is connected and framed in true symmetry, beauty,

and order.

THE moral implication of which is, that the master in his lodge sits dictating such salutary laws, for the regulation thereof, as his prudence directs; assigning to each brother his proper province; limiting the rashness of some, and circumscribing the imprudence of others; restraining all licentiousness and drunkenness, discord and malice, envy and reproach: and promoting brotherly love, morality, charity, cordiality, and innocent mirth; that the assembly of the brethren may be with order, harmony, and love.

To try the works of every mason, the square is presented, as the probation of his life,-proving, whether his manners are regular and uniform ;- for masons should be one principle and one rank, without the distinctions of pride and pageantry: intimating, that from high to low, the minds of masons should be inclined to good works, above which no man stands exalted by his fortune.

BUT superior to all, the lodge is furnished with three luminaries; as the golden candlestick in the ta

* The particular attention paid by the ancients to the element of fire is in no wise to be wondered at, when we confider, that when ever the Deity deigned to reveal himself to the human senses, it was under this element.

Exodus iii, 2. "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold "the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed."

Ver. 4. "God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses."

bernacle of Moses was at once emblematical of the spirit of God, whereby his chosen people were enlightened, and prophetical of the churches; or otherwise Josephus says, representative of the planets and the powerful works of God: so our three lights fhew to us the three great stages of masonry, the knowledge and worship of the God of nature in the purity of Eden -the service under the Mosaic law, when divested of idolatry-and the Christian revelation: but most especially our lights are typical of the holy Trinity. And as such is the furniture of the lodge; such the princi

Chap. xiii. 21. “ And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of "fire to give them light: to go by day and night,"

Chap. xix. 16. "There were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount."

Ver. 18. "And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because "the LORD descended upon it in fire."

66

Chap. xxiv. 17. "And the fight of the glory of the Lord was "like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the chil"dren of Israel."

Chap. xxix. 43. "And there I will meet with the children of "Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.”

Numb. ix. 16. "That thou goest before them, by day time "in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night."

Deuteronomy v. 4. "The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire."

Ver. 5. "For ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount."

Ver. 22. "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly " in the mount out of the midst of the fire."

Ver. 23. Ver. 24. "And we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire." Ver. 26. "For who is there of all flesh that hath heard the voice " of the living God, speaking out of the midst of the fire (as we have) " and lived."

"For the mountain did burn with fire."

ples dictated to us as masons; let us rejoice in the exercise of those excellencies, which should set us above the rank of other men: and prove that we are brought out of darkness into light-And let us shew our good works unto the world, that through our light so shining unto men, they may glorify the Great Master of the universe; and therefore "do justice-love mercy ❝and walk humbly with their God.”

To these may be added the shechinah in the temple.

It would, from a kind of parity in circumstances, naturally follow, that men would look up to the sun, as the throne of the Divinity, from whence his ministring spirits dispensed his will to the distant quarters of the universe.-Fire became the general emblem of the Divinity mong the eastern nations-was in great efteem with the Chaldeans and Persians. The Persians used consecrated fire as the emblem of the Supreme Being; to whom they would not build temples, or confine the Divinity to space. The etherial fire was preserved in the temple of the Jews, and in the tabernacle, with great reverence. The druid priests in their worship looked towards the sun :-they retained many of the Ammonian rites:-they are said to have made mystical processions round their consecrated fires sunwise, before they proceeded to sacrifice.

LECTURE VI.

THE APPAREL AND JEWELS OF MASONS.

MASONS profess innocence, as one of their first principles. They put on white apparel, as an emblem of that character, which bespeaks purity of soul, gentleness and humility.

We have the following passage in the Biographia Ecclefiaftica:-"The ancients were also wont to put "a white garment on the person baptized, to denote "his having put off the lusts of the flesh, and his be"ing cleansed from his former sins, and that he had " obliged himself to maintain a life of unspotted innocency. Accordingly the baptized are both by the

65

apostles and the Greek fathers, frequently stiled "Qaidsquevo, the Enlightned, because they professed to "be the children of light, and engaged themselves "6 never to return again to the works of darkness*. "This white garment used to be delivered to them "with this solemn charge, Receive the white and "undefiled garment, and produce it without spot be"fore the tribunal of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you r may obtain eternal life. Amen.'-They were wont "to wear these white garments for the space of a week "after they were baptized, and then put them off and "laid them up in the church, that they might be kept

* Isaiah ix. 2. “ The people that walked in darkness have seen "a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, “upon them hath the light shined.”

L

"as a witness against them, if they should violate the "baptismal covenant.

WHILST the apron with which we are cloathed indicates our innocence, and belies not the wearer's heart, let the ignorant deride and scoff: superior to the ridicule and malice of the wicked, we will enfold ourselves in the garb of our own virtue; and safe in self-approv ing conscience, stand unmoved amidst the persecutions of adversity.

THE raiment, which truly implies the innocence of the heart, is a badge more honourable than ever was devised by kings ;-the Roman Eagle, with all the orders of knighthood, are inferior:-they may be prostituted by the caprice of princes; but innocence is innate, and cannot be counterfeited.

To be a true Mason, is to possess this principle; or the apparel which he wears is an infamy to the apostate, and only shews him forth to shame and contempt.

THAT innocence should be the professed principle of a Mason, occasions no astonishment, when we consider that the discovery of the Deity leads us to the knowledge of those maxims wherewith he may be well pleased. The very idea of a God, is fucceeded with the belief, that he can approve of nothing that is evil; and when first our predecessors professed themselves servants of the architect of the world, as an indispensible duty, they professed innocence, and put on white *raiment, as a type and characteristic of their conviction, and of their being devoted tn his will.-The Druids