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Article ON FREEMASONRY. Page 1 of 10 →
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On Freemasonry.
ON FREEMASONRY .
THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANCIENT TIMES .
BY THE REV . G . OLIVER , D . D .
THE mysterious System of Light , now denominated Freemasonry , as it was practised by the pious worshippers of the true and only God ; having been traced , by the recurrence of unquestionable landmarks , to a period , when its history becomes plain ancl clear ; it may be equally useful and interesting to take a view of the various modifications of the
same institution as it passed through the hands of those who had renounced the knowledge of an eternal Creator , and formed for themselves an adventitious system of religion , founded on an adoration of the heavenly bodies , which soon branched out into the worship of eminent men , who , after their deceasehad been advanced by public gratitude , to a
, residence in the empyrean . A deliberate examination of these imitative systems will display the extraordinary fact , that though their original founders had divested themselves of all reverence for the
Deity , yet by the over-ruling dispensations of Providence , those very institutions which were intended-to establish a new species of government in the world , by the introduction of a mental slavery based on superstition , were made to contribute to the great purpose of transmitting throughout the whole heathen world , in every age , from the Dispersion to
the Advent of Christ , a series of truths connected with the ultimate salvation of man . The late Bishop Tomline observes , in his elements of Christian Theology ; " Ofthe many traditions according with the Mosaic history , which prevailed amongst the ancient nations , and which still exist in several parts of the world ,
the following must be considered singularly striking . That the world was formed from rude and shapeless matter by the Spirit of God ; that the seventh day was a holy day ; that man was created perfect , and hacl the dominion given him over all the inferior animals ; that there hacl been a golden age , when man , in a state of innocence had open intercourse with heaven ; and when his nature became corrupt , the earth VOL . IV . r :
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On Freemasonry.
ON FREEMASONRY .
THE SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY OF ANCIENT TIMES .
BY THE REV . G . OLIVER , D . D .
THE mysterious System of Light , now denominated Freemasonry , as it was practised by the pious worshippers of the true and only God ; having been traced , by the recurrence of unquestionable landmarks , to a period , when its history becomes plain ancl clear ; it may be equally useful and interesting to take a view of the various modifications of the
same institution as it passed through the hands of those who had renounced the knowledge of an eternal Creator , and formed for themselves an adventitious system of religion , founded on an adoration of the heavenly bodies , which soon branched out into the worship of eminent men , who , after their deceasehad been advanced by public gratitude , to a
, residence in the empyrean . A deliberate examination of these imitative systems will display the extraordinary fact , that though their original founders had divested themselves of all reverence for the
Deity , yet by the over-ruling dispensations of Providence , those very institutions which were intended-to establish a new species of government in the world , by the introduction of a mental slavery based on superstition , were made to contribute to the great purpose of transmitting throughout the whole heathen world , in every age , from the Dispersion to
the Advent of Christ , a series of truths connected with the ultimate salvation of man . The late Bishop Tomline observes , in his elements of Christian Theology ; " Ofthe many traditions according with the Mosaic history , which prevailed amongst the ancient nations , and which still exist in several parts of the world ,
the following must be considered singularly striking . That the world was formed from rude and shapeless matter by the Spirit of God ; that the seventh day was a holy day ; that man was created perfect , and hacl the dominion given him over all the inferior animals ; that there hacl been a golden age , when man , in a state of innocence had open intercourse with heaven ; and when his nature became corrupt , the earth VOL . IV . r :