brotherly love. Christians in religion, sons of liberty and loyal subjects; we have adopted rules, orders, emblems, and symbols, which enjoin us to live a life of morality: we have furnished our Lodges with those striking objects, which should at once intimate to us the mightiness and wisdom of God, the instability of the affairs of man, and the various vicissitudes in human life, and have set before our eyes preceptors of moral works; and to strengthen our faith, we have enlightened our Lodge with the emblem of the Trinity.

It is well known to us, that there is scarcely a state in Europe in which our Fraternity have not formed a body. The wisdom of the ancients would pass abroad into many regions, and those who had assisted in the pious labours at Jerusalem, would, like Pythagoras, teach the sciences and mysteries which they professed, and communicate the system to which they had been initiated;-religious men would retain the doctrines and mysteries with reverence, and with caution reveal them to those they thought worthy; hence the original knowledge would pass into many countries. But there is no accounting for this universality of the Society, upon the principles of architecture and Operative Masonry. The rage of church building had not seized all Europe, as it did England; neither is there any probable reasons to be deduced from architects and the practice of builders, to account why in every tongue, and in every kingdom, the ceremonials of being made a Mason should be the same. If the honour of architecture were all that was to be regarded in the Society, various would be the devices by which the members in each nation would profess it. As architecture, according to its present orders, had its progress from Egypt and Greece, some nations would have borrowed symbols and ensigns peculiar to those people; or we should have had in our ceremonies, or in our working, some devices which might have distinguished to us the beauties, orders, ornaments, proportions, or symmetries, of some or all of the rules, modes, or orders of architecture, either from the plains of Shinar, from Egypt, Jerusalem, Tadmor, or Greece, or have retained some geometrical problems, on which the general principles of proportion in architecture were grounded or demonstrated: but, instead of

that, there is nothing of the kind preserved. On the contrary, our mysteries are totally abstracted from the rules of mechanics; they are relative to religion and morality, and are conducive to pious works: they are unfurnished with any type, symbol, or character, but what appertains to designate the servants and devotees of the great Architect who made the worlds.

There is not an instance of the European States uniting in any one enterprise, save the Holy War; and from thence, we most rationally must conceive, the present number of Masons dispersed over the face of Europe was principally derived. The Amonian rites are almost totally extinguished, religious zeal has imbrued the sword in carnage, and Europe has groaned under persecutions; the Romans extirpated the Druids. Christians have waged cruel wars, and bigotry has deluged society with human blood. By the crusades, the number of our Fraternity would be greatly augmented; the occasion itself would revive the rules of Masonry, they being so well adapted to that purpose, and also significative of the Christian faith, from whence sprang the spirit of the enterprise. After these pursuits subsided, bodies of men would be found in every country from whence the levies were called; and what would preserve the Society in every state, even during the persecution of zealots, is the Master Mason's Order under its present principles, which is adapted to every sect of Christians. It originated from the earliest influence of Christianity, in honour to, or in confession of, the religion and faith of Christians, before the poison of sectarists was diffused over the Church.

To the ancient rules, deduced from Solomon, other laws and ordinances were added during the enterprises of the crusaders, for the prevention of riot, luxury, and disorder; and for maintaining that necessary subordination, which the command of such armies required. Many of those rules we retain in the conduct and government of our Lodges, which can in no wise be deduced from any other original.

ARGUMENT XVII.

ON THE FURTHER OCCUPATION OF MASONS, AND ON THE NECESSITY OF MAKING CHARITY AND BROTHERLY LOVE THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF THOSE OCCUPATIONS.

As Charity is one of the principal characteristics of a Mason, I will treat of it in this Argument.

We do not mean to make strictures on the modern error of indiscriminately dispensing alms to all suppliants, without regard to their real wants or real merits; whereby the hypocrite and knave often eat the bread by which virtue in distress ought to be relieved. This is a mistaken character of Charity, in which she is too often abused. Though the bounties of benevolence and compassion may be given with a righteous design, yet they should be managed with discretion.

The ancients used to depict the virtue of Charity in the character of a goddess, seated in a chair of ivory, with a golden tiara upon her head, set with precious stones; her virtue, like the light of heaven, represented universal benevolence; and the gems of her fillet denoted the inestimable blessings which flowed variously from her bounty.

