is succeeded by the belief that he can approve of nothing that is evil;‑and when first our predecessors professed themselves servants of the Architect of the World, as an indispensable duty they professed innocency, and put on white raiment as a type and characteristic of their conviction, and of their being devoted to his will.
Our jewels, or ornaments, imply that we try our affections by justice, and our actions by truth, ass the square tries the workmanship of the mechanic.
That we regard our mortal state, whether it is dignified by titles or not, whether it be opulent or indigent, as being of one nature in the beginning, and of one rank in its close‑in sensations, passions, and pleasures, in infirmities, maladies, and wants,
APPENDIX.281 all mankind are on a parallel;‑Nature there hat] given us no superiorities‑so we profess to hold ou: estimates of our brother, when his calamities cal for our counsel or our aid. Virtue gives us th4 equality‑the works of charity are indiscriminate and benevolence acts upon the level. The emblen of these sentiments is another of the jewels of ou society.
To walk uprightly before heaven and before met is the duty of a Mason : to try his actions by thi rule, as the builder raises his column by the plain and perpendicular, the Mason should stand approve( by the jewel which he wears.
Geometry is the trial of the craftsmen‑ a scienc4 through whose power it is given to man to discover the order of the heavenly bodies, their revolutions and their stations‑to define the wisdom of thi Great Architect of the Creation‑to prove the mightiness of his works, and the greatness of hi love.
The importance of secrecy amongst us is, tha we may not be deceived in the disposition of our charities‑that we may not be betrayed in the tenderness of our benevolence, and others usurl the portion which is prepared for those of our owi family.
To betray the watch‑word, which would keel the enemy from the walls of our citadel, so as t4 open our strongholds to robbers and deceivers, i as great a moral crime, as to show the commot
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thief the weaknesses and secret places of our neighbour's dwelling, that he may pillage their treasures nay, it is greater, for it is like aiding the sacrilegious robber to ransack the holy places, and steal the sacred vessels devoted to the most solemn rites of religion;‑it is snatching from the divine hand of Charity the balm which she holds forth to heal the distresses of her children‑the cordial cup of consolation, which she offers to the lip of calamity, and the sustenance her fainting infants should receive from the bosom of her celestial love.
As this, then, is the importance of a Mason's secrecy, wherefore should the world wonder, that the most profligate tongue which ever had expression bath not revealed it;‑the sport is too deadly to afford diversion even to the most abandoned;‑it was mentioned by divine lips as a criminality not in nature; " What man is there of you, whom if his son ask for bread, will give him a stone ? or if he ask for a fish, will give him a serpent?" Then can there be a Mason so iniquitous amongst Masons as to conduct the thief to steal from his sick brother the medicine that should restore his health, the balsam which should close his wounds‑the clothing which should shield his trembling limbs from the severity of the winter‑the drink which should moisten his lips‑the bread which should save his soul alive ? Our society is graced with Charity, the true objects of which are Merit and Virtue in distress;
APPENDIX.283 persons who are become incapable of extricating themselves from misfortunes which have overtaken them in old age‑industrious men, from inevitable accidents and acts of providence, rushed into ruinwidows left survivors of their husbands, by whose labour they subsisted‑orphans in tender years left naked to an adverse world.
Hard‑hearted covetousness and proud titles, can ye behold such objects with dry eyes ? He whose bosom is locked up against compassion is a barbarian ! But Charity when misapplied loses her titles, and instead of being adorned with the dress of virtue, assumes the insignificance of folly;‑when charity is bestowed beyond a man's ability, and to the detriment of his family, it becomes a sacrifice to superstition or ostentation, and like incense to idols, is disapproved in heaven.
We are united by brotherly love, the most material parts of which amongst us are mutual good offices, and speaking well of each other to the world;‑.most especially, it is expected of every member of this fraternity, that he should not traduce his brother. Calumny and slander are most detestable crimes against society; nothing can be viler than to speak ill of anyone behind his back; it is like the villainy of an assassin, who has not virtue enough to give his adversary the means of self‑defence, but, lurking in darkness, stabs him whilst he is unarmed and unsuspicious of an enemy.
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To give a man his just and due character is so easy a duty, that it is not possible for a benevolent disposition to avoid it; it is a degree of common justice which honesty itself prompts one to : it is not enough that we refrain from slander, but it is required of Masons that they speak graciously and with affection, withholding nothing that can be uttered to a brother's praise, or his good name, with truth. What a pleasure doth it give the heart‑feeling benevolent dispositions to give praise where due : there is a selfish joy in good‑speaking, as self‑approbation succeeds it; besides, the breast of a man feels enlarged, whilst he utters the praise due to his neighbour; and he experiences all the finest sense of his love, whilst he moves others to love him.
The neutral disposition, frigid and reserved, neither speak good nor evil; but the man tasting brotherly love is warm to commend : it is an easy and cheap means of bestowing good gifts, ‑ and working good works; for by a just praise to industry, you recommend the industrious man to those to whom he might never have been known; and thereby enlarge his credit and his trade : by a just commendation of merit, you may open the paths of advancement, through those whose power might never have been petitioned‑by a proper praise of genius and art, you may rouse the attention of those patrons, to whom the greatest merits might have remained undiscovered‑it is a degree of justice
APPENDIX.285 which every man has a right to from his brotherr that his virtues be not concealed.
To shroud the imperfections of our friend, and cloak his infirmities, is christian and charitable, and consequently befitting a Mason : even the trutl should not be told at all times; for where we cannot approve, we should pity in silence. What pleasure or profit can there arise by exposing the errors of a brother? To exhort him is virtuous, to revile him is inhuman, to set him out as an object of ridicule is infernal.
From hence we must necessarily determine that the duty of a good Mason leads him to work the works of benevolence; and his heart is touched with joy whilst he acts within her precepts. Lel us, therefore, be steadfast and immovable in oui ordinances, that we be proved to have a tonguΗ of good report.
In the ceremonies of the day, we commemorate the mighty work of the Creator in the beginning, when the foundations of this world, of times an( seasons, were established. The placing the first stone of the intended erection takes its import from the emblematical tenor of the work, and not from our labour as mechanics‑it did not requirE the hands of a Free and Accepted Mason to placE it firmer on its basis than a stone‑cutter or a builder ‑But in this work we appear as servants of the Divinity, supplicating for his approbation, and fo:
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prosperity to the undertaking; remembering the corner‑stone of that building on which the salvation of the world was founded; remembering the mighty works of the Deity, when he suspended the planets in their stations, and founded the axis of the earth.
In such a work, it may not be esteemed profane to use the apostle's words to the Corinthians," According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master‑builder, I have laid the foundation," since my duty this day is a commemoration of the might, majesty, and benevolence of the Great Master of all, whose temple is the universe, the pillars of whose work are Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty; for his wisdom is infinite, his strength is in omnipotence, and beauty stands forth, in all his creation, in symmetry and order. He bath stretched forth the heavens as a canopy, and the earth he hath planted as his footstool; lie crowns his temples with the stars, as with a diadem; and in his hand he holdeth forth the power and the glory; the sun and moon are messengers of his will to worlds unnumbered, and all his laws are concord.
APPENDIX.ς78; K.
AN ORATION, AT THE DEDICATION OF FREEMASONS' HALL, II SUNDERLAND, ON THE 16TH DAY OF JULY, 1778,
BY BROTHER W. HUTCHINSON.
Right Worshipful Grand Master, and ye, m; much esteemed Brethren,‑ Institutions, religiou or civil, if not founded on the strictest rules o propriety, will soon sink into ruin. By the perpe tuity we must necessarily distinguish the proprieti of the institution.
From this argument men are led to determine that our society is supported by the purest maxims as it has continued through innumerable age unshaken in its principles, and uncorrupted b; innovations.
