! Our author thus concludes the chapter under consideration: "These are the genuine principles of Masonry, and every member is solemnly bound to believe them in his heart, and practise them in his life." (p. 53.) Free Masonry and Revelation are the same thing; but how has this important fact been so long concealed from the Missionary Society? Their labour to evangelize the world is like the Hebrews' task of making brick without straw. Free Masonry will do it in less time. Enemies have risen up to deny revelation. Why should not its particular friend, Free Masonry, be brought out to their confusion? O, that Paley had been, and that Chalmers were, of the fraternity! Then the evidences of Christianity might, in their works, shine by the light of Free Masonry, with redoubled lustre. And let it cheer the heart of the philanthropist, that should Revelation, by any untoward event, be lost, all that is most interesting in it, would be preserved in the breasts of faithful Masons, and restored to the world by Free Masonry. "Success to all accepted Masons; "There is none can their honour pull down; "For e'er since the glorious creation "These brave men were held in renown." Chorus. "Then who would not be a Free Mason; "So happy and jovial are we? "To kings, dukes, and lords, we are brothers, "And in every lodge we are free." 25 25 CHAPTER XXXI. Showing how to prove any great man a Free Mason; and how the three Degrees are types of the Fall of Man, the Deluge, and the last Day. "In mathematics he was greater Town's Speculative Free Masonry, chap. 5. p. 54.—“ Ancient Masonry, Operative and Religious." Chap. 6. p. 63. -"Modern Free Masonry, Speculative and Religious." THAT ancient Masonry was operative, he proves, from the fact, that the ark, the tabernacle, and the temple, were each built by the application of " the science of architecture to operative Masonry." To frame an edifice requires the application of the principles of geometry or Masonry. Men applying the principles of operative Masonry, he makes it clearly to appear, are Masons, although they touch not the rule, or the plumb-line, with their own hands. Moreover, men taught of God how to build, are, evidently, when they build, Masons applying the directions of the Most High to Masonry. Excellent logic! I have ever entertained great doubts until now, whether Noah, and Moses, and even Solomon, were Masons; and whether Masonry was, indeed, a divine institution "given by God to the first Masons."* *Book of Constitutions. Antiquities, No. 6. p. 15. But now I see it clear as the meridian sun. Noah applied the principles of architecture, under the divine direction, to the building of the ark; and Moses the same of the tabernacle, and Solomon the same of the temple, "which was built after the similitude of the tabernacle." Is it not plain, then, that these builders were Masons? and that Masonry, in their hands, was a divine gift? It is very plain; I wonder at Masons' having made so much difficulty about the matter. Our author says, (p. 58.) "All civilized nations admit, that Solomon most probably was a Mason; and the fact is admitted from the circumstance of his building the temple. If, therefore, his masonic character rests on this ground, the conclusion is irresistible, that his masonic knowledge was divinely derived." How beautiful the truth! How perfectly plain, that from the circumstance of building the temple, Solomon was a Mason; and being directed of Heaven in the work, that his masonic knowledge was divinely derived! And, as our author adds, "The same inference is equally true of Moses." sons. And this unveils another mystery; for, if building the ark constituted Noah a Mason, the tabernacle, Moses, and the temple, Solomon, nothing is lacking to prove, that most of those men claimed by Mr. Town were, in truth, Free MaI could never before guess who had memory enough to keep the catalogue of great names in all ages belonging to the fraternity ;* Nebuchadnezzar, Herod the Great, Julius Cæsar, &c.--but now I have it; as the building of the temple made Solomon, so the building of Babylon made Nebuchadnezzar; and of many temples made Julius Cæsar; and the building of a splendid Grecian temple at Jerusalem made Herod a Mason; and to know whether any ancient man were a Mason, find whether he applied the prin *It is well known Masonry intrusts nothing to records. grees have no written records."-Dalcho's Orations, p. 11. "The blue de ciples of geometry, which was anciently synonynious with Masonry, to the erection of some building; and if he didcall him a Mason; and if he be a great man whose character is sought, suppose he applied the principles of geometry to the building a city, or temple, or fort, and call him a Mason at hazard; the risk is nothing. In this way the memory is not burdened, at the same time a good degree of correctness is secured, and almost all the great men of antiquity will appear to have been Free Masons, to the glory of the nocturnal society. Pardon, brethren, and hear Mr. Town, p. 63. "Modern Masonry is not operative," says Mr. Town," but speculative and religious." To learn what is Speculative Free Masonry, we turn to chap. 7., which is headed "Speculative Free Masonry unfolds the outlines of the history of several great and leading events, both in the natural and moral world." p. 67. "The first, both in the order of nature and of time, was creation, when by the voice of omnipotence, the first flood of light burst upon the astonished world. A manifest allusion to this event, appears in the first degree of Masonry. An audible voice is heard by the candidate, which is followed by scenes new, mysterious, beautiful and sublime. [Four adjectives to express what is better expressed by one, viz. ridiculous.] Was it admissible to enumerate the ceremonies of initiation, every person would at once discover a manifest reference to the creation of this material world." It is truly said, "all do not see alike;" and who would have thought so sublime an event as creation was represented by lively symbols at the first stair of Masonry! Can one believe that a fear of betraying the secret debars our author from pursuing the detail of the ceremonies of initiation with their wonderful likeness to the events of creation? Not at all: any thing which tells to the honour of the society, is free to be blazoned, and every other thing must be hid, must be the secret. When he had named that audible voice, why did he not add the fact which follows it in initiation? one just as like to the bursting of the first flood of light upon the astonished world, as the removal of a blinder after a dull game of blind man's buff on a winter's evening. And what weakness, to liken the removal of a bandage from the eyes, to the creation of light and of the world! When "Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar 66 'Light shone, and order from disorder sprung." Such is the laughable vanity of Speculative Masonry. (p. 68.) "The next great event in the natural world," says Mr. T., "was the general deluge. This was a very awful exhibition of the divine displeasure. The whole human race, with the exception of one family, in astonishment and dismay, saw the prelude to their inevitable destruction. Deserted by a former protecting providence, they gave themselves up to hopeless despair. This melancholy event is, in some circumstantial points, faintly called up to the mind in the third masonic degree." It is well our painter put the name to his drawing; "this is an ox;" for no likeness can be discovered, even when the name is given. As I read, I feared the explanation must lie one degree beyond any I have taken; but lo! it is in the sublime degree of a Master Mason; and that sublimity, which never before appeared, begins to shine out. Who would have thought it; that the feeble assassination of an innocent man resembles the drowning of a guilty world? True, it is represented but faintly, and in some circumstantial points; yet there is a resemblance, it seems, and |