In this age, when things serious are too often received with laughter, things religious treated with contempt, and what is moral spurned from the doors of the polite; no wonder if our intention to prove this society of religious as well as civil institution, should be ridiculed and despised.
It is not to be doubted many assemblies of Masons were held before the Christian era: the first stage of Masonry took its rise in the earliest times, was originated in the mind of Adam, descended pure through the antediluvian ages, was afterwards taught by Ham, and from him, amidst the corruptions of mankind, flowed unpolluted and unstained with idolatry to these our times, by the channel of some few of the Sons of Truth, who remained uncontaminated with the sins of nations, saving to us pure and spotless principles, together with the original symbols. Those ancients, enlightened with original truth, were dispersed through many states; they were called to join the Jewish nation, and many of them became united with that people. The wise-hearted were employed in the construction of the tabernacle of Moses; they were embodied at the building of the temple at Jerusalem, and might from thence emigrate into different countries, where they would superintend other religious works. The ceremonies now known to Masons prove that the testimonials and insignia of the Master's order, in the present state of Masonry, were devised within the ages of Christianity; and we are confident there are not any records in being, in any nation, or in any language, Which can show them to be pertinent to any other system, or give them greater antiquity.
In this country, under the Druids, the first principles of our profession most assuredly were taught and exercised: how soon the second stage and its ceremonials were promulgated after the building of the temple at Jerusalem, we have no degree of evidence. As to the third and most sacred order, no doubt it was adopted upon the conversion of those who attended the Druidical worship, who had professed the adoration of the one Supreme Being, and who readily would receive the doctrines of a Mediator; a system in religion which had led the sages of old into innumerable errors, and at last confounded them with idolatry.
Under our present profession of Masonry, we allege our morality was originally deduced from the school of Pythagoras, and that the Basilidean system of religion furnished us with some tenets, principles, and hieroglyphics; but these, together with the Egyptian symbols and Judaic monuments, are collected only as a successional series of circumstances, which the devotees of the Deity, in different and distant ages of the world, had professed; and are all resolved into the present system of Masonry, which is made perfect in the doctrine of Christianity: from these united members gaining alone that evidence of antiquity, which shows that we are descendants of the first worshippers of the Deity.
That there were builders of cities, towers, temples, and fortifications, from the earliest ages, is indisputable; but that the artificers were formed into bodies, ruled by their own proper laws, and knowing mysteries and secrets which were kept from the world, we are greatly doubtful:* for so plain, easy, and intelligible is the mechanic art of building, that it is comprehensible to any capacity, and needed not to be wrapped up in mystic rules; neither was there any occasion for the artificers to go about as conjurers, professing a science unrevealed to the world.
(* On this point, I am reluctantly obliged to differ from our talented Brother. The Operative Craft, in those days, adopted every secret measure, even holding their lodges in the crypts of cathedrals and churches, to prevent the great principles of their science, by which their reputation was secured and maintained, from being publicly known. Even the workmen, the B. A. P., the F. C., were unacquainted with the secret and refined mechanism which cemented, and imparted the treasures of wisdom to the expert Masters of the art. They were profoundly ignorant of the wisdom which planned, the beauty which designed, and knew only the strength and labor which executed the work. The pressure and counter pressure of complicated arches was a mystery which they never attempted to penetrate. They were blind instruments in the hands of intelligent Master Masons, and completed the most sublime undertakings by the effect of mere mechanical skill and physical power; without being able to comprehend the secret which produced them; without understanding the nice adjustment of the members of a building to each other, so necessary to accomplish a striking and permanent effect; or without being able to enter into the science exhibited in the complicated details which were necessary to form a harmonious and proportionate whole. - EDITOR.)
Man would be taught building by the animals daily under his observation: the fox, the rabbit, and many other creatures, form themselves caves; the beaver is an architect in wood, and builds hovels and sheds; the birds, at a season for their increase, prepare their nests for the protection of their young; the bee labors in constructing cities and store-houses; the ants are cloistered in their little mount, perforated with labyrinths, where their provender and progeny are secured. All these would instruct men in building; so that whilst our race were reaping the first rudiments of knowledge from the book of nature, after the darkness which had overwhelmed them in their disobedience, this could remain no secret.
