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Article PRETENDED MASONIC REVELATIONS. ← Page 5 of 8 →
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Pretended Masonic Revelations.
temptible attacks of a person , who goes about professing himself to be a hired perjurer . But as the opinions alluded to are some of those common prejudices entertained by persons on a subject , of which they must necessarily be ignorant , and arc here put into the mouths ( whether truly or not it is impossible to ) of who are at
say , persons any rate respectable , and not polluted by the auri sao-a fames , we will briefl y make a few remarks upon them . And first of all , Miss Martineau (!) is of opinion , that Freemasonry is an imperium in imperio , and is purely mischievous in a republic . What the claims of a republic may be upon the souls and bodies of its members , or how far ( as is too
probably the case ) , it is infinitely more tyrannical with its tar and feathers , and Judge Lynch , than the most hyper-Papal despot , we must confess ourselves to be ignorant ; but this we do know , that the Almighty has created many other ties which are superior to that of republicanism ; as , for instance , to mention only two , that of religion and of blood .
Families and the church existed long before States , and we can certainly conceive it possible that cases might occur , in which obedience to either of these would necessitate a breach of mere human law , as has already been seen in the first ages of Christianity . But Masonry is certainly not half so much an " imperium " as either of these , because , in the first place , it embraces men of all creeds , and in the next , because it is pledged to obedience to the law , as has been demonstrated above .
Mr . O'Connell , also , maintained that Masonry is impious ; but here again the whole question as to whether it is lawful to invoke the name of the Deity , must depend upon the nature of the occasion . We maintain that , to establish a bond of union between men of a different race and hostile
creeds , is an occasion worthy of the invocation of That Name . Mr . O'Connell ' s church hating all such amalgamations , very naturally forbids any of her members to become Masons . Mr . O'Connell discovered this after he had been some years in the Order , and very properly left the society , and of course , adopting the Roman Catholic view , left
the stigma of blasphemy and impiety as his parting bequest . Another writer maintains , that Christianity does all that Freemasonry pretends to do , and ergo , that Masonry is useless , and of course profane . " Let him ( a man ) be driven on a barbarous coast in the midst of savage men , and there it is that the breathing of the Divine influence spreads VOL . II . 3 N
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Pretended Masonic Revelations.
temptible attacks of a person , who goes about professing himself to be a hired perjurer . But as the opinions alluded to are some of those common prejudices entertained by persons on a subject , of which they must necessarily be ignorant , and arc here put into the mouths ( whether truly or not it is impossible to ) of who are at
say , persons any rate respectable , and not polluted by the auri sao-a fames , we will briefl y make a few remarks upon them . And first of all , Miss Martineau (!) is of opinion , that Freemasonry is an imperium in imperio , and is purely mischievous in a republic . What the claims of a republic may be upon the souls and bodies of its members , or how far ( as is too
probably the case ) , it is infinitely more tyrannical with its tar and feathers , and Judge Lynch , than the most hyper-Papal despot , we must confess ourselves to be ignorant ; but this we do know , that the Almighty has created many other ties which are superior to that of republicanism ; as , for instance , to mention only two , that of religion and of blood .
Families and the church existed long before States , and we can certainly conceive it possible that cases might occur , in which obedience to either of these would necessitate a breach of mere human law , as has already been seen in the first ages of Christianity . But Masonry is certainly not half so much an " imperium " as either of these , because , in the first place , it embraces men of all creeds , and in the next , because it is pledged to obedience to the law , as has been demonstrated above .
Mr . O'Connell , also , maintained that Masonry is impious ; but here again the whole question as to whether it is lawful to invoke the name of the Deity , must depend upon the nature of the occasion . We maintain that , to establish a bond of union between men of a different race and hostile
creeds , is an occasion worthy of the invocation of That Name . Mr . O'Connell ' s church hating all such amalgamations , very naturally forbids any of her members to become Masons . Mr . O'Connell discovered this after he had been some years in the Order , and very properly left the society , and of course , adopting the Roman Catholic view , left
the stigma of blasphemy and impiety as his parting bequest . Another writer maintains , that Christianity does all that Freemasonry pretends to do , and ergo , that Masonry is useless , and of course profane . " Let him ( a man ) be driven on a barbarous coast in the midst of savage men , and there it is that the breathing of the Divine influence spreads VOL . II . 3 N