The spirit of masonry in moral and elucidatory lectures: By Wm Hutchinson ...

Table of contents

- [titlepage]

- THE SANCTION

- TO THE ANTIENT AND HONOUR ABLE SOCIETY of FREE AND AC CEPTED MASONS.

- [dedication]

- THE CONTENTS. LECTURES.

- LECTURE I. The DESIGN.

- LECTURE II. On the Rites, Ceremonies, and Institu tions of the Antients.

- LECTURE III. On the Rites, Ceremonies, and Institu tions of the Antients.

- LECTURE IV. The Nature of the Lodge.

- LECTURE V. The Furniture of the Lodge.

- LECTURE VI. The Apparel and Jewels of Masons.

- LECTURE VII. The Temple at Jerusalem.

- LECTURE VIII. On Geometry.

- LECTURE IX. The Master Mason's Order.

- LECTURE X. The Secrecy of Masons.

- LECTURE XI. Of Charity.

- LECTURE XII. On Brotherly Love.

- LECTURE XIII. On the Occupations of Masons.

- LECTURE XIV. A Corollary.

- APPENDIX.

- A LETTER from the learned Mr JOHN LOCKE, to the Right Hon. THOMAS Earl of PEMBROKE, with an old MANUSCRIPT on the Subject of FREE-MASONRY.

- CERTAYNE QUESTYONS; WYTH ANSWERES TO THE SAME, CONCERNING THE MYSTERY of MACONRYE;

- NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS, ON THE FOREGOING QUESTIONS.

- A GLOSSARY,

- ERRATA.

THE SPIRIT of MASONRY

in MORAL and ELUCIDATORY LECTURES.

by WM HUTCHINSON MASTER of the Barnardcastle Lodge of CONCORD.

LONDON Printed for J. WILKIE, No. 71 in St. Paul's Church-yard and W. GOLDSMITH, No. 24 Pater-noster-Row.

MDCCLXXV.

THE SANCTION

WHEREAS brother William Hutchinson has compiled a book, intitled, "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 BERKLEY, G. T.

- JAMES HESELTINE, G. S.

TO THE ANTIENT AND HONOURABLE SOCIETY of FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS.

BRETHREN,

THE following LECTURES were composed for the use of the LODGE over which I presided for several successive years. Since that time I have added explanatory notes, to support my propositions, or exemplify the principles of the work.

With the utmost humility and diffidence I give these LECTURES to the public: they may indeed serve to detect the wretched artifices used by wicked men to impose upon the world; and if I succeed so far with YOU, as to excite the due exercise of those moral works which our PROFESSION enjoins, I shall have my reward.

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.—My diction will appear technical and abstruse, to all but MASONS: and with the CRITIC, I am exposed to every degree of severity; without his candour will admit the MORAL INTENTION of the WORK, in extenuation of those imperfections our mystical expression throws upon the following pages.

As SUPREME of this SOCIETY, the Right Honourable the LORD PETRE, in the first place, and after him MR HOLT and the OFFICERS OF THE GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND, command my most humble acknowledgments and gratitude, for the candour and condescention with which this little work was received under their precedency.

MY LORD PETRE,

DEDICATIONS, my Lord, were originally devised by authors, as supplications, for protection of their labours, under the illustrious character to which they were addressed.

It is for this purpose, MY LORD, I presume to prefix your NAME; whilst I confess myself

YOUR LORDSHIP'S MOST DEVOTED, HUMBLE SERVANT, and FAITHFUL BROTHER, W. HUTCHINSON.

THE CONTENTS.
LECTURES.

- 1. THE general Design of the Work Page 1

- 2. On the Rites, Ceremonies, and Institutions of the Antients Page 23

- 3. A Continuation of the Rites, Ceremonies, and Institutions of the Antients Page 51

- 4. The Nature of the Lodge Page 82

- 5. The Furniture of the Lodge Page 110

- 6. The Apparel and Jewels of Masons Page 121

- 7. The Temple at Jerusalem Page 131

- 8. On Geometry Page 148

- 9. The Master Mason's Order Page 156

- 10. The Secrecy of Masons Page 169

- 11. Of Charity Page 189

- 12. On Brotherly Love Page 202

- 13. On the Occupations of Masons Page 210

- 14. A Corollary Page 226

LECTURE I.
The DESIGN.

IT is my design in the following Lectures, to investigate the ORDERS OF FREE MASONRY; and under distinct heads, to arrange my observations on the nature of this Society.

On my initiation, I was struck with the ceremonials; and immediately apprehended, there was more conveyed by them, than appeared to the vulgar eye: as I attended to the matter, I was convinced my first impressions were just; and by my researches, to discover their implications, I presume, I have acquired some degree of knowledge, touching the Origin of Masonry, the reasons of its several institutions, the meaning of its various symbols, and their import; together with the progress of the profession.

It is known to the world, but more particularly to my Brethren, that there are three degrees of MASONS—APPRENTICES, CRAFTSMEN, and MASTERS—the initiation to, and several advancements from, the order of APPRENTICES, will necessarily lead my observations to three distinct channels.

How the several mysteries are revealed to MASONS, they alone know—so steadfastly have the 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 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 Parent 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 Symetry and Beauty; that he was made in the highest degree of excellence 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 perfection 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 understanding—he 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 uncontrovertable truth, that he had a competent knowledge of the mighty, 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 fountain 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 ministred and the Divinity walked abroad, was the parent of mankind.

But alas he fell!—his disobedience forfeited all that glory and felicity—and horrible to recount, even in the midst of this exalted state, SATAN prevailed!

If we presume to estimate the change which befel ADAM, on his expulsion from Paradise, by the deformity that took place on the face of the world, 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 would take place, and disbelief confound even testimony; that argument would be deprived of definition, and wander by excentric propositions; that confusion would usurp the throne of wisdom, and folly of judgment; thorns and thistles grow up in the place of those excellent flowers of science which flourished in Eden, and darkness cloud the day of his capacity.

It is not possible for me to determine, from any evidence given to 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.[*]

Tradition would deliver down the doctrines of our first parents with the utmost truth and certainty, whilst the Antideluvians enjoyed that longivity 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, 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 Religion and 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 present Rules and maxims of our profession of FREE MASONRY had their beginning, the minds of men were possessed of Allegories, Emblems, and mystic devices, in which, peculiar sciences, manners, institutions, and doctrines in many nations were wrapt up—this was an invention of the earliest ages — the priests in 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 Rome and Greece practised other subtleties by which the art of divination was enveiled, and their oracles were intelligible only to their brethren, who expounded them to the people.

These examples were WISELY adopted for the purposes of concealing the mysteries of MASONRY—like the Cybil's leaves, the secrets of the brotherhood would appear to the world as indistinct and scattered fragments, whilst they convey to MASONS an uniform and well-connected system.

In the forming of 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 is well pleased.

This was the first stage on which our originals thought it expedient to place the foundation of MASONRY:—they had experienced that from religion all civil ties and obligations were compacted, and that thence proceeded all the bonds which could unite mankind in social intercourse:—hence it was that they laid the corner stone of the EDIFICE on the bosom of religion.
[*]

In the earliest ages, after the deluge, in those 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 Antideluvians, but were left to the operations of their own judgments, perceived that there was some great cause of nature's uniformity, and 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.[*]

MOSES was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; he was initiated in all the knowledge of the WISEMEN 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 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 these 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.[*]

MOSES divested the worship of the Deity of its cloak of mysteries and images, 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.[†]

The second stage of FREE MASONRY is grounded on this period—the TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM owns the probation of the CRAFTSMEN.

Moses was also possessed of knowledge superior to that of his 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 the original knowledge, to express by characters to the eye, the thoughts and sentiments of the mind —but this was obscured and debased in after ages by symbols and hieroglyphics: yet by the immediate dispensation of heaven, Moses attained the 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.
[*]

It is natural to conceive that the Israelites would be instructed in this act, 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 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, 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,
[*]
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 those who were employed in these great works: since which period builders have adopted the name of masons, as an honourary 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 MASON signifies a Family or particular race of people:—it seems as if the name was compounded of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, QUERO SALVUM; and the title of MASONRY no more than a corruption of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, SUM IN MEDIO COELI, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, SIGNA COELESTIA. Job xxxviii. 32. — which conjecture 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 inindispensable duty: — How they are prescribed to us, and their practice 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.

Notes

*

Genesis—ch. i. ver. 26.
And God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

Ver. 27.
— So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.

Ver. 31.
—And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good.

Ch. 2. ver. 7.
—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.

↵

*
Genesis, ch. ii. ver. 16—17—19.—Ch. iii. ver. 9—10—11—12—17.
↵

*

Genesis, cha. iv. ver. 16.

—And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.
↵

*

Religions 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 this 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.

↵

*

The posterity of Ham forsook the doctrines of their predecessor, for the Deity whose adoration he taught, they soon 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 of the line of Ham, who was held by his posteritie in the highest veneration;—they called him Amon, and havin process of time raised him to a Divinity, they worshipped him as the Sun, and from this worship they were stiled Amonians. ’

‘The Deitie 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 only an emblem of his influence and power.’

Bryant's Analysis of ancient Mythology.

