OF THE UNIVERSITY QF ILLINOIS C >■ '\ 8vo, Cloth, 3s. 6d,, V-"'-''v <3 3sr ’ s APOCRYPHAL Mvvr TESTAMENT, BEING ALL THE GOSPELS, EPISTLES, AND OTHER PIECES NOW EXTANT, Attributed in the first four centuries to Jesus Christ, his Apostles and their companions, and not included in the New Testament by its compilers. tEranslatctf from tfje ©rtgtnal tongues, antr nofo first roHettelj into one bolutne. 8vo, Cloth, 3s. 6d, ANCIENT MYSTERIES; Describing especially the English Miracle Plays, -founded on the Apocryphal New Testament Story, extant among the unpublished Manuscripts of the British Museum, including Notices of Ecclesias- tical Shows—the Festivals of Fools and Asses—the English Boy Bishop—the Descent into Hell—the Lord Mayor’s Show—the Guild- hall Giants—Christmas Carols, &c. BY WILLIAM HONE. “Is it possible the spell'of Apocrypha should juggle men into such strange mysteries ?”—Shakspere. Only 250 Copies printed, CURIOSITIES OF STREET LITERATURE Comprising in Facsimile a large collection of “ Cocks,” or Catch- pennies, Street Drolleries, Squibs, Broadsides on the Royal Family, Ballads, Dying Speeches, Confessions, with an Introduction on Street Literature, Vendors of Street Ballads, etc., numerous crude woodcuts, printed on toned paper. 4to, half morocco, gilt top, roxburgh style, £1 Is; or, printed on one side only, on fine French linear writing paper, in imitation of the Catnach tea-like paper of old, half bound, morocco, roxburgh style, gilt top, £1 11s 6d. Of this edition only 100 copies were 'printed. Only a few copies of either of the above impressions remain for sale. 4to, cloth, 10s. 6d. THE MOABITE STONE, With a Critical and Explanatory Commentary By Hr. C. GINSBUBG. New edition, enlarged, revised to present date, and with Map of the Land of Moab added. r __ }\ LONDON: BEEVES AND TURNER.Zc?o MANUAL or FREEMASONRY; PAET I. CONTAINING THE EIEST THREE DEGREES— WITH AN INTRODUCTORY KEY-STONE TO THE ROYAL ARCH PAET II. CONTAINING THE ROYAL ARCH AND KNIGHTS TEM- PLAR DRUIDS, WITH AN EXPLANATORY INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE. PAET III. ' CONTAINING THE DEGREES OE MARK MAN, MARK MASTER, ARCHITECT, GRAND ARCHITECT, SCOTCH MASTER, OR SUPERINTENDANT, SECRET MASTER, PERFECT MASTER, INTIMATE SECRETARY* INTENDANT OF THE BUILDINGS, PAST MASTER, EXCELLENT MASONS, SUPER-EXCEL- LENT MASONS, NINE ELECTED KNIGHTS, ELECT OF NINE, PRIESTLY ORDER OF ISRAEL, s f' are literally and truly the formularies of the three common de- grees in Masonic Lodges, or that secret system which is called M Craft Masonry. It has been communicated to me by Masons; 2 V it has been confirmed by other Masons ; it has been the Stan- dard Manual of Masonry, since it was first published in “ The Republican,” in 1825; it has made many Masons: without the lodge initiation, and, by its direction, I have been assured 8 i 0794iv INTRODUCTION. that men who were never in a lodge have successfully and pro- fitably taught practical masonry. The higher degrees form the subject of other volumes. They are not common; are denominated orders of chivalry; and but very few Masons go beyond the Royal Arch Degree. The great subject of Masonry is Solomon’s Temple. The two first secret words are Boaz and Jackin, the pillars of the porch of that temple. Through all the masonic degrees, ancient or modern, the subject continues to be a dark development of the building of the temple. I am about to throw light upon it. My historical researches have taught me that that which has been called Solomon’s Temple never existed upon earth : that a na- tion of people called Israelites never existed upon earth : and that the supposed history of Israelites and their temple is nothing more than an allegory relating to the mystery of physics generally, and the moral culture of the human mind. Hence the real secret of masonry. The word temple is derived from the Latin word tempus, time; and, therefore, the ancient structures called temples were in reality intended to be records of time and archives of human knowledge. Such institutions would have been a great benefit to mankind ; but the veil of superstition was thrown over' them; it was deemed politic or profitable to the few to deceive ! the many; that which should have been a simple record of j fact was worked up into an allegory : there arose an esoteric 1 doctrine for those initiated in the secrets of the temple, and a