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Article LECTURES ON FREEMASONRY , ← Page 2 of 8 →
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Lectures On Freemasonry ,
strictly obligated to obey the existing government , and to respect religion in general , leaving , at the same time , every Brother undisturbed in the exercise of the religion heprofesses . If , therefore , the word free does neither allude to metaphysical , and much less to political freedom , and as Freemasonry rejects equally the freethinker and the libertine ,, the word free in our Order can only be applied to that moral freedom by which is understood that independent free character , who , without but solelactuated b
any compulsion , y y a firm and virtuous feeling , and from a clear self-conviction , acts upon such principles as at once will render him a fit subject to be tried by the compass and the square-Having thus given my candid opinion , founded upon my own feeling as a member of our honourable and virtuous Order , I shall leave this subject to my Brethren of superior abilities and experience to my own , of which , if I may judge from what has already appeared in your Journal , there is no dearth .
ON THE UNIVERSALITY OP FREEMASONRY . I have long felt a most particular dislike to the lately adopted ideas on the universality of Freemasonry , and am powerfully hostile to the principle laid down in our truly modem Book of Constitution on that subject , and could wish the respectable author would have consulted the heads of the Craft in the three kingdoms prior to his fixing his limits to the of widel
universality a society so y spread over the globe . Although I am convinced that I shall have to contend on this subject with many who take the ipse dixit of others too readily as undeniable truth , and also with another class of our fraternity , who , from various circumstances , and also from reli gious feelings , cannot enter several of the higher orders in Freemasonry , and therefore become , from selfish princilesthe advocates of princiles of exclusionwhich in contradiction
p , p , are to the general principles of this extensive society , for which no particular branch , and much less any individual Brother , be he who he may , should assume to make the least alteration in the general system , although he might be allowed to enact observances for particular states , adapted to the habits of individuals , to the laws of the state by which we are protected , and to the religious principles of the generality ofthe
people of the country we inhabit . It is , in my opinion , a gigantic step fo banish the higher orders in Freemasonry from its universality , when it is well known to the scientific Freemason that the degrees allowed by our Book of Constitution as the sole component parts ofthe science Ot Freemasonry , can only be regarded as the initiatory branches to the universal system . If Freemasonry is doomed to begin its studies with structure , and to end ivith death , how then , and by whom , have the laboursbeen continued to do to the
- , so as justice admirable plan of the great projector ? This question can only be solved in a higher and progressive Israelitish order , which being excluded from this modern universality , leaves our Masonic studies incomplete , and our traditions an idle tale . Yet the compiler or compilers of that Book of Constitution , after having fixed the three initiatory degrees of Freemasonry to constitute the universal systemfoundthat without into their
, , admitting universality , as an appendix at least , that beautiful extract from the Persian order of the East , namely , the ft , their labours would be incomplete ; and by this admission they have opened a field of inquiry and research , which , with tiie studious Mason , cannot fail producing the rejection of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Lectures On Freemasonry ,
strictly obligated to obey the existing government , and to respect religion in general , leaving , at the same time , every Brother undisturbed in the exercise of the religion heprofesses . If , therefore , the word free does neither allude to metaphysical , and much less to political freedom , and as Freemasonry rejects equally the freethinker and the libertine ,, the word free in our Order can only be applied to that moral freedom by which is understood that independent free character , who , without but solelactuated b
any compulsion , y y a firm and virtuous feeling , and from a clear self-conviction , acts upon such principles as at once will render him a fit subject to be tried by the compass and the square-Having thus given my candid opinion , founded upon my own feeling as a member of our honourable and virtuous Order , I shall leave this subject to my Brethren of superior abilities and experience to my own , of which , if I may judge from what has already appeared in your Journal , there is no dearth .
ON THE UNIVERSALITY OP FREEMASONRY . I have long felt a most particular dislike to the lately adopted ideas on the universality of Freemasonry , and am powerfully hostile to the principle laid down in our truly modem Book of Constitution on that subject , and could wish the respectable author would have consulted the heads of the Craft in the three kingdoms prior to his fixing his limits to the of widel
universality a society so y spread over the globe . Although I am convinced that I shall have to contend on this subject with many who take the ipse dixit of others too readily as undeniable truth , and also with another class of our fraternity , who , from various circumstances , and also from reli gious feelings , cannot enter several of the higher orders in Freemasonry , and therefore become , from selfish princilesthe advocates of princiles of exclusionwhich in contradiction
p , p , are to the general principles of this extensive society , for which no particular branch , and much less any individual Brother , be he who he may , should assume to make the least alteration in the general system , although he might be allowed to enact observances for particular states , adapted to the habits of individuals , to the laws of the state by which we are protected , and to the religious principles of the generality ofthe
people of the country we inhabit . It is , in my opinion , a gigantic step fo banish the higher orders in Freemasonry from its universality , when it is well known to the scientific Freemason that the degrees allowed by our Book of Constitution as the sole component parts ofthe science Ot Freemasonry , can only be regarded as the initiatory branches to the universal system . If Freemasonry is doomed to begin its studies with structure , and to end ivith death , how then , and by whom , have the laboursbeen continued to do to the
- , so as justice admirable plan of the great projector ? This question can only be solved in a higher and progressive Israelitish order , which being excluded from this modern universality , leaves our Masonic studies incomplete , and our traditions an idle tale . Yet the compiler or compilers of that Book of Constitution , after having fixed the three initiatory degrees of Freemasonry to constitute the universal systemfoundthat without into their
, , admitting universality , as an appendix at least , that beautiful extract from the Persian order of the East , namely , the ft , their labours would be incomplete ; and by this admission they have opened a field of inquiry and research , which , with tiie studious Mason , cannot fail producing the rejection of