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This consists in rearing stately fabrics to the honour of God, the glory of our country, and the welfare of the public and as we in that must observe the strictest order and regularity in the course of the work, so we must in the other act upon the square, and frame our behaviour to the good of society, the honour of our order, and the credit of every individual; as the more a building is ornamented with ingenious devices, the more it redounds to the honour of the workman, so here, the more accomplishments men possess, the higher they will rise in the estimation of their brethren. Among them every art and science is alternately treated; it forms within itself a living encyclopædia, where every one adorns his subject with the most instructive lessons. It is to be hoped that the Masonic will in time thoroughly agree with the social part. We already behold the living graves of society (convents) in a great degree abolished; and may they ever continue so! I am sure, no Free Mason wishes the craft to erect another, under the mask of religious retirement, for ever to exclude a human being from the social intercourse of civilized life. In recounting the many stately edifices raised by architectural skill, we admire, we stand astonished at the art, but when reflection weighs in the scales of reason the various ends for which they were founded, we admire the work, but detest the purposes of it. The temples, which locked up the vestal virgins, have now few votaries, and we indulge the pleasing hope that in future ages there will be no such an order as the inquisition ever re-established.

These sentiments, we presume, are not hostile to Free Masons, who glow with the love as well as the peace of mankind. Their influence by the aid of an honourable brother, has already wrested the fetters from the ancles of the galled African, after the toils of a tedious but weak oppo

*

* Wilberforce, M. P.

sition.

We feel the most glowing pleasure at thus addressing these sentiments to our brethren, as we daily feel the truth of the observation : "That in every nation a Mason may find a friend, in every climate he may find a home."

It is proper here to premise, that Masonry, in its ancient history, is used in a sense equivalent to the liberal sciences, but particularly geometry; upon this assumption the early Masonic history dates the commencement of the Masonic institution with the beginning of time, and begins its history with the work of creation.

All things necessary for man's felicity were perfected by the Grand Architect of the universe according to geometry.*

That Adam, our great progenitor, was ignorant of the principles of geometry can hardly be supposed, for after his expulsion from the garden of Eden, he built an habitation for himself and family, and no doubt instructed his descendants in that noble science, and its application to whatsoever crafts were convenient for those early times.

Cain with his family and adherents being pre-instructed in the principles of geometry and architecture, built a strong city and called it, Dedicate or Consecrate, after the name of his eldest son Enoch, whose race following his example improved themselves, not only in geometry and masonry, but made discoveries of several other useful arts.

The descendants of Seth came nothing behind those of Cain, in the cultivation of geometry and masonry. This patriarch greatly profited in those noble sciences, under the tuition of Adam, with whom he lived till the year of the world 930, and succeeded him in the direction of the craft; who, as a monument of his superior abilities, and love to posterity, foreseeing the universal desolation which would happen by fire or water, and deprive mankind of those arts

* See John Entick's work, published under the sanction of the Grand Lodge in London, England, in 1756, and Anderson, 1723.

and sciences at that time existing, raised two pillars of stone, and inscribed thereon an abridgment of the arts and sciences, particularly geometry or masonry, in order to withstand the overthrow of the flood, which Josephus the historian informs us was to be seen in his time, in the land of Siriad, by the name of Seth's or Enoch's pillars.

Methuselah, with his son Lamech and grandson Noah, retired from the corrupt world, and in their own peculiar family preserved the religion of the promised Messiah pure, and also the art of masonry till the flood.

The ark was built on principles of geometry. Noah and his family, besides a number of all created beings, were saved from the general deluge; he and his four sons are, therefore, the progenitors of the present race of mankind.

From the Sacred Writings we learn, that Noah and his sons, being all of one language and speech, it came to pass as they journeyed from the East to the West, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt there together as Noachidae or sons of Noah, the first name of Masons, and under which name many brethren are known in France up to the present day.

In following that great luminary of the craft, the Holy Bible, we find the tower of Babel is built, and before its entire completion, by the will of the Divine Architect, the language of the builders is confounded and the people dispersed, all which shows that, after the dispersion, they still carried with them the knowledge of masonry, and improved it to a great degree of perfection.

Nimrod or Belus, the son of Cush, the eldest son of Ham, and founder of the Babylonian Monarchy, kept possession of the plain, and founded the first great empire at Babylon.

From Shinar the science and the art were carried to distant parts of the world, notwithstanding the confusion of the dialects, and which is presumed to having given rise to

the universal practice of conversing without speaking, and communications between Masons by tokens or signs.

Mizraim, the second son of Ham, carried to, and preserved in Egypt the original skill, and cultivated the arts, monuments of which are still extant in that country under the name of Pyramids, which are, and have been, the universal admiration of succeeding ages. The successors of Mizraim, who were styled the sons of ancient kings, encouraged the art, down to the last of their race, the learned King Amasis.

It is presumed that the offspring of Shem propagated the science as far as China and Japan.

Abraham, born two years after the death of Noah, had learned the science, before the Grand Architect of the universe called him to travel from Ur of the Chaldees. He communicated it to the Canaanites, for which they honoured him as a prince.

Isaac, Ishmael, and Jacob no doubt were taught the science by their progenitor. Joseph was also well instructed by his father, for Scripture informs us he excelled the Egyptians in knowledge, and was installed by Pharaoh himself as a ruler over the people.

It is well known, and needs no comment here, that Melchizedeck is recognised amongst us as one of the most venerable patrons of the order.

That the Israelites practised masonry in Egypt, is a well authenticated fact from the Bible. We read "they were trained up" to the building of two cities with stone and brick for the Egyptians, and undoubtedly was the design of the Most High, to make them expert masons before they should possess the promised land.

In their peregrinations through the wilderness after their singular delivery of Egyptian bondage, on their voyage to the land which was promised they should possess for an inheritance for ever, God was pleased to inspire Moses, and gave him the decalogue which can be summed up in those

two doctrines, Honour God and love thy neighbour, (and in what society are those two precepts better exemplified than among Masons.) When Moses, after a sojourn of forty days on Mount Sinai, came down with the laws, he entered into his tent. Aaron his brother, who afterwards became high priest, came to visit him, and Moses acquainted him with the laws he had received from God with the explanation of them. After this Aaron placed himself at the right hand of Moses, and Eleazar and Ithamar (sons of Aaron) were admitted, to whom Moses repeated what he had said to Aaron. Moses afterwards declared the same over to the Elders of the Sanhedrim composed of seventy members, after which instruction he reduced the law to writing, except the explanations; these he thought sufficient to commit and entrust to their memories, with instructions to teach them to their children and their offspring. He also ordered the more skilful to meet him as in a lodge or tabernacle, and gave them wise charges and regulations, from which they should not deviate.

Joshua, the faithful follower of Moses, succeeded him, with Caleb and Eleazer the high priest, and Phineas his deputy.

After the conquest and settlement of the promised land, the Israelites made further progress in the study of geometry and architecture, having many expert artists.

The city of Tyre or Tsor was built by a great body of Sidonian masons from Gabala, under a grand master and a number of princes.

In after times, Ahibal, king of Tyre, repaired and beautified that city, and so did his son Hiram, being also a mason. He became one of the principal architects of that stupendous edifice which has been and always will remain the admiration of the world, viz. Solomon's temple.

Having traced Masonry thus far, I will reserve to its proper place the commencement, building, and completion of that edifice, from which, with more accuracy, we trace our origin.

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