Britain ... - Blue-Lite

454 ORIGIN, ANTIQUITY, AND
we in possession of it ? Answer us that. It must have been
brought to these islands at some period, and by whom ? Has
any one ever heard that the Essenes, who were, according
to Mr. Oliver, its sole preservers, came here at any time and
established the first Lodges ? or were the dispersed and perse-
cuted Jews, after their appearance in Britain, its earliest promulgators
? Neither, we think, will for a moment be maintained.
Had the fugitive Jews been its only possessors, the
secrets of Masonry had never been divulged to the hated and
oppressing Christian, but have continued solely in their own
bosoms to the present day. Besides, St. Alban was a Mason,
and he expired as a martyr ages previous to their arrival on
these shores.
We know of another course by which some may be weak
enough to imagine that Masonry first came hither. The Phoenicians
traded for a long period to these " Fortunate Isles " of
the West. Now it seems that Hiram, king of Tyre, (and the
Tyrians, be it remembered, were all heathens,) "became
Grand-Master of Masons within his dominions, and erected
many stately edifices, which improved his subjects in architec-
ture, and gained them the fame of being the best operative
Masons." (Antiq. of Mas.) How Brother Oliver obtained the
information that King Hiram was the Grand-Master of Phoe-
nicia, we cannot divine ; nor do we think he found it in the
fragments
of Sanchoniathon. No matter. To combat the
opinion, if such an opinion exist, that the Phoenicians, during
their visits to Britain, taught the Druids Masonry, would be to
fight with a shadow. The principles of Lux, or Masonry,
being founded on the acknowledgment of one only Supreme
Being, the Druids must have possessed the secrets of true
Masonry ages before the Phoenicians appeared on these shores,
for we have clearly shown that their religion was patriarchal.
Moreover, we will take upon us to prove that the Druids did
possess the TRUE LIGHT, from Brother Oliver's own assertions,
granting them, for the sake of argument, to be correct. For
he tells us, that " Pythagoras purified the mysteries of his
own country from their abominations by the use of Lux, and
that he instructed the Druids in Britain." So, in either case,