↵

*
Exodus, ch. vii. ver. 11—12—22. Ch. viii. ver. 7—18.
↵

†

The Author of ‘the Dissertation on the antient Pagan Mysteries,’ defending Dr Warburton's positions against Dr Leland, writes thus: ‘that to the Pagan Divinity there was not only 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 the 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 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 examples 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, Bacchus, Venus, Mars, and the whole rabble of licentious Deities, were only dead mortals; subject, in life, to the same passions and infirmities with themselves; but having been on other accounts benefactors to mankind, grateful posteritie had deified them; and with their virtues, had indiscreetly canonized their vices.’

‘The fabulous Gods being thus rooted, 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 local tutelary deities, beings superior to men, 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 dead 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.

↵

*

Exodus, ch. xxxi. ver. 18.
—And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Ch. xxxiv. ver. 1.
—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.

Ver. 27.
—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.

↵

*

Exodus, ch. xxxi. ver. 2.
—See. I have called by name, Bezaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

Ver. 3.
—And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.

Ver. 4.
—To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass.

Ver. 5.
—And in cutting of stones to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.

Ver 6.
—And in the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee.

Ver. 7.
—The tabernacle of the congregation, &c.

Ch. xxxvi. ver. 1.
—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 had commanded.

Ver. 2.
—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.

↵

*

The titles 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 any thing 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, res arcana, mysteries, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, sacris initiatus mysta—those initiated to sacred mysteries.

↵

LECTURE II. On the Rites, Ceremonies, and Institutions of the Antients.

THERE is no doubt that our ceremonies and mysteries were derived from the rites, ceremonies, and institutions of the antients, 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 progression of religion, and they symbolized it, as well in the first stage, as in the advancement 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 antient institutions from whence they may have been deduced.

The ASSIDEANS (a sect among the Jews, divided into 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the merciful, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the just) 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 Sadduces, in denying the resurrection, and the faith of rewards and punishments after this life.

The ESSENES[*] were of very remote antiquity, and it hath been argued by divines, that they were as antient 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 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 instructors, and with great care commemorate the names of the angels. They held, that GOD was surrounded by spiritual beings, who were MEDIATORS with him, and 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 return the soul to sin. Third, that there was a great MYSTERY in numbers, particularly in the number SEVEN; 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 mostly in contemplation, and abstained from every gratification of the senses. The ESSENES introduced their maxims into the CHRISTIAN CHURCH; and it is alledged 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 arts or manufactories in which they were most skilful. Of the latter, Philo treateth in his book, intituled, Quod omnis vir probus: of the former, in the book following, intituled, De vita contemplativa.—
Godwyn's Moses and Aaron.

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.

1. The PRACTICKS dwelt in the cities; the THEORICKS shunned the cities, and dwelt in gardens and solitary villages.

2. The PRACTICKS spent the day in manuel 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.

3. 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 other, 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.

1. In the whole book of Philo, concerning the Theoricks, there is no mention either of Christ or Christians, of the Evangelists or Apostles.

2. 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a philosophy derived unto them by tradition from their forefathers.

In Grecian antiquity, we find a festival celebrated in honour of CAERES,[*] at Eleusis, a town of Attica, where the Athenians, with great pomp and many ceremonies, attended the mystic rites.— Historians 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 great festival celebrated by the Greeks at PLATAEA, 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 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 founders were fixed on various religious ceremonies, being the general mode of antient times—Knights of the Bath had their hair cut and beards shaven, were shut up in the chapel alone all the 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, "Tres in Uno;" meaning the unity of the three theological virtues.— Various orders of Knights wear a cross on their cloaks: the order of Christ, in Livonia, instituted in 1205, wore this ensign, and were denominated brothers of the sword.—The order of the Holy Ghost wear a golden cross.

An antient writing which is preserved amongst masons with great respect, requires my attention in this place, as it discovers to us what the antient masons regarded as the foundation of our profession [See the Appendix].

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 the discovery of the nature of masonry.

From this antient record we are told, ‘that the mystery of masonry is a knowledge of nature and its operations.’ [Appendix].

"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 antients to imply Christ:—in this sense we find 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 used in the prophets.

‘That the Phoenicians first introduced this science.’ [†] [Appendix].

‘That Pythagoras journey'd into Egypt and Syria, and brought with him these mysteries into Greece.’ [Appendix].

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 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 an hecatomb. —He knew the true system of the world, revived by Copernicus.

The record [appendix] also says, that PYTHAGORAS framed a great Lodge at Crotona, in Greecia Magna, and made many MASONS; some of whom journey'd 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 doctrines of their preceptor.[*]

The same record [appendix] says, that MASONS teach mankind the arts of agriculture, architecture, astronomy, geometry, numbers, music, poesy, chymistry, government, and religion.

I will next observe how far this part of of the record correspondends with what PYTHAGORAS taught.

The Pythagoric tetracties, were a point, a line, a surface, and a solid.—His philosophical system is that, in which the SUN is supposed to rest in the center of our system of planets, and 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.

Among the Jews were a set of men who were called MASORITES: in Godwyn's Moses and Aaron this account is given of them, ‘that their name was derived from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 masar, signifying tradere, to deliver, and masor, a tradition, delivered from hand to hand to posterity without writing, as the Pythagorians and Druids were wont to do.’

PYTHAGORAS lived at Samos, in the reign of Tarquin, the last king of the Romans, in the year of Rome two hundred and twenty, or according to Livy, in the reign of Servius Tullius, in the year of the world three thousand four hundred and seventy-two.—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 possession of WISDOM to himself, but only the desire of possessing it.[*] —His maxims of morality were admirable, for he was for having the study of philosophy solely tend to elevate man to a resemblance of the Deity.—He believed that God is a soul 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 united to the 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—eat nothing that had life— and believed in the doctrine of a metempsychosis or transmigration of souls.

Some eminent writers deny that Pythagoras taught that souls passed into brute 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 reviving in another alive.

PYTHAGORAS is said to have borrowed the notion of metempsychosis from the Egyptians; others say from the antient Brachmans.

Notes

*

‘The etymologies of the names Essaei or Esseni, i. e. Essenes, are divers; that which I prefer is from the Syriac 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Asa, signifying 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to heal or cure diseases; for though they gave themselves chiefly to the study of the Bible, yet with all they studied physic.’

Concerning the beginning of this sect, from whom or when it began, it is hard to determine. Some make them as antient as the Rechabites, and the Rechabites to have differed only in the addition of some rules and ordinances from the Kenites, mentioned Judg. i. 16. and thus by consequence the Essenes were as antient as the Israelites departure out of Egypt: for Jethro, Moses's 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 as 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 seed, nor planted vine-yards, nor had any. Jer. lv. 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 Josephus, l. xiii. c. 19.) was one Judas, who lived in the time of Aristobulus, the son of Jannes Hyrcanus, before our Saviour's birth about one hundred years: however this sect was of greater antiquity, for all three, pharisees, Sadduces, 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 of them in the New Testament? I answer, first, the number of them seemeth not to have been great in Philo and Josephus's time, about four thousand, which being dispersed in many cities, made the faction weak: and happily 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 Sadduces, who opposed each other, and both joined against Christ. Thirdly, why might they not as well 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 meat, is a doctrine of devils—but especially Coloss. 2d, in many passages the apostle seemeth directly to point at them: Let no man condemn you in meat and drink, v. 16.—Let no man bear rule over you, by humbleness of mind, and worshipping of angels, v. 18.—〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, why are ye subject to ordinances, v. 20.—The apostle useth the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which was applied by the Essenes to denote their 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 Essenes might not touch their seniors: and in their diet, their taste was limited to bread, salt, water, and hyssop: and these ordinances they undertook, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, saith Philo, for the love of wisdom: but the apostle concludeth, ver. 23. that these things had only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a shew of wisdom. And whereas Philo termeth the religion of the Essenes by the name of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which word signifieth religious worship, the apostle termeth in the same verse, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, voluntary religion, or will worship: yea, where he termeth their doctrine 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a kind of philosophy received from their forefathers by tradition, St Paul biddeth them beware of philosophy, ver. 8.
Godwyn's Moses and Aaron.

↵

*

‘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 were made, called the lesser mysteries, and were used as preparative to the greater; for no persons were initiated in the greater, unless they had 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 candidates being crowned with myrtle, had admittance by night into a place called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 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 hands 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which word is derived from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a stone; because the book was nothing else but two stones fitly cemented together. Then the priest that initiated them, called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, proposed certain questions, to which 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 incantations.’

‘The chief person that attended at the initiation, was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, i. e. a revealer of holy things. The hierophantes had three assistants, the first of which was called from his office 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, i. e. torch-bearer; the second was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or the cryer; the third ministred at the altar, and was for that reason named 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.’

‘ Hierophantes is said to have been a type of the great Creator of all things, ’

"〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the Sun,

"〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of Mercury,

"And 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the Moon."

↵

*

Ezekiel, ch. xliii. ver. 2.
And behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the East: and his voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth shined with his glory.

Ch. xxiv. ver. 2.
—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 hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.

Ver 3.
—It is for the Prince. The Prince he shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord.

↵

†

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.

