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Article TREVILIAN ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 3 of 9 →
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Trevilian On Freemasonry.
—not to amalgamate their different beliefs into one common stock of infidelity—not to give up one iota of their distinctive creeds—but to agree to act as friends and brethren one towards another , and together to keep the moral law—a law which is the same among the upright and honest menwhether of ancient Greece or Romeor of
, , modern France or England . If , —we again , and for the last time , repeat—our object was to form a new and comprehensive creed , or , as is the fashion of the present day , to make light of distinctive opinions , and call them bigotry , all that the most bitter or ignorant enemies of Masonry could say would not be too strong—we would cordially join
with them—but such is the exact opposite of the truth : so far from forming a new creed , we forbid the introduction of any religious topic . We say , "keep each and all your different opinions , do not give up or compromise one iota of them , but meet together to promote morality and charity as far as you can , and we will guarantee you that so long as you are in the Lodge-room you shall not be molested on account of your religion whatever it may be ; from the
moment you enter a Lodge till you leave it there must be a concordat , though no compromise ; the instant you leave the Lodge , you may put forward your own opinions as strongly as ever you please . " The second inconsistency is , that we asserted that he never took any oath not to speak evil of the Order ( though
he distinctly states , in his letter to " Woolmer ' s Gazette , " that we had charged him with " perjury" ); whereas , the young Masons alluded to , as well as his brother-in-law , stated that he had broken an obligation . Without knoAving what was passing in the minds of those gentlemen , we will venture to say that they accused him of having broken an
obligation " not to reveal any of the secrets of the Order . " It being probable that in the excitement of the moment Mr . Trevilian said a great deal ( as he certainly has published a great deal ) which ought never to have been mentioned . Mr . Trevilian takes it for granted that the breach of his solemn engagement alluded to by those gentlemen consisted in " his having denounced deistical practices ;" we think it probable that the other engagement was the one alluded to .
With respect to the third point , we stated that the prayers \ vere as short as may be . The only authorised ones are so . Any one is at liberty to write long ones if he pleases ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Trevilian On Freemasonry.
—not to amalgamate their different beliefs into one common stock of infidelity—not to give up one iota of their distinctive creeds—but to agree to act as friends and brethren one towards another , and together to keep the moral law—a law which is the same among the upright and honest menwhether of ancient Greece or Romeor of
, , modern France or England . If , —we again , and for the last time , repeat—our object was to form a new and comprehensive creed , or , as is the fashion of the present day , to make light of distinctive opinions , and call them bigotry , all that the most bitter or ignorant enemies of Masonry could say would not be too strong—we would cordially join
with them—but such is the exact opposite of the truth : so far from forming a new creed , we forbid the introduction of any religious topic . We say , "keep each and all your different opinions , do not give up or compromise one iota of them , but meet together to promote morality and charity as far as you can , and we will guarantee you that so long as you are in the Lodge-room you shall not be molested on account of your religion whatever it may be ; from the
moment you enter a Lodge till you leave it there must be a concordat , though no compromise ; the instant you leave the Lodge , you may put forward your own opinions as strongly as ever you please . " The second inconsistency is , that we asserted that he never took any oath not to speak evil of the Order ( though
he distinctly states , in his letter to " Woolmer ' s Gazette , " that we had charged him with " perjury" ); whereas , the young Masons alluded to , as well as his brother-in-law , stated that he had broken an obligation . Without knoAving what was passing in the minds of those gentlemen , we will venture to say that they accused him of having broken an
obligation " not to reveal any of the secrets of the Order . " It being probable that in the excitement of the moment Mr . Trevilian said a great deal ( as he certainly has published a great deal ) which ought never to have been mentioned . Mr . Trevilian takes it for granted that the breach of his solemn engagement alluded to by those gentlemen consisted in " his having denounced deistical practices ;" we think it probable that the other engagement was the one alluded to .
With respect to the third point , we stated that the prayers \ vere as short as may be . The only authorised ones are so . Any one is at liberty to write long ones if he pleases ,