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Article TREVILIAN ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 30 of 34 →
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Trevilian On Freemasonry.
yourself from a society , which is not only inimical to the principles of our religion , but does , in fact , set itself up above it . " " Yours very faithfully . " The correspondence which ensued upon this note , at a later period , will be found below . I may describe the Dean's part of it as an excellent specimen of the application of the " charitable hypothesis " principle . I am , Sir , your obedient servant ,
M . C . TREVILIAN . Newberry House , 3 rd June , 1850 . " 6 th August , 1849 . " MY DEAR TREVILIAN—You have provedI thinkpast all
con-, , , troversy , that the religious principle of Freemasonry—so far as it can be said to have any religious principle—can be nothing more than that of simple Deism ; and that the inviolable secresy under which its mysteries are performed , and the private tokens by which its members recognise one another , may be , and have been , perverted to the most flagitious purposes . On these grounds , though my
father , my guardians , and many of my nearest personal friends were Freemasons , and I was often urged , when I was a young man , to become one of them , I always refused , and have seen no reason since to alter my opinion . For , whatever good objects the society may have in view , it is quite clear that the motives and obligations which it may present to the exercise of mutual charity , must be far inferior to those which are inculcated in the Gospel ; and that whilst , in the one instance , they rest on nothing better than merely human authority , in the other , they bear the stamp of a Divine sanction , —which
not only enjoins the duty , but gives power to perform it . If , therefore , the society consisted exclusively of men who called themselves Christians , the profession of Freemasonry would , in my judgment , be setting up a law of man above the law of God , and be a virtual abandonment of Christianity as a rule of life . But , consisting , as it does , of men who profess every conceivable diversity of religious opinionI can well understand that menwho make the Gospel their
, , rule of life , may bring themselves to approve of the institution of Freemasonry , on the ground that it serves to bind together those who have no other bond of union , and to enforce the practice of universal benevolence on those whose differences of religious opinion would make them regard one another as enemies , and not as brothers . Leaving the Jew and the Samaritan to hold their peculiar opinions ,
they may think it a point worth gaining to bring them into a society which obliges them to lay aside their enmity , and to do good to one another . As I am sure that there are among the Freemasons many very good Christians , I suppose that they must argue in some such way as this . And , therefore , —though for the reasons which I have assigned , and for others which I need not mention , I could never
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trevilian On Freemasonry.
yourself from a society , which is not only inimical to the principles of our religion , but does , in fact , set itself up above it . " " Yours very faithfully . " The correspondence which ensued upon this note , at a later period , will be found below . I may describe the Dean's part of it as an excellent specimen of the application of the " charitable hypothesis " principle . I am , Sir , your obedient servant ,
M . C . TREVILIAN . Newberry House , 3 rd June , 1850 . " 6 th August , 1849 . " MY DEAR TREVILIAN—You have provedI thinkpast all
con-, , , troversy , that the religious principle of Freemasonry—so far as it can be said to have any religious principle—can be nothing more than that of simple Deism ; and that the inviolable secresy under which its mysteries are performed , and the private tokens by which its members recognise one another , may be , and have been , perverted to the most flagitious purposes . On these grounds , though my
father , my guardians , and many of my nearest personal friends were Freemasons , and I was often urged , when I was a young man , to become one of them , I always refused , and have seen no reason since to alter my opinion . For , whatever good objects the society may have in view , it is quite clear that the motives and obligations which it may present to the exercise of mutual charity , must be far inferior to those which are inculcated in the Gospel ; and that whilst , in the one instance , they rest on nothing better than merely human authority , in the other , they bear the stamp of a Divine sanction , —which
not only enjoins the duty , but gives power to perform it . If , therefore , the society consisted exclusively of men who called themselves Christians , the profession of Freemasonry would , in my judgment , be setting up a law of man above the law of God , and be a virtual abandonment of Christianity as a rule of life . But , consisting , as it does , of men who profess every conceivable diversity of religious opinionI can well understand that menwho make the Gospel their
, , rule of life , may bring themselves to approve of the institution of Freemasonry , on the ground that it serves to bind together those who have no other bond of union , and to enforce the practice of universal benevolence on those whose differences of religious opinion would make them regard one another as enemies , and not as brothers . Leaving the Jew and the Samaritan to hold their peculiar opinions ,
they may think it a point worth gaining to bring them into a society which obliges them to lay aside their enmity , and to do good to one another . As I am sure that there are among the Freemasons many very good Christians , I suppose that they must argue in some such way as this . And , therefore , —though for the reasons which I have assigned , and for others which I need not mention , I could never