Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

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The Genius of Freemasonry. 75
the Apostles, beneath the mystery of oral tradition;
for several things have been handed to us without
writing, lest the vulgar, too familiar with our dogmas,
should lose a due respect for them. This is
what the uninitiated are not permitted to contemplate;
and how should it ever be proper to write
and circulate among the people an account of them."
St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Constantinople,
A. D. 379, says
"You have heard as much of the mystery as we
are allowed to speak openly in the ears of all; the
rest will be communicated to you in private; and
that you must retain within yourself.'" . . .
"Our
mysteries are not to be made known to strangers."
The foregoing quotations are from Pike's Morals
and Dogma, pp. 141, 142, i43. I44. and 145. To
this list of witnesses are also added St. Ambrose,
Archbishop of Milan, a. d. 340; St. Chrysostom of
Constantinople (354-417) Cyril of Alexandria,
;
Bishop in 412; Theodoret, Bishop of Cyropohs in
Syria in 420, and others to the same effect.
It is beyond controversy, that there was an exoteric
and an esoteric doctrine with the early Christians
; that the esoteric doctrines were communicated
orally in the mysteries of initiation ; and that these
mysteries conformed to and were originally derived