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Article MASONIC PHILOSOPHY. ← Page 3 of 5 →
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Masonic Philosophy.
whom he hath not seen , and hateth his brother whom he hath seen , is a liar , and the truth is not in him . " This truth—this original word pervades the whole Masonic system , however varied its" mystic characters ; and it will be seen that its light has never been lost through all the darkness of pagan ages . The principal and essential dogmas of the Hindoo system are : — That there is only one G-od , endowed with all knowledge and with all power , who is the cause of the existence and of the preservation of this universe , as he will be the cause of its dissolution . That creation is the act of his will . That he is at once the efficacious and material cause of the world , the creator and the created , the author
of beings invested with form and the form itself , the agent and the act . That at the end of all things , all things will be absorbed in him : even the spider who spins his own web from his own substance , and gathers it up anew in his own body ; as well as the plants which spring up from the earth , and are afterwards blended with it .
That the Supreme Being is unique in himself and exists alone ; that he has no resemblance ; that he is a perfect being , without parts , eternal , infinite , ineffable , the invariable regulator of all things , the universal soul , the truth , the wisdom , the intelligence , the felicity . That all individual souls , emanating from this unique and
Supreme Soul , are like innumerable sparks which shoot out from an immense fire ; and that , as they proceed from the Divinity , they will return to it , for they are from the same essence . That the soul , which governs the body , although enveloped with organs , is not born and can never die , being a portion of the Divine substance , and , like it , immortal , infinite , intelligent , sensible , reasonable .
That the soul is placed under the immediate government of the Supreme Being ; that its activity does not belong to its essence , as it is derived from the organs , and is only active so long as it is acted upon by them , but so soon as it is disengaged from them it returns to its Supreme Governor , where it resumes its primitive repose and felicity . That it is neither independent nor free , but destined to
act according to the design anteriorly prescribed by the Divinity , That a predisposition to good or to evil—to actions ordained or prohibited—devotes the soul to virtue or to vice , and to the retribution which must inevitably follow the deeds resulting from either . Nevertheless , that God is not the author of evil ; tilings being thus disposed from all eternity , and manifesting themselves in a succession of forms which compose an infinite series .
That the soul is shut up in the body as in an envelope , or rather in a succession of envelopes , amongst which are distinguishable those of intelligence , of mind , and of the vital faculty or principle of life . These three envelopes of the soul accompany it through all its transmigrations . That the grosser body , which manifests itself , is an animated substance from its birth to its death , is composed of mean elements formed from a combination of simple particles in determinate pro-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Masonic Philosophy.
whom he hath not seen , and hateth his brother whom he hath seen , is a liar , and the truth is not in him . " This truth—this original word pervades the whole Masonic system , however varied its" mystic characters ; and it will be seen that its light has never been lost through all the darkness of pagan ages . The principal and essential dogmas of the Hindoo system are : — That there is only one G-od , endowed with all knowledge and with all power , who is the cause of the existence and of the preservation of this universe , as he will be the cause of its dissolution . That creation is the act of his will . That he is at once the efficacious and material cause of the world , the creator and the created , the author
of beings invested with form and the form itself , the agent and the act . That at the end of all things , all things will be absorbed in him : even the spider who spins his own web from his own substance , and gathers it up anew in his own body ; as well as the plants which spring up from the earth , and are afterwards blended with it .
That the Supreme Being is unique in himself and exists alone ; that he has no resemblance ; that he is a perfect being , without parts , eternal , infinite , ineffable , the invariable regulator of all things , the universal soul , the truth , the wisdom , the intelligence , the felicity . That all individual souls , emanating from this unique and
Supreme Soul , are like innumerable sparks which shoot out from an immense fire ; and that , as they proceed from the Divinity , they will return to it , for they are from the same essence . That the soul , which governs the body , although enveloped with organs , is not born and can never die , being a portion of the Divine substance , and , like it , immortal , infinite , intelligent , sensible , reasonable .
That the soul is placed under the immediate government of the Supreme Being ; that its activity does not belong to its essence , as it is derived from the organs , and is only active so long as it is acted upon by them , but so soon as it is disengaged from them it returns to its Supreme Governor , where it resumes its primitive repose and felicity . That it is neither independent nor free , but destined to
act according to the design anteriorly prescribed by the Divinity , That a predisposition to good or to evil—to actions ordained or prohibited—devotes the soul to virtue or to vice , and to the retribution which must inevitably follow the deeds resulting from either . Nevertheless , that God is not the author of evil ; tilings being thus disposed from all eternity , and manifesting themselves in a succession of forms which compose an infinite series .
That the soul is shut up in the body as in an envelope , or rather in a succession of envelopes , amongst which are distinguishable those of intelligence , of mind , and of the vital faculty or principle of life . These three envelopes of the soul accompany it through all its transmigrations . That the grosser body , which manifests itself , is an animated substance from its birth to its death , is composed of mean elements formed from a combination of simple particles in determinate pro-