deceptions exoteric doctrine for the multitude ; and this was : the origin of a priesthood; this the lamentable change from science to priestcraft; this the secret of Freemasonry, the key j of the mysteries of the Christian religion, and the basis of Judaism. Judaism, Christianity, and Freemasonry, are, in principle, one and the same, as to secret origin and mystery, j Let us endeavour to turn the stream; to go from priestcraft * to science, from mystery to knowledge, from allegory to real , history. But for planetary motion, there could have been no divisionINTRODUCTION. V of time. The relations of the sun to the planets and fixed stars make np all the natural divisions of time ; such as the day, the month, the year, and the corresponding seasons. The day is marked by the motion of the earth on its own axis. The month (lunar) by the appearances of the moon; and (solar or calendar) by the grouping of stars into twelve divisions, which are called the Zodiac, pictorially marked by signs, and seen opposite to the solar side of the earth, in the successive months. The year is complete when the sun appears to re- turn to a given spot from which it is said to start. The polar motions of the earth cause the sun to appear in a state of birth, growth, maturity, decay, and death, in the course of a year, producing our seasons. These appearances have been poetically allegorized and personified; and hence all that has been invented about god or gods, about new born god, living god, dying god, descending god, resurrection god, ascending god. There is no plain historical truth, no revelation, about god, in existence, other than those of the relations of the sun to the planets and stars, in physics, and the cultivation of the human mind in morals. All other such pretensions to history j may be historically disproved. We are prepared with hist©- | rical disproofs of the existence of such a people as Israelites or- ! Jews as a nation. They were a religious or philosophical sect, who had been made adepts in the higher Pagan Myste— i ries : a sect among nations ; but not a nation among sects. * Our common temples, like those of the ancients, have gene- rally, and only with a few modern exceptions, been built due - east and west, in respect to the rising and setting of the sun. The steeples have been conical emblems of flame, which is - again emblematical of the sun. Etymology will carry every word connected with religion back to primitive sun-worship, and mental cultivation. The emblems of the most ancient tem- ples of which we have ruins, are emblems of time, of plane- tary bodies, their motions and relations,., and of sun-worship, &c. It is therefore calling for no great stretch of the imagi- . .. nation, for no strange credulity^ to call for the admission**...Yi INTRODUCTION. that the first temples were dedicated to the sun; that the first principles of religion consisted of a scientific record of the sun’s annual path through the signs of the Zodiac, with other then known science ; and that the first efforts of priestly and cunning men would be to deceive the vulgar upon this subject, to preach the reality of the personified god, which science forbad, and the existence of which the principles of matter or of nature rendered impossible. When man began to make God like himself, he began also to give God a dwelling-place, such as he found or could make on earth. The first temples that were imagined by ingenuity were temples in the heavens, time marked by planetary parti- tions. Thus we read of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a dwelling-place for the saints of the earth. The seven churches of Asia were seven imaginary temples in hea- ven, reduced to a figurative tale, and then imitated on earth. Thus again, that which is called the building of the first Solos mon’s Temple never took place on earth ; but the story of the temple was fabricated ; and the first Jewish historian we have (Josephus) allows that it was allegorical and emblematical of( the universe or of all the physical phenomena. The truej meaning, then, of the building of Solomon’s temple, in Free-j masonry is, and the practice of the lodges should be, to the] •effect, that the grand secret of all religion is this allegorical typification of the solar relations and planetary motions with! mental and moral cultivation, and that such, in truth, is the ;great lost