Freemasonry And Its Institutes.—Ii.

neighbours ; but when these lawless passions are kept ivithin due bounds very different are the results . Prosperity appears in everything ; population , Avealth , peace , and plenty is increased ; the people feeling the benefit conferred upon them , act up to the laws , and a community of interest causes the spread of increased friendship and brotherly love . Had not

the Omnipotent intended man for society he would never have created in him such a variety of wants and infirmities ; the very necessities of human nature unite men together , and p lace them in a state of mutual dependance upon each other . " The race of mankind , " says our illustrious brother , Sir Walter Scott , " Avould perish , did they cease to aid each other . Prom the time that the mother binds the child ' s

head , till the moment that some kind assistant wipes the death damp from the brow of the dying , Ave cannot exist without mutual help . " Without society man could neither preserve life , attain any real or solid happiness , or raise his ideas above the level of tlie beasts that perish . " God in the nature of each being founds

Its proper bliss , and sets its proper bounds ; But as he formed a whole , the whole to bless , On mutual wants builds mutual happiness , So , from the first eternal order ran , And creature linked to creature , man to man . " Porn .

The first laAV given by God to man Avas obedience ; it Avas by disobedience that sin and misery came into the Avorld , and the necessity of more laws arose . The next place we find laws given by the Creator is in Gen . ix . 4—6 , immediately after the flood , to Noah and his progeny , forbidding cruelty towards beasts , murder and homicide . " But flesh with the

life thereof , which is the blood thereof , shall ye not eat . And surely your blood of your life will I require ; at the hand of ei'ery beast will I require , it , and at the hand of man , at the hand of every man ' s brother ivill I require the life of man . Whoso sheddeth man ' s blood , by man shall Ins blood be shed . " Selden and others think that God gave seven

laivs to Noah , and on these laws Selden has Avritten seven books entitled after the laws , De Gullu Extraneo , forbidding all idolatry ; De Malediclione Numinis , forbidding all blasphemy ; De Effusions Scongitinis , forbidding murder and homicide ; De Revelatione Turpiiudinum , against incest and unlawful conjunctions ; De Furto et llapina , forbidding theft and

rapine ; De Judiciis , concerning magistrates and civil obedience ; De Menebro Animalis Yivenlis non Coniedendo , ivhich forbids eating flesh with the life , which is the blood thereof . As there is a law which God in his wisdom has eternall y purposed himself to observe in all his Avorks , for Paul says , Eph . i . 2 , that " God Avorketh all things according to

the counsel of his will ; '' so there is also a law Avhich he from the beginning set down to be kept by all his creatures , which is indeed a part of the law eternal ; and Aquinas thus describes it , " It is a decree made in the mind of God , uppointing all things by fit means , to be carried to their proper ends . I say a decree , for , as all laws , those of tho Romans ,

for instance , which Ave find in Cicero and other writers , run in the inrperative mood ; so God , Avhen ho created the Avorld , and ivas to give it a law , used the same imperative form , ' Let there be light , ' ' Let there be a firmament , ' Let the earth bring forth , ' & c . " All ivhich , " says Hooker , . " . is not barel y to signify the greatness of God ' s powerbut to show that

, God did then institute a laiv natural to be observed by his creatures ; and ever since the time that God first proclaimed the law of nature , heaven and earth have hearkened unto his voice , and their labour has been to do his will . " " All the angels of God praise him , the Avorks of his hand obey him , fire and hail , snoiv and vapours , storms and Avind fulfiHin »

his Avord . " ( Ps . cxlviii . ) The laAV eternal then is that law or rule which God has set doAvn for himself ) and all things else to work by ; ivhich , in the language of the Platonists and in respect of God , AVS may call , SE ' a -dv vipoiv , the idea of all his Laws j in respect of other lawn , ^ ipe meppurtmj , the original wineipid , << i' fbiiiTtahA } nw i in ipe » peei-. of man ns a . -rational

creature , it is the law of reason , and all these laws make up but that chief and primary laAV ivhich is j ustly honoured with the title of the " Law Eternal" ( Dawson , De Leg . Orig . ) The laivs Avhich God gave by Moses had a more signal pronmlgation , and are a more full explanation , of nature ' s law . I do not mean the judicial and ceremonial laws which

concerned only the Jews as a state or nation , separate and distinct from all other states or nations , to Avhom alone the Almighty as thoir king , lawgiver , and God , AVUS pleased himself to giA'e laws , and not to any other people then in being ; but I mean the moral law , ivhich is a complete explanation of the law of nature , and which God , from a

tenderness towards the weakness of man ' s nature , comprised under ten heads , and put into two tables , the one consisting of six laws , concerning the duty of one man to another ; the other of four laws , comprehending the sum of all religion towards God . These ten commandments have been briefly summoned up in ten lines , written in an old parish register in Laneham , Notts , 1 CS 9 : —¦

" Have thou no other God but me ; Unto no image how thy knee . Take not the name of God in vain ; Do not thy Sabbath day profane . Honour thy father and mother too : And see it thou no murders do . From vile adultery keep thou clean

; And steal not tho' thy state be mean . Bear no false witness . Shun that blot ; What is thy neighbour ' s covet not . " The blessed Redeemer also , when he ivas tempted by the lawyers ( Matt . xxii . 34 ) , as to which Avas the greatest commandmentreplied" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with

, , all thy heart , and with all thy soul , and with all thy mind . " This is the first and great commandment . And the second is like unto it , "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself . " On these two commandments lian < r all the law and the

prophets . And again , when asked , "Who is my neig hbour ?" ( Luke x . 29 ) , answered by the parable of the Good Samaritan . The Israelites , with the advantage of revelation , had narrowed their definition of neighbour , so as to exclude from it all but their own countrymen , while the Roman poet , with no more than the light of nature , could declare that no human being ought to be indifferent to man . Christ did not

point out how imperfectly they had acted up to the commandment , but related the parable of the Good Samaritan , the object of ivhich AVUS to enlarge their contracted notions , and to SIIOAV that beneficence should be universal , not limited to one nation , or to any religions or political parties . In tlie two principles of IOA ' to God and manAvhieh are an epitome

, of our duty , are comprised the whole law Avliich the G . A . O . T . U . has laid down to be the rule and guide of all our actions ; this is the broad and fundamental law ; all other laivs are but emanations from the divine law , and have been adopted by men in their different states according to

their exigences . "All people , " ( says Gains ) , " who are governed by leyes el mores , AISC partly their own law { jus ) , and partly the law ( jus ) , Avhich is common to all nianldiid ; for the law which a state establishes for itself , is peculiar to such state , and is called "jus civile , " as the peculiar law of that state . But the laiv which natural reason has established

among all mankind , is equally observed by all people , and is called "jus gentium , " as being that law Avhieh all nations follow . Tlie Romans correctly imagined that all law and order came " a summo Jove , " and believed that he Avould bless , prosper , and protect those Avho kept the laivs . They chose their OAVU magistrates , and made their own laws , and

prospered by so doing , because they belioA'cd that laAi'S came from God , and therefore they Avere prepared to obey them Avhen made , and trusted that the God who protected laws and punished law breakers , would put into their minds to make those laws well . To this union of devotion and obedience to the laAvs may lie attributed the immense superiority rtioy gained OVP V tlie worR Jn n > c , n >; of , ]\ : pmir . t ; - ;*^ rtf