They also represented the Charities, otherwise called the Graces, under three personages: they were painted naked, to intimate that good offices should be done without dissembling and hypocrisy: they were represented young, to signify that the remembrance of benefits should never be effaced, and smiling, to tell us that we should do good to others with cheerfulness. They were represented linked together, arm-in-arm, to instruct us that one kindness should prompt another, and that the knot and band of love should be indissoluble. The poets tell us, that they used to wash in a living fountain, because in doing acts of charity the heart ought to be sincere and pure.

Charity, in the works of moralists, is defined to be the love of our Brethren, or a kind of brotherly affection one towards another. The rule and standard that this habit

is to be examined and regulated by, among Christians, is the love we bear to ourselves, or that the Mediator bore towards us; that is, it must be unfeigned, constant, and out of no other design than man's happiness.

Such are the general sentiments which the ancients entertained of this virtue, and what the modern moralists and Christians define it to be at this day.

In what character Charity should be received among Masons, is now our purpose to define, as it stands limited to our Society.

Being so limited, we are not subject to be imposed on by false pretences; and are certain of its proper and merited administration. It is hence to be hoped that Charity subsists with us without dissembling or hypocrisy, and is retained in sincerity and truth: that benefits received impress a lively degree of gratitude and affection on the minds of Masons, as, their bounties are bestowed with cheerfulness; the benevolence of our Society is so mutual and brotherly, that each renders good offices as readily as he would receive them.

In order to exercise this virtue, both in the character of Masons and in common life, with propriety, and agreeable to good principles, we must forget every obligation but affection; for, otherwise, it were to confound Charity with Duty. The feelings of the heart ought to direct the hand of Charity. For this purpose, we should be divested of every idea of superiority, and estimate ourselves as all equal in the scale of Brotherhood. In this disposition of mind, we will be susceptible of those sentiments which Charity delights in-to feel the woes and miseries of others with a genuine and true sympathy of soul :-compassion is of heavenly birth;-it is one of the first characteristics of humanity. Peculiar to the human kind, it distinguishes us from the rest of God's creatures!

He whose bosom is shut up against compassion, is as bad as a barbarian; his manners are brutal, and his mind is gloomy and remorse.

What kind of a man is he, who, blessed with opulence, and possessed of abundance, can behold virtue in distress, and merit in misery, without pity? Who can behold, unmoved, the desolate and forlorn estate of the widow and the orphan, pining in want and wretchedness? The

hard-hearted and inhuman alone are able to look on without commiserating such helpless sufferers. How gracious is kindness! The eyes of angels view with delight the exercise of such benevolence as forms the character of the good Samaritan-saints touch their golden lyres, to hymn Humanity's honour and praise; and approbation shines upon the face of omnipresence, when the good man balms the wounds of suffering virtue!

I now will speak of brotherly love, in that degree which solely appertains to Masons.

The necessity there is for the exertion of brotherly regara among Masons in the Lodge, is obvious to every one: peace, regularity, and decorum, are indispensable duties there all resentment and remembrance of injuries should be forgotten; and that cordiality ought to be warm among us which brings with it cheerfulness and rejoicing: the true worshippers of the Deity, men who held just notions of the principles of Nature, in the times of barbarous ignorance, could not publicly practise the one, or promulgate the other: but happy is our estate, in this lettered age and this land of liberty; we profess our sentiments with freedom, and without fear; we exercise our religious principles under a full toleration; and, as social beings, we assemble in the Lodge to enjoy the pleasures of frendship and true benevolence.

After the business of the Lodge is despatched, we are assembled to circulate the cheerfulness of our hearts without guile; for there are no tale-bearers, censors, or revilers among us our Lodge is holy ground. We may say, figuratively, "it is situate in the secret places, where the cock holdeth not his watch, where the voice of railing reacheth not, where brawling, or the intemperate wrath of woman, cannot be heard."

Without suspicion of being betrayed in our words, or ensnared in the openness of our dealings, our mirth here is undisguised; it is governed by prudence, tempered with love, and clothed with Charity; thus it is void of offence; no malicious mind construes innocent expres sions amiss, or interprets unmeaning jests into sarcasms, but as every sentiment flows full of benevolence, so every ear is attuned to the strain in harmonious concord.

Peace, regularity, and decorum, which, I observed,