Besides, if we should be esteemed merely the successors of mechanics, and, as such, should take our grand progress from the building of the temple at Jerusalem, we shall find, that Hiram, who was sent from Tyre to assist in that structure, had not his excellence in architecture only, but in molten work, and also in dying, as is said in Chronicles: "He was skilful to work in silver and gold, in brass, in iron, in stone, and timber, in purple, in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave all manner of graving." He was the subject of a state wherein the worship of idols was established. This kind of religion gave encouragement to, and greatly advanced the fine arts, as it employed statuaries, sculptors, painters, and those who made graven images. Solomon ornamented his temple with cherubims and palm-trees, fruits and flowers; from whence we do not doubt Hiram's knowledge was in the business of a statuary and painter, that he made graven images of stone and wood, and molten images in metals. In Kings it is said only, "that Hiram was filled with wisdom and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass." As to Solomon's part in this great structure, he being inclined to this mighty work of piety through the ordinances of Heaven, and the promises made to his father David, was truly the executor of that plan which was revealed to him from above; he called forth the sages and religious men amongst his people to perform the work; he classed them according to their rank in their religious profession; as the priests of the temple were stationed in the solemn rites and ceremonies instituted there. This distinction was maintained in most religious societies, but especially with the primitive Christians. The chosen ones of Solomon, as a pious and holy duty, conducted the work. If we regard them as architects by profession, by reason of this duty, so we may Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David, by reason of the building of their altars, which were no other than works of piety and devotion.* From those circumstances, we are bold to say, that if we trace the antiquity of Masonry on operative principles, and derive such principles from the building of Solomon's temple, we may as well claim all the professions which Hiram excelled in: but we will leave this speculation for more material subjects.
(* Laurie thought the Dionysian workmen were employed at the building of Solomon's Temple. He says, "the mysteries of Ceres and Bacchus were instituted about 400 years before the reign of Solomon; and there are strong reasons for believing that even the association of the Dionysian architects assisted Solomon in building that magnificent fabric which he reared to the God of Israel."-EDITOR.)
Some masters of design* have brought their works to a singular justness, symmetry, and order, in Egypt and Greece, in Italy and many other European states; but they, like proficients in painting and music, had their excellence from a degree of genius and taste peculiar to themselves. It was a singular gift, and they needed not mysteries to keep it secret; for as men's geniuses are as various as their features, so was an excellence in design as free from usurpation as if it had been wrapped up in profound magic.**
(* Appendix, K.)
(** Willing to lay before our readers every degree of evidence, whether contrary to, or consistent with, our maxims, that they may judge for themselves, we give the following extract from a very scarce book; - "The holy war gave the Christians, who had been there, an idea of the Saracen works, which were afterwards imitated by them in the west, and they refined upon it every day as they proceeded in building churches. The Italians (among whom were some Greek refugees), and with them the French, Germans, and Flemings, joined into a fraternity, procured papal bulls for their encouragement, and particular privileges; they styled themselves Freemasons, and ranged fr6m nation to nation as they found churches to be built (for very many, in those days, were every where in building) through the piety of multitudes; their government was regular; and, where they fixed near a building, they made a camp of hills, a surveyor, governor-in-chief; and every tenth man was called a warden, and overlooked each nine. The gentlemen of the neighborhood, either out of charity or commutation of penance, gave the materials and carriage, and hence were called Accepted Masons. It is admirable with what economy, and how soon they erected such considerable structures." (From a book of Architecture by Mr. Rion, of Canterbury.))
We are persuaded there was no occasion to form such secret rules for the compact of operative Masons. Solomon, for the conduct of such a multitude, wisely preserved the order of the religious, and the mysteries of their initiation, for the rule of his people employed in the temple. Assuredly, the secrets revealed to us were for other uses than what relate to laboring up masses of stone; and our society, as it now stand3, is an association on religious and charitable principles; which principles were instituted, and arose, upon the knowledge of God, and in the Christian revelation.