In order to shew how early the maxims and principles of the eastern nations might 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 Trojans, 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.’

It is the opinion of the learned Dr Stukely, ‘that there is no doubt our first British ancestors were of the progeny of Abraham, in the Arabian line, by Hagar and by Keturah, the Ishmaelites and Medianites 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 that 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.

↵

*

The 47th proposition of Euclid, which is attributed to Pythagoras, is contained in the first book, and is as follows.

THEOREM. ‘In any right-angled triangle, the square which is described upon the side subtending the right angle, is equal to the squares described upon the sides which contain the right angle.’

The DEMONSTRATION.

In geometrical solutions, and demonstrations of quantities, this proposition is of excellent use, and the example is held by us as a memorial of Pythagoras.

↵

*
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.
↵

*

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's: therefore my purpose is first to name Pythagoras's, and then to proceed with the Essenes. They follow thus.’

‘The Pythagorians professed a communion of goods; so did the Essenes; they had one common purse or stock—none richer, none poorer than other. Out of this common treasury, every one supplied his own wants without leave, and administred to the necessity of 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 commutative bartering: yea, liberty was granted to take one from another what they wanted, without exchange. They performed offices of service mutually one to another; for mastership and service cannot stand with communion of goods. When they travelled, besides weapons for 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 officers, treasurers who looked to the common stock, provided their diet, appointed each his task and other public necessaries; others who entertained their strangers.’

2. ‘The Pythagorians shunned pleasures; so did the Essenes. To this belonged their avoiding of oil, which if any touched unawares, they wiped it off presently.’

3. ‘The Pythagorians 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 Pythagorians forbade oaths; so did the Essenes. They thought him a noted liar who could not be believed without an oath.’

5. ‘The Pythagorians 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 happily if any of the superior ranks had touched any of the inferior, he thought himself polluted, as if he had touched an heathen.’

6. ‘The Pythagorians drank water; so did the Essenes water only — wholly abstaining from wine.’

7. ‘The Pythagorians used inanimate sacrifices; so did the Essenes: they sent gifts to the temple, and did not sacrifice, but preferred the use of their holy water thereto; for which reason the other Jews sorbade them all access unto the temple. ’

8. ‘The Pythagorians ascribed all things to fate or destiny; so did the Essenes. In this aphorism all three jewish sects differed each from other—the Pharisees ascribed some things to fate, and other things to man's free will— the Essenes ascribed all to fate—the Sadduces wholly denied fate, and ascribed all things to mans free will.’

9. ‘The Pythagorians the first five years were not permitted to speak in the school, but were initiated per quinque male 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, so that decem simul sedentibus, nemo loquiter 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 beckenings, 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 Pythagorians, that it must be five years, may be referred the initiation 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 dolo•ellum, a spade; Perezoina, a pair of breeches used in bathing; and vestem albam, a white garment which the sect affected. At this time they had their commons allowed them, but without, not in the common dining 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 brake 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 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 Pythagorians 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 Egyptian tenets and maxims.

↵

LECTURE III. On the Rites, Ceremonies, and Institutions of the Antients.

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 his 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's moral doctrine, was to 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 common offices of life.

SOCRATES improved the lessons of PYTHAGORAS, and reduced his maxims into sixed principles.

PLATO refined the doctrine of both these philosophers, and carried each virtue to its utmost height and accomplishment; mixing his ideas of the universal principle of philosophy through the whole design.

The antient masonic record [appendix] also says, that masons know 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 the days in the year, he held that three hundred and sixty-five virtues, powers, or intelligences, existed as the emanations of God: the value, or numerical distinctions, of the letters in the word, according to the antient Greek numerals, made 365 — Α1 Β3 Ρ100 Α1 Χ60 Α1 Σ200.

Amongst 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 derived health, prosperity, and safety.

The annexed plate is from a drawing taken in the British Museum, of a gem deposited there; is near twice the size of the original, which is engraved on a beril stone, of the form of an egg. The head is in camio, the reverse in taglio. The head is supposed to represent the image of the Creator, under the denomination of Jupiter Ammon:
[*]
—the sun and moon on the reverse, the OSIRIS AND ISIS of the Egyptians; and were used hierographically 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 hieroglyphics, 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 description I own myself at a loss how to decipher; the characters are imperfect, or ill copied.[†]

The MOON, with divines, is an hieroglyphic of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH, who compared I. C. 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 Basilidians supposed three hundred and sixty-five dependant Deities:—it was the principle of the gnostic hierarchy; whence sprang their multitudes of thaeons.—From ABRAXAS proceeded their PRIMOGAENIAL MIND;— from the primogaenial 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 sixty-five, who were supposed to have the government of so many celestial orbs committed to their care.—The GNOSTICS
[*]
were a sect of christians having 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 hierarchy here pointed out, represents to us the degrees of etherial 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 catechumen, until they proved their proficiency in the catechistic exercises, when they were advanced to the second state, as believers.

As the DRUIDS [*] were a set of religious peculiar 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 of their rites and institutions might be retained, in forming the ceremonies of our society.—In so modern an aera as one thousand one hundred and forty, they were reduced to a regular body 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 greatest antiquity in antient 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: 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, 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.—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 the renewing year.— At their sacrifices,[*] and in their religious offices, they 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 confine 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 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 Suctonius says) their rites were prohibited by Augustus, and totally abolished by Claudius Caesar.

Many probable conjectures have been made, that the Phoenicians [*] visited this land in very early 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 antient 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: Gen. xxviii. 16.
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.—
Ver. 17.

And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.—
Ver. 18.

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.—
Ver. 22.

And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house.—
Exodus xx. 25.

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.—
Exodus xxiv. 4.

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.—
Ver. 5.

And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the Lord.—
Deuteronomy xxvii. 2.

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.—
Ver. 4.

Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day in Mount Ebal.—
Ver. 5.

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.—
Ver. 6.

‘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.’— It was usual to give those places the name of the house of the Lord, 1 Chro. xxii. 1. ‘This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel.’—This is said of the altar erected by David, where afterwards the brazen altar stood in Solomon's temple.

The oak [*] was held sacred by the Druids, under 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 antient nations, as appears by Deuteronomy xii. 2, 3.—Judges vi. 19. —1 Kings xviii. 19.—2 Kings xxi. 37.— 2 Chron. xv. 16, 17.—Deuteron. vii. 5. and xvi. 21.—Exod. xxxiv. 13.—Judges iii. 7.
[*]
Isaiah i. 29. ‘They shall be ashamed of the oaks which they have desired.’— The French Magi held the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or oak in great veneration: [*] — the Celtae revered the oak as a type or emblem of Jupiter.[†]

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 appears from those capital similarities before remarked:
[‡]
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 hierogliphically represents strength, virtue, and constancy, and sometimes longevity:—under these symbolic characters, it might be revered by the Druids: and the misletoe, which they held in the utmost 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 large forests, the moisture of the air from extensive uncultivated lands, and the maritime situation of this country.

From all these religious institutions, rites, customs, and ceremonies, which bear in many degrees a striking similarity to those of this society, we may naturally conjecture, that the founders of our present maxims, had in view the most antient race of christians, as well as the first professors of the worship of the God of Nature. Our antient record, which I have mentioned, brings us positive evidence of the Pythagorian doctrine, and Basilidian principles, making the foundation of our religious and moral rules.— The following lectures will elucidate these assertions, and will enable us, I hope, with no small degree of certainty, to prove our original principles.

Notes

*

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 Hammah, 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, splendour, 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 revolution 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 antient authors call Osiris, there are two things remarkable; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the death or loss of Adonis, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the finding of 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 he is in the tropic of Cancer, in the farthest degree northward, and secondly when he is in the tropic of Capricorn, in the furthest 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.

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*

Our next inquiry is, what idol was meant by Chiun and Remphau, otherwise in antient 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 gyant. By Hercules we may understand the planet of the sun. There are etymologists that derive Hercules's name from the Hebrew Hiercol, illuminavit omnia: the Greek etymology 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, aeris gloria, holds correspondency with the Hebrew, and both signify that universal light which floweth from the sun, as water from a fountain. Porphyry interpreteth Hercules's 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 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 drachmes of silver to the sacrifice of Hercules, 2 Mac. iv. 19.—The star of Remphau is thought to be the star which was painted in the forehead of Molech; neither was it unusual for the heathen to paint their idols with such symbolica additamenta.
Godwyn's Moses and Aaron.

The Egyptian Apis was to bear such mark.

↵

*

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 amongst the antients as the most sacred and salutary symbol, and rendered a chief object of adoration; in so much that the worship of the serpent prevailed so, that many places as well as people received their names from thence.

↵

†

—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 Aeons, 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 Aeon 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 man from their slavery to the Demiurgus.
Key to the New Testament.

↵

†

I have obtained two constructions of the inscription 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 aera; Basilides existed in the earliest age of christianity, and the ensignae 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 numerals, is ‘Terra declarat laudem magnificientiamque tuam.’ Both these gentlemen say the characters are very rude and imperfect.

As to the numerals, computing the date from the deluge, it will relate to that remarkable aera 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.