We are not to search for our antiquity in the mythology of Greece or Rome‑we advance into remoter ages. Religion was the original and con stituent principle; a recognition of the Deity firs distinguished us from the rest of mankind; ou predecessors searched for the divine essence in th wonders displayed on the face of nature; the' discovered supreme wisdom in the order of th universe‑in the stellary system they traced th power, in the seasons and their changes the bounty and in animal life the benevolence, of God; ever; argument brought with it conviction, and ever object confirmation, that all the wonders daily dis played to the eye of man were only to be produce
288APPENDIX.
by some superlative being, and maintained by his superintendency. It was from such conviction that men began to class themselves in religious societies. ‑No rational mind could confess the being of a Supreme, from whose hand such bounties were poured forth, and by whose miraculous power such a complex existence as man was sustained (to whom even himself is a system of insoluble miracles), without conceiving that, for the attainment of his approbation, we should fill our souls with gratitude, and imitate his universal benevolence.
In benevolence is comprehended the whole law of society; and, whilst we weigh our obligations towards mankind by the divine assay, 11 Love thy neighbour as thyself," we must deduce this second rule, which includes all the moral law, "Do unto all men as thou wouldst they should do unto thee." The natural wants and infirmities of human life would very early be discovered, and the necessity of mutual aids become the immediate result; but till those aids were regulated by religious principles, and man's natural ferocity was subdued, we may readily conceive few examples of virtue took place. Our predecessors were the first who tasted of this felicity.
I may venture to assert, that it was the only consequence which could ensue, whilst men were looking up to the Divinity through his works, that they would conclude the sun was the region where, in celestial glory, the Deity reposed.
APPENDIX.27 We discover in the Amonian and Egyptian rit the most perfect remains of those originals to who our society refers. We are told they esteemed tl soul of man to be an emanation of the Suprem and a spirit detached from the seraphic bands whi filled the solar mansions and surrounded the throe of Majesty. They looked up to this grand lun nary as the native realm from whence they we sent on this earthly pilgrimage, and to which th should, in the end, return. The figure of the si was at once a memorial of their divine origin, badge of the religious faith they professed, and monitor of those principles which should condu and ensure their restoration. How soon, or what extreme, superstition and bigotry debased tl emblem, is a research painful and unprofitable.
It was a custom, in remote antiquity, to cons crate and devote to the service of the Deity plat and altars; the many instances in holy writ need n be enumerated to this assembly; it will suffice mention that several of them were named' El ai Beth‑el, the literal translation of which leaves i doubt of the consecration. From thence we deri the original composition of the two characters, t artificer and devotee; thence our present rules ai maxims were deduced; and thence, also, arose t:' mixed assumption of these badges of architects ai religious.
I Gen. xxviii. 18.
APPENDIX.
It is not to be wondered that the first principles natural religion should be extended hither from regions of the east; for we are told, by authors undoubted authority, the Germans and Scaniavians, in very early ages, had received the nonian rites; 2 the Amonians also possessed all borders of the Mediterranean; the Phoenicians I their allies, for merchandise, gained access to coast of Britain. Amongst the many tribes of nonians which spread themselves abroad were to found a people who were styled Anakim, and re descended of the sons of Anak; they were rticularly famous for architecture, which, accord; to the authority of Herodotus, they introduced o Greece. In all parts whither they came they acted noble structures, eminent for their beauty I splendour, which they dedicated to the Deity. herever they settled they were remarkable for sir superiority in science, and particularly for ,ir skill in building. Whenever the hands of our Ahren have been exercised in architecture, they ve been employed as devotees in erecting temples the service of Heaven. We find them with )ses in the wilderness,3 and with Solomon at ░usalem, under the distinctions of the Righteous I Wise‑hearted. The idolatrous and impious" 2 Bryant's Analysis.
3 Exodus, xxxi. 1 Kings, v. 2 Chron. ii. 4 The Samaritans being idolators.
APPENDIX.291 were not admitted to partake in the acceptable service, in which alone clean hands (hands unstained with the works of iniquity) and pious hearts, which had received the beatific gift of divine wisdom, could be received to the labour.
After the benign influence of Christianity prevailed, and, with healing in her wings, had passed through Europe, religious works continued to attend this society, and grew into great splendour in the foundation of monasteries and abbeys. Many holy artificers attended the crusades,‑5 for the purpose of building churches in Palestine. In our first stage we see the devotee, with his own hands, erecting the sacred column, which he sanctifies with the name of E1,‑literally implying, '1 The true God," ‑‑where he performed his religious offices; the place having been rendered holy by the presence of the Deity, as it was with Jacob. In the second and third classes we observe them divided in two orders, and those who laboured were distinct from the rest of the brethren; yet there was no diminution of honour in the one, or increase of pre‑eminence in the other‑they were all Masons.
Our reverend and learned brother, Dr. Scott, in his excellent oration, pointed out to us that the progressive advancements in human civilization were perfectly distinguished by the steps of architecture. As men arose from the state of nature, 5 The Anglo‑Saxon Antiq.
2 APPENDIX.
tough the cultivation of society, the genius of art s developed and set forth, to contribute to the;e and elegance of human life; from the cavern d grotto, which first sheltered the human race m the inclemency of seasons, edifices more com)dious were invented. As the joys of common ercourse and mutual aids were experienced, men ~rcised their talents in projecting suitable struc,es to receive the growing societies; and, at ~gth, places for divine worship, where congregans might assemble, were devised. In the pro;s of ages these talents experienced a refinement; gance took place, and proportion, symmetry, I ornament were studied. As the cavern had ‑nished the first idea of the mansion, and as the;red groves and forests, held to be hallowed in primitive ages, had given the first model of urnns and arches for temples,' so it can be no utter of astonishment that men, who had formed sir original plan from nature, should resort to ture for their lessons of proportion and ornament complete their labours. The eye that was rrmed with the fair sex, the heart that was iscious of woman's elegance and beauty, would tantly catch the idea from thence, and, fired h this favourite object, transpose the fair symtry to the system he was studying. It was a aural transposition‑nothing could be conceived 6 Archa ologia, vol. i., p. 40.
APPENDIX.293 more likely to refine the maxims of the architect's design, who was touched with such passion and sentiment as the poet happily expresses: ‑she came; Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, In ev'ry gesture dignity and love.
(He) led her, blushing like the morn; all heaven And happy constellations, on that hour, Shed their selectest influence; the earth Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill; Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs Wbisper'd it to the woods, and, from their wings, Flung roses‑flung odours from the spicy shrub, Desporting, till the amorous bird of night Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening star On his hill top to light the bridal lamp." (Milton's Paradise Lost.) This day we dedicate a house to the peculiar services of our society : the secrets and mysteries there to be exercised are wholly consistent with the purest maxims of the Christian revelation : they are peculiar to us in form, but, in effect, pertinent to the principles of every moral and religious man. The first character of a Mason which passes these gates and is revealed to the eyes of the world is charity; the amiableness of this part of our profession deifies this panegyric. The heart of humanity feels its divine influence; compassion acknowledges kindred with the spirits of Heaven. We do not arrogate to ourselves a more sublime possession of this virtue than others; but we profess it an ordi‑
'94APPENDIX.
nation which we are bound to obey, and a duty which we must necessarily perform. The ordinary motives are felt by this whole assembly : in benevolence to our fellow‑creatures we are all Masons. The miseries of human life, the misfortunes of mankind, are equally objects with all; but we singularly attach ourselves to their relief.
The next distinguishing characteristic is truth; excellent as the duty may seem, difficult in its accomplishments, and happy in its consequences, no man, professing himself a Mason, stands approved without possessing this jewel uncontaminated with the fashions of the age; pure as the celestial ray first descended, unstained by rhetorications and mental reservation, she is possessed by us, wholly, undivided, and in the simplest character. We must not only speak of each other nothing but truth, but we must pronounce all that is truth; for suppression is a crime as well as an infringement. Thus it is with us, the guilty seldom escape retribution, or the meritorious go without a reward.
I have already trespassed on this audience; time so limited will not suffer me to expatiate on all the excellencies of our order. It must suffice that I express a sincere hope, as our maxims are void of offence, that they will claim the patronage of the good and wise. As we avow our fidelity to the best of kings, and our firm attachment to the excellent constitution and laws of this realm, we may still
APPENDIX.295 possess the support and countenance of government. And as our internal rules are devised for the honour, protection, and welfare of each individual of the society, I entreat that every member, by his conduct, may prove to the observing world it is not a superficial profession which distinguishes him to be a Mason, but his virtue, his temperance, and morality.
L.