Soon after Christianity became the established religion of this country, the professors of it employed themselves in founding religious houses, and in the building of places of public worship. On any reform of religion, it is observable the first professors are inclinable to enthusiasm. Such was the case in this land on the advancement of the Christian doctrine; a fervor for endowments infatuated the minds of the converted; certain days were assigned for the purpose of attending to religious works and edifices, called haly-werk-days; on which no man, of what profession, rank or estate soever, was exempt from attending that duty Besides, there were a set of men called haly-werk-folk,* to whom were assigned certain lands, which they held by the service of repairing, defending, or building churches and sepulchres; for which pious labors they were exempt from all feodal and military services. These men, being stone-cutters and builders, might also be of our profession, and most probably they were selected from thence, the two being in no wise incompatible with each other. The County of Durham** entertained a particular set of those haly-werk-folk, who were guards of the patrimony and holy sepulchre of St. Cuthbert. Those men come the nearest to a similitude of Solomon's Masons, and the title of Free and Accepted Masons, of any degree of architects we have gained any knowledge of: but whether their initiation was attended with peculiar ceremonies, or by what laws they were regulated, we have not been able to discover; and must lament, that in the church records of Durham, or in any public office there, there are not the least remains of evidence touching those people and the constitution of their society. It was a matter to be coveted by us studying this subject, as most probably such constitution or evidence would have confirmed every hypothesis we have raised on the definition of our emblems and mysteries.
(* De Hermitono Finchalensis Ranuiphus Dei gratia Dunelmensis Episcopus omnibus hominibus suis Francis et Angus de haly werc foic salutem," &c. Many other grants are in the author's possession of this kind. Ralph Flambard was consecrated Bishop of Durham in 1099.)
(** Hist. Dunelm. apud Wartoni Ang. Sax.)
The emblems used by these people very much resembled the emblems of our society, several tokens of which have been found of late years in pulling down old ruined monasteries. It is much to be wished that those noblemen, &c., in whose possession ancient abbeys stand, would, on all occasions of pulling down or repairing, give instructions to their workmen to preserve, with care, any antique marks, characters, or emblems, they may find. There are double walls, or hollow pillars, in which such things were deposited. Few men will be at the expense of digging to the foundations' of such buildings, where valuable marks and curious inscriptions would be found on the foundation, or what was called the angle-stone, which formed a perfect cube.* This was a very ancient custom: the unbelieving Jews accused our Savior of having stolen the mystic word, the Tetragrammaton,** or Urim and Thummim, from the foundation of the temple at Jerusalem, which, they said, he carried concealed about him, whereby he was enabled to work his miracles.***
(* At the building of Solomon's temple, every F. C., or at least every F. C.'s lodge, undoubtedly had a particular mark, and was therefore a Mark-mason, or rather a Mark-man. The Mark master was a grade, or perhaps two, higher; for he had passed the chair of his lodge. The Masters and Wardens of F. C.'s lodges used the mark, for they were Operative Masons; but the Mark-masters, having ceased to be artificers, were Speculative Masons. These were the Masters of Master-masons' lodges, which could not have been formed till long after the foundations of the temple had been laid. But once constituted, numbers of approved and accepted F. C.'s would be admitted into them. The same arrangement was adopted amongst the architects and builders of our ecclesiastical edifices, both here and in other countries; and hence arose the private marks by which all wrought stones were designated. -EDITOR.)
(** The name of the Deity has a peculiar reference in some of the highest degrees of Masonry; and it is extraordinary that while the true knowledge of God was lost in most of the nations of the ancient world, there were few but retained vestiges of his name. Hale, deduces this name, in many nations, from the primitive Hebrew root, AL( ? ? ,) signifying power. Hence were derived Aloh, potentate , Alah, in Syriac; Al-Alah, or by contraction of the article Al prefixed, Allah, in Arabic; Ullah, in Ethiopic; Aloh, in the South Sea islands, where Captain Cook found Alo Alo, the name of the supreme god in Hapaee, one of the Friendly islands, similar to the Hebrew Al Alohim, god of gods. From the same root was doubtless derived the Greek ?????, the sun; whilst their Theos (whence the Latin Deus) sprang from the Egyptian Theuth. -EDITOR.)
(*** The divine economy with respect to the establishment and protection of the Jewish nation was so remarkable, that every great event was contemplated by the heathen with philosophical accuracy: but they always fell into the error of attributing the miracle to the agent or second cause, instead of the first. Thus the use of gems and mysterious amulets was adopted, as symbols of protection, from a tradition of the stones in Aaron's breast-plate, within which the Urim and Thummim was concealed, as a medium of communication between God and his people. -EDITOR.)
