out considering very scrupulously whether they are consistent with public justice or not. Each ftate enters into the general welfare or misfortunes of its neighbours, only as it is likely to gain by their suc cess, or suffer by their calamity; with its avowed enemies, it has hardly any fellow-feeling, rejoicing at their distresses, and vexed at their prosperity.

Though this adjustment is so much discomposed among different states, it is to be observed, that it acts with almost its full and natural force among the several orders of the same state, in promoting and securing the public welfare. There is one great interest in which they reckon themselves all equally concerned, and for the preservation of which their whole wisdom and power are exerted. But, while they provide for their own internal peace, and external security, their selflove leads them to treat their neighbours with injustice, when their interest. supported by sufficient power, can be advanced by it. To this extravagant affection of every nation for itself, and to its consequent envy or contempt of every other, are to be ascribed all national jealousies and animosities, which occasion all those wars that spread havock over the face of the earth.

As the excess of self-love has divided mankind into different states, which pursue interests opposite to the happiness of one another, so it has divided each state into different parties and sects, whose conten tions very much disturb its inward harmony and tranquillity. The prosperity of the nation, in both ecclesiastical and civil affairs, is, indeed, what they all profess to have at heart; but their ideas of this prosperity, and how it is to be obtained, are extremely various and contradictory. Each party and sect would compel all the rest to manage these matters according to their views, and take their advice in every step of their public conduct; and under pretence of serving the public, frequently hurt it, in order to gratify their pride, ambition, and their other selfish passions.

The same opposition of interests and sentiments, that so much hurts the administration of ecclesiastical and civil affairs, is observable too among the lesser societies and communities into which every state is subdivided, and with proportionable violence.

These oppositions exasperate the one half of a nation against the other, and fill both with hatred, implacability, and revenge against each other; and are as pernicious to their internal peace, as those of different nations are to the great and general concerns of the wholę human race,

Having now shewn you, my brethren, that the evils which spring from society are caused by the violation of the adjustment which Gon gave to the human affections; I proceed, in the third place, to suggest the most effectual means by which these evils may be removed.

The most effectual means by which these evils may be removed, are Christianity, and may I mention it without incurring the censure of true Christians, whom I would be unhappy to offend?—the means, I say, are Christianity, and that human institution which has been so deservedly praised, and so severely condemned, under the name of VOL. II.

B

Free Masonry. No body who understands the nature and tendency of our divine religion, will be surprised, that I have mentioned it as a most effectual mean to remove the disorders of mankind; but the dubious character under which Free Masonry is known in the world, will, I am afraid, lead many worthy people to blame me for pointing it out, as any way conducive to the happiness of society, so contrary to their own opinion of it. But I intreat all such, to lay aside their prejudices for a little, and judge from the account I am going to give of that institution, whether I am in the wrong, for calling it a most effectual mean to remove the evils that spring from society. Under this head, I shall first give you a short account of Christianity, and then explain the principles of Free Masonry.

The Christian religion, my brethren, under which you have the happiness to live, is, of all the blessings which the divine goodness has conferred on the children of men, by far the greatest and most excellent. It points out the way by which they may rise superior to all their present temptations and infirmities, and obtain glory, honor and immortality, in their future existence. The way to these inestimable benefits lies in a full conviction of the divine origin of revelation; in the sincerest endeavours to live obedient to the divine law; and in a firm reliance on the divine mercy for salvation through Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world. The direct tendency of the doctrines and precepts of Christianity, is to reclaim mankind from every kind of vice; to train them up to the practice of universal piety and virtue; and thus to restore them to their original dignity and perfection. By giving them the brightest views of the divine wisdom, power, and goodness, the holy religion excites in their minds that supreme admiration, fear, and gratitude, which these excellencies demand. It calls upon them to imitate the Most High in his justice, veracity, tenderness, forbearance, and in all his other moral perfections, as the best evidence they can give of their love to him, and the best way to advance their own happiness. It holds out to them the most mortifying, but just picture of their own weakness, folly, and perversity, in order to render them humble and diffident of themselves; and to teach them all that sweetness, candour, and humanity, with which they ought to view their respective failings. It presses upon every man the duties he owes to himself, commanding him to check every passion that would carry him beyond the bounds of temperance, sobriety, or chastity. To engage them to fulfil the duties they all owe to God, to one another, and to themselves, it assures them of a future state of rewards and punishments, where happiness awaits the pious, and misery shall be the portion of the wicked, It is admirably suited to the weakness of human nature: God, who knows how unable the mere sense of duty, or the hopes of invisible and untried pleasures are, to support men against the strong temptations with which they are surrounded, has graciously promised them the power and wisdom of his Holy Spirit, to assist and direct them in their progress in holiness, the sure road to hap piness.

