How agreeable must it be to him who is seated on a throne of everlasting mercy! To that God who is no respecter of persons!

Ir instructs us likewise in our duty to ourselves; it teaches us to set just bounds to our desires; to put a curb upon our sensual appetites; to walk uprightly.

OUR Order excludes women; not that it refuses to pay a proper regard to the lovely part of the creation, or that it imagines they would not implicitly obey the strictest laws of secrecy; but we know if they were admitted to our assemblies, that our bosoms must often be inflamed by love; that jealousy would sometimes be the consequence; that then we should no longer be kind brethren, but detestable rivals; and that our harmonious institution would by that means be weakened, if not subverted: but, though our order excludes women, it does not forbid our enjoying the pleasures of love, yet it bids us enjoy them in such a manner as the laws of conscience, society, and temperance permit: it commands us for momentary gratification, not to destroy the peace of families; not to take away the happiness (a happiness with which grandeur and riches are not to be compared) which those experience whose hearts are united by love,-not to profane the first and most holy institution of nature.

To enjoy the blessings sent by divine beneficence, it tells us, is virtue and obedience; but it bids us to avoid the allurements of intemperance, whose short hours of jollity are followed by tedious days of pain and dejection; whose joys turn to madness, and lead to diseases,

and to death.

Such are the duties which our Order teaches us, and MASONRY, the heavenly Genius, seems now thus to address us:

"THE ORDER I have established, in every part of it, shews consummate wisdom, founded on moral and social virtue; it is supported by strength, and adorned by beauty; for every thing is found in it that can make society agreeable: in the most striking manner, I teach you to act with propriety in every station of life; the tools and implements of architecture, and every thing about you, I have contrived to be most expressive symbols to convey to you the strongest moral truths.Let your improvement be proportionable to your instructions. Be not content with the name only of FREE MASON;-invested with my ancient and honourable badge, be Masons indeed. Think not that it consists only in meeting and going through the ceremonies which I have appointed; these ceremonies, in such an order as mine, are necessary, but they are the most immaterial part of it, and there are weightier matters which you must not omit. To be Masons indeed, is to put in practice the lessons of wisdom and morality.

"WITH reverential gratitude, therefore, chear fully worship the ETERNAL PROVIDENCE; bow down yourselves in filial and submissive obedience to the unerring direction of the mighty Builder; work by his perfect plans, and your edifices shall be beautiful and everlasting.

"I COMMAND you to love your neighbour; tretch forth the hand of relief to him, if he be in

necessity; if he be in danger, run to his assistance tell him the truth if he be deceived; if he be unjustly reproached and neglected, comfort his soul, and sooth it to tranquillity: you cannot shew your gratitude to your Creator in a more amiable light, than in your mutual regard for each other.

"PRIDE not yourselves upon your birth, (it is of no consequence of what parents any man is born, provided he be a man of merit ;) or your honours, (they are the objects of envy and intemperance, and must ere lang be laid in the dust;) or your riches, (they cannot gratify the wants they create ;) but be meek and lowly of heart: I reduce all conditions to a pleafing

and rational equality; pride was not made for man, and

he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

"I AM not gloomy and austere; I am a preacher of MORALITY, but not cruel and severe; for I strive to render it lovely to you by the charm of pleasures, which leave no sting behind; by moral music, rational joy, and harmless gaiety. I bid you not to abstain from the pleasures of society, or the innocent enjoyments of love and wine: to abstain from them is to frustrate the intentions of Providence. I enjoin you not to consecrate your hours to solitude; society is the true sphere af human virtue and no life can be pleasing to GOD, but what is useful to man. On this festival, in which well-pleased, my Sons, I see you assemble to honour me, be happy, let no pensive looks profane the general joy, let sorrow cease, let none be wretched; and let pleasure and her bosom friends attend the social board. Pleasure is a stranger to every malignant and unsocial

passion; is formed to expand, to exhilarate, and to humanize the heart. But pleasure is not to be met with at the table of turbulent festivity: at such meetings there is often the vociferation of merriment, but very seldom the tranquillity of chearfulness; the company inflame their imaginations to a kind of momentary jollity, by the help of wine and riot; and consider it as the first business of the night to stupify recollection, and lay that reason asleep, which disturbs their gaiety, and calls upon them to retreat from ruin. True pleasure disclaims all connection with indecency and excess; and declines the society of riot roaring in the jollity of heart. A sense of the dignity of human nature always accompanies it, and it admits not of any thing that is degrading. Temperance and chearfulness are its constant attendants at the social board; but the too lively sallies of the latter are always restrained by the moderation of the former. And yet, my Sons, to what do these restraints of Masonry, and the instruction I give you with respect to pleasure amount? They may all be comprized in a few words-not to hurt yourselves, and not to hurt others, by a wrong pursuit of pleasure. Within these bounds pleasure is lawful; beyond them it becomes criminal, because it is ruinous. Are these restrains any other than what a Mason would chuse to impose on himself? I call you not to renounce pleasure, but to enjoy it with safety. Instead of abridging it, I exhort you to pursue it on an extensive plan. I propose measures for securing its possession, and for prolonging its duration.

"On this Festival, I say, Be happy! But, remem

ber now, and always remember, you are MASONS; and act in such a manner, that the eyes of the censorious may see nothing in your conduct worthy of reproof; and that the tongue of the slanderer may have nothing to censure, but be put to silence. Be models of virtue to mankind, (examples profit more than precepts) lead uncorrupt lives, do the thing which is right, and speak the truth from your heart; for truth is always consistent with itself, and needs nothing to help it out. It is always near at hand, and sits upon your lips, and is ready to drop out before you are aware: whereas a lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack; and one falsehood needs a great many more to support it. Slander not your neighbour, nor do him any other evil; but let your good actions convince the world of the wisdom and advantages of my institution. Oh! my Sons!, the unworthiness of some of those who have been initiated into my order; but who have not made themselves acquainted with me; and who, because I am a friend to rational gaiety, have ignorantly thought excesses might be indulged in, have been disgraceful to themselves, and have discredited me."

"I THEREFORE warn you to be particularly cautious not to initiate any but such as are worthy; be well assured that their conduct is regulated by virtue, and their bosoms enflamed with the love of knowledge. All are not proper to be admitted into Masonry, whose influence ought to be universal, but whose privileges should not be made too common; and you are well convinced that there are some amongst us who take the shadow for the substance, who are acquainted with the ceremonies, but catch not the spirit, of the profession.