secret of Freemasonry. The masons have lost thej initiatory secret—have been numbered among the vulgar, and! •deceived with the exoterical doctrine of personified deity. Mr. Paine had a glimmering light on this subject, but he was ignorant of the details. He made a shrewd guess at the thing, and guessed rightly as to a part of the principle, though he could not fill out the history and origin. The esoterical principle of Freemasonry, as of Christianity and of Judaism 1 is SUN-WORSHIP AND SCIENCE, AS THE BASISINTRODUCTION. vii OF HUMAN CULTURE AND DISCIPLINE, the com- mon Paganism of the human race. Mr. Paine guessed at this in relation to Freemasonry, hut knew it not in relation to Christianity and Judaism. I propose to furnish here nothing more than the Key-stone to the Arch of Freemasonry, which is the moral and gist of ’ the Royal Arch Degree, at which Masons have played, not worked, without knowing what they were about. For a further proof that I present the right key, I refer the reader to the theologico-astronomical, or Sunday evening discourses, at the Rotunda, of the Rev. Robert Taylor. They are so many phi- losophical lectures on masonry, though the exposure profes- sedly relates to Christianity. They form two volumes of a cheap publication, entitled “ The Devil’s Pulpit.” I refer him also to the works of Dupuis, Volney, Sir William Drummond, and Rhegellini. Masons claim Pythagoras as one of their fraternity. They j may also claim every Grecian and Roman sage, who sought [ out the Pagan mysteries. But the Modern Masons are not j very worthy disciples of those ancient men. The proper business of a Mason is astronomical, chemical, 1 geological, and moral science, and more particularly that of I the ancients, with all the mysteries and fables founded upon it. A good Mason would, in fact, have no superstition. It should be his boast, that his science takes him out of modern religion. He who can build Solomon’s Temple, in the alle- gorical sense, is disqualified from being a fanatic. Deism has i been charged upon, and even boasted of, by modern Masons ; but as a sect, they are innocent of any science that can take 1 them out of the common impressions of modern religious doctrines. Astrology, gipsy fortune telling, Modern Freemasonry, 1 Mahometanism, Christianity, and Judaism, now so called have sprung from, and are so many corruptions of, the ancient mysteries of the Pagans. Star-gazing, without proper humanviii INTRODUCTION. culture, has been the source of all religion. Lunacy is a dis- order improperly ascribed to Luna, or the Moon; for moon- struck madness had never befallen any one who had not been corrupted in education, and had the brain badly cultivated. The first professions of Christianity, as visible in the New Testament, were professed revelations of the ancient Pagan mysteries; but, as a revelation, it was a failure—and it would have been better if the ancient Paganism had not been super- seded by the grosser mysteries than have, in ignorance, been adopted, of the God’s-spell or gospel. However, let them all now repent, for the kingdom of hea- ven is at hand, and the key will be freely given to any one who will unlock and enter. That there was no such a nation as the Israelites, is a truth —found in the consideration that they are not mentioned be- yond the Bible in any records whatever. Egypt knew them not, Persia knew them not, Hindoostan knew them not, Scythia knew them not, Phoenicia knew them not, Greece knew then not, as a nation. And in the first general notice that we have of the Jews, they are introduced to the world as a sect, or a series of sects, being Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes; anc. in that general notice, beyond that sort of mistaken allegorical history which Josephus has copied from the books of the Old. Testament, and which is not otherwise corroborated, and no better authority than the book of the Old Testament, there is no presentation of the Jews as the descendents of a larger nation of Israelites ; as a religious or philosophical sect of dis- tinction, mixed up with, and found in real human history, they are not to be traced higher than the century before the Chris- tian era. It is satisfactory to be able to show the origin of any! thing, for such a knowledge is a common passion and curiosity among mankind ; and I think the Rev. Robert Taylor has discovered and