A LETTER FROM MR. JOHN LOCKE TO THE RIGHT HON.
THOMAS, EARL OF PEMBROKE.
May, 6, 1696.
My LORD,‑‑I have at length, by the help of Mr. Collins, procured a copy of that MS. in the Bodleian library, which you were so curious to see, and, in obedience to your lordship's commands, I herewith send it to you. Most of the notes annexed to it are what I made yesterday, for the reading of my Lady Masham; who is become so fond of Masonry as to say, that she now, more than ever, wishes herself a man, that she might be capable of admission into the fraternity.
The MS., of which this is a copy, appears to be about 160 years old; yet (as your lordship will observe by the title) it is itself a copy of one yet more ancient by 100 years; for the original is said to have been the handwriting of King Henry VI.
296APPENDIX.
Where that prince had it, is at present an uncertainty; but it seems to me to be an examination (taken perhaps before the king) of some one of the brotherhood of Masons; among whom he entered himself, as it is said, when he carne out of his minority, and thenceforth put a stop to a persecution that had been raised against them; but I must not detain your lordship longer, by my preface, from the thing itself.
I know not what effect the sight of this old paper may have upon your lordship; but, for my own part, I cannot deny that it has so much raised my curiosity as to induce me to enter myself into the fraternity, which I am determined to do (if I may be admitted), the next time I go to London, and that will be shortly.
I am, my lord, Your lordship's most obedient, And most humble servant, JOHN LOCKE.
APPENDIX.29 M.
CERTAYNE QUESTYONS, WYTH ANSWERES TO THE SAME, CONς CERNING THE MYSTERY OF MACONRYE, WRITENE BY Till HANDE OF KYNGE HENRYE, THE SYXTHE OF THE NAME, ANI FAYTHFULLYE COPYED BY ME,' JOHAN LEYLANDE, ANTI QUARIUS.‑‑BY THE COMMAND OF HIS 2 HIGHNESSE.
They be as followthe Q. What motte ytt be? 3 A. Ytt beeth the skylle of nature, the under. stondynge of the myghte that ys hereynne, and it sondrye werckynges; sonderlyche, the skylle o rectenyngs, of waightes and metynges, and the tree manere of faconnynge al thinges for mannes use headlye, dwellynges, and buyldynges of alle kindes and al odher thynges that make gudde to manne.
Q. Where dyd ytt begynne ? A. Ytt dyd begynne with the 4 ffyrste menne iI the este, whych were before the 4 ffyrste manne o I John Leylande was appointed by Henry VIII., at the dis solution of monasteries, to search for and save such books ann records as were valuable among them. He was a man of grey labour and industry.
2 His Highnesse, meaning the said King Henry VIII. Ou kings had not then the title of Majesty.
3 That is, what may this mystery of Masonry be ? Th answer imports that it consists in natural, mathematical, an mechanical knowledge. Some part of which (as appears b what follows) the Masons pretend to have taught the rest c mankind, and some part they still conceal.
4 It should seem by this that Masons believe there were me in the east before Adam, who is called " the ffyrste manne c the weste;" and that arts and sciences began in the east. Som
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the weste, and comynge westlye, ytt hathe broughte herwyth alle comfortes to the wylde and comfortlesse.
Q. Who dyd brynge ytt westlye ? A. The 5 Venetians, who beynge great merchaundes, corned ffyrste ffromme the este ynn Venetia, for the commodytye of marchaundysynge beithe este and west, bey the redde and myddlelonde sees.
Q. Howe comede ytt yn Engelonde ? A. Peter Gower,' a Grecian, journeyedde ffor authors of great note for learning have been of the same opinion; and it is certain that Europe and Africa (which, in respect to Asia, may be called western countries), were wild and savage, long after arts and politeness of manners were in great perfection in China and the Indies.
s In the times of monkish ignorance, it is no wonder that the Phoenicians should be mistaken for the Venetians. Or perhaps, if the people were not taken one for the other, similitude of sound might deceive the clerk who first took down the examination. The Phoenicians were the greatest voyagers among the ancients; and were, in Europe, thought to be the inventors of letters, which, perhaps, they brought from the east with other arts.
6 This must be another mistake of the writer. I was puzzled at first to guess who Peter Gower should be, the name being perfectly English; or how a Greek should come by such a name; but, as soon as I thought of Pythagoras, I could scarce forbear smiling to find that a philosopher had undergone a metempsychosis he never dreamt of. We need only consider the French pronunciation of his name, Pythagore, that is, Petagore, to conceive bow easily such a mistake might be made by an unlearned clerk. That Pythagoras travelled for knowledge into Egypt, &c., is known to all the learned; and that he
APPENDIX.299 kunnynge yn Egypte, and yn Syria, and in everyche londe whereas the Venetians hadde plauntedde Maconrye, and wynnynge entraunce yn al lodges of Maconnes, he lerned muche, and retournedde, and woned yn Grecia Magna 7 wacksynge, and becomynge a myghte s wyseacre, and greatlyche renouned, and her he framed a great lodge at Groton, 9 and Inaked many Maconnes, some whereoffe dyd journeye in Fraunce, and maked manye Maconnes, wherefromme, yn processe of tyme, the art passed yn Engelonde.
was initiated into several different orders of priests, who, in those days, kept all their learning secret from the vulgar, is as well known. Pythagoras also made every geometrical theorem a secret, and admitted only such to the knowledge of them as had first undergone a five years silence. He is supposed to be the first inventor of the 47th proposition of the first book of Euclid, for which, in the joy of his heart, it is said he sacrificed an hetacomb. He also knew the true system of the world, lately revived by Copernicus; and certainly was a most wonderful man. (See his Life, by Dion. Hal.) 7 Grecia Magna, a part of Italy formerly so called, in which the Greeks had settled a large colony.
8 The word at present signifies simpleton, but formerly had a quite contrary meaning. Weisager, in the old Saxon, is philosopher, wiseman or wizard; and, having been frequently used ironically, at length came to have a direct meaning in the ironical sense. Thus, Duns Scotus, a man famed for the subtlety and acuteness of his understanding, has, by the same method of irony, given a general name to modern dunces.
9 Grdton is the name of a place in England. The place here meant is Crotona, a city of Grecia Magna, which, in the time of Pythagoras, was very populous.
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Q. Dothe Maconnes discouer there artes unto odhers ? A. Peter Gower, when he journeyedde to lernne, was ffyrste 70 made, and annone techedde; evenne soe shulde all odhers beyn recht. Natheless " Maconnes hauethe always yn everyche tyme, from teyme to teyme, communycatedde to mannkynde soche of their secrettes as generallyche myghte be usefulle; they haueth keped back soche allein as shulde be harmefulle yff they corned yn euylle haundes, odher soche as ne mighte be holpynge wythouten the techynges to be joynedde herwyth in the lodge, oder soche as do bynde the freres more stronelyche together, bey the proffytte and commodytye comyng to the confrerie herfromme.
Q. Whatte artes haueth the Maconnes techedde mankind ? A. The artes,12 agricultura, architectura, astrono
10 The word made, I suppose, has a particular meaning among the Masons; perhaps it signifies initiated.
11 This paragraph bath something remarkable in it. It contains a justification of the secrecy so much boasted of by Masons, and so much blamed by others; asserting that they have, in all ages, discovered such things as might be useful, and that they conceal such only as would be hurtful either to the world or themselves. What these secrets are we see afterwards.
12 It seems a bold pretence this of the Masons, that they have taught mankind all these arts. They have their own authority for it; and I know not how we shall disprove them. But what appears most odd is, that they reckon religion among the arts.
APPENDIX.301
mia, geometria, numeres, musica, poesie, kymistrye, governmente, and relygyonne.
Q. Howe commethe Maconnes more teachers than odher menne ? A. The hemselfe haueth allein in 13 arte of fynding neue artes, whych arte the flyrste Maconnes receaued from Godde; by the whyche they fyndethe what artes hem plesethe, and the treu way of techying the same. What odher menne doethe ffynde out ys onelyche bey chaunce, and therefore but lytel I tro.
