Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The Spurious Freemasonry Of Ancient Times.
purposes which were designed for the ultimate benefit of all his creatures . King , in the " Origin of Evil , " maintains the principle , that if God had been inclined to have removed this evil , it would have been at the sacrifice of a certain portion of good . On a full inquiry into this intricate subject we shall find that , as St . Paul assures us , * he did permit idolatry and its attendant mysteries to exist amongst mankind , for the purpose of conveying throughout the whole world the sublime truths connected with his
gracious purposes respecting our salvation , although human perversity studiously endeavoured to throw them into shade . It is a remarkable fact that though the early Christian Fathers , who were witnesses to the abominations which had been interpolated into an institution that originally had much of intention to recommend
purity it , inveighed with great vehemence and wrath against the Mysteries ; yet they had no sooner succeeded in effecting their entire abolition , than they tacitly displayed a belief that , in their purity , they had been a vehicle for the transmission of truth throughout the heathen ivorld , by actually transferring the terms
" , phrases , formularies , rites , ceremonies , and dis ° cipline of these odious Mysteries into our holy religion ; and thereby very early vitiated and depraved what a Pan-a __ writer could see and acknowledge was absoluta et simplex , as it came out of the hands of its Divine Author . Sure then it was some more than ordinary veneration the people had for these
Mysteries , that could incline the Fathers of the Church to so fatal a counsel . Hoivever , the fact is notorious , and the effects are but too visible . " f In my next paper I shall proceed to show that the Cosmogonies which formed a part of the legend of initiation into the Mysteries , were derived from a tradition of the actual creation ofthe world , as recorded by Moses ; which always constituted a legitimate subject of discussion in our beautiful and interesting science .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The Spurious Freemasonry Of Ancient Times.
purposes which were designed for the ultimate benefit of all his creatures . King , in the " Origin of Evil , " maintains the principle , that if God had been inclined to have removed this evil , it would have been at the sacrifice of a certain portion of good . On a full inquiry into this intricate subject we shall find that , as St . Paul assures us , * he did permit idolatry and its attendant mysteries to exist amongst mankind , for the purpose of conveying throughout the whole world the sublime truths connected with his
gracious purposes respecting our salvation , although human perversity studiously endeavoured to throw them into shade . It is a remarkable fact that though the early Christian Fathers , who were witnesses to the abominations which had been interpolated into an institution that originally had much of intention to recommend
purity it , inveighed with great vehemence and wrath against the Mysteries ; yet they had no sooner succeeded in effecting their entire abolition , than they tacitly displayed a belief that , in their purity , they had been a vehicle for the transmission of truth throughout the heathen ivorld , by actually transferring the terms
" , phrases , formularies , rites , ceremonies , and dis ° cipline of these odious Mysteries into our holy religion ; and thereby very early vitiated and depraved what a Pan-a __ writer could see and acknowledge was absoluta et simplex , as it came out of the hands of its Divine Author . Sure then it was some more than ordinary veneration the people had for these
Mysteries , that could incline the Fathers of the Church to so fatal a counsel . Hoivever , the fact is notorious , and the effects are but too visible . " f In my next paper I shall proceed to show that the Cosmogonies which formed a part of the legend of initiation into the Mysteries , were derived from a tradition of the actual creation ofthe world , as recorded by Moses ; which always constituted a legitimate subject of discussion in our beautiful and interesting science .