developed the origin of the titles of Hebrew ■ Israelite, and Jew. The Eleusinian mysteries were Pagan ; the same in relationINTRODUCTION ix to Isis in Egypt, as to Ceres in Greece, and continued in rela- tion to the Virgin Mary, as a part of the mistaken Christian mystery. It is the fault of Freemasonry, that it has had no- thing feminine belonging to it; the ladies make no part of its mysteries, and to the ladies it has been a matter of great un- easiness. They very naturally, and very properly, suspect the propriety of all exclusively male association. The Jews have nothing feminine in their religion. No religion has provided a paradise, or future happy state, for earthly women. They should be all infidels of course. The modern construction and mistaken reading, under what is called the Christian Religion, has become a great burlesque on them. The word Eleusis is the Greek of Adventus, the Latin, the Advent, of the Christian mystery; and signifies THE COMING (emphatically), and literally, the coming of light The story of the transfiguration on the mount, in the New Tes- tament, is an imperfect description of the holding of a Lodge of association in the highest degree of the Eleusinian mystery. rf'he Lodge was held by Peter, James, and John, or the per- sonified months of January, April, or June, July, and August* The degrees of Freemasonry are allegorical of the same mys- tery. The very miracles of the New Testament are allegori- c|l sketches of the different degrees of the same mysteries. The turning of water into wine is the process of vinous vegetation,, and one of the mysteries of Bacchus, who was also that light 'ii/hich ivas to come, the Messiah ; the Sun, in physics, or the physical saviour ; the Logos, Christ, or principle of Reason ; is the moral saviour. The marriage at Cana, in Galilee, was the marriage supper of the Lamb; the spring of the year; the midway between the watering-pot of Aquarius, or watery Jeason, and the ripening of the grape. “Woman,” said Jesus to his mother, “ what have I to do with thee ? My time is nor get coined Summer and autumn are the time of Bacchus. But le turned the water into wine, and so he does every year* The feeding of the multitude with a few small loaves and fishesX INTRODUCTION. is a mystery significant of the prolific power in the earth in the growth of corn, and of the water in the production of fishes. The curing of diseases, of lameness and blindness, casting out devils, allaying a storm, walking on the water, the resur- rection of the dead, and the ascension into heaven, are all so many solar mysteries or allegorical relations of the sun’s action upon the earth, figured with an association of scientific and moral powers in man. The sacrament of the Lord’s Sup- per is the joint'mystery of the union of Ceres and Bacchus— the Pagan producers of corn, or bread and wine, which are truly, in an allegorical, physical sense, the real body and blood of Christ. We shall find that Preemasonry has been a cor- rupted continuation of all those mysteries ; and that the Ma- sons have really, as they confess they have, lost their own secret. Let us see what learning can do to restore it to them. Much of the ritual of our church, even of our English church, is but a misunderstood continuation and corruption of the words and ceremonies of the ancient Pagan mysteries. The Rev. Mr. Taylor has beautifully explained this in his dis- courses. I have only room to glance at it here. 1 The scenes and characters of the mysterious drama, as found in the Eleusinian Orgies of Greece, were :— I ELEUSIS—The Advent, or coming-in of light ; the birth .and character of the subject of the drama—the title of die whole play or mystery. I HIEROPHANT—the Expounder of the Mysteries, the High Priest, the Pope, the Archbishop. HUPEREET—The Minister or Ordinary Priest. :: DIACONOS—The Deacon, or Lower Officer. DIADOCHOS-The Torch-bearer. i PHOTAGOGUE—The Bringer-in of Light. 