Q. What dothe the Maconnes concele and hyde?
A. They concelethe the arte of ffyndyng neue
artes, and thattys for here own proffyte and 14 preise,
they concelethe the arte of kepynge 15 secrettes, thatt
13 The art of inventing arts must certainly be a most useful art. My Lord Bacon's Novum Organum is an attempt towards somewhat of the same kind. But I much doubt that, if ever the Masons had it, they have now lost it; since so few new arts have been lately invented, and so many are wanted. The idea I have of such an art is, that it must be something proper to be applied in all the sciences generally, as is algebra in numbers, by the help of which, new rules of arithmetic are and may be found.
14 It seems the Masons have great regard to the reputation as well as the profit of their order; since they make it one reason for not divulging an art in common, that it may do honour to the possessors of it. I think in this particular they show too much regard for their own society, and too little for the rest of mankind.
15 What kind of an art this is, I can by no means imagine. But certainly such an art the Masons must have; for though, as some people suppose, they should have no secret at all, even that must
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so the worlde mayeth nothinge concele from them. Thay concelethe the art of wunderwerckynge, and of foresaynge thynges to comme, that so thay same artes may not be usedde of the wyckedde to an euyell ende; thay also concelethe the 16 arte of chaunges, the wey of wynnynge the facultye 17 of Abrac, the skill of becornmynge gude and parfyghte wythouten the holpynges of fere and hope; and the universelle 18 longage of Maconnes.
be a secret which, being discovered, would expose them to the highest ridicule; and therefore it requires the utmost caution to conceal it.
16 I know not what this means, unless it be the transmutation of metals.
17 Here I am utterly in the dark.
18 An universal language has been much desired by the learned of many ages. It is a thing rather to be wished than hoped for. But it seems the Masons pretend to have such a thing among them. If it be true, I guess it must be something like the language of the Pantomimes among the ancient Romans, who are said to be able, by signs only, to express and deliver any oration intelligibly to men of all nations and languages. A man who has all these arts and advantages is certainly in a condition to be envied; but we are told that this is not the case with all Masons; for though these arts are among them, and all have a right and an opportunity to know them, yet some want capacity, and others industry, to acquire them. However, of all their arts and secrets, that which I most desire to know is, " The skylle of becom_ mynge gude and parfyghte;" and I wish it were communicated to all mankind, since there is nothing more true than the beautiful sentence contained in the last answer, 11 That the better men are, the more they love one another." Virtue having in itself something so amiable as to charm the hearts of all that behold it.
APPENDIX.303 Q. Wyll he teche me thay same artes ? A. Ye shalle be techedde yff ye be warthye, and able to lerne.
Q. Dothe all Maconnes kunne more than odher menne ? A. Not so. They onlyche haueth recht and occasyonne more than odher menne to kunne, but rnanye doeth fale yn capacity, and manye more doth want industrye, that ys pernecessarye for the gaynyng all kunnynge.
Q. Are Maconnes gudder men then odhers ? A. Some Maconnes are not so vertuous as some odher menne; but, yn the moste parte, thay be more gude than thay woulde be yf thay war not Maconnes.
Q. Doth Maconnes love eidther odher myghtylye as beeth sayde ? A. Yea, verylyche, and that may not odherwise be; for gude menne and treu, kennynge eidher oder to be suche, doeth always love the more as thay be more gude.
Here endethe the questyonnes and answeres.
304
A GLOSSARY, TO EXPLAIN THE OLD WORDS IN THE FOREGOING MANUSCRIPT.
Allein, only.
Alweys, always. Beithe, both.
Commodytye, conveniency. Confrerie, fraternity. Faconnynge, forming. Fore‑sayinge, prophesying. Freres, brethren. Headlye, chiefly. Hem plesethe, they please. Hemselfe, themselves. Her, there, their. Hereynne, therein. Herwyth, with it. Holpynge, beneficial. Kunne, know.
Kunnynge, knowledge. Mahe gudde, are beneficial. Metynyes, measures. Mote, may.
Myddlelond, Mediterranean.
Myghte, power. Occasyonne, opportunity. Oder, or.
Onelyche, only. Pernecessary, absolutely necessary.
Preise, honour. Recht, right. Reckenyngs, numbers. Sonderlyche, particularly. Skylle, knowledge. Wacksynge, growing. Werck, operation. Wey, way.
Whereas, where. Woned, dwelt. Wunderwerckynge, working miracles.
Wylde, savage. Wynnynge, gaining. Yun, into.
APPENDIX.305 N.
REMARKS ON THE QUESTIONS AND ANNOTATIONS OF
MR. LOCKE.
I.
Page 297.' What mote ytt be ? Mr. Locke observes, in his annotation on this question, that the answer to it imports, that Masonry consists of natural, mathematical, and mechanical knowledge; some part of which the Masons pretend to have taught the rest of mankind, and some part they still conceal. The arts which have been communicated to the world by Masons are particularly specified in an answer to one of the following questions, as are also those which they have restricted to themselves for wise purposes. Morality might likewise have been included in this answer, as it constitutes a principal part of the Masonic system : every character, figure, and emblem adopted by Masons, having a moral tendency, and serving to inculcate the practice of virtue.
II.
Page 297. Where dyd ytt begynne ? Mr. Locke's remark on the answer to this question, that Masons believe there were men in the east before Adam, is indeed a mere conjecture. This opinion may be confirmed by many learned authors, but Masons comprehend the true meaning of Masonry taking its rise in the east and spreading I The number refers to the page in which the questions occur.
APPENDIX.
306 to the west, without having recourse to the PreAdamites. East and west are terms peculiar to the society; and, when masonically adopted, are only intelligible to Masons, as they refer to certain forms and established customs among themselves.
III.
Page 298. Who dyd brynge ytt westlye ? The judicious corrections of an illiterate clerk, in the answer to this question as well as the next, reflects great credit on the ingenious annotator. His explanation is just, and his elucidation accurate.
IV.
Page 298. Howe comede ytt yn Engelonde ? Pythagoras was regularly initiated into Masonry, and being properly instructed in the mysteries of the art, he was much improved, and propagated the principles of the order in other countries into which he afterwards travelled. The records of the fraternity inform us, that the usages and customs among Masons have ever corresponded with those of the ancient Egyptians, to which they bear a near affinity. These philosophers, unwilling to expose their mysteries to vulgar eyes, couched with particular tenets and principles of polity under hieroglyphical figures, and expressed their notions of government by signs and symbols, which they communicated to their magi alone, and they were hound by oath not to reveal them. Hence arose
APPENDIX.307 the Pythagorean system, and many other orders of a more modern date. This method of inculcating sublime truths and important points of knowledge by allegory, secured them from descending into the familiar reach of every inattentive and unprepared novice, from whom they might not receive due veneration. A similar custom still prevails in many of the eastern nations.
V.
Page 300. Dothe Maconnes discouer there artes unto odhers ? Masons in all ages have studied the general good of mankind. Every art which is useful or necessary for the support of authority and preservation of good government, as well as for promoting science, they have cheerfully communicated to mankind. Those matters which were of no public importance they have carefully preserved in their own breasts, such as the tenets of the order, their mystic forms and particular customs. Thus they have been distinguished in different countries, and by this means have confined their privileges to the just and meritorious.
VI.
Page, 300. Whatte artes haueth the Maconnes techedde mankynde ? The arts, which the Masons have publicly taught, are here specified. It appears to have surprised the learned annotator that religion should be
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ranked among the arts propagated by the fraternity. Masons have ever, in compliance with the tenor of their profession, paid due obedience to the moral law, and have inculcated its precepts with powerful energy on all their followers. The doctrine of one God, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, has always been their firm belief. Under the influence of this doctrine, the conduct of the fraternity has been regulated through a succession of ages. The progress of knowledge and philosophy, aided by divine revelation, having abolished many of the vain superstitions of antiquity, and enlightened the minds of men with the knowledge of the true God and the sacred mysteries of the Christian faith, Masons have always acquiesced in, and zealously pursued, every measure which might promote that holy religion so wisely calculated to make men happy. In those countries, however, where the gospel has not reached, and Christianity displayed her beauties, the Masons have pursued the universal religion, or the religion of nature; that is, to be good men and true, by whatever denomination or persuasion they have been distinguished. A cheerful compliance with the established religion of the country in which they live, in so far as it corresponds with, and is agreeable to, the tenets of Masonry, is earnestly recommended in all their assemblies. This universal conformity, notwithstanding private sentiment and opinion, answers the laudable purpose of conciliating true
APPENDIX.30C friendship among men, and is an art few arE qualified to learn, and still fewer to reach.