Such, my brethren, is the nature of our most excellent religion; such the duties which it exacts from all who profess it; and such the motives and aids by which they are animated to perform them. From this short account of it you see, that it is kindly designed, and wisely fitted, to repair the ruins of human nature, by restoring the original and happy adjustment of its affections. Were men at sufficient pains to understand its sacred doctrines, and square their lives by its salutary precepts, they would soon be united to God and to one another, by piety, benevolence, and moderation. Their hearts would exult in a conscious sense of the divine favour; no discordant and unsocial passion would disturb the harmony of their souls; and the prospect of endless felicity would smooth the more rugged part of their duty. No religi ous institution ever appeared in the world, so perfectly adapted as Christianity, to give tranquillity of mind in every situation of life, and to cement the whole human race together, with friendship and brotherly love. Every man of genuine piety and benevolence, will reflect on its amiable tendency with growing satisfaction, and pray, that all nations were under its happy influence. But, alas! the excess of self-love, which, as already shewn, was the original source of discord among men, has excluded the gospel from a great part of the world, and rendered it too ineffectual where it is professed. Worldly objects have, by their false charins, reduced the attention of mankind from those that are heavenly, and fixed it wholly, or for the greater part, on themselves.

From this sketch of Christianity, I go on to explain the principles of Free-Masonry, and to shew you how they tend to correct the follies and injuries that men commit against one another.

My Brethren, you have already heard that the violation of the adjustment given originally to the human affections, is the cause of those evils which spring from society. You are now to observe, that, amidst all the dissentions which this violation produced in ecclesiastical and civil government, there are certain articles in which all nations and societies are agreed. All men who make any use of their reason, acknowledge the existence of a Being, who made, and presides over the world; that he ought to be worshipped by all his intelligent creatures; that every person ought to abstain from hurting the character, life, or fortune of his neighbour; that obedience is due to the laws of temperance, sobriety, and chastity; and that every man is accountable to God for his conduct. 'Tis true, though all men admit of the truth of these articles in general, yet, when they explain the manner in which they conceive them, their opinions about them are extremely wide of one another. Some, for instance, hold the Deity to be an eternal, incomprehensible, and holy spirit; and others, on the contrary, have conceived him as corporeal, and subject to human passions. Again, some contend that he created and governs all things from a generous principle of imparting happiness to his creatures; but others argue that his whole conduct is directed by a regard for his own glory, which he manifests by saving a few men, and condemning all the rest to eternal perdition. But though divines in all ages and religions have kindled

and blown up, fierce controversies about these and the like points, the existence and providence of a Supreme Being were never universally denied in any age or religion. These articles may give occasion to as many opinions and disputes, as there are people to think and talk about them; but they are, all the while, matters of universal belief in thems selves.

This observation, to which I begged your attention, "That amidst all the dissentions among mankind, there are certain articles in which they are all agreed," is undoubtedly the foundation of Free-Ma

sonry.

