Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

150 KREE MASONRV.
" What do you infer from all this ?" Plainly, that man
is capable of believing and maintaining the inconsistencies
of Free Masonry ;* that the institution, absurd as the truth
makes it, ought not, on that account, to be thought impossible
; and a reviewer, not many months since, was at a
fault, concluding upon Morgan's book, " that if this were
true, the institution would have fallen long ago; would not
have waited the impious hand of an unprincipled assassin,
to strike the deadly blow. 19
"But the Egyptians, Grecians, Jews, and Romans, did
not really believe these absurdities." Their actions declare
that they did : and if their leaders were wiser, yet for some
reason, they gave in to the popular faith; taught, enforced,
and practised it. So with Free Masonry; if not believed, it
is practised as if it were: if the leaders are wiser, they still
have their reasons for teaching, enforcing, extending, and
maintaining it.
Have we no more sense than the men of Israel ? No
understanding to say, a part of it I have burned; and
shall I make the residue therepf an abomination ? A large
part of it I know to be false; shall I make the residue my
religion ?
It is evident that the wisest nations, in their best days,
have fallen into greater errors than this of Free Masonry;
and that the men who might be supposed to know better,
have either encouraged, or yielded to the folly. This is
precisely the ground on which our order stands. The multitude
are duped by it; and the knowing ones either yield,
to, or encourage the folly. This is my answer, generally,
to the question, " how could it be endured so long ?" At
another time, I will give particular reasons for the appearance
of the names of Washington, Warren, George IV.,
Frederick the Great, &c. upon the rolls of the fraternity.
" Sufficit huic diei sua vexatio."
* " Stultorum infinitus est numeruB."