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On Freemasonry. The Spurious Freemasonry Of Ancient Times,
ON FREEMASONRY . THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANCIENT TIMES ,
( No . V . ) BY THE REV . G . OLIVER , D . D . FROM a general view of the Spurious Freemasonry of ancient timesit clear that lecturesor philosophical
, appears , dissertations , on many speculative subjects were introduced during the ceremonies ; whence the initiated candidate became acquainted with facts and deductions respecting which he had not previously entertained an idea . But , unfortunately , the knowledge of spiritual things retrograded as human sciencein its onward marchadvanced gradually to
, , perfection . The Hierophant professed to enlighten him on the subject of natural theology . But how were his expectations realized ? Did he emerge from the ceremony a wiser and a better man ? This is more than doubtful . _ He obtained , indeed , a superficial knowledge of traditional events connected with religious worship ; but he remained
uninstructed in the true application ; and , which is of still greater moment , unimproved in the practice of moral virtue . And how could it be otherwise , when the most flagitious vices were attributed to the inferior deities , and proposed as examples worthy of imitation ? When debauchery and
incest were recommended ; and even a disgraceful symbol was placed on their polluted altars , and invested with the attributes of divinity ? Tertullian , in the heat of his argument against the Valentinians , goes so far as to put the principal abomination of these institutions for the whole ; and expresses his indignation in words which I am not that
inclined to repeat . The natural consequence was , right and wrong , virtue and vice , were confounded : and men literally " loved darkness rather than Light , because their deeds were evil . " It was to this extreme depravity that St . Paul referred when he said , " Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge , God gave them over VOL . v . « «
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry. The Spurious Freemasonry Of Ancient Times,
ON FREEMASONRY . THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANCIENT TIMES ,
( No . V . ) BY THE REV . G . OLIVER , D . D . FROM a general view of the Spurious Freemasonry of ancient timesit clear that lecturesor philosophical
, appears , dissertations , on many speculative subjects were introduced during the ceremonies ; whence the initiated candidate became acquainted with facts and deductions respecting which he had not previously entertained an idea . But , unfortunately , the knowledge of spiritual things retrograded as human sciencein its onward marchadvanced gradually to
, , perfection . The Hierophant professed to enlighten him on the subject of natural theology . But how were his expectations realized ? Did he emerge from the ceremony a wiser and a better man ? This is more than doubtful . _ He obtained , indeed , a superficial knowledge of traditional events connected with religious worship ; but he remained
uninstructed in the true application ; and , which is of still greater moment , unimproved in the practice of moral virtue . And how could it be otherwise , when the most flagitious vices were attributed to the inferior deities , and proposed as examples worthy of imitation ? When debauchery and
incest were recommended ; and even a disgraceful symbol was placed on their polluted altars , and invested with the attributes of divinity ? Tertullian , in the heat of his argument against the Valentinians , goes so far as to put the principal abomination of these institutions for the whole ; and expresses his indignation in words which I am not that
inclined to repeat . The natural consequence was , right and wrong , virtue and vice , were confounded : and men literally " loved darkness rather than Light , because their deeds were evil . " It was to this extreme depravity that St . Paul referred when he said , " Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge , God gave them over VOL . v . « «