Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences , Doctrines, And Traditions.
The basis of the above reasoning being insecure , the structure necessarily falls to the ground . I admit the analogy , but deny the inference . We are not operative artizans , but speculative masons ; and the symbols of mechanical craft are used merely as illustrations of the beautiful system of ethics which runslike a rich veinthroughout
, , the illustrations of Freemasonry . The idolatrous Mysteries sprang up in the time of Nimrod , and were evidently modelled on a plan which had preceded them , but grossly perverted to afford a sanction to a system of false worship . They were founded upon the princip le of exalting the creature On the prostration of the Creator ; and the crafty hierobantes
phants , termed indifferently the Cabiri , the Cory , or the Idei Dactyli , incessantly devoted to this purpose , travelled over the known world to reorganize _ the celebrations of every colony ; and to elevate themselves into objects of religious commemoration , —thus stamping the Mysteries with a character productive of every revolting and impious pracin the mecha
tice . It is true , they imitated Freemasonry - nical outline , but they could never reach its purity ; because they rejected its fundamental principle , THE KNOWLEDGE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF A TRUE AND ONLY GOD . It will be unnecessary to repeat my opinions on Mr . Faber ' s concluding sentence , that " the bards were the probable founders of Freemasonry ; " as they may be found in my first article in the Review for 1840 .
But the science of Freemasonry , from which they were derived , is the very reverse of all this . It is as ancient as the beginning of time . It was practised by the holy patriarchs both before and after the flood ; -it exalted Enoch to a residence in the skies without being subject to the common lot of mortality;—it preserved the righteous son of
Adam , and the pious individuals of his posterity , from a participation in the deadly errors and vices of the polluted race of Cain;—it animated the great progenitors of mankind , after their calamitous fall from purity and happiness , with the hope of ultimate grace for themselves and their descendants through the triumphant victory of a Deliverer who
should bruise the serpent ' s head;—and it formed the chief employment of the happy pair in paradise , where they were admitted to the society of angels , and favoured with the confidence of their Omnipotent Creator . The fact of an obvious similarity in ceremonies , symbols , and traditions , between the true and the spurious Free-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. Evidences , Doctrines, And Traditions.
The basis of the above reasoning being insecure , the structure necessarily falls to the ground . I admit the analogy , but deny the inference . We are not operative artizans , but speculative masons ; and the symbols of mechanical craft are used merely as illustrations of the beautiful system of ethics which runslike a rich veinthroughout
, , the illustrations of Freemasonry . The idolatrous Mysteries sprang up in the time of Nimrod , and were evidently modelled on a plan which had preceded them , but grossly perverted to afford a sanction to a system of false worship . They were founded upon the princip le of exalting the creature On the prostration of the Creator ; and the crafty hierobantes
phants , termed indifferently the Cabiri , the Cory , or the Idei Dactyli , incessantly devoted to this purpose , travelled over the known world to reorganize _ the celebrations of every colony ; and to elevate themselves into objects of religious commemoration , —thus stamping the Mysteries with a character productive of every revolting and impious pracin the mecha
tice . It is true , they imitated Freemasonry - nical outline , but they could never reach its purity ; because they rejected its fundamental principle , THE KNOWLEDGE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF A TRUE AND ONLY GOD . It will be unnecessary to repeat my opinions on Mr . Faber ' s concluding sentence , that " the bards were the probable founders of Freemasonry ; " as they may be found in my first article in the Review for 1840 .
But the science of Freemasonry , from which they were derived , is the very reverse of all this . It is as ancient as the beginning of time . It was practised by the holy patriarchs both before and after the flood ; -it exalted Enoch to a residence in the skies without being subject to the common lot of mortality;—it preserved the righteous son of
Adam , and the pious individuals of his posterity , from a participation in the deadly errors and vices of the polluted race of Cain;—it animated the great progenitors of mankind , after their calamitous fall from purity and happiness , with the hope of ultimate grace for themselves and their descendants through the triumphant victory of a Deliverer who
should bruise the serpent ' s head;—and it formed the chief employment of the happy pair in paradise , where they were admitted to the society of angels , and favoured with the confidence of their Omnipotent Creator . The fact of an obvious similarity in ceremonies , symbols , and traditions , between the true and the spurious Free-