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Article THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY. Page 1 of 4 →
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The Freemasons' Repository.
THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY .
A SERMON , MEACIIED AT NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE , DECEMBER 27 , 1 797 , BEFORE THE PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE FOR NORTHUMBERLAND . BY THE REV . JOSEPH SIMPSON ,
PROVINCIAL CHAND CHAPLAIN . See then that ye ivalk circumspectly . ' EPHESIANS V . 15 .
THESE words which compose my text are so obvious and plain , that they require no explanation . Every one must know the meaning of an injun & ion which gives direction to walk with circumspettion and care ; and the only consideration which demands our attention is , whether , in any sense or shape , it be applicable to ourselves . Happy indeed would it be for the world , were men to walk so circumspectly as not to need to be reminded of their duty . Happy
would it be for the peace and tranquillity of mankind , did the benevolent precepts of Christianity so generally prevail , that no admonitions were wanting to restrain them from the commission of criminal and unrighteous actions . Butit is , I fear , with the religious and moral state of men as with their civil condition ,- —in either state restrictions must notcannot be dispensed with;—and as ever since
, the first formation of society , the restraints of human laws have been found necessary to the prevention of crimes , so there never was a time , since the same period , when the force of precept was not required to dissuade and deter men from the practice of sin . We boast , it is true , of the present times , as being the most enlightened , —as
bein" -, as it has been emphatically stiled , the Age of Reason . Conducted by the unerring light of infallible philosophy , we disclaim the aid of divine revelation , —we disregard the sun-beams of Christian effulgence , and confidently presume , that the relative duties which men owe to each other are now better known than ever ; and that the great principles of universal benevolence , founded on the
basis of unassisted reason , were never so well understood as now : — And vet , if we look into the world , and view with impartiality what is acting amongst us , there is no one fraud , perhaps , which remains unpractised , and no one vice of which we are not guilty . Compelled then , by experience , to allow that this depravity is not onldescriptivebut truly characteristic of the age we live
innoty , , withstanding our boasting of its superior virtue , —the caution which the text prescribes becomes a subject of no less , if not of greater concern to us , in these days , than it was to the Ephesians , to whom it was originally addressed , Circumspection then , we may fairly
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Freemasons' Repository.
THE FREEMASONS' REPOSITORY .
A SERMON , MEACIIED AT NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE , DECEMBER 27 , 1 797 , BEFORE THE PROVINCIAL GRAND LODGE FOR NORTHUMBERLAND . BY THE REV . JOSEPH SIMPSON ,
PROVINCIAL CHAND CHAPLAIN . See then that ye ivalk circumspectly . ' EPHESIANS V . 15 .
THESE words which compose my text are so obvious and plain , that they require no explanation . Every one must know the meaning of an injun & ion which gives direction to walk with circumspettion and care ; and the only consideration which demands our attention is , whether , in any sense or shape , it be applicable to ourselves . Happy indeed would it be for the world , were men to walk so circumspectly as not to need to be reminded of their duty . Happy
would it be for the peace and tranquillity of mankind , did the benevolent precepts of Christianity so generally prevail , that no admonitions were wanting to restrain them from the commission of criminal and unrighteous actions . Butit is , I fear , with the religious and moral state of men as with their civil condition ,- —in either state restrictions must notcannot be dispensed with;—and as ever since
, the first formation of society , the restraints of human laws have been found necessary to the prevention of crimes , so there never was a time , since the same period , when the force of precept was not required to dissuade and deter men from the practice of sin . We boast , it is true , of the present times , as being the most enlightened , —as
bein" -, as it has been emphatically stiled , the Age of Reason . Conducted by the unerring light of infallible philosophy , we disclaim the aid of divine revelation , —we disregard the sun-beams of Christian effulgence , and confidently presume , that the relative duties which men owe to each other are now better known than ever ; and that the great principles of universal benevolence , founded on the
basis of unassisted reason , were never so well understood as now : — And vet , if we look into the world , and view with impartiality what is acting amongst us , there is no one fraud , perhaps , which remains unpractised , and no one vice of which we are not guilty . Compelled then , by experience , to allow that this depravity is not onldescriptivebut truly characteristic of the age we live
innoty , , withstanding our boasting of its superior virtue , —the caution which the text prescribes becomes a subject of no less , if not of greater concern to us , in these days , than it was to the Ephesians , to whom it was originally addressed , Circumspection then , we may fairly