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Article ON FREEMASONRY. THE NUMBER THREE. ← Page 9 of 10 →
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On Freemasonry. The Number Three.
assumed in the several branches of Spurious Preemasonry which existed in different nations , —to constitute a part of all those systems of false worship which the pride , or ignorance , or folly of man ' s heart induced him to establish and practice , in the vain hope of rendering a service acceptable to the Deityor of itiating those imaginary beings
, prop whom vanity had elevated to the doubtful station of mediators between God and man . Nothing could have better served the purpose of making the revelation of Christianity acceptable to both Jews and heathen . They possessed indistinct notions of a trinity in unity , and anxiously awaited the explication of a doctrine which had been enuallv
sublime and incomprehensible . That which had been an impenetrable mystery was clearly explained at the incarnation ofthe Messiah ; and the enli ghtened Gentile as well as the pious Jew , at once saw ancl acknowledged the propriety of a doctrine , which had formerly been to both a subject of confused theory and unsatisfactory speculation' Come
. and see , " exclaims the Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai , in the Book of Zohar , as cited by Allix , " come and see the mystery in the word Elohim . There are three degrees , and every degree is distinct by himself ; yet notwithstanding they are all one , and bound together in one , nor can they be separated each from the other . "
I conclude , therefore , in the language of the late Bishop Tomline , ' - that nearly all the pagan nations of antiquity , in their various theological systems , acknowledged a kind of trinity in the divine nature , has been fully evinced by those learned men who have made the heathen mythology the subject of their elaborate inquiries . The almost universal
prevalence of this doctrine in the Gentile kingdoms must be considered as a strong argument in favour of its truth . The doctrine itself bears such striking internal marks of a divine original , and is so very unlikely to have been the invention of mere human reason , that there is no way of accounting for the general adoption of so singular a belief , but by supposing that it was revealed by God to the early patriarchs , and that it was transmitted by them to their posterity . In
Its progress , indeed , to remote countries , and to distant generations , this belief became depraved and corrupted in the highest degree ; and He alone who brought life and immortality to light , could restore it to its ori ginal simplicity and purity . The discovery of the existence of this VOL . r . 3 K
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The Number Three.
assumed in the several branches of Spurious Preemasonry which existed in different nations , —to constitute a part of all those systems of false worship which the pride , or ignorance , or folly of man ' s heart induced him to establish and practice , in the vain hope of rendering a service acceptable to the Deityor of itiating those imaginary beings
, prop whom vanity had elevated to the doubtful station of mediators between God and man . Nothing could have better served the purpose of making the revelation of Christianity acceptable to both Jews and heathen . They possessed indistinct notions of a trinity in unity , and anxiously awaited the explication of a doctrine which had been enuallv
sublime and incomprehensible . That which had been an impenetrable mystery was clearly explained at the incarnation ofthe Messiah ; and the enli ghtened Gentile as well as the pious Jew , at once saw ancl acknowledged the propriety of a doctrine , which had formerly been to both a subject of confused theory and unsatisfactory speculation' Come
. and see , " exclaims the Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai , in the Book of Zohar , as cited by Allix , " come and see the mystery in the word Elohim . There are three degrees , and every degree is distinct by himself ; yet notwithstanding they are all one , and bound together in one , nor can they be separated each from the other . "
I conclude , therefore , in the language of the late Bishop Tomline , ' - that nearly all the pagan nations of antiquity , in their various theological systems , acknowledged a kind of trinity in the divine nature , has been fully evinced by those learned men who have made the heathen mythology the subject of their elaborate inquiries . The almost universal
prevalence of this doctrine in the Gentile kingdoms must be considered as a strong argument in favour of its truth . The doctrine itself bears such striking internal marks of a divine original , and is so very unlikely to have been the invention of mere human reason , that there is no way of accounting for the general adoption of so singular a belief , but by supposing that it was revealed by God to the early patriarchs , and that it was transmitted by them to their posterity . In
Its progress , indeed , to remote countries , and to distant generations , this belief became depraved and corrupted in the highest degree ; and He alone who brought life and immortality to light , could restore it to its ori ginal simplicity and purity . The discovery of the existence of this VOL . r . 3 K