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Article 1st EPISTLE OF ST. PETER, 17th VERSE. Page 1 of 4 →
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1st Epistle Of St. Peter, 17th Verse.
1 st EPISTLE OF ST . PETER , 17 th VERSE .
Love the Brotherhood : Fear God : Honour the King . i !\ / TETHINKS , when I look round upon this audience , though so J L VJL respectable both in number and appearance , I cannot but fancy that 1 see a variety of very different kinds of hearers . There are , methinks , first , the Brotherhood , who , professing our Royal Order , which I shall not scruple to style a very amiable sister of reliionare
g , come , I hope , more with a pious wish to hear the humane and moral principles of their profession enforced , than with any curiosity of hearing a novel preacher . They , however , will find , whatever they before expected , that by the choice of my text they are to be treated more with very plain dealing , and salutary exhortation , than with novelty of sentimentor refined composition . ,
, Others there are , who , perhaps , because they are not acquainted With the Secret of our Order , may be a little prepared for evil surmise , for ridicule , and for slander . Now I do not positively condemn anyone upon this point ; I only say , from that too general experience of finding many in the world ready to despise merely because they do not understandthatperhapsin so numerous a congregation there
, , , may be some such ; if there are , then , any such here , I hope , at least for their own sakes , that they will feel themselves totally mistaken in their ideas of us , when I tell them from this sacred place , % vhere I should , without diffidence , think it is impossible for the most daring to dare to tell a falsehood , that , had 1 searched all the records
of Holy Writ , together with all the records of Masonry , from the beginning of the works of that Great Architect who built the universe to the present day , I could not have fixed upon three admonitions to enforce , more congenial both to the spirit and practice of Masonry than those of which our text is composed ; therefore we deny the merit of evil surmise , of slander , and of ridicule . A third class of hearers which we expect to find upon these
occasions are the curious and the inquisitive . They have heard of the secresy of Masonry ; and though the secret hits through all ages remained undiscovered , yet still a hope remains that something may at this time be advanced leading to a discovery . My curious friends you are disappointed ; and , 1 assure you , you are still likely to be disappointed . Formy friendsif we are Masonsas we profess
our-, , , selves , our conduct is guided by . holy and divine admonition ; and we are neither slanderers , talebearers , nor in any instance , and especially in that which respects our own order , can we possibly be revealers of secrets . You must , therefore , my friends , at least on my part , remain contented with that portion of knowledge you already possess concerning us and our ordertill you acquire it by those
, lawful means which are established in the Ro } r al Order , and sent down to . us from Hiram , from Solomon , and from all those royal ancients and virtuous characters , at this time too numerous to mention , with which this same communion has in all ages been ornamented . VOL . III . R r
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
1st Epistle Of St. Peter, 17th Verse.
1 st EPISTLE OF ST . PETER , 17 th VERSE .
Love the Brotherhood : Fear God : Honour the King . i !\ / TETHINKS , when I look round upon this audience , though so J L VJL respectable both in number and appearance , I cannot but fancy that 1 see a variety of very different kinds of hearers . There are , methinks , first , the Brotherhood , who , professing our Royal Order , which I shall not scruple to style a very amiable sister of reliionare
g , come , I hope , more with a pious wish to hear the humane and moral principles of their profession enforced , than with any curiosity of hearing a novel preacher . They , however , will find , whatever they before expected , that by the choice of my text they are to be treated more with very plain dealing , and salutary exhortation , than with novelty of sentimentor refined composition . ,
, Others there are , who , perhaps , because they are not acquainted With the Secret of our Order , may be a little prepared for evil surmise , for ridicule , and for slander . Now I do not positively condemn anyone upon this point ; I only say , from that too general experience of finding many in the world ready to despise merely because they do not understandthatperhapsin so numerous a congregation there
, , , may be some such ; if there are , then , any such here , I hope , at least for their own sakes , that they will feel themselves totally mistaken in their ideas of us , when I tell them from this sacred place , % vhere I should , without diffidence , think it is impossible for the most daring to dare to tell a falsehood , that , had 1 searched all the records
of Holy Writ , together with all the records of Masonry , from the beginning of the works of that Great Architect who built the universe to the present day , I could not have fixed upon three admonitions to enforce , more congenial both to the spirit and practice of Masonry than those of which our text is composed ; therefore we deny the merit of evil surmise , of slander , and of ridicule . A third class of hearers which we expect to find upon these
occasions are the curious and the inquisitive . They have heard of the secresy of Masonry ; and though the secret hits through all ages remained undiscovered , yet still a hope remains that something may at this time be advanced leading to a discovery . My curious friends you are disappointed ; and , 1 assure you , you are still likely to be disappointed . Formy friendsif we are Masonsas we profess
our-, , , selves , our conduct is guided by . holy and divine admonition ; and we are neither slanderers , talebearers , nor in any instance , and especially in that which respects our own order , can we possibly be revealers of secrets . You must , therefore , my friends , at least on my part , remain contented with that portion of knowledge you already possess concerning us and our ordertill you acquire it by those
, lawful means which are established in the Ro } r al Order , and sent down to . us from Hiram , from Solomon , and from all those royal ancients and virtuous characters , at this time too numerous to mention , with which this same communion has in all ages been ornamented . VOL . III . R r