Free Masonry - The Masonic Trowel

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238 ANCIENT FREE MASONRY IS DEISM.
necessary lessons, and it is to their praise they do not learu
the doctrine. Free Masonry inculcates pure Deism; if her
disciples refuse to learn, that is not altogether her fault;
she is entitled to the credit of a diligent and faithful instructress.
This will more fully appear by what follows.
" Let a man's religipn, or mode of it, be what it will, we
do not exclude hiih from our order, provided he believes in
the glorious Architect of heaven and earth, and practises
the sacred duties of morality."—(F. M. Library, p. 160.)
This is part of the charge given to an entered apprentice.
This is a part of the first lessof of Free Masonry.
" You worship the universal Lord of nature in the way you
think most pleasing to him; you practise every duty of morality,
and he does not reject you; and shall we? no;
come to us, and find your friends, your brethren."(—Idem.)
Whether it " please" the apprentice to worship the universal
Lord as the God Saturn, the God Moloch, the God
Vishnu, the God Fo, the God Jupiter, or the God Reason
with the IUuminfes, is all one to Free Masonry; she is a
professed teacher of religion, and only requires him " to
adhere to the essentials in which all men agree"—(Book of
Cons. p. 34. Idem, F. M. Library, p. 66.) But he must
not have a humped back, or a maimed limb, or an illegitimate
parentage. " The apprentice must be free front, and
of limbs whole, as a man ought to be, and no bastard." (F.
M. Library, p. 14. Idem, Preston. London, 1788. p. 103.
The same in other authors, under the title, Ancient Charges.)
He must be "free 6orn, of a good kindred, and have his
right limbs, as a man ought to have" (F. M. L. p. 14.)
She is very particular.
Now, that the lodges sometimes admit dismembered
pupils, and even Atheists, I readily grant; but that only
proves, that the lodges depart froth their instructions. Free
Masonry teaches and charges her apprentice: Adore the
Being ofaU beings, of whom thy heart is full; (Free Mas.
Lib. p. 149.) meaning the Deity: but if her perverse pupil
will blindly understand thereby the mistress of his affections,