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Article ON FREEMASONRY. ← Page 6 of 10 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
mode of Gentile worship was some divine institution perverted . " To purge away the imperfections of idolatry ; to clear it from all its accumulated impurities , and to collect the scattered rays of truth into one focus , was however , a work which required more than mortal powers to accomplish . Every system of false worship which prevailed in the world
emanated from the father of evil ; who , instigated men to rebellion against God , and encouraged them to hope for salvation in the use of means , similar in their nature , but diametrically opposite in their tendency , to those which the Divinity himself hacl appointed . To make his imposture palatableancl to ensnare mankind the more successfullhe
, y , arrayed his false reli gion in the garb of the true . He had his temples , his religious mysteries , his altars , his priests , his oracles , his sacrifices of atonement , his purifications , and every external ordinance applied to himself which the true
religion practised in the worship of God . Hence , by a perversion ofthe ori ginal system of Lux , he acquired the almost undivided empire of the world ; which he retained until his kingdom was shaken , his mysteries abolished , and his oracles struck dumb by the appearance of the Son of God . It is assumed as an indubitable fact , that the mysteries of
antiquity , whether denominated Cabiric , Mithratic , Eleusinian , or any other name b y which their grand divisions have been distinguished , were , at their original establishment , humble imitations of the pure science of Lux . These fictions , though splendid institutions , were first practised on the plains of Chaldeaancl then extending to Jndea ancl
, Egypt , they passed thence to all the nations of the world ; although the latter country continued for a series of ao ^ es to be the grand depository where the secrets of initiation were preserved . To Egypt every people resorted for information on the essential parts of hieroglyphical knowledge ; without which , even the initiations themselves would have
failed to convey any additional privileges to the anxious aspirant ; ancl this knowled ge was therefore thrown by the artful priests , into the most abstruse and difficult form ; and eveiy successive degree had its peculiar system of appropriate emblems . The origin of hieroglyphics was picture-writing . This would be very simpleand consist merelof a -
, y repre sentation of any concise fact they wished to record , by scrawling some visible object connected with it . Experience would soon proclaim the total inadequacy of this plan . Gradual improvements arose to meet the necessities of ripen-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
mode of Gentile worship was some divine institution perverted . " To purge away the imperfections of idolatry ; to clear it from all its accumulated impurities , and to collect the scattered rays of truth into one focus , was however , a work which required more than mortal powers to accomplish . Every system of false worship which prevailed in the world
emanated from the father of evil ; who , instigated men to rebellion against God , and encouraged them to hope for salvation in the use of means , similar in their nature , but diametrically opposite in their tendency , to those which the Divinity himself hacl appointed . To make his imposture palatableancl to ensnare mankind the more successfullhe
, y , arrayed his false reli gion in the garb of the true . He had his temples , his religious mysteries , his altars , his priests , his oracles , his sacrifices of atonement , his purifications , and every external ordinance applied to himself which the true
religion practised in the worship of God . Hence , by a perversion ofthe ori ginal system of Lux , he acquired the almost undivided empire of the world ; which he retained until his kingdom was shaken , his mysteries abolished , and his oracles struck dumb by the appearance of the Son of God . It is assumed as an indubitable fact , that the mysteries of
antiquity , whether denominated Cabiric , Mithratic , Eleusinian , or any other name b y which their grand divisions have been distinguished , were , at their original establishment , humble imitations of the pure science of Lux . These fictions , though splendid institutions , were first practised on the plains of Chaldeaancl then extending to Jndea ancl
, Egypt , they passed thence to all the nations of the world ; although the latter country continued for a series of ao ^ es to be the grand depository where the secrets of initiation were preserved . To Egypt every people resorted for information on the essential parts of hieroglyphical knowledge ; without which , even the initiations themselves would have
failed to convey any additional privileges to the anxious aspirant ; ancl this knowled ge was therefore thrown by the artful priests , into the most abstruse and difficult form ; and eveiy successive degree had its peculiar system of appropriate emblems . The origin of hieroglyphics was picture-writing . This would be very simpleand consist merelof a -
, y repre sentation of any concise fact they wished to record , by scrawling some visible object connected with it . Experience would soon proclaim the total inadequacy of this plan . Gradual improvements arose to meet the necessities of ripen-