preserved their faith for many ages, that this remains a secret to the world, in defiance of the corruptions and vices of mankind. In order to comprehend the nature of our profession, we must look back into the remotest antiquity, and from thence collect the several parts, which have been united in the forming of our Order-in the first place, we must give our attention to the creation of man, and the state of our first parent in the garden of Eden.* It is not to be doubted, when Adam came from out the hand of his Creator, the image of God, from whom he immediately proceeded, that he was perfect in symmetry and beauty; that he was made in the highest degree of excellence that human nature was capable of on earth-calculated for regions of felicity and paradise, where sin or sorrow had not known existence-made in such perfection of body and mind, that he could endure the presence of God; and was capable of conversing with the Almighty face to facet * Genesis, ch. i. ver. 26. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our "likeness." Ver. 27-" So God created man in his own image, in the image "of God created he him." Ver. 31" And God saw every thing that he had made, and "behold it was very good." Ch. ii. ver, 7-" And the Lord God formed the man of the duft "of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and ↑ Gen. ch. ii. ver. 16, 17. 19.—Ch. iii. ver. 9, 10, 11, 12, 17. so much was he superior to the chosen ones of Israel. He was endowed with understanding suitable to his station, as one whom the Almighty deigned to visit; and his heart was possessed of all the virtues unpolluted: endowments of an heavenly temper-his hours were full of wisdom, exultation, and transport -the book of Nature was revealed to his comprehension, and all her mysteries were open to his understanding-he knew whence and what he was.-Even this was but a minute degree of his capacity; for, astonishing as it may appear to us, yet it is an incontrovertible truth, that he had a competent knowledge of the almighty, the tremendous Creator of the universe; he saw him with his natural eyes, he heard his voice, he understood his laws, and was present to his Majesty. To this first example of human perfection and wisdom, we must necessarily look back, for all the science and learning which blessed the earliest ages of the world-calculated for such exalted felicity and elevated enjoyments, placed in regions of peace, where angels ministred and the Divinity walked abroad, was the great parent of mankind. But alas, he fell !-by disobedience he forfeited all such his glory and felicity-and, wonderful to recount, in the midst of this exalted state, Satan prevailed! If we presume to estimate the change which befel ADAM, on his expulsion from Paradise, by the defor B mity that took place on the face of the earth, we should be apt to believe the exile, though not distorted in body, was yet darkened in understanding—instead of confidence and steady faith, that distrust and jealousy took place, and doubtfulness confounded even testimony; that argument was deprived of definition, and left to wander in eccentric propositions; that confusion usurped the throne of wisdorn, and folly of judgment; thorns and thistles grew up in the place of those excellent flowers of science which flourished in Eden, and darkness clouded the day of his capacity. IT is not possible to determine, from any evidence given us, in what degree disobedience and sin immediately contracted the understanding of ADAM; but we are certain that great and dreadful effects very early took place on Adam's posterity.-We may conclude, memory was retained by our first parent in all its energy-a terrible portion of the punishment his disobedience had incurred; restoring to him perfect images and never-dying estimates of what he had lost, and thereby increasing the bitterness of what he had purchased. Through the endowments of memory, ADAM would necessarily teach to his family the sciences which he had comprehended in Eden, and the knowledge he had gained of Nature and her God.-It will follow, that some of them would retain those lessons of wisdom, and faithfully transmit them to posterity. No doubt the family of Cain (who bore the seal of the curse on his forehead) was given up to ignorance.* * Genesis, ch. iv. ver. 16—“ And Cain went out from the pre "sence of the Lord." TRADITION Would deliver down the doctrines of our first parents with the utmost truth and certainty, whilst the Antideluvians enjoyed the longevity of which the books of Moses give evidence-but when men came to multiply exceedingly upon the face of the earth, and were dispersed to the distant regions of the globe, then the inestimable lessons of knowledge and truth, taught by the first men, fell into confusion and corruption with many, and were retained pure and in perfection but by few-those few, to our great consolation, have handed them down to after ages-they also retained the universal language, uncorrupted with the confusion of the plains of Shinar, and preserved it to posterity. THUS We must necessarily look back to our first parent, as the original professor of the worship of the true God, to whom the mysteries of Nature were first revealed, and from whom all the wisdom of the world. was in the beginning derived. IN those times, when the rules and maxims of Free Masonry had their beginning, men had adopted allegories, emblems, and mystic devices, wherein peculiar sciences, institutions, and doctrines in many nations were wrapt up-this was an invention of the earliest ages-the priests of Egypt secreted the mysteries of their religion from the vulgar, by symbols and hieroglyphics, comprehensible alone to those of their own order. The priests of Greece and Rome practised other subtleties, by which their divinations were enveil В 2 ed, and their oracles were made intelligible only to their brethren, who expounded them to the people. THOSE examples were wisely adapted for the purposes of concealing the mysteries of Masonrylike the Sibyll's leaves, the secrets of the brotherhood, if revealed, would appear to the world as indistinct and scattered fragments, whilst they convey to Masons an uniform and well-connected system. IN forming this society, which is at once religious and civil, great regard has been given to the first knowledge of the God of Nature, and that acceptable service wherewith he is well pleased. This was the first and corner stone on which our originals thought it expedient to place the foundation of Masonry:-they had experienced that by religion all civil ties and obligations were compacted, and that thence proceeded all the bonds which could unite mankind in social intercourse :—thence it was that they laid the foundation of the edifice on the bosom of religion: "Religion's all! descending from the skies "To wretched man, the goddess in her left "Supporter sole of man above himself; "Ev'n in the night of frailty, change, and death, "She gives the soul a soul that acts a God. "Religion! Providence! an after state! |