↵

*

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, the infinitely perfect and happy, was not the creator of the universe, nor the alone independent Being: for, according to them, matter too was eternal. The Supreme Being, who resides in the immensity of space, which they call Pteroma or fullness, produced from himself, say they, other immortal and spiritual natures, stiled by them Aeons, 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 shew his own dexterity, reduced it into form and order, and enlivened some parts of it with animal spirit. The being who atchieved 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 had been now done, he, in order to prevent mischief as much as possible, added to the animal spirit of many of the 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 Demiurgus grew so aspiring, that he seduced men from their allegiance to the Supreme Being, and diverted all their devotion to himself.
Key to the New Testament.

↵

*

Tacitus saith, ‘among the Britains, 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 Druidae are present at all divine service; 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 cases of heinous offences, murder, or man-slaughter, 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 incapacitated from holding any public office. Of the Druidae there is a chief, who hath 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 Druidae 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 Charhes, 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 is 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 thither for instruction. The Druids are free from tributes and service in war; and like these immunities, are they also exempt from all state impositions. Many, excited by such rewards, resort to them to be instructed. It is reported, 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, wisemen, 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 oak for their divine service: they solemnize no sacrifice, nor celebrate any sacred ceremonies with the branches and leaves of oak; from whence they may seem to claim the name of Dryidae 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 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 stay 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 had bestowed them."’

↵

*

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 fight: 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 sacrificed were criminals; were 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 had sinned against his laws:—punishments by death were of very early date, and such punishments 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 tremendous exhibition, to impress on the minds of the spectators the deepest religious reverence; and the utmost horror of the sufferings, 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 tribulation 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 his 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 up to the God of Justice.

↵

*

‘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 Sydon; 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 antient inhabitants of Palestine, seeing themselves threatened with entire destruction, had recourse to flight to save themselves. Sidon offered them an Asylum. By this irruption of the Hebrew people, the Sidonians were enabled to send colonies where ever 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 then from Phoenicia, to spread themselves in all the country of Africa and Europe. ’—We may date this event about the year of the world two thousand five hundred and fifty-three, and one thousand four hundred and fifty-one years before Christ.

‘Spain was not the only country beyond the pillars of Hercules which the Phoenicians penetrated. Being familiarized with the navigation of the ocean, they extended themselves to the left of the Straits of Cadiz as far as the right. —Stabo assures, 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 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 Cassitorides; 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 in England in very remote antiquity.’

De Goguer, on the Origin of Arts and Sciences.

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*

Diodorus Siculus termeth the Gaulish priests 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which betokeneth the 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 which they founded, we shall find them either made up of the names of those personages, or else of the titles with which they were in process of time honoured.’ He proceeds to class those, and reduce them to radicals, as he terms them, and inter alias gives the monofyllable 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Sar.—
Under the word Sar, says he, we are taught, that as oaks were stiled Saronides, so likewise were the antient 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 to its essence or its origin.
Bryant's Analysis of Antient Mythology.

Maximus Tyrius says, ‘the Celts (or Gauls) worshipped Jupiter, whose symbol or sign is the highest oak. ’

The Saxons called their sages 〈◊〉, from the Druids.

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*

Deuteronomy xii. 2, 3.
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 hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

Judges vi. 19.
The flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and he brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.

1 Kings xviii. 19.
And the prophets of the groves four hundred.

2 Kings xxi. 3.
For he built up again the high places, which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab King of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

Ver. 7.
And he set a graven image of the grove which he had made, &c.

2 Chron. xv. 16.
He removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove.

Ver. 17.
But the high places were not taken away out of Israel.

Deuteronomy vii. 5.
Ye shall all destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

Cha. xvi. ver. 21.
Thou shalt not plant the grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God.

Exodus xxxiv. 13.
But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves.

Judges iii. 7.
And the children of Israel, &c. served Baalim, and the groves.

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*
Plin. Nat. Hist.
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†
Maximus Tyrius.
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‡

In the plain of Tormore, in the isle of Arran, are the remains of four circles. By the number of the circles, and by their sequestered situation, this seems to have been sacred ground. These circles were formed for religious purposes: Boetius 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 form of a circle: the largest was situated towards the south, and served as an altar for the sacrifices to the immortal gods. Boetius, lib. 11. pa. 15. Boetius 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.
Pennant's Voyage to the Hebrides.

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LECTURE IV. The Nature of the Lodge.

I Now take upon me to prove my first proposition, and to shew 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 her great original, and worship him for his mighty works; and we are thereby also moved, to exercise those moral and social virtues, 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, hath 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 Jerusalem, were representations of the celestial hemisphere, and were "of blue, of crimson, and 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 souls recreation to 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.[*]—Our thoughts returning from this glorious scene towards ourselves, we discern the diminutiveness 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, ‘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
[*]
—creation was delivered 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 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 discoverd 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 shew, 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 hath 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 eye of man:— he hath 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 give him a chearful countenance:’ 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 hath 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 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 JEHOSOPHAT, 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 JEHOSOPHAT, from the Hebrew tongue, being no other than those express words.—The highest hills
[*]
and lowest vallies were from the earliest times esteemed sacred, and it was supposed the spirit of God was peculiarly diffusive in those places; —

Ezekiel xliii. 12.
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, least 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 Easterns 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 ‘hear the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden.’

In the corruption and ignorance of after ages, these hallowed places were polluted with idolatry[*];—the unenlightened mind mistook the type for the original, and could not discern the light from darkness; — the sacred groves and hills became objects of enthusiastic bigotry and superstition;—the devotees bowed down to the oaken log, and the graven image of the sun, 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; wisemen, southsayers, and astrologers among the Caldeans; 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 systems 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, 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 initiated; 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 antient record which I have before quoted, expresses that the first masons received their KNOWLEDGE from God; by which means they are 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: others who were emerging from the ignorance and blindness in which they had been overwhelmed, contemplated on 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 his 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 nothing was concealed.—The antients not only refrained from building temples, but held it utterly unlawful so to do; because they thought no temple spacious enough for the SUN, the great symbol of the Deity. "Mundus universus 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 idolaters 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 ‘that they were worshipers in that TEMPLE, whose bounds were from the distant quarters of the universe; 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[*].

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 the Phoenicians, who had received the Egyptian theology in an early age, it is not to be wondered that we should adopt Egyptian symbols, to represent or express the attributes of the Divinity.

The Pythagorian 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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 Irismegistus, who was an Egyptian, and said to be contemporary with Abraham's grandfather, is this remarkable passage; speaking of the Deity he says, ‘But if thou wilt see him, consider and understand the sun, consider 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[*].

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.

As such it is to be a FREE MASON; —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.

Notes

*

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 at 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, and 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 candlestick 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 shewed that God had made the universe of four elements; and as for the gold interwoven, I suppose it related to the 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 that 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 Antiq. Jud. cha. 7.

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 have beeen observed with care, and perfectly well adapted.
DE GOGUET.

↵

*

2 Chron. iii. 14.
And he made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and wrought cherubims thereon.

See also Josephus.

↵

*

Besides what is already noted touching the ‘ Amonian rights and the worship of the sun, the doctrine of the Magians was, "the Original Intelligence, who is the first principle of all things, discovers himself to the mind and understanding only, but he hath 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.

Psalm civ. 1.
Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, thou art very great, thou art cloathed with honour and majesty.

Ver. 2.
Who coverest thyself with light, as with a garment.

Ver. 3.
Who maketh the clouds his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind.

Ver. 4. Who maketh his angels spirits, and his "ministers a flaming fire."

↵

*

O 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,

An azure zone thy waist; clouds in heav'n's loom

Wrought thro' varieties of shape and shade,

In ample folds of drapery divine,

Thy flowing mantle form, and heav'n throughout

Voluminously pour thy pompous train.

Thy gloomy grandeurs (nature's most august

Inspiring aspect) claim a grateful verse;

And like a fable curtain starr'd with gold,

Drawn o'er my labours past shall close the scene!

Young's Night Thoughts.

↵

*

Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,

Said then th' omnisic word, your discord end:

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 servid 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 center'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, O 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 thro' 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 caelestial 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 Par. Lost.

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*

At length to beautify those holy 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 termed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and thence had their names. —The Etrurians worshipped an holm-tree:—and amongst the Celtae, a tall oak was the idol or image of Jupiter.

Among the Israelites, the idolatry began under the Judges Othniel and Ehud, Judg. iii. 7. and at the last it 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 Chron. xv. 16.

Godwyn's Moses and Aaron.

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*
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 Kames's Sketches of Man.

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*

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 Kames's Sketches of Man.

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*

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, ‘the true religion which Noah taught his posterity, was that which Abraham practised, the worshiping 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 chusing; 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 a middle sort between God and them: they thought these the properest things to be 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 antient people is included in what their priests sabled 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 antient, 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, signifying the prince, and Isis is Ishah his wife. Diodorus Siculus, who has transmitted down to us with great care the most antient traditions of the Egyptians, asserts this prince is the same with Menes, the first king of Egypt. Perhaps at his apotheosis his 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 sound in almost 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 Pythagorian 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 only 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, ‘ Osiris 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 stoie says, ‘'Tis 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 Strator, 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 stoies 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.’

