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Article ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 2 of 9 →
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On Freemasonry.
of propitiation , atonement , and sacrifice from the Jewish priests , ivho had it from the E gyptians . " * This opinion , if true of Christianity , cannot be erroneous when applied to Freemasonry ; and accordingly the same argument has been advanced against our science b y men whose learning and talents would have induced a different
conclusion , had they taken the trouble to search more deepl y into the ori gin of both . But it is as far removed from novelty as from truth ; and was , in reality , derived from the atheistical heathen , whose speculations were confined to the laws and structure ofthe universe ; and did not extend to morals , or the duties which men owe to the
Deity , as well as to the society in which they live . The coincidences between their own rites and the Jewish history were so evident , that to evade the charge of imitation , or a common ori gin , the heathen writers who endeavoured to obstruct the progress of Christianity at its first promulgation by the Apostles of Christ and their immediate
successors , contended that the most remarkable Jewish prophecies ancl traditions were borrowed from their own mysteries . This argument was used by Celsus the
Epicurean . He ascribed the tradition of the Tower of Babel , and the consequent confusion of tongues and dispersion of mankind , to the fiction of the Aloadse in Homer ; the Flood to the fable of Deucalion ; Paradise to the garden of Alcinous ; and the conflagration of Sodom and the cities of the plain to the story of Phaeton .
If we critically examine a few of these coincidences , we shall rather be led to the conclusion that the legends existing amongst the heathen were borrowed , if not from the Mosaic history , at least from traditions transmitted with different degrees of fidelity , of events which actually took place in the infancy of the world ; but applied by each
nation to its own reputed abori gines . This would depend , in a great measure , on the degree of vitiation which their Freemasonry ( so called ) hacl received . Amongst the nations who retained their fidelity , these striking events had scarcel y sustained any change ; while others , who had allowed their reason to become the slave of imagination
, lost , in fable , all recollection of the primitive truth . In an enquiry therefore of such importance , we must proceed with great care and deliberation ; for , as in the mathematics , we cannot form an accurate conclusion except we
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
of propitiation , atonement , and sacrifice from the Jewish priests , ivho had it from the E gyptians . " * This opinion , if true of Christianity , cannot be erroneous when applied to Freemasonry ; and accordingly the same argument has been advanced against our science b y men whose learning and talents would have induced a different
conclusion , had they taken the trouble to search more deepl y into the ori gin of both . But it is as far removed from novelty as from truth ; and was , in reality , derived from the atheistical heathen , whose speculations were confined to the laws and structure ofthe universe ; and did not extend to morals , or the duties which men owe to the
Deity , as well as to the society in which they live . The coincidences between their own rites and the Jewish history were so evident , that to evade the charge of imitation , or a common ori gin , the heathen writers who endeavoured to obstruct the progress of Christianity at its first promulgation by the Apostles of Christ and their immediate
successors , contended that the most remarkable Jewish prophecies ancl traditions were borrowed from their own mysteries . This argument was used by Celsus the
Epicurean . He ascribed the tradition of the Tower of Babel , and the consequent confusion of tongues and dispersion of mankind , to the fiction of the Aloadse in Homer ; the Flood to the fable of Deucalion ; Paradise to the garden of Alcinous ; and the conflagration of Sodom and the cities of the plain to the story of Phaeton .
If we critically examine a few of these coincidences , we shall rather be led to the conclusion that the legends existing amongst the heathen were borrowed , if not from the Mosaic history , at least from traditions transmitted with different degrees of fidelity , of events which actually took place in the infancy of the world ; but applied by each
nation to its own reputed abori gines . This would depend , in a great measure , on the degree of vitiation which their Freemasonry ( so called ) hacl received . Amongst the nations who retained their fidelity , these striking events had scarcel y sustained any change ; while others , who had allowed their reason to become the slave of imagination
, lost , in fable , all recollection of the primitive truth . In an enquiry therefore of such importance , we must proceed with great care and deliberation ; for , as in the mathematics , we cannot form an accurate conclusion except we