VII.
Page 301. How comede Maconnes more teacher; than odher menne ? The answer implies that Masons having greate opportunities of improving their natural parts an better qualified to instruct others. Mr. Locke' observation on their having the art of finding nev arts is very judicious, and his explanation of it just The fraternity have ever made the study of the art a principal part of their private amusement; ii their several assemblies nice and difficult theorie have been faithfully canvassed and wisely explained fresh discoveries have also been produced, and those already known have been accurately illustrated The different classes established, the gradual pro gression of knowledge communicated, and th regularity observed throughout the whole systen of their government, is an evident proof of thi assertion. Those initiated into the mysteries o the art soon discover that Masons are possessed e the art of finding out new arts; to which know ledge they gradually arrive by instruction from, an familiar intercourse with, men of genius and abilit1 VIII.
Page 301. What dothe the Maconnes concel and hyde ? The answer imports the art of finding new art
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for their profit and praise, and then particularises the different arts they carefully conceal. Mr. Locke's remark, that this shows too much regard for their own society, and too little for the rest of mankind, is rather too severe, when he has admitted the propriety of concealing from the world what is of no real public utility, lest, being converted to bad uses, the consequences might be prejudicial to society. By the word praise is here meant honour and respect; to which the Masons were ever entitled, and which could only give credit to the wise doctrines they propagated. Their fidelity has ever given them a claim to esteem, and the rectitude of their manners has ever demanded veneration.
Mr. Locke has made several judicious observations on the answer to this question. His being in the dark concerning the meaning of the faculty of Abrac, I am nowise surprised at, nor can I conceive how he could otherwise be. Abrac is an abbreviation of the word Abracadabra. In the days of ignorance and superstition, that word had a magical signification, and was written in a certain form peculiar to the craft. The explanation of it is now lost.
Our celebrated annotator has taken no notice of the Masons having the art of working miracles, and forseeing things to come. Astrology was received as one of the arts which merited their patronage; and the good effect resulting from the study of it
APPENDIX.311 may fully vindicate the countenance given by the Masons to this delusion.
The ancient philosophers applied with unwearied diligence to discover the aspects, magnitudes, distances, motions, and revolutions of the heavenly bodies; and, according to the discoveries they made, pretended to foretell future events, and to determine concerning the secrets of Providence : hence this study grew, in course of time, to be a regular science, and was admitted among the other arts practised by Masons.
Astrology, it must be owned, however vain and delusive in itself, has proved extremely useful to mankind by promoting the excellent science of astronomy. The vain hope of reading the fates of men and the success of their designs, has been one of the strongest motives to induce them, in all countries, to an attentive observation of the celestial bodies; whence they have been taught to measure time, to mark the duration of seasons, and to regulate the operations of agriculture.
IX.
Page 303. Wylle he teche me thay same artes ? By the answer to this question, we learn the necessary qualifications which are required in a candidate for Masonry; a good character, and an able capacity.
X.
Page 303. Dothe all Maconnes kunne more then odher menne ?
312APPENDIX.
The answer implies that Masons have a better opportunity than the rest of mankind of improving in useful knowledge.
XI.
Page 303. Are Maconnes gudder menne than odhers ? Masons are not understood to be more virtuous in their lives and actions than other men may be; but it is an undoubted fact, that a strict conformity to the rules of their profession may make them better men than they otherwise would be.
XII.
Page 303. Dothe Maconnes love eidher odher myghtylye as beeth sayde ? The answer to this question is truly great, and is judiciously remarked upon by the learned annotator.
By the answers to the three last questions, Masonry is vindicated against all the objections of cavillers; its excellency is displayed; and every censure against it, on account of the transgressions of its professors, entirely removed. No bad man can be enrolled in our records, if known to be so; but should he impose upon us, and we unwarily are led to receive him, our endeavours are exerted to reform him; and it is certain, by being a Mason, he will become a better subject to his sovereign, and a more useful member to the state.
Upon the whole, Mr. Locke's observations on
APPENDIX.31 this curious manuscript are well deserving a seriou and careful examination; and there remains little doubt but the favourable opinion he conceived o the society of Masons before his admission, wa sufficiently confirmed after his initiation.
Of all the arts which Masons profess, the art o keeping a secret particularly distinguishes them Secrecy is a proof of wisdom, and is of the utmost importance in the different transactions of life.Sacred as well as profane history has declared it tc be an art of inestimable value. Secrecy is agreeς able to the Deity himself, who gives the glorious example by concealing from mankind the secret, of his providence. The wisest of men cannot pry into the arcana of Heaven, nor can they divine to‑day what to‑morrow may bring forth. Many instances may be adduced from history of the great veneration that was paid to this art by the ancients, but I shall only select a few for the present entertainment of the reader.
Pliny informs us that Anaxarchus, being imprisoned, with a view to extort from him some secrets with which he had been intrusted, and, dreading that exquisite torture might induce him to betray his trust, bit his tongue in the middle, and threw it in the face of Nicoreon, the tyrant of Cyprus. No torments could make the servants of Plancus betray the secrets of their master; with
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fortitude they encountered every pain, and strenuously supported their fidelity, till death put a period to their sufferings. The Athenians had a statue of brass to which they bowed; the figure was represented without a tongue, to denote secrecy. The Egyptians worshipped Harpocrates, the god of Silence, who was always represented holding his finger to his mouth. The Romans had also their goddess of Silence, named Angerona, to whom they offered worship. In short, the multiplicity of examples which might be brought to confirm the regard that was paid to this virtue in the early ages would increase the plan of my work far beyond its prescribed limits; suffice it to observe, that Lycurgus, the celebrated law‑giver, as well as Pythagoras, the great scholar, particularly recommended this virtue; especially the last, who kept his disciples silent during seven years, that they might learn the valuable secrets he had to communicate to them; thereby expressing that secrecy was the rarest, as well as the noblest art.
I shall conclude my remarks with the following story, related by a Roman historian, which, as it may be equally pleasing and instructive, I shall give at full length The senators of Rome had ordained that, during their consultations in the senate‑house, each brother senator should be permitted to bring his son with him, who was to depart if occasion required. This favour, however, was not general, but restricted
APPENDIX.3I only to the sons of noblemen, who were tutored from their infancy, in the virtue of secrecy, and thereby qualified, in their riper years, to discharge the most important offices of government with fidelity and wisdom. About this time it happened that the senators met on a very important case; and the affair requiring mature deliberation, they were detained longer than usual in the senateς house, and the conclusion of their determination adjourned to the following day; each member engaging, in the meantime, to keep secret the transactions of the meeting. Among other noblemen's sons who bad attended on the occasion, was the son of the grave Papyrus, a family of great renown and splendour. The young Papyrus was no less remarkable for his genius than for the prudence of his deportment. On his return home, his mother, anxious to know what important case had been debated in the senate that day, which had detained the senators beyond the usual hour, entreated him to relate the particulars. The noble and virtuous youth told her it was a business not in his power to reveal, he being solemnly enjoined to silence. On hearing this her importunities were more earnest, and her inquiries more minute.Intelligence she must have; all evasions were vain. First, by fair speeches and entreaties, with liberal promises, she endeavoured to break open this little casket of secrecy; then, finding her efforts in vain, she adopted rigorous measures, and had recourse
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to stripes and violent threats; firmly persuaded that force would extort what lenity could not effect. The youth, finding his mother's threats to be very harsh, but her stripes more severe, comparing his love to her, as his mother, with the duty he owed to his father; the one mighty, but the other impulsive; lays her and her fond conceit in one scale; his father, his own honour, and the solemn injunctions to secrecy, in the other scale : and, finding the latter greatly preponderate, with a noble and heroic spirit preserved his honour, at the risk of his mother's displeasure; and thus endeavoured to relieve her anxiety " Madam, and dear mother, you may well blame the senate for their long sitting, at least, for presuming to call in question a case so truly impertinent: except the wives of the senators are allowed to consult thereon, there can be no hope of a conclusion. I speak this only from my own opinion; I know their gravity will easily confound my juvenile apprehensions; yet whether nature or duty instructs me to do so, I cannot tell. It seems necessary to them, for the increase of people, and the public good, that every senator should be allowed two wives; or, otherwise, their wives two husbands. I shall hardly incline to call, under one roof, two men by the name of father; I had rather, with cheerfulness, salute two women by the name of mother. This is the question, mother, and tomorrow is to be determined."
