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Article FREEMASONRY VINDICATED, ← Page 5 of 8 →
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Freemasonry Vindicated,
The world caniplains , moreover , that our institution , notwithstanding its moral tendency , is overflowed with discrepancies and inconsistencies in its practices , ceremonies , and mysteries , which seem to have sprung- from the magic schools of the idolaters , and from the Cimmerian cells of superstition . All institutions have had their inexplicable practices , their
lamps , tapers , embroidered robes , gestures and movements of hands , arms , and legs , cabalistic words , mj'steries , symbols , degrees , hierarchy , aud every description of ceremonies , all of which , without exception , have been copied and imitated from that wise Antiquity we are bound to res 2 iect—from the Indians , the Greeks , the Romans , and other nations far more estimable
than our critics , who assert as positive facts and real truths what the ancients offered merely as symbols and emblems , with this difference , that never did Antiquity any more than Masonry persecute and exterminate whole nations that did not adopt their ceremonies , their traditions , or their mysteries . Men have in all ages appeared , who , shaking off the shackles of
Prejudice and Ignorance which degraded their fellow-men , have dared to lift up before their eyes the lig ht of Truth and Knowledge . But what would their feeble voice effect against errors imbibed at the breast , confirmed b y habit , authorised by example , and fortified by a policy which too often became the accomplisher of its own ruin . The stentorian clamours of Ambition and Fanaticism soon
overwhelmed the calm exhortations ofthe advocates of Truth , who finding themselves surrounded by institutions subversive of justice and reason—being persecuted and terrified by extravagant and cruel tyrants , whose unjust and chimerical rules , the dogmas of Truth would have overturned—were compelled to fly from those places where their lives , as well as their virtue , stood in imminent
danger ; and they sought a refug-j in deserts , or amidst craggy rocks or inaccessible mountains—yea , in the very bowels of the earth .
There they lived in the same fears and in the same hopes ; they ate the same bread , which they soaked in their tears ; they called each other brothers—and really so they were ; for it is in the school of adversity that virtuous men units themselves with indissoluble ties . There they assembled to pray the God oi Truth to enlighten their persecutors , and consulted , at the same time , on the means of alleviating the sufferings under which they were labouring , and of realizing their hopes for the ultimate cessation
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Freemasonry Vindicated,
The world caniplains , moreover , that our institution , notwithstanding its moral tendency , is overflowed with discrepancies and inconsistencies in its practices , ceremonies , and mysteries , which seem to have sprung- from the magic schools of the idolaters , and from the Cimmerian cells of superstition . All institutions have had their inexplicable practices , their
lamps , tapers , embroidered robes , gestures and movements of hands , arms , and legs , cabalistic words , mj'steries , symbols , degrees , hierarchy , aud every description of ceremonies , all of which , without exception , have been copied and imitated from that wise Antiquity we are bound to res 2 iect—from the Indians , the Greeks , the Romans , and other nations far more estimable
than our critics , who assert as positive facts and real truths what the ancients offered merely as symbols and emblems , with this difference , that never did Antiquity any more than Masonry persecute and exterminate whole nations that did not adopt their ceremonies , their traditions , or their mysteries . Men have in all ages appeared , who , shaking off the shackles of
Prejudice and Ignorance which degraded their fellow-men , have dared to lift up before their eyes the lig ht of Truth and Knowledge . But what would their feeble voice effect against errors imbibed at the breast , confirmed b y habit , authorised by example , and fortified by a policy which too often became the accomplisher of its own ruin . The stentorian clamours of Ambition and Fanaticism soon
overwhelmed the calm exhortations ofthe advocates of Truth , who finding themselves surrounded by institutions subversive of justice and reason—being persecuted and terrified by extravagant and cruel tyrants , whose unjust and chimerical rules , the dogmas of Truth would have overturned—were compelled to fly from those places where their lives , as well as their virtue , stood in imminent
danger ; and they sought a refug-j in deserts , or amidst craggy rocks or inaccessible mountains—yea , in the very bowels of the earth .
There they lived in the same fears and in the same hopes ; they ate the same bread , which they soaked in their tears ; they called each other brothers—and really so they were ; for it is in the school of adversity that virtuous men units themselves with indissoluble ties . There they assembled to pray the God oi Truth to enlighten their persecutors , and consulted , at the same time , on the means of alleviating the sufferings under which they were labouring , and of realizing their hopes for the ultimate cessation