↵

*

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 Cambyse's invasion of Egypt, before the time of building the second temple at Jerusalem, at an aera 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 in Britain.

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LECTURE V. The Furniture of the Lodge.

IT is with pleasure I pursue the duty I have imposed upon myself, to give 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 placed in our view, those emblems which should 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 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 where self-approbation slows for ever; —she leads us forth to worthy actions, and as a BLAZING STAR, enlightneth 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 good principles.

Of the VIRTUES of which PRUDENCE is the rule, three are called Cardinal Virtues, of which, most 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 must be the characteristic of a mason, I 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 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, 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 belongeth to him.

The CARDINAL VIRTUES, Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance, and Justice, hold in their train the inferior powers of Peace, Concord, Quietness, Liberty, Safety, Honor, Felicity, Piety, and Charity, with many others which were adored by the antients 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 are trod 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, tomorrow 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 uprightly, and with humility;—for such is this 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 FREE MASON, 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 he is to tread to obtain his approbation; —whatever precepts he hath administred, and with whatever laws he hath inspired the sages of old, the same are faithfully comprized 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 knoweth not the acceptable service?

But as the frailty of human nature wageth war with truth, and man's infirmities struggle with his virtues; to aid the conduct of every mason, the master holdeth the COMPASS, limiting the distance, progress, and circumference of the work: he dictateth the manners, he giveth the direction of the design, and delineateth each portion and part of the labour; assigning to each his province and his order. And such is his mastership, that each part, when asunder, seemeth 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 fits dictating those 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, benevolence, cordiality, and innocent mirth; that the assembly of the brethren may be 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
[*]
; as the golden candlestick in the tabernacle of Moses was at once emblematical of the spirit of God, whereby his chosen people were enlightned, and prophetical of the churches; or otherwise, as 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: or otherwise our lights are typical of the holy Trinity.

Such is the furnitures of the lodge; such are 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 shew our good works unto the world, that thro' our LIGHT so shining unto men, they may glorify the GREAT MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE; and therefore ‘do JUSTICE —love MERCY—and WALK HUMBLY with their GOD.’

Mus: Brit: Tab. 6. Wm Hutchinson del: 1769

Notes

*

The particular attention paid by the antients to the Element of Fire is in no wise to be wondered at, when we consider, that when ever the Deity deigned to reveal himself to the human senes it was under this element.

Exodus iii. 2.
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.

Ver. 4.
God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses.

Chap. xiii. 21.
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.

Chap. xix. 16.
There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount.

Ver. 18
And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire.

Chap. xviv. 17.
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.

Chap. xxix. 43.
And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.

Numb. ix. 16.
That thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.

Deuteronomy v. 4.
The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire.

Ver. 5.
For ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount.

Ver. 22.
These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire.

Ver. 23.
For the mountain did burn with fire.

Ver 24.
And we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire.

Ver. 26.
For who is there of all flesh that hath heard the voice of the living God, speaking out of the midst of the fire (as we have) and lived.

To these may be added the shachina in the temple.

It would from a kind of parity in circumstances naturally follow, that men would look up to the Sun, as the throne of the Divinity, from whence his ministring spirits dispensed his will to the distant quarters of the universe.—Fire became the general emblem of the Divinity in 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 etherial fire was preserved in the temple of the Jews, and in the tabernacle, with great reverence. The druid priests in their worship looked towards the Sun:—they retained many of the Ammonian rites:—they are said to have made mystical processions round their consecrated fires sunwise, before they proceeded to sacrifice.

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LECTURE VI. The Apparel and Jewels of Masons.

MASONS, as one of their 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 antients were also wont to put a white garment on the person baptized, 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 baptized are both by the apostle and the Greek fathers frequently stiled 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the ENLIGHTNED, 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, 'Receive the white and undefiled garment, and produce it without spot before the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you may obtain eternal life. Amen.'—They were wont to wear these white garments for the space of a week after they were baptized, 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 cloathed 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 shews 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 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 indispensible 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 snow-white cotton.—We do not find that the 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 affections by justice, and our actions by truth, as the square tries the workmankship 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;—'tis 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 the bosom of the highest potentate on earth; — human nature has her impulses from desires, which are often too inordinate: — love blinds with prejudices, and resentment burns with fevers;—contempt renders us incredulous, and covetousness deprives us of every generous or humane feeling.—To steer the bark of life upon the seas of passions, 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 attempt; 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 indispensible 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 cloathed, 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 calamities; 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 has 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 compassion, 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 stedfast members in, religious duties.—In civil 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 meets 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.

Notes

*

Isaiah ix. 2.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
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LECTURE VII. The Temple at Jerusalem.

THE first worshipers of the God of nature, in the nations of 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 these 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 the least idea of their great archetype. Other nations (who had expressed the attributes of the Deity by outward objects, or who had introduced pictures 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 antients, the worshipers 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 strengthned by prepossession, custom, bigotry, and superstition.

Moses had acquired the knowledge of the Egyptians, and derived the doctrines of truth from the righteous ones of the nations of the east; he being also touched 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 aera 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 led aside by shew and ceremony; and that the eye being caught by pomp and solemn rites, perverted the opinion, 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 oftentatious mode; well judging that the service and adoration of the Deity, which was only cloathed in simplicity of manners and humble prayer, must be established in the judgment and 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 rights and ceremonies to be performed with a splendour equal to the most extravagant pomp of the idolaters.

As this TEMPLE
[*]
received the second race of the servants of the true God, and as the true CRAFTSMEN were here proved in their work, I 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 my brethren 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 pillar, and he called the name thereof JACHIN; and he set up the left pillar, and called it BOAZ.’—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 a 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[*].

When this splendid structure was finish'd, ‘SOLOMON stood before the altar of the Lord, in the presence of all the congregation of ISRAEL, and spread forth his hands and said, O LORD GOD of Israel, there is no God like thee in the heaven and in the earth:—O LORD MY GOD hearken unto the cry and the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee:—O LORD GOD turn not away the face of thine 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 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 antient sages; those he 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 MORIALI, 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 this structure was to be formed, but by men of pure hands and holy minds, 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 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 altho', 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; and yet without question they were the projectors and superintendants 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 over-ruling 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 at 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 fervor, 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 to superior privileges higher points of knowledge, and at the last to that honourable pre-eminence of 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 the world:—his name and his artificers would become the wonder of mankind, and his works their example and emulation: — from thence the MASONS of SOLOMON would be dispersed into different states, to superintend the works of other princes, and there would convert insidels, initiate brethren in their mysteries, and extend their order over the distant quarters of the known world.

We find that the like distinction was 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 it, under the denomination of servants of the same God:—but they were rejected, as unworthy of the 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 History of the Antiquities of the Jews, speaking of SOLOMON's going about to erect the Temple at JERUSALEM, gives copies of the epistles which passed between SOLOMON and HIRAM 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 hindred 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 shall determine.

HIRAM to KING SOLOMON,

There is reason to bless God that he hath 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 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 antients, 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 symbolic ornaments in the 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. BOAZ being in its literal translation, IN THEE IS STRENGTH; and JACHIN, IT SHALL BE ESTABLISHED; which by a very natural transposition may be put thus: O LORD, THOU ART MIGHTY, AND THY POWER IS ESTABLISHED FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING:—Or otherwise they might imply, as BOAZ was the father 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,—

2 Sam. vii. 12.
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.

Ver. 13.
—He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

Ver. 16.
And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; THY THRONE SHALL BE ESTABLISHED FOR EVER.

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.

Notes

*

Ezekiel xliv. 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, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.

Ver. 3.
It is for the prince: the prince shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord.

Ver. 4.
Then brought he me by the way of the north gate before the house.

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*
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 nations subject to the Egyptian empire, &c. or in commemoration of memorable events.—Diodorus tells us, that Sosostris signalized his reign by the erection of two obelisks, which were cut with a design to acquaint postertity 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 Jesostris. The obelisk of Shannesses exceeded all that had preceded it: Constantine, and Constans his son, caused it to be moved 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 ‘I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever.’
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*

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 possess'd 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.

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*
Eusebius preparat. Evanget. ix. 33.34. has these letters, though greatly disguised by Eupolemeus, from whom Eusebius had his copies.
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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 its signification 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 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 to which this science was brought by the antients, 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 times, 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 bearings 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. 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 antient 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 lines, and amongst 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 planimetry, 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.

The square was the 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 I before declared it to be my 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 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 honor of the Divinity, for their sacrifices and religious offices[*];—so I am 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 greater 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 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.

Notes

*

Genesis iv. 3, 4. viii. 20. xxii. 9. xxviii. 18. xxxiii. 20. xxxi. 7.

Exodus xx. 24. xxvii. 1. xxx. 1.

Joshua xxii. 10, 11.

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LECTURE IX. The Master Mason's Order.

AS I 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 worshipers of the true God,—so have I in the former lectures shewn, that by order, in the Apprentices, is implied the first knowledge of the God of nature, in the earliest ages of man.—Under the Craftsmen, I have shewn the Mosaic legation, and the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem; together with the light which men received, for the discovery of the divine Wisdom, by geometrical solutions.—I 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 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 deficiencies he bestowed 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 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 sack-cloth 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 ROTTENESS, 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 antients 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 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:—‘Her tomb was in the rubbish, and filth cast forth of the temple, and ACACIA wove its branches over her monument;’ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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[*].