APPENDIX.317 His mother hearing this, and his seeming unwilling to reveal it, she took it for an infallible truth. Her blood was quickly fired, and rage ensued. Without enquiring farther into the case, she immediately dispatched messengers to all the other ladies and matrons of Rome, acquainting them of this weighty affair now under deliberation, in which the peace and welfare of their whole lives were so nearly concerned. The melancholy news soon spread a general alarm; a thousand conjectures were formed; and the ladies being resolved to give their assistance in the decision of this weighty point, immediately assembled; and, headed by young Papyrus's mother, on the next morning proceeded to the senate‑house. Though it is remarked that a parliament of women are seldom governed by one speaker, yet the affair being so urgent, the haste as pertinent, and the case (on their behalf) of the utmost consequence, the revealing woman must speak for all the rest, and insist on the necessity of the concurrence of the senators' wives to the determination of a law in which they were so particularly interested. When they came to the door of the senate‑house, such a noise was made for admission to sit with their husbands in this grand consultation, that all Rome seemed to be in an uproar. Their business must be known before they have audience; which being complied with, and their admission granted, such an elaborate oration was made by the female speaker on the
:318APPENDIX.
occasion, in behalf of her sex, as astonished the whole senators. She requested that the matter might be seriously canvassed according to justice and equity; and expressed the determined resolution of all her sisters to oppose a measure so unconstitutional as that of permitting one husband to have two wives, who could scarcely please one; she proposed, as the most effectual way of peopling the state, that, if any alteration was made in the established custom of Rome, women might be permitted to have two husbands. Upon the riddle being solved the ladies were greatly confounded, and departed with blushing cheeks; while the noble youth, who had thus proved himself worthy of his trust, was highly commended for his fidelity. However, in order to avoid a like tumult in future, the senate resolved that the custom of introducing their sons should be abolished; but that young Papyrus, on account of his attachment to his word, and his discreet policy, should be freely admitted, and ever afterwards be dignified and rewarded.
The virtue and fidelity of Papyrus is truly worthy of imitation; but the Masons have a still more glorious example in their own body, of a brother, accomplished in every art, who, rather than forfeit his honour, or betray his trust, fell a sacrifice to the cruel hand of a barbarous assassin.
APPENDIX.319 0.
A VINDICATION OF MASONRY, BY BROTHER CHARLES LESLIE.
If a man were placed in a beautiful garden, would not his mind, on a calm survey of its rich collections, be affected with the most exquisite delight? The groves, the grottoes, the artful wilds, the flowery parterres, the opening vistas, the lofty cascades, the winding streams, the whole variegated scene would awaken his sensibility, and inspire his soul with the most exalted ideas. When he observed the delicate order, the nice symmetry, and beautiful disposition of every part, which, though seemingly complete in itself, yet reflected surprising and new beauties on each other, so that nothing could be wanting to make one beautiful wnole, with what bewitching sensations would his mind be agitated ! A view of this delightful scene would naturally lead him to admire and venerate the happy genius of him who contrived it.
If the productions of art can so forcibly impress the human mind with surprise and admiration, with how much greater astonishment, and with what more profound reverence, must we behold the objects of nature, which, on every hand, present to our view unbounded scenes of pleasure and delight, in which divinity and wisdom are alike conspicuous? The scenes which she displays are indeed too expanded for the narrow capacity of
320APPENDIX.
man; yet it is easy, from the uniformity of the whole, to comprehend what may lead to the true source of happiness, the grand Author of existence, the supreme Governor of the world, the One perfect and unsullied beauty ! Besides all the gaieties and pleasing prospects which every where surround us, and with which our senses are every moment gratified; besides the symmetry, good order, and proportion that appear in the whole works of the creation, there is something farther that affects the reflecting mind, and draws its attention nearer to the Divinity; the universal harmony and affection which subsist throughout the different species of beings of every rank and denomination. These are the sure cement of the rational world, and by these alone the rational world subsists. Could we think that it was possible for them to be dissolved, nature too, and man, the chief work of God, would soon return to chaos, and universal ruin ensue.
If we look around us, we shall find that, in the whole order of beings, from the seraph that adores and burns, down to the most inconsiderable insect, ‑all, according to their proportion in the scale of existence, have, more or less, implanted in them by wise nature the principle of uniting with others of the same species with themselves. Do we not observe some of even the most inconsiderable animals formed into different ranks and societies, for the benefit and protection of each other? Need I
APPENDIX.32 name the careful ant, or industrious bee ?‑insect which the wisest of men has recommended as pattern of unwearied industry and prudent fore sight.
If we raise our ideas higher, we shall find tha this innate principle of friendship arises in propoi tion as the objects seem to advance nearer to th degree of rational. There can be no better way c judging of the superiority of one part of the anima creation above the other, than by observing wha degrees of kindness and seeming good‑nature the enjoy. However, I shall here pause, and refer th discussion of this disquisition to some more refine, genius, of superior parts and abilities.
To confine my subject to the rational species, le us think and meditate on those benevolent dispo sitions and good‑temper of soul, which indulge nature has so kindly bestowed upon us. As huma nature rises in the scale of things, so do the soci,affections likewise rise. Do we not feel in ou breasts a strong propensity to friendship? Enjo we not a pleasure when it is firm and cementec and feel we not a pain when it deadens or declines What sweetens life, but friendship ?‑what relieve care, but friendship ? ‑ what alleviates pain, c makes sorrow smile, but friendship ?‑sacred, hol friendship ! The progress of friendship is not confined to th narrow circle of private connections, but is unive~ sal, and extends to every branch of the human race
322APPENDIX.
Though its influence is unbounded, yet it exerts itself more or less vehemently as the objects it favours are nearer or more remote. Hence springs true patriotism, which fires the soul with the most generous flame, creates the best and most disinterested virtue, and inspires that public spirit and heroic ardour which enables us to support a good cause, and risk our lives in its defence.
This commendable virtue crowns the lover of his country with unfading laurels, gives a lustre to all his actions, and consecrates his name to latest ages. The warrior's glory may consist in murder, and the rude ravage of the desolating sword; but the blood of thousands will not stain the hands of his country's friend. His virtues are open, and of the noblest kind. Conscious integrity supports him against the arm of power; and should he bleed by a tyrant's hands, he gloriously dies a martyr in the cause of liberty, and leaves to posterity an everlasting monument of the greatness of his soul. Should, I name the first Brutus, the self‑devoted Decii, or the self‑condemned but unconquerable Cato ? Friendship not only appears divine when employed in preserving the liberties of our country, but shines with equal splendour in the more tranquil hours of life. Before it rises into the noble flame of patriotism, aiming destruction at the heads of tyrants, thundering for liberty, and courting dangers in a good cause, we shall see it calm and moderate, burning with an even glow, improving
APPENDIX.32 the soft hours of peace, and heightening the relis for virtue. Hence it is that contracts are formec societies are instituted, and the vacant hours of lif are cheerfully employed in agreeable company an social conversation.
It is thus we may trace from reason and th nature of things, the wise ends and designs of th sacred institution of Masonry; which not on] cultivates and improves a real and undisguise friendship among men, but teaches them the mor important duties of society. Vain, then, is eac idle surmise against this sacred art, which or; enemies may either meanly cherish in their ow bosoms, or ignorantly promulgate to the unir structed world. By decrying Masonry, they der( gate from human nature itself, and from that goo order and wise constitution of things, which th Almighty Author of the world has framed for tl government of mankind, and has established the basis of the moral system, which, by a secret bi attractive force, disposes the human heart to ever social virtue. Can friendship or social delights 1 the object of reproach? Can that wisdom whic hoary Time has sanctified be the object of ridicule How mean, how contemptible must those me appear, who vainly pretend to censure or contem what they cannot comprehend ! The generot heart will pity ignorance so aspiring and insolent.