Accordingly, some wise and benevolent men in antient times, obser ving and lamenting the fatal effects which the jarring opinions of their fellow-creatures about religion, politics, and manners, occasioned to society, united their wishes and endeavours, to find out a remedy that might cure them in the mean time, and prevent them for the fu ture. Their endeavours were crowned with success, and their wishes gratified by that success. It appeared to them, that mankind quarrelled rather about the manner in which the subject of their contentions existed, than about the reality of the subjects themselves; and that while they abused and persecuted one another for their respective opinions about the former, they unanimously granted the latter. They observed, that ambition, under some form or other, is a passion that inhabits and disturbs every breast; that all men, the low as much as the high, strive to soar above their equals, and to reduce them to a state of dependency on their will. This observation, my Brethren, must be allowed to be well-founded. We are all too apt to examine the characters of our neighbours, as well as our own, by self-love, the most fallacious of all standards. In this examination, we compare our own virtues and talents to their follies and weaknesses, and directly conclude ourselves superior to them, and intitled to settle the respect which is due to their characters, and the deference which is due to their opinions. We are unhappy until we make them feel the superiority we have given ourselves over them, and procure the soothing pleasure of seeing them humbly bowing down before it. We would prescribe, in what channel their reasonings ought to flow, and towards what people their kind affections ought to be exercised. We are ready to look upon them as insolent or absurd, when they venture to dissent from our judgment, and assert opinions which we have condemned. We are enraged when we hear them express the smallest dislike of persons whom we esteem, or approbation of those who have fallen un der our displeasure. But were their understandings, indeed, and affections, to be always regulated by ours, how absurd would the one be often found! how misplaced the other! But to return from these disagreeable reflections on human pride and self-sufficiency-the wise and benevolent men just now mentioned saw that the dissentions of mankind arose rather from opinion, than from matters of fact. For instance; they saw that all around confessed a God, his providence, and their duty to worship him; but they saw at the same time, that the nature of their Deity, the conduct of his providence, and the form

of his worship, admitting of a variety of opinions, were subjects which bred the hottest debates, and afflicted society with the greatest evils. They observed, that every man regarded his own opinion as the perfection of reason; and considered those who maintained the contrary, as. the avowed enemies of God and man; while they, on their part, were equally positive that he was in the wrong, and themselves in the right. It occurred to them, that men would be for ever at variance with one another in matters of opinion, until they began to reflect şeriously on their own weakness; and from that learn to think modestly of themselves, and candidly of the sentiments entertained by their neighbours. This idea suggested to them the notion of a society, which, by excluding all the particularities in opinion, and receiving only those general truths in which every man of common sense was agreed, should unite the whole human race in the sacred ties of virtue, candour, and friendship. They did not mean, however, that every person who became a Member of this Society should, upon his admission, renounce those particularities by which his nation and religion were distinguished from every other; but, that every Member would so regulate his partiality for them, as to live in friendship and respect for those who differed in these points from himself. They laid it down as a fundamental law, that all the Members should treat the peculiarities of one another with all that decency, gentleness, and forbearance which each thought due to his own; and live together in all that peace and affection which an exact coincidence of sentiments would have produced.

In this manner, my Brethren, did a warm and rational zeal for the happiness of mankind give rise to that Antient and Honourable Brotherhood, which is so well known in the world under the appellation of Freemasons; a Brotherhood which can number among its Members, as good, as wise, as illustrious men as the world ever beheld. Those, whoever they were, that founded it originally, are to be regarded as the ancestors of Freemasons; and their memory justly claims the love and veneration of all their numerous posterity.

The place, were it now known, where they held their first meetings, whether a house, or a shady arbour, or an open field, would be properly called the Mother Lodge, from which are sprung all those that are scattered over the face of the earth.

But concerning these matters, no certain accounts, that ever I could meet with, have been transmitted to our times; they lie buried among numberless other subjects of curiosity in remote antiquity from our knowledge. History delights in reading the great and striking calamities that mankind bring upon themselves by their dissentions: the calm and peaceful transactions of Freemasonry had nothing sufficiently astonishing in them to perpetuate their memory.

Freemasonry, at its Institution, like every other system of regulations, was undoubtedly very simple; consisting only of a few rules for promoting order and charity among those who first embraced it. As these were all of the same language, manners, religion, and government, they would have but a few peculiarities to restrain, and a few