Soon after the progress of Christianity in England, all Europe was inflamed with the cry and madness of an enthusiastic monk, who prompted the zealots in religion to the holy war; in which, for the purpose of recovering the holy city and Judea out of the hands of infidels, armed legions of saints, devotees, and enthusiasts, in tens of thousands, poured forth from every state of Europe, to waste their blood and treasure in a purpose as barren and unprofitable, as impolitic.
It was deemed necessary that those who took up the ensign of the cross in this enterprise should form themselves into such societies as might secure them from spies and treacheries, and that each might know his companion and brother-laborer as well in the dark as by day. As it was with Jeptha's army at the passes of Jordan, so also was it requisite in these expeditions that certain signs, signals, watch-words, or pass-words, should be known amongst them; for the armies consisted of various nations and various languages. We are told, in the book of Judges, "that the Gileadites took the passes of Jordan before the Ephraimites; and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over, that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said nay, then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth, for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took them and slew them at the passage of Jordan."*
(* The application which is made of the word Sibboleth amongst Masons, is as a testimony of their retaining their original vow uninfringed, and their first faith with the brotherhood uncorrupted. And to render their works and phrases more abstruse and obscure, they selected such as, by acceptation in the scriptures or otherwise, might puzzle the ignorant by a double implication. Thus Sibboleth, should we have adopted the Eleusinian mysteries, would answer as an avowal of our profession, the same implying ears of corn; but it has its etymology or derivation from the following compounds in the Greek tongue, as it is adopted by Masons, viz., S?ß?, Cob, and ?????:, Lapis; so S?ß??????, Sibbolithon, Colo Lapidem, implies that they retain and keep inviolate their obligations, as the Jaramentum per Jovem Lapidem, the most obligatory oath held amongst the heathens. " The name Lapis, or, as others write, Lapideus, was given to Jupiter by the Romans, who conceived that Juramentum per Jovem Lapidem, an oath by Jupiter Lapis, was the most obligatory oath; and it is derived either from the stone which was presented to Saturn by his wife Ops, who said that it was Jupiter, in which sense Eusebius says that Lapis reigned in Crete: or from lapide sauce, the flint stone, which, in making bargains, the swearer held in his hand, and said, ' if knowingly I deceive, so let Diespeter, saving the city and capital, cast me away from all that is good, as I cast away this stone.' Where-upon he threw the stone away.")
No project or device could answer the purposes of the crusaders better than those of Masonry: the maxims and ceremonials attending the Master's order had been previously established, and were materially necessary on that expedition; for, as the Mahomedans were also worshippers of the Deity, and as the enterprisers were seeking a country where the Masons were, in the time of Solomon, called into an association, and where some remains would certainly be found of the mysteries and wisdom of the ancients and of our predecessors, such degrees of Masonry as extended only to the acknowledgment of their being servants of the God of Nature, would not have distinguished them from those they had to encounter, had they not assumed the symbols of the Christian faith.
All the learning of Europe, in those times, as in the ages of antiquity, was possessed by the religious; they had acquired the wisdom of the ancients, and the original knowledge, which was in the beginning, and now is, the truth; many of them had been initiated into the mysteries of Masonry; they were the projectors of this enterprise; and, as Solomon, in the building of the temple, introduced orders and regulations for the conduct of the work, which his wisdom had been enriched with from the learning of the sages of antiquity, so that no confusion should happen during its progress, and so that the rank and office of each fellow-laborer might be distinguished and ascertained beyond the possibility of deceit; in like manner the priests, projecting the crusades, being possessed of the mysteries of Masonry, the knowledge of the ancients, and of the universal language which survived the confusion of Shinar, revived the orders and regulations of Solomon, and initiated the legions therein who followed them to the Holy Land: hence that secrecy which attended the crusaders.
Among other evidence which authorizes us in the conjecture that Masons went to the holy wars, is the doctrine of that order of Masons called the higher order: we are induced to believe that order was of Scottish extraction; separate nations might be distinguished by some separate order, as they were by singular ensigns: but, be that as it may, it fully proves to us that Masons were crusaders.
As the intention of this lecture was not only to speculate on the ancient secrecy among Masons, but also to treat of the secrecy of Masons in this age, we must therefore turn our thoughts to the importance secrecy is now of amongst us, when there are no holy wars to wage, and nothing but charity and brotherly love to cherish among Masons.