I shall now proceed, and consider in what shat Masonry is of universal utility to mankind, how
3'24APPENDIX.
is reconcileable to the best policy, why it deserves the general esteem, and why all men are bound to promote it.
Abstracting from the pure pleasures which arise from a friendship so wisely constituted, and which it is scarce possible that any circumstance or occurrence can erase, let us consider that Masonry is a science confined to no particular country, but diffused over the whole terrestrial globe. Wherever arts flourish, there it flourishes too. Add to this, that by secret and inviolable signs, carefully preserved among ourselves throughout the world, Masonry becomes an universal language. By this means many advantages are gained : men of all religions and of all nations are united. The distant Chinese, the wild Arab, or the American savage, will embrace a brother Briton; and he will know that, besides the common ties of humanity, there is still a stronger obligation to engage him to kind and friendly actions. The spirit of the fulminating priest will be tamed, and a moral brother, though of a different persuasion, engage his esteem. Thus all those disputes which embitter life and sour the tempers of men are avoided; and every face is clad in smiles, while the common good of all, the generous design of the craft, is zealously pursued.
Is it not, then, evident that Masonry is an universal advantage to mankind ? for sure, unless discord and harmony be the same, it must be so. Is it not likewise reconcileable to the best policy ? for it
APPENDIX.
32 prevents the heat of passion, and those partial an mosities which different interests too often treat Masonry teaches us to be faithful to our king, an true to our country; to avoid turbulent measure and to submit with reverence to the decisions i legislative power. It is surely, then, no mean ac vantage, no trifling acquisition to any communil or state, to have under its power and jurisdiction body of men who are loyal subjects, patrons science, and friends to mankind.
Does not Masonry, therefore, of itself coniman the highest regard? Does it not claim the greate esteem ? Does it not merit the most extensib patronage ? Without doubt. If all that is got and amiable, if all that is useful to mankind society, be deserving a man's attention, Mason' claims it in the highest degree. What beautifi ideas does it inspire ? how does it open and enlarΗ the mind ? and how abundant a source of sati faction does it afford ? Does it not recornmer universal benevolence, and every virtue which c, endear one man to another? and is it not partici larly adapted to give the mind the most disintereste the most generous notions? An uniformity of opinion, not only useful i exigencies, but pleasing in familiar life, universal, prevails among Masons, strengthens all the tip of their friendship, and equally promotes loi and esteem. Masons are brethren, and among brothers there exist no invidious distinctions.
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king is reminded that, although a crown adorns his head, and a sceptre his hand, yet the blood in his veins is derived from the common parent of mankind, and is no better than that of the meanest of his subjects. Men in inferior stations are taught to love their superiors, when they see them divested of their grandeur, and condescending to trace the paths of wisdom, and follow virtue, assisted by those of a rank beneath them. Virtue is true nobility, and wisdom is the channel by which it is directed and conveyed. Wisdom and virtue, therefore, are the great characteristics of Masons.
Masonry inculcates universal love and benevolence, and disposes the heart to particular acts of goodness. A Mason, possessed of this amiable, this god‑like disposition, is shocked at misery under every form or appearance. His pity is not only excited, but he is prompted, as far as is consistent with the rules of prudence, to alleviate the pain of the sufferer, and cheerfully to contribute to his relief. For this end our funds are raised, and our charities established on the firmest foundation. When a brother is in distress, what heart does not ache? When he is hungry, do we not convey him food ? Do we not clothe him when he is naked ? Do we not fly to his relief when he is in trouble ? Thus we evince the propriety of the title we assume, and demonstrate to the world that the term brother among Masons is not merely nominal.
If these acts are not sufficient to recommend so
APPENDIX.3~ great and generous a plan, such a wise and got society, happy in themselves, and equally happy i the possession of every social virtue, nothing whit is truly good can prevail. The man who resis arguments drawn from such topics must be calloi to every noble principle, and lost to all sense honour.
Nevertheless, though the fairest and the be ideas may be thus imprinted in the mind, thei are brethren who, careless of their own reputatio disregard the instructive lessons of our noble scienc and, by yielding to vice and intemperance, n only disgrace themselves, but reflect dishonour up( Masonry in general. It is this unfortunate circun stance which has given rise to those severe ar unjust reflections, which the prejudiced part mankind have so liberally bestowed upon us. B let these apostate brethren know, and let it 1 proclaimed to the world at large, that they a unworthy of their trust, and that, whatever nan or designation they assume, they are in reality i Masons. It is as possible for a mouse to remove mountain, or a man to calm the boisterous ocea as it is for a principled Mason to commit a di honourable action. Masonry consists in virtuo improvement, in cheerful and innocent pastim and not in lewd debauchery or unguarded excess.
But, though unhappy brethren thus transgre: no wise man will draw any argument from then against the society, or urge it as an objectit
328APPENDIX.
against the institution. If the wicked lives of men were admitted as an argument against the religion which they profess, Christianity itself, with all its divine beauties, would be exposed to censure. Let us therefore endeavour strenuously to support the dignity of our characters, and, by reforming the abuses which have crept in among us, display Masonry in its primitive lustre, and convince mankind that the source from which it flows is truly divine.
It is this conduct which can alone retrieve the ancient glory of the craft. Our generous and good actions must distinguish our title to the privileges of Masonry, and the regularity of our behaviour display their influence and utility. Thus the world will admire our sanctity of manners, and effectually reconcile our uniform conduct with the incomparable tenets we profess to admire.
As our order is founded upon harmony, and subsists by regularity and proportion, so our passions ought to be properly restrained, and be ever subservient to the dictates of right reason. As the delicate pleasures of friendship harmonise our minds, and exclude rancour, malice, and ill‑nature, so we ought to live like brethren bound by the same tie, always cultivating fraternal affection, and reconciling ourselves to the practice of those duties, which are the basis on which the structure we erect must be supported. By improving our minds in the principles of morality and virtue, we enlarge our
APPENDIX.329 understandings, and more effectually answer the great ends of our existence. Such as violate our laws, or infringe on good order, we mark with a peculiar odium; and, if our mild endeavours to reform their lives should not answer the good purposes intended, we expel them our assemblies as unfit members of society.
This is the practice which should universally prevail among Masons. Our outward conduct being directed by our inward principles, we should be equally careful to avoid censure and reproach. Useful knowledge ought to be the great object of our desire; for the ways of wisdom are beautiful, and lead to pleasure. We ought to search into nature, as the advantages accruing from so agreeable a study will amply compensate our unwearied assiduity. Knowledge must be attained by degrees, and is not every where to be found. Wisdom seeks the secret shade, the lonely cell designed for contemplation; there enthroned she sits, delivering her sacred oracles; there let us seek her, and pursue the real bliss; for, though the passage be difficult, the farther we trace it the easier it will become.
Geometry, that extensive art, we should particularly study as the first and noblest of sciences. By geometry we may curiously trace nature, through her various windings, to her most concealed recesses. By it we may discover the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of the grand Artificer of the universe,
330APPENDIX.
and view, with amazing delight, the beautiful proportions which connect and grace this vast machine. By it we may discover how the planets move in their different orbs, and mathematically demonstrate their various revolutions. By it we may rationally account for the return of seasons, and the mixed variety of scenes which they display to the discerning eye. Numberless worlds are around us, all framed by the same Divine Artist, which roll through the vast expanse, and are all conducted by the same unerring laws of nature. How must we then improve ! with what grand ideas must such knowledge fill our minds ! and how worthy is it of the attention of all rational beings, especially of those who profess themselves promoters of our grand institution.
It was a survey of nature, and the observation of its beautiful proportions, that first determined man to imitate the divine plan, and to study symmetry and order. This gave rise to societies, and birth to every useful art. The architect began to design, and the plans which he laid down, improved by experience and time, produced some of those excellent works which will be the admiration of future ages. I might here trace the history of the craft, and show that, ever since order began, or harmony displayed her charms, our order had a being; but this is so well known, that a tedious discussion of incontrovertible facts might rather
APPENDIX.331 cloud the understanding, than open to our view a prospect which ignorance and barbarism can only veil.
