Whilst qualities like these direct your proceedings, and influence your actions, Freemasonry must ever be revered and cultivated by the just, the good, and the exalted mind, as the surest means of establishing peace, harmony, and goodwill amongst

men.

14

ARGUMENT II.

ON THE ORIGIN, NATURE, AND DESIGN OF THE MASONIC INSTITUTION, AND A CONFUTATION OF THE MANY SHAMEFUL AND IDLE FALSEHOODS WHICH ARE INDUSTRIOUSLY PROPAGATED BY ITS ENEMIES.

THE antiquity and utility of Freemasonry being generally acknowledged in most parts of the habitable world, it would be as absurd to conceive it required new aids for its support, as for him who has the use of sight to demand a proof of the rising and setting of the sun. Nevertheless, in compliance with the requests of many worthy brethren, I shall lay before my readers some strictures on the origin, nature, and design of that institution; and, with prudent reserve, confute and avert the many shameful and idle falsehoods which are industriously propagated by its enemies, the better to inform the candid and well-meaning brother, who might not readily know how to investigate the truth, or want leisure and opportunity for that purpose.

With this view, I have made it my business to collect a great number of passages from writers eminent for their learning and probity, where I thought they might serve to illustrate my subject. The propriety of such proceeding is too obvious to need any apology.

If our first parent and his offspring had continued in the terrestrial paradise, they would have had no occasion for the mechanical arts, or any of the sciences now in use; Adam being created with all those perfections and blessings which could either add to his dignity or be conducive to his real welfare. In that happy period he had no propensity to evil, no perverseness in his heart, no darkness or obscurity in his understanding; for, had he laboured under these maladies, he would not have been a perfect man, nor would there have been any difference betwixt man in a state of innocence and in a state of degeneracy and corruption. It was therefore in consequence of his wilful transgression that any evils came upon him. And, having lost his innocence, he in that dreadful moment forfeited likewise his supernatural lights and infused knowledge, whereby every science, so far as human nature is capable of, was rendered familiar to him, without the tedious labour of ratiocination, requisite to men even of the greatest abilities, whose ideas, after all, remain weak and imperfect.

From this remarkable and fatal era we date the necessity and origin of the sciences. First arose divinity, whereby was pointed out to fallen man the way and will of God, the omnipotence and mercy of an offended Creator; then law, as directing us to distribute justice to our neighbour, and relieve those who are oppressed or suffer wrong. The royal art was beyond all doubt coeval with the above sciences, and was carefully handed down by

Methuselah, who died but a few days before the general Deluge, and who had lived 245 years with Adam, by whom he was instructed in all the mysteries of this sublime science, which he faithfully communicated to his grandson Noah, who transmitted it to posterity: and it has ever been preserved with a veneration and prudence suitable to its great importance, being always confined to the knowledge of the worthy only. This is confirmed by many instances, which men of reading and speculation, especially such as are of this society, cannot suffer to escape them.

At first, mankind adhered to the lessons of Nature; she used necessity for the means, urged them to invention, and assisted them in the operation. Our primitive fathers, seeing the natural face of the earth was not sufficient for the sustenance of the animal creation, had recourse to their faithful tutoress, who taught them how to give it an artificial face, by erecting habitations and cultivating the ground and these operations, among other valuable effects, led them to search into and contemplate upon the nature and properties of lines, figures, superficies, and solids, and by degrees to form the sciences of geometry and architecture, which have been of the greatest utility to the human species. Hence we were first taught the means whereby we might attain practice, and by practice introduce speculation.

From the Flood to the days of King Solomon, the liberal arts and sciences gradually spread them

selves over different parts of the globe, every nation having had some share in their propagation; but, according to their different manners, some have cultivated them with more accuracy, perseverance, and success than others; and though the secrets of the royal art have not been indiscriminately revealed, they have nevertheless been communicated in every age to such as were worthy to receive them.

But I am not at liberty to undraw the curtain, and publicly descant on this head; it is sacred, and ever will remain so: those who are honoured with the trust will not reveal it, except to the truly qualified brother, and they who are ignorant of it cannot betray it.

I shall, however, observe, that this art was called royal, not only because it was originally practised by kings and princes, who were the first professors of it, but likewise on account of the superiority which so sublime a science gave its disciples over the rest of mankind.

This supreme and divine knowledge being derived from the Almighty Creator to Adam, its principles have ever since been, and still are, most sacredly preserved and inviolably concealed. For as all things, in process of time, are liable to decay and corruption, the ancient professors, wisely foreseeing the great abuses which their exalted mysteries might sustain, if generally made known, determined to confide the knowledge of them only to select brethren; men whom they had found by long expe