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Article TREVILIAN ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 31 of 34 →
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Trevilian On Freemasonry.
become a Freemason myself , —I dare not condemn those who are so , so long as I see that their profession of Freemasonry does not interfere with their Christian profession and practice . " Yours , very faithfully , ( Signed ) "T . HILL LOWE . "
7 th August , 1810 . " MY DEAR MR . DEAN , —I am greatly obliged to you for your note just received . Your forbearance towards the Freemasons , and the kindness with which you seek out possible motives for their conduct , every true Christian , I am sure , will join you in ; but the result of your search has much disappointed me , and on this I beg to make one or two observations . The individual Freemasonof courseI
, , do not presume to ' condemn ; ' 'To his own Master let him stand or fall ; ' but upon the body at lai-ge , I apprehend we are not only at liberty , but are called upon to form our judgment ; and what shall we take as the rightful ground of that judgment 1 why , of course , the one you mention , viz ., the consideration whether Freemasonry ' interferes with their Christian profession and practice . ' Now , is it
possible you can say that it does not so interfere , when you are reminded that they abolish , in prayer , then customary appieal to the Redeemer of mankind ? Regard this merely as a fact , and the Christian , as I think , must needs regard it , at tlie least , as a latitudinarian and bad habit ; but , when you consider that the reason and motive of this abolition is equally as undenied and undeniable as the fact itself , viz ., that it is resorted to as the means and condition of a joint-worship of ' The Father' with unbelievers in His Son—thus to
all intents and purposes giving up before such unbelievers , and to please them , ' their Christian profession , ' is it possible to deny that it is something worse than latitudinarian , and that it is , in fact , antichristian ! I shall not call to your recollection the anti-gospel rules of charity I have dilated upon in my book . I am quite sure that what I have already said must be sufficient to bring you to the same mind with myself ; and thatwithout condemning individuals
, , you do join me in imputing to the Body the scandalous encouragement of practices inimical to the welfare and claims of our holy religion . " I have reason to know , from the very best authority , that this 2 > estiferous institution is extending itself greatly among the undergraduates of Oxford ; and an opportunity has occurred to me , if I choose to make use of it , of addressing the principal of a college there
on the subject , who is himself a Freemason . It is on this account that I wish to have the liberty to make use of your name ; not because I feel otherwise than strong and invulnerable in this question of truth , but from a recollection of how the world is constituted : and that this ready taunt of the stupid— ' Who is this babbler 1 ' would thus find an immediate correction . The words I wish to quote from you are contained in the note of the 8 th of May last , and
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trevilian On Freemasonry.
become a Freemason myself , —I dare not condemn those who are so , so long as I see that their profession of Freemasonry does not interfere with their Christian profession and practice . " Yours , very faithfully , ( Signed ) "T . HILL LOWE . "
7 th August , 1810 . " MY DEAR MR . DEAN , —I am greatly obliged to you for your note just received . Your forbearance towards the Freemasons , and the kindness with which you seek out possible motives for their conduct , every true Christian , I am sure , will join you in ; but the result of your search has much disappointed me , and on this I beg to make one or two observations . The individual Freemasonof courseI
, , do not presume to ' condemn ; ' 'To his own Master let him stand or fall ; ' but upon the body at lai-ge , I apprehend we are not only at liberty , but are called upon to form our judgment ; and what shall we take as the rightful ground of that judgment 1 why , of course , the one you mention , viz ., the consideration whether Freemasonry ' interferes with their Christian profession and practice . ' Now , is it
possible you can say that it does not so interfere , when you are reminded that they abolish , in prayer , then customary appieal to the Redeemer of mankind ? Regard this merely as a fact , and the Christian , as I think , must needs regard it , at tlie least , as a latitudinarian and bad habit ; but , when you consider that the reason and motive of this abolition is equally as undenied and undeniable as the fact itself , viz ., that it is resorted to as the means and condition of a joint-worship of ' The Father' with unbelievers in His Son—thus to
all intents and purposes giving up before such unbelievers , and to please them , ' their Christian profession , ' is it possible to deny that it is something worse than latitudinarian , and that it is , in fact , antichristian ! I shall not call to your recollection the anti-gospel rules of charity I have dilated upon in my book . I am quite sure that what I have already said must be sufficient to bring you to the same mind with myself ; and thatwithout condemning individuals
, , you do join me in imputing to the Body the scandalous encouragement of practices inimical to the welfare and claims of our holy religion . " I have reason to know , from the very best authority , that this 2 > estiferous institution is extending itself greatly among the undergraduates of Oxford ; and an opportunity has occurred to me , if I choose to make use of it , of addressing the principal of a college there
on the subject , who is himself a Freemason . It is on this account that I wish to have the liberty to make use of your name ; not because I feel otherwise than strong and invulnerable in this question of truth , but from a recollection of how the world is constituted : and that this ready taunt of the stupid— ' Who is this babbler 1 ' would thus find an immediate correction . The words I wish to quote from you are contained in the note of the 8 th of May last , and