Modern Writers Upon Freemasonry.—I.

conduct aud-behaviour of a member of tire Jewish church . " And in thc words ofthe eminent commentator , Dr . Adam Clarke" The questions are : •—1 . Who can be considered a fit member" of the church of Christ here below ? And—2 . Who shall be made partakers of an endless glory ? In answer to . these questions is given the character pf what we may term a true Israelite , or a good Christian . "

Not a word did either Adam Clarke , or the commentator ( Edwards ) , quoted by D'Oyly and Mant , say of Freemasonry , for they saw nothing in the psalm but plain gospel precepts ; but as Dr . Oliver says in his prefaces , " Few disputants are capable of seeing more than one side of a question , " ancl ( to abridge his words in order to economise space ) , as the Calvinist sees iu thc bible nothing but unconditional election

and reprobation , the evangelical Christian , nothing but faith , the moral man , nothing but good works—so Dr . Oliver really seems to see there ( we will not say nothing , but ) little else than Freemasonry . Let us now lay before our readers one . or two quotations . The first will be from the speech of the Rev . J . Osmond Dakeyne at the presentation of the Oliver Testimonial at Lincoln , ou May 9 tli , 1844 .

" He ( Professor Robison ) was kind enough to say that Freemasons were disloyal , irreligious , and conspiring to overturn all sacred and settled institutions . His book made a great impression , but that impression is removed . And how ? . By these books which lie before me ! viz ., Dr . Oliver ' s works . These facts , viz ., that the Earl of Moira , George IV ., AVilliam IV ., the late Archbishop of Canterbury , & c , were Masons ; and above ail , their books , have set our Order in its true light . "

" In its true li g ht "—that is , of course , with thc outer world ; those among us must have seen it in its true li ght , or we should not have been there . Let us now see the effects of some of Dr . Oliver ' s writings on one at least of tlie outer world , and that too , no ordinary man , the Rev . J . Armstrong , afterwards Bishop of Graham ' s Town . After saying in a strain of severe satirethat the Freemasons ivere not in . the

, least joking , in what many men considered as a joke , he continues —• "Look for instance at the Rev . G . Oliver , D . D ., M . A ., S . E ., aP . D . Prov . G . M . for Lincolnshire , Past D . G . M .-of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , U . S . ; he is quite in earnest . There is really something wonderfully refreshing , in such a dry and hard-featured an age as this , to find so much imagination at work . _ After having pored through crabbed chronicles , mouldy with malicious and contractions

MSS ., perverse , ragged and mildewed letters , illegible and faded diaries , & c , it is quite refreshing to glide along the smooth and glassy road of imaginative history . Of course , where there is any dealing with the more hackneyed facts of history , we must expect a little eccentricity and some looseness of statement ; we cannot travel quickly and cautiously too . Thus the doctor of divinity before mentioned , somewhat startles us ban assertion respecting- the destruction of Solomon '

y s Temple . ' Its destruction by the Romans as predicted , was fulfilled in the most minute particulars ; and on the same authority , ire are quite certain it will never be rebuilt . ' He is simply mistaking the second temple for the first . " It was such passages as these , which brought upon our Order tho severe satire of a keen critic and correct scholar like Bishop Arm- ,