The acquisition of the doctrine of redemption, is expressed in the typical character of HURAMEN, (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, inveni) and by the applications of that name with masons, it is implied, that we have discovered the knowledge of God and of his salvation, and have been redeemed from the death of sin, and the sepulchre of pollution and unrighteousness[*].

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.—This emblem is given by geometricians as a demonstration of the Trinity in Unity.

On receiving this ensign, the mason professeth himself in a short distich, in the Greek language, which, from the rules of our order, I am forbid to commit to writing; the literal meaning of which is, ‘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 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.

This our order is a positive contradistinction 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 incumb'ring 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 rememb'ring that man was born for the aid of his generation, and not for his own enjoyments only, but to do that which is good; we should be swift to have mercy, to save, to strengthen, and execute benevolence.

THIRD. As the good things of this life are partially 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 do not allow the 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 over-shoot 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.

Notes

*

Acacia—AKAKIA, in antiquity a roll or bag, represented on the medals of the Greek and Roman Emperors: some think it is only an 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) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Gr. innocence, or being free from sin.

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*

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 distich, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 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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LECTURE X. The Secrecy of Masons.

IN this age, when every thing serious is received with laughter, every thing religious treated with contempt, and whatever is moral, spurned from the doors of the polite; no wonder if my intentions to prove this society of religious as well as civil institution, is ridiculed and despised.

It is not to be doubted many assemblies of MASONS were held before the christian aera; the first stage of masonry took its rise in the earliest times, was originated in the mind of ADAM, descended pure through the antedeluvian 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.—These antients, enlightned 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 construction of the tabernacle of Moses, they were embodied at the building of the temple at Jerusalem, and might from thence emigrate into distant countries, where they would superintend other religious works. The ceremonies now known to masons, prove that the testimonials and insignia of the Masters' order, in the present state of masonry, were devised within the ages of christianity, and I am confident there are not any records in being, in any nation, or in any language, which can shew 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 promulged 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 alledge our morality was originally deduced from the school of Pythagoras, and that the Basilidian system of religion furnished us with some tenets, principles, and hieroglyphics: but these, together with the Egyptian symbols and Judaic monuments, 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 shews 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 indisputable;—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, I am greatly doubtful:—for so plain, easy, 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 store-houses; 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 resolved into 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: ‘He was skilful to work in silver and gold, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, 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 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 cherubins and palm trees, fruits and flowers: from whence I 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, ‘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 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.—From those circumstances, I am bold to say, that if we trace the antiquity of masonry on the 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 I will leave this speculation for more material subjects.

Some masters of design 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 this excellence in architecture as free from usurpation, as if it had been wrapped up in the most profound magic.

I am 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 the time that 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 fervor for endowments infatuated the minds of the converted;—certain days were assigned for the purpose of attending to religious works and edifices, called hally-wark-days; on which no man, 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 haly-werk-folk, who were guards of the patrimony and holy sepulchre of St Cuthbert.—These men come the nearest to a similitude of Solomon's masons, and to the title of FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS, of any degree of architects I have gained any knowledge of: but whether their initiation was attended with any peculiar ceremonies, or by what laws they were regulated, I 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 these people and the constitution of their society. It was a matter to be coveted by me, lecturing on this subject, as most probably such constitution or evidence would have confirmed every hypothesis I have raised on the definition of our emblems and mysteries.

The emblems used by these people, very much resembled those of our society, several tokens of which have been found of late years in pulling down old ruins.— It is much to be wished, that those noblemen, &c. in whose possession antient 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 some double walls, or hollow pillars, in which such things were deposited.—Few men will be at the expence 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.—This was a very antient custom: the unbelieving Jews accused our Saviour of having stolen the mystic words, the TETRAGRAMMATON, 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.

Soon after the progress of christianity in this land, 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, 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 enterprize, 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, watch-words, 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 he said Sibboleth, for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took them and slew them at the passage of Jordan.[*]

No project or device could answer the purposes of the crusadors 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 enterprizers 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 antients 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 the ages of antiquity, was possessed by the religious;—they had acquired the wisdom of the antients, 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 enterprize, 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 antients, 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.

Amongst other evidence which authorizes me in the conjecture that masons went to the holy wars, is the doctrine of that order of masons, called the HIGHER ORDER. I am 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 me that masons were crusaders.

As my intention in this lecture was not only to speculate on the antient secrecy amongst masons, but also to treat of the secrecy of masons in this age, I must therefore turn my thoughts to the importance secresy is now of amongst us, when there are no holy structures to erect, 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 I 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 have been saved in foreign countries, when ship-wreck and misery had 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 has saved them: the discovery of being a brother, hath staid the savage hand of the conqueror, lifted in the field of battle to cut off the captive; hath withheld the sword imbrued in carnage 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, and 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, so as to open our strongholds to robbers and deceivers, is as great a moral crime, as to shew the common thief the weaknesses and secret places of our neighbour's 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 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 masons secrecy, wherefore should the world wonder that the most profligate tongue which ever had expression hath 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: ‘What man is there of you, whom 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 man so iniquitous among masons, as to guide the thief to steal from his sick brother the medicine which should restore his health? the balsam which should close his wounds? the cloathing 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 upon 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, I am persuaded it would be sufficient to lock up the tongue of every man who professeth himself to be a MASON.

Notes

*

De Hermitorio Finchalensis Ranulphus Dei gratia Dunelmensis Episcopus omnibus hominibus suis Francis et Anglis de haly werc folc salutem, &c.

Many other grants are in my possession of this kind. Ralph Flamberd was consecrated Bishop of Durham in 1099.

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*
Hist. Dunelm. apud Wartoni Aug. Sax.
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*

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 saith with the brotherhood uncorrupted. And to render their words 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 Elusimian mysteries, would answer as an avowal of our profession, 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. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Colo, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Lapis; so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Sibbolithon, Colo Lapidem, implies, that they retain and keep inviolate their obligations, as the Juramentum per Jovem L•pid•m, the most obligatory oath held amongst the heathen.—
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 wise Ops, who said that it was Jupiter, in which sense Eusebius says that Lapis reigned in Crete: or from lipide silice, the flint stone, which in making bargains the swearer held in his hand and said, 'If knowingly I deceive, so let Diespiter, saving the city and the capital, cast me away from all that's good, as I cast away this stone.' Whereupon he threw the stone away.
Pantheon.

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LECTURE XI. Of Charity.

AS one of the principal characteristics of a Mason, in this lecture, I will treat of CHARITY.

I do not mean to make strictures on that modern error of indiscriminately dispensing alms to all suppliants, 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 antients 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 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 chearfulness and alacrity.—They were represented linked together, arm in arm, to instruct us that one kindness should prompt another; so that the knot and bond 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, sordid, 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 their happiness.

Such are the general sentiments which the antients 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 among masons, is now my purpose to define, as it stands limited to our own society.
[*]

As being so limited, we are not through that channel subject to be imposed on by false pretences; and are certain of the proper and merited administration of it. It is hence to be hoped, that it exists with us without dissembling or hypocrisy, and lives in sincerity and truth:—that benefits received impress a lively degree of gratitude and affection on the minds of masons, as their bounties should be bestowed with chearfulness, and unacquainted with the frozen singer of reluctance:—the benevolence of our society should be so mutual and brotherly, that each ought to endeavour to render good offices, as readily as he would receive them.
[*]

In order to exercise this virtue, both in the character of masons and in common life, with propriety, and agreeable to such principles, we should 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 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.
[*]

He whose bosom is locked up against compassion is a Barbarian;—his manners must be 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 a WIDOW, who in early life, having been brought up in the bosom of a tender mother, without knowing care, and without tasting of necessity, was not befitted for adversity; —whose soul was pure as innocence, and full of honor;—whose mind had been brightned 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 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 the 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 wearying PATIENCE and relaxing RESIGNATION breathes 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 CHARITY.—Perhaps the fatal hour's 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 beyond the scene of sorrow without compassion, and without pity see the last convulsion and the deadly gaze which paint misery upon the features of an expiring saint!—If angels weep in heaven, they weep for such:—if they can know 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 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 chearfulness 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 him, with integrity more than human, taking scrupulously his own, and wronging no man for his hunger or his wants;—whilst he sees him with fatigued sinews, lengthen out the toil of industry, from morn to night with unremitting ardor, 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 chearful 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 sees such a man deprived by fire or water of all his substance, the habitation of his infants lost, and nothing left but nakedness and tears,—and seeing this, affords the sufferer no relief?—Surely in nature few such wretches do exist! but if such be, it is not vain presumption to proclaim, that like accursed Cain, they are distinguished as the outcast 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 labours they subsisted;—orphans in tender years left naked to the world.

What 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, shewing their distortions and their sores to prompt compassion; with which ill-gotten gains, in concert with thieves and 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.

Notes

*

The principles which alone should attend a candidate for initiation to our society, are pathetically represented in the following psalm.

PSALM XV.

1. ‘Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall abide in thy holy hill?’