If we are united, our society must flourish; let us then promote the useful arts, and, by that means, mark our distinction and superiority; let us cultivate the social virtues, and improve in all that is good and amiable; let the Genius of Masonry preside, and, under her sovereign sway, let us endeavour to act with becoming dignity.
Now, is Masonry so good, so valuable a science? Does it tend to instruct the mind, and tame each unruly passion? Does it expel rancour, hatred, and envy ? Does it reconcile men of all religions, and of all nations? Is it an universal cement, binding its followers to charity, good‑will, and secret friendship? Is it calculated to promote the truest freedom ? Does it teach men to lead quiet lives ? In short, are its precepts a complete system of moral virtue? Then hail, thou glorious craft, bright transcript of all that is amiable ! Hail, thou blest moral science, which so beautifully exemplifies virtue ! Welcome, ye delightful mansions, where all enjoy the pleasures of a serene and tranquil life ! Welcome, ye blest retreats, where smiling friendship ever blooms, and, from her throne, dispenses pleasure with unbounded liberality ! Welcome, sacred habitations, where peace and innocence for ever dwell 1
332APPENDIX.
P.
A LESSON FOR FREEMASONS;
OR, A SERIES OF MORAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE INSTRUMENTS
OF MASONRY.
The various instruments which we of this profession make use of, are all emblematical or picturesque of the conduct of life we ought to persevere in.
The RULE directs us to observe punctually every gospel duty; to press forward in the right path, neither inclining to the right nor left hand, for the sake of any transient amusement or gratification whatsoever; it forbids us to give into the least inclination or propensity into the curve of life, and reminds us to beware of the least tendency to a circle, either in religion or morals !‑not to mind (because they have seldom any other than selfish views) neither outs, or ins in politics; and to have in all our conduct eternity in view.
The L!NF should make us pay the strictest attention to that line of duty which has been given us, or rather which was marked out to us, by our great Benefactor and Redeemer. It teaches us to avoid all kinds of double‑dealing, both in conversation and actions; it points out the direct but narrow path that leads to a glorious immortality; and that sincerity in our profession will be our only passport thither. This line, like Jacob's ladder, connects heaven and earth together; and, by laying hold of it, we climb up to that place where we shall change
APPENDIX.
333 this short line of time for the never‑ending circle of eternity.
The PLUMB‑LINE admonishes us to walk erect and upright in our Christian vocation; not to lean to a side, but to hold the scale of justice in equal poise; to observe the just medium between temperance and voluptuousness; to fathom the depth of our limited capacities, and to make our several passions and prejudices of education fall plumb in, or coincide with, our line of duty.
The SQUARE will teach us to square all our actions by this gospel rule and line, and to make our whole conduct harmonise with this most salutary scheme. Our behaviour will be regular and uniform, not aspiring at things above our reach, nor pretending to things above our finite capacities, nor to affect things above what our circumstances can possibly bear. In our expenses, therefore, we shall neither ape those that are placed in a more exalted sphere, nor attend so much to the glitter of gold as to sink beneath our proper station; but we shall observe the golden mean, And always to our acres join our sense, Because 'tis use that sanctifies expense." The COMPASSES will inform us that we should in every station learn to live within proper bounds, that we may, therefore, be enabled to contribute freely and cheerfully to the relief of the necessities and indigencies of our fellow‑creatures. Hence we shall rise to notice, live with honour, and make
334APPENDIX.
our exit in humble hopes of compassing what ought to be the main pursuit of the most aspiring genius, a crown of glory.
The LEVEL should advise us that, since we are all descended from the same common stock, partake of the like nature, have the same faith and the same hope through the redemption, which render us naturally upon a level with one another, that we ought not to divest ourselves of the feelings of humanity; and though distinctions necessarily make a subordination among mankind, yet eminence of station should not make us forget that we are men, nor cause us to treat our brethren, because placed on the lowest spoke of the wheel of fortune, with contempt; because a time will come, and the wisest of men know not how. soon, when all distinctions, except in goodness, will cease, and when deaththat grand leveller of all human greatness‑will bring us to a level at the last. From hence, too, the sceptic, the shallow reasoner, and babbling disputer of this world, may learn to forbear the measuring of infinity by the dull level of his own grovelling capacity, and endeavour, by way of atonement for his insults upon every thing that tends to mankind, either good or great, to vindicate the ways of God to man.
From your MALLET and CHISEL, you may likewise know what advantages accrue from a proper education. The human and unpolished mind, like a diamond surrounded with a dense crust, discovers
APPENDIX.335 neither its sparkling nor different powers, till the rough external is smoothed off, and beauties, till then unknown, rise full to our view. Education gives, what a chisel does to the stone, not only an external polish and smoothness, but discovers all the inward beauties latent under the roughest surfaces. By education our minds are enlarged, and they not only range through the large fields of matter and space, but also learn with greater perspicuity‑what is above all other knowledge‑our real duty to God and man.
Your TROWEL will teach you that nothing is united together without proper cement : no strict union, nor external polish can be made without it. And, as the Trowel connects each stone together by a proper disposition of the cement, so charity, that bond of perfection and of all social union (which I earnestly recommend to you all), links separate minds and various interests together; and, like the radii of a circle, that extend from the centre to every part of the circumference, makes each member have a tender regard for the real welfare of the whole community. But as some members will be refractory in every society, your Hammer will likewise teach you how to use becoming discipline and correction towards such like offenders. If they will not submit to rule, you may strike off the excrescences of their swelling pride, till they sink into a modest deportment. Are they irregular in their practices? Your Ham‑
336APPENDIX.
mer will instruct you to strike off each irregularity, and fit them to act a decent part on the stage of life. Do any affect things above their stations? Your Hammer will teach you to press them down to their proper level, that they may learn, in the school of discipline, that necessary knowledge‑to be courteous.
What the HAMMER is to the workman, that enlightened reason is to the passions in the human mind: it curbs ambition, that aspires to its own and neighbour's hurt: it depresses envy, moderates anger, checks every rising frailty, and encourages every good disposition of the soul; from whence must arise that comely order, that delightful selfcomplacency, "Which nothing earthly gives or can destroy, The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart‑felt joy." Thus, from our instruments may we all be instructed to raise a stately fabric of good works, upon the strong foundation of faith, that we may be fitted at last to inhabit that glorious house, not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens ! THE END.
APPENDIX.335 neither its sparkling nor different powers, till the rough external is smoothed off, and beauties, till then unknown, rise full to our view. Education gives, what a chisel does to the stone, not only an external polish and smoothness, but discovers all the inward beauties latent under the roughest surfaces. By education our minds are enlarged, and they not only range through the large fields of matter and space, but also learn with greater perspicuity‑what is above all other knowledge‑our real duty to God and man.
Your TROWEL will teach you that nothing is united together without proper cement : no strict union, nor external polish can be made without it. And, as the Trowel connects each stone together by a proper disposition of the cement, so charity, that bond of perfection and of all social union (which I earnestly recommend to you all), links separate minds and various interests together; and, like the radii of a circle, that extend from the centre to every part of the circumference, makes each member have a tender regard for the real welfare of the whole community. But as some members will be refractory in every society, your Hammer will likewise teach you how to use becoming discipline and correction towards such like offenders. If they will not submit to rule, you may strike off the excrescences of their swelling pride, till they sink into a modest deportment. Are they irregular in their practices? Your Ham‑ 336 APPENDIX.
mer will instruct you to strike off each irregularity, and fit them to act a decent part on the stage of life. Do any affect things above their stations? Your Hammer will teach you to press them down to their proper level, that they may learn, in the school of discipline, that necessary knowledge‑to be courteous.
What the HAMMER is to the workman, that enlightened reason is to the passions in the human mind: it curbs ambition, that aspires to its own and neighbour's hurt: it depresses envy, moderates anger, checks every rising frailty, and encourages every good disposition of the soul; from whence must arise that comely order, that delightful self-complacency,
"Which nothing earthly gives or can destroy,
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart‑felt joy."
Thus, from our instruments may we all be instructed to raise a stately fabric of good works, upon the strong foundation of faith, that we may be fitted at last to inhabit that glorious house, not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens
THE END.
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