This institution, which was first founded in the mysteries of religion, as we have before rehearsed to you, is now maintained by us on the principles of lending mutual aid and consolation to each other. How should we be able to discern the brethren of this family but through such tokens as should point them out from other men? Language is now provincial, and the dialects of different nations would not be comprehensible to men ignorant and unlettered. Hence it became necessary to use an expression which should be cognizable by people of all nations. So it is with Masons; they are possessed of that universal expression, and of such remains of the original language, that they can communicate their history, their wants, and prayers, to every brother Mason throughout the globe:* from whence, it is certain, that multitudes of lives had been saved in foreign countries, when ship-wreck and misery have overwhelmed them; when robbers had pillaged; when sickness, want, and misery, had brought them even to the brink of the grave, the discovery of Masonry hath saved them; the discovery of being a brother hath staid the savage hand of the conqueror, lifted in the field of battle to cut off the captive; hath withheld the sword, imbrued in carriage and slaughter, and subdued the insolence of triumph, to pay homage to the craft.
(* "Is it not within the reach of every one's calculation," says Calcott, "that there is a meaning in many acts and gestures; and that Nature has endowed mankind with particular motions to express the various intentions of the mind. We all understand weeping, laughing, shrugs, frowns, &c., as forming a species of universal language. Applications are many times made, and a kind of dialogue maintained only by casts of the eye, and motions of the adjacent muscles. We read even of feet that speak (Prov. vi. 13), and of a philosopher (Sextus Empiricus) who answered an argument only by getting up and walking." -EDITOR.)
The importance of secrecy with us is such, that we may not be deceived in the dispensing of our charities; that we may not be betrayed in the tenderness of our benevolence, or that others usurp the portion which is prepared for those of our own family.
To betray the watch-word, which should keep the enemy from the walls of our citadel, in order to open our strongholds to robbers and deceivers, is as great a moral crime* as to show the common thief the weaknesses and secret places of our neighbors' dwelling-houses, that he may pillage their goods; nay, it is still greater, for it is like aiding the sacrilegious robber to ransack the holy places, and steal the sacred vessels and consecrated elements, devoted to the most sacred rites of religion. It is snatching from the divine hand of charity the balm which she holds forth to heal the distresses of her children; the cordial cup of consolation which she offers to the lip of calamity, and the sustenance her fainting infants should receive from the bosom of her celestial love.
(* Professor Robison, amongst a great deal of trash which he collected or invented as evidence against Freemasonry, presents his readers with the following improbable story, which he pretends to have quoted from a French writer. "A candidate for reception into one of the highest orders, after having heard many threatenings denounced against all who should betray the secrets of the order, was conducted to a place where be saw the dead bodies of several who were said to have suffered for their treachery. He then saw his own brother bound hand and foot, beseeching them to have mercy on him. He was informed that his brother having betrayed the secrets, was to be punished by death, and that he (the candidate) was to be the instrument of their vengeance, as a trial of his fortitude and zeal. He was told, however, that as the sight of his brother might cause some degree of compunction, a bandage must be placed over his eyes. Being hoodwinked, a dagger was placed in his right hand, and his left being laid on the heart of his brother, he was told to strike home. He did so - the blood spouted from the wound - the bandage was removed - and he found that he had only stabbed a lamb." -EDITOR.)
As this, then, is the importance of the Mason's secrecy, wherefore should the world wonder that the most profligate tongue that ever had expression hath not revealed it? The sport is too criminal to afford delight even to the wickedest of mankind; for it must be wantonness only which could induce any man to divulge it, as no profit could arise there from, nor selfish view be gratified. It was mentioned by divine lips as a crime not in nature: "What man is there of you, who, if his son ask for bread, will give him a stone; or, if he ask a fish, will give him a serpent?" Then, can there be a man so iniquitous among Masons, as to guide the thief to steal from a sick brother the medicine which should restore his health? the balsam which should close his wounds? the clothing which should shield his trembling limbs from the severity of the winter? the drink which should moisten his fainting lip? the bread which should save his soul alive?
Such is the importance of our secrecy: were
there no other ties on our affections or consciences than merely
the sense of the injury we should do to the poor and the wretched,
by a transgression of this rule, we are persuaded it would be
sufficient to lock up the tongue of every man who professeth himself
to be a Mason.
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