2. ‘He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.’

3. ‘He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doth evil to his neighbour; nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.’

4. ‘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.’

5. ‘He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. —He that doeth these things shall never be moved.’

↵

*

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 chuse 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 lose the fairest objects for our charity; the absent, the sick, the captive, and the needy.
Seneca of Benefits.

The rule is, we are to give as we would receive, chearfully, 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.
The same.

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.
The same.

↵

*

1 Corinth. chap. xiii.

Ver 1. 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.

2. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all saith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3. 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.

4. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.

5. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil.

6. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.

7. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8. 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.

9. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

11. "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.

12. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know, even as also I am known.

13. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

↵

LECTURE XII. On Brotherly Love.

I Shall treat of BROTHERLY LOVE, in this lecture, in that light 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 here:—all the sire of resentment, and remembrance of injuries, should be forgotten; and that cordiality ought to be warm among us, which brings with it chearfulness and rejoicing:—the true worshipers 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 without alloy.

After the business of the lodge is dispatched, we are met together to open out the chearfulness of our hearts without guile; for here are no tale-bearers, censors, or revilers among us;—our lodge is sacred to SILENCE:—hence we may say figuratively, ‘it is situate in the secret places, where the cock holdeth not his watch, where the voice of railing reacheth 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 cloathed in CHARITY:—thus it standeth void of offence:—no malicious mind warps innocent expressions to wicked constructions, or interprets unmeaning jests into sarcasms or satyres; 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 I said were indispensible duties here, are not the offspring of controul, 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 antient philosophers, that "to err was human;" therefore in the lodge there ought to be a constant governor, who should restrain the improprieties 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 us 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 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.

Of this crime, the much-admired poet Shakespear has given a just description.

"The man 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."

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 hath 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 is 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 smiteth 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, re-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 not possible for a benevolent mind 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 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 doth 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 the same object of his regard.

The neutral disposition, frigid and reserved, neither speaks 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 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 rouse 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, consequently besitting 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 the works of benevolence; and his heart is touched with joy, whilst he acts within her precepts.

Let us therefore be stedfast and immoveable in our ordinances, that we be proved to have A TONGUE OF GOOD REPORT.

LECTURE XIII. On the Occupations of Masons.

IN my former lectures I have declared it to be my 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 propositions I 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 in the duties of righteousness.

I ground my judgment of the nature of our profession on our ceremonials, and am convinced they have not their relation to building and architecture, but are emblematical, and imply moral, spiritual, and religious tenets.—It appears to me 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.—I am induced to believe, that our present ceremonies were more generally taught, and more candidates were initiated therein, on the opening of the crusades, than in any other aera, or on any other known occasion.

The English historians agree, that in the reign of Henry the Second, and in 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 S•ladine's success 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 Flanders, and a great number of the prelates and nobility there present:—A PLENARY INDULGENCE was published in the pope's name, for all that 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 enterprize.

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 inrolled 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 FREE MASONS.—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 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.

It has been alledged, that in the reign of King Henry the Sixth an obsolete 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 this fraternity of ours, is not in my power to comprehend. Our records give us no evidence of any such convocations, at the time mentioned.

By the charter of MASONS, they assumed the title of FREE MASONS, being intitled to the franchises of the city of London.

Why the title of FREE is annexed to our society, or that of ACCEPTED, I hope I may be allowed to conjecture was derived 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 intitled to the stile of ACCEPTED, under that PLENARY INDULGENCE which the pope published, for all that would confess their sins, and inlist in the enterprize 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 enterprize in the Holy Land, to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem; but I cannot discover any good authority for this assertion.—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, chose that saint for their patron —I should be sorry to appropriate the Balsarian sect of christians of 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 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 expence 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 shews 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-wark-folk; that by acceptable hands such pious works 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 Angla-Norman Antiquities, it is said of FREE MASONS, that they were an association of religious, who engaged in the founding and erecting of churches and religious houses in Palestine. —I have already mentioned the religious sect who were really architects and builders of churches, the haly-wark-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 of 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 enterprize, and be transported thither to build churches, for the better planting or propagating the christian doctrine, or to guard and maintain the holy sepulchre.— I would be ready at all times to admit 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 honor 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 I have before admitted, and be initiated in the mysteries of masonry, their occupation being in no wise incompatible with our profession, and they 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 Angla-Norman Antiquities, I am convinced he was not a FREE AND ACCEPTED MASON himself; and 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-wark-folk rambling in Palestine were to his purpose.

Were we claimants only of the title of mechanics, we might have chose as antient and a more honorable branch of the arts or sciences;—we might have substituted geometry to a more worthy duty, and have honored 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 PHOENICIANS who came here with the Tyrian Hercules, and introduced the doctrines of HAM and the AMONIAN rites, together with the HEBREW CUSTOMS; 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 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 I 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 honor, I presume not to remonstrate; 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 in human life, and have set before our eyes preceptors of moral works; and to strengthen our faith, we have enlightned 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.—The wisdom of the antients would 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 did England; neither is there any probable means to be deduced from architecture and the practice of builders, to account why in every tongue, and in every kingdom, the ceremonials of being made a mason should be the same.—If the honor 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 symmetries, of some or all of the rules, modes, or orders of architecture, either from the plains of Shinar, from Egypt, Jerusalem, Tadmore, or Greece; or have retained some geometrical problems, 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, of character, but what appertains to demonstrate the servants and devotees of the great 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

There is not an instance of the European states uniting in any one enterprize, 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 distinguished, 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 enterprize.—After these pursuits subsided, 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 aera of christianity, in honor to, or in confession of, the religion and faith of christians, before the poison of sectaries was diffused over the church.

To the antient rules, deduced from Solomon, other laws, rules, and ordinances were added, upon the enterprizes 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 these rules we retain in the conduct and government of our lodge, which can in no wise be deduced from any other original.

LECTURE XIV. A Corollary.

I Shall now conclude these Lectures, with collecting into one view, the propositions and maxims which have engaged my 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.

I may have seemed prolix, and have filled my 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 antient rites and ceremonies which I have laid before you, it will be easy for you to trace the origins of our own, and to discover the foundations on which our society was erected. It is evident they had their progress in the post-deluvian world from Ham. I am under a necessity sometimes to use terms of art, or expressions which to others may not carry distinct and clear images; but to my brethren, breathe an energy which flows from the united force of technical terms, symbols, and hieroglyphics. When I speak of masons under the denomination of a society, I 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:— these 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 aeras of paradise, the building of the temple at Jerusalem, and the christian revelation.

I 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 the emblems of God's power, eternity, omnipresence, and benevolence; 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, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, who seateth himself in the centre of the heavens:—we derive from the Druids many of the Amonian rites; and I am 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 antient 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; in which we celebrate that season when the sun is in its greatest altitude, and in the midst of its prolisic powers: the great type of the omnipotence of the Deity.

The famous lawyer, Lord Cook, in his Treatise on Littleton's Institutes, says, ‘Prudent antiquity did, for more solemnity and better memory and observation of that which is to be done, express substances under ceremonies.’

I have 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 greater alacrity, the TASSALATA 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 can the moth despoil the garment for the wedding feast.

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 shall prove the rectitude and uniformity of your manners.

In my next Lecture I demonstrated to you, that to be a worthy servant in the temple of God, you must be cloathed 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 succeeding Lecture, I have led you 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.

I 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 I attended to the estate of the worshippers of the Deity, under the corruptions of the house of Israel, and under the rottenness of the old law.—In this assembly of christians, it is in no wise 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 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.— I have explained my sense of these three great duties, and of what especial import they are of to MASONS; or to men who have separated themselves from the rest of mankind, and professed they are servants of HIM WHO RULETH IN THE MIDST OF HEAVEN.

Lastly, I have attempted to examine into the origin of our society, and in many instances, wand'ring without evidence, I 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.

Whether MASONS were originally builders or religious, it matters not to us in this age:—comparing these works with the righteousness to which I have exhorted you, the honor of the antiquity would be swallowed up in the virtues of practice, and in the splendor 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 I have expressed; if they imply not the moral and religious principles which I have endeavoured to unveil; I ask 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 induce 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 animadversions.

We MASONS profess that we are pilgrims in 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 honor, even bearing the image of God.

Learning had its first progression from the EAST after the flood: the Egyptians were the first devisers of the zodiac, and the first discerners of 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 coeternal, in the centre of the heavens.

But if we profess no such matter, then why should not we have alledged our progress to have been from the north, and the regions of chaos and darkness?

But I will now, my brethren, forbear all further argument, and close the labours of my 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 honor;—and let the wicked and ignorant revile never 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, I presume to proclaim to you, is to work out THE WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

THE END.

APPENDIX.

A LETTER from the learned Mr JOHN LOCKE, to the Right Hon. THOMAS Earl of PEMBROKE, with an old MANUSCRIPT on the Subject of FREE-MASONRY.

MY LORD,
6th May, 1696.

I Have at length, by the help of Mr Collins, procured a copy of that M. S. 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 M. S. 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 about 100 years: for the original is said to have been the hand-writing of K. Henry VI. 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 came 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.

