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Article ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 2 of 9 →
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On Freemasonry.
us ; to trace its progress , were but to recapitulate the events of the sacred writings ; the sufferings of the Jews , the disgrace of the idol worshippers of Bel , and the perfect faith of DanieJ . Hope is the truest friend of the human heart , the last that abandons us ; and the repentant Israelites were not deprived of that onl y stay of the wretched ; they recalled
to mind the manifold mercies their nation already had experienced , the promise yet unfulfilled made unto Abraham , that in his seed should all the children of the earth be blessed ; and doubted not but that He whose wrath had cast them down in shame , Avould in His mercy exalt them once more in honour , to strengthen them in their returning faith . Prophets were
raised unto them , miracles performed , and their return to the promised land of their lathers foretold . Nor were judgments upon the wanton cruelties of their oppressors wanting , to prove that even in His wrath their justl y offended God remembered mercy . In few instances has the divine justice been more singularl y manifested than in the
destruction of Bab ylon , the seat of the most impious idolatries , of the temptations and persecutions of the Jews . Cyrus , moved by the will of the Most Hi g h , directed his conquering arm against the devoted city ; in vain were her mi ghty bulwarks , her defences of cunning work ; the armour of her legions ; the curse of the Lord was upon her , and her strength was as nau g ht : her enemies were victorious ; desolation followed desolation , until the fate foretold b y the prophet was to the bitter letter fulfilled .
"And Babylon , the glory of kingdoms , the beauty of the Chaldces ' excellency , shall he as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah . " It shall never be inhabited , neither shall it he dwelt in from generation to generation : neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there . "—Isaiah xiii . 19 , 20 . How perfect hath been the accomplishment of the
prophecy , may be judged from the following passage of Strabo , who in speaking of Bab ylon as it appeared in his time , says , " In the midst of a vast and level plain about a quarter of a league from Euphrates , appears a heap of ruined buildings , like a hi gh mountain ; the materials of which are so confounded together that no one knows what
to make of them ; there are no marks of ruins without the compass of that rude mass to convince one that so great a city as Bab ylon ever stood there . " Since the time in which that learned author wrote , the patience and unwearied industry of modern discovery have succeeded in tracing the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
us ; to trace its progress , were but to recapitulate the events of the sacred writings ; the sufferings of the Jews , the disgrace of the idol worshippers of Bel , and the perfect faith of DanieJ . Hope is the truest friend of the human heart , the last that abandons us ; and the repentant Israelites were not deprived of that onl y stay of the wretched ; they recalled
to mind the manifold mercies their nation already had experienced , the promise yet unfulfilled made unto Abraham , that in his seed should all the children of the earth be blessed ; and doubted not but that He whose wrath had cast them down in shame , Avould in His mercy exalt them once more in honour , to strengthen them in their returning faith . Prophets were
raised unto them , miracles performed , and their return to the promised land of their lathers foretold . Nor were judgments upon the wanton cruelties of their oppressors wanting , to prove that even in His wrath their justl y offended God remembered mercy . In few instances has the divine justice been more singularl y manifested than in the
destruction of Bab ylon , the seat of the most impious idolatries , of the temptations and persecutions of the Jews . Cyrus , moved by the will of the Most Hi g h , directed his conquering arm against the devoted city ; in vain were her mi ghty bulwarks , her defences of cunning work ; the armour of her legions ; the curse of the Lord was upon her , and her strength was as nau g ht : her enemies were victorious ; desolation followed desolation , until the fate foretold b y the prophet was to the bitter letter fulfilled .
"And Babylon , the glory of kingdoms , the beauty of the Chaldces ' excellency , shall he as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah . " It shall never be inhabited , neither shall it he dwelt in from generation to generation : neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there . "—Isaiah xiii . 19 , 20 . How perfect hath been the accomplishment of the
prophecy , may be judged from the following passage of Strabo , who in speaking of Bab ylon as it appeared in his time , says , " In the midst of a vast and level plain about a quarter of a league from Euphrates , appears a heap of ruined buildings , like a hi gh mountain ; the materials of which are so confounded together that no one knows what
to make of them ; there are no marks of ruins without the compass of that rude mass to convince one that so great a city as Bab ylon ever stood there . " Since the time in which that learned author wrote , the patience and unwearied industry of modern discovery have succeeded in tracing the