CERTAYNE QUESTYONS; WYTH ANSWERES TO THE SAME, CONCERNING THE MYSTERY of MACONRYE;

Writene by the hande of kynge HENRYE, the sixthe of the name, And faythfullye copyed by me (1) JOHAN LEYLANDE, Antiquarius, By the commaunde of his (2) Highnesse.

They be as followethe,

QUEST. WHAT mote ytt be? (3)

ANSW. Ytt beeth the skylle of nature, the understondynge of the myghte that ys hereynne, and its sondrye werckynges; sonderlyche, the skylle of rectenyngs, of waightes and metynges, and the treu manere of faconnynge al thynges for mannes use; headlye, dwellynges, and buyldynges of alle kindes, and al odher thynges that make gudde to manne.

QUEST. Where dyd ytt begyne?

ANSW. Ytt dyd begynne with the (4) fyrste menne in the este, whych were before the (5) ffyrste manne of the weste, and comynge westlye, ytt hathe broughte herwyth alle comfortes to the wylde and comfortlesse.

QUEST. Who dyd brynge ytt westlye?

ANSW. The (6) Venetians, whoo beynge grate merchaundes, comed ffyrste ffromme the este ynn Venetia, for the commodytye of marchaundysynge beithe este and weste, bey the redde and myddlelonde sees.

QUEST. Howe comede ytt yn Engelonde?

ANSW. Peter Gower (7) a Grecian, journeyedde ffor kunnynge yn Egypte, and yn Syria, and yn 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 (8) wacksynge, and becommynge a myghtye (9) wyseacre, and greatlyche renowned, and her he framed a grate lodge at Groton (10), and maked many maconnes, some whereoffe dyd journeye yn Fraunce, and maked manye maconnes, wherefromme, yn processe of tyme, the arte passed yn Engelonde.

QUEST. Dothe maconnes discouer there artes unto odhers?

ANSW. Peter Gower, whenne he journeyedde to lernne, was ffyrste (11) made, and anonne techedde; evenne soe shulde all odhers beyn recht. Natheless (12) maconnes hauethe always yn everyche tyme, from tyme to tyme, communycatedde to mannkynde soche of ther secrettes as generallyche myghte be usefulle; they haueth keped backe soche allein as shulde be harmefulle yff they comed yn euylle haundes, oder soche as ne mighte be holpynge wythouten the techynges to be joynedde herwythe in the lodge, oder soche as do bynde the freres more strongelyche together, bey the proffytte and commodytye comynge to the confrerie her-fromme.

QUEST. Whatte artes haueth the maconnes techedde mankynde?

ANSW. The artes (13) agricultura, architectura, astronomia, geometria, numeres, musica, poesie, kymistrye, governmente, and relygyonne.

QUEST. Howe commethe maconnes more teachers than odher menne?

ANSW. The hemselfe haueth allein in (14) arte of fyndinge neue artes, whyche arte the ffyrste maconnes receaued from Godde; by the whyche they fyndethe what artes hem plesethe, and the treu way of techynge the same. Whatt odher menne doethe ffynde out, ys onelyche bey chaunce, and therfore but lytel I tro.

QUEST. What dothe the maconnes concele and hyde?

QUEST. They concelethe the art of ffyndynge neue artes, and thattys for here own proffyte, and (15) preise: They concelethe the art of kepynge (16) secrettes, thatt so the worlde mayeth nothinge concele from them. They concelethe the art of wunderwerckynge, and of foresayinge thynges to comme, thatt so thay same artes may not be usedde of the wyckedde to an euyell ende; thay also concelethe the (17) arte of chaunges, the wey of wynnynge the facultye (18) of Abrac, the skylle of becommynge gude and parfyghte wythouten the holpynges of fere and hope; and the universelle (19) longage of maconnes.

QUEST. Wyll he teche me thay same artes?

ANSW. Ye shalle be techedde yff ye be warthye, and able to lerne.

QUEST. Dothe all maconnes kunne more then odher menne?

ANSW. Not so. Thay onlyche haueth recht and occasyonne more then odher menne to kunne, butt manye doeth fale yn capacity, and manye more doth want industrye, thatt ys pernecessarye for the gaynynge all kunnynge.

QUEST. Are maconnes gudder menne then odhers?

ANSW. Some maconnes are not so vertuous as some other menne; but, yn the moste parte, thay be more gude than they woulde be yf thay war not maconnes.

QUEST. Doth maconnes love eidther odher myghtylye as beeth sayde?

ANSW. Yea verylyche, and yt may not odherwise be: For gude menne and treu, kennynge eidher odher to be soche, doeth always love the more as thay be more gude.

Here endethe the questyonnes, and awnsweres.

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS, ON THE FOREGOING QUESTIONS.

By Mr. LOCKE.

(1) JOHN LEYLANDE was appointed by Henry VIII. at the dissolution of monasteries, to search for, and save such books and records as were valuable among them. He was a man of great labour and industry.

(2) HIS HIGHNESSE, meaning the said king Henry VIII. Our kings had not then the title of majesty.

(3) What mote ytt be?] That is, what may this mystery of masonry be? The answer imports, that it consists in natural, mathematical, and mechanical knowledge. Some part of which (as appears by what follows) the masons pretend to have taught the rest of mankind, and some part they still conceal.

(4) (5) Fyrste menne yn the este, &c.] It should seem by this that masons believe there were men in the east before Adam, who is called "the ffyrste manne of the weste;" and that arts and sciences began in the east. Some 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.

(6) The Venetians, &c.] In the times of monkish ignorance it is no wonder that the Phenicians 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 Phenicians 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.

(7) Peter Gower.] 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 philosopher had undergone a metempsycosis he never dreamt of. We need only consider the French pronunciation of his name, Pythagore, that is Petagore, to conceive how 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 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 inventor of the 47th proposition of the first book of Euclid, for which, in the joy of his heart, it is said he sacrificed a hecatomb. He also knew the true system of the world, lately revived by Copernicus; and was certainly a most wonderful man. See his life by DION HAL.

(8) GRECIA MAGNA, a part of Italy formerly so called, in which the Greeks had settled a large colony.

(9) Wyseacre.] This 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 subtilty and acuteness of his understanding, has, by the same method of irony, given a general name to modern dunces.

(10) Groton.] Groton 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.

(11) Fyrste made.] The word MADE I suppose has a particular meaning among the masons: perhaps it signifies, initiated.

(12) Maconnes haueth communycatedde, &c.] This paragraph hath 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.

(13) The artes, agricultura, &c.] 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.

(14) Arte of ffyndinge neue artes.] 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 algebra is in numbers, by the help of which, new rules of arithmetic are, and may be found.

(15) Preise.] 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 shew too much regard for their own society, and too little for the rest of mankind.

(16) Arte of keepyng secrettes.] 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 be a secret which being discovered would expose them to the highest ridicule: and therefore it requires the utmost caution to conceal it.

(17) Arte of chaunges.] I know not what this means, unless it be the transmutation of metals.

(18) Facultye of Abrac.] Here I am utterly in the dark.

(19) Universelle longage of maconnes.] 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 becommynge 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, "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.

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, prophecying

- Freres, brethren

- Headlye, chiefly

- Hem plesethe, they please

- Hemselfe, themselves

- Her, there, their

- Hereynne, therein

- Herwyth, with it

- Holpynge, beneficial

- Kunne, know

- Kunnynge, knowledge

- Make gudde, are beneficial

- Metynges, measures

- Mote, may

- Myddlelond, Mediterranean

- Myghte, power

- Occasyonne, opportunity

- Oder, or

- Onelyche, only

- Pernecessarye, 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

- Ynn, into

Notes

*
The paper alluded to by Mr Locke, is the immediately following one.
↵

ERRATA.

Page 2

line 1

for of read for.

20

15

for MASON read MAISON.

—

17

for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

—

20

for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

21

12

in notes, for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

28

22

notes, for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

59

5

for description read inscription.

66

7

notes, for Charhes read Chartres.

67

22

notes, for with read without.

76

2

note, for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

77

17

notes, for as read is.

98

10

for initiated read imitated.

103

10

notes, for look read took.

107

4

for Irismegistus read Tristmegistus,

115

19

for he is to tread read to tread is.

120

1

for furnitures read furniture.

125

4

for regard read regarding.

139

18

for MORIALI read MORIAH.

156

7

for that by order, in the Apprentices, read that by the Apprentices Order.

201

3

for what read what are.

224

13

for distinguished read extinguished.

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The spirit of masonry in moral and elucidatory lectures: By Wm Hutchinson ...

Hutchinson, William, 1732-1814.

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— The spirit of masonry in moral and elucidatory lectures: By Wm Hutchinson ..., Hutchinson, William, 1732-1814.. vii,[3],237,[1],17,[1]p.,plate : ill. ; 8⁰. London :: printed for J. Wilkie and W. Goldsmith,. 1775.. [The titlepage is engraved.] [The 17pp. section is the appendix.] [Horizontal chain lines.] [Reproduction of original from the British Library.] [English Short Title Catalog, ESTCT99504.] [Electronic data. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2003. Page image (PNG). Digitized image of the microfilm version produced in Woodbridge, CT by Research Publications, 1982-2002 (later known as Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of the Gale Group).]

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