1 AUTOPTOS—The Candidate admitted to see the sigat. The visitor of the Temple—the Church and Chapel goer. AUTOPSY—The sight itself.INTRODUCTION. xi ’HEBREW—The initiated Candidate who had passed through all the degrees of the mystery. TELEIOS—The adept, or perfected. ISRAELITE—God-seer, purified from all guile. JEW—-The God himself, or the mysterious perfection and deification of the human character. The whole a type of what may he made of human nature by cultivation of mind, which is the conditional promise of para- dise,\ or kingdom of heaven. This is the revelation of all the mysteries. Hebrew, Israelite, and Jew, are Syriac, Phoenician, and Egyp- tian terms used in the mysterious degrees; and it would be as reasonable to argue that the Freemasons are a dispersed na- tion, as that the Jews are, or were, a dispersed nation. The modern religion of both Jew and Christian is a misunderstood and forgotten connexion, corruption, and continuation, of the andent' Pagan mysteries. Freemasonry is a secret attempt of the sarnie kind, but a failure. The word revelation, throughout >^lie New Testament, signifies the revealing of a mystery; but until now, or speaking as far as we can see by record, the real mystery lhas never been revealed. The true revelation of God -J-the true gospel or word of God, is a revealing, that all the allegories) and mysteries of religion refer, to the sun as the physical (Sod ; to the science of the human mind as the moral G od. Thiis was the secret of the Eleusinian mysteries. That is religious truth, and the whole of religious truth ; and the placing of the church on such a rock, as against which the gates ojf hell shall not prevail. Freemasonry is but a professed con- cealment of the same revelation, and may be properly styled a bastard 02 illegitimate mystery. I With this, key in his hand, the reader of the following Man- as he Not ual of Masonry- will gain more knowledge of Masonry proceeds, than Masons themselves gain in their Lodges. |sxii INTRODUCTION. one of them has had sense and learning enough to discover the real secret of the craft; and I claim this circumstance as a proof that it is infidelity, as modern criticism and science have been called—modern infidelity, which is really becoming the light of the world, which is the light, life, and knowledge needed, and which is morally, scientifically, and properly speak- ing, the true Eleusis or Advent, or HE THAT SHOULD COME. i The sacred scriptures, or the books of the Old and New Tes- tament, were not written with an intention that they should be used as they are now used ; they were not intended! to be translated into any vulgar language, and.made the common- place book or text book of the multitude, to be wrested, as St. Peter has forcibly observed, to their destruction—certainly to their injury ; but they are deeply mysterious writings, not-re- vealing, but concealing, and misrepresenting, the ancient iAys~ teries ; forming from them a new mode of association, and making a new religion of the old Pagan materials, precisely upon the principle that we now see one sort of secret association springing from another—the Odd Fellows, for instance, in ha- lation to the Masons; one sect of religious association.! spring- ing from another, through common ignorance and fanatical but mistaken conceit of spiritual knowledge, as Quaker, /Unitarian, and Methodist, springing from the Church of England, that from the Church of Eome, that from the Church ojf Greece!* or Egypt, those from the Persian, 'and the whole from: the general Pagan mysteries; and-precisely upon the principle that one language is seen to emanate from another, all having a common root. ; I In the first preaching of the allegory of Christ criucified, thpre was no imposition; there was a deeply laid and mysterious allegory, which the multitude took in its literal sepse, and made for themselves a history from fiction. So it has 'been with the addition and union of the books of the Old Testament. The books of the Sibyls have been also supposed to be propheticjofINTRODUCTION. xiii the Christian religion : but the mystery is cleared up, when we find the root of the Christian and of the Jewish in the Pagan system whence all those books were formed. A development of this kind is the one great thing needful for universal brother- hood, which has not been found in Freemasonry, nor in Chris- tianity, nor in Judaism, yet or now so called. The Key, then, to the mysteries of Freemasonry, as well as to the mysteries of the Christian and the J ewish religions, is the Eleusinian mysteries of the Pagan religion ; and the further Key to all those mysteries, is a worship of the Sun as God, under a variety of personifications, in all its Zodiacal transits, in the personification of the year, of the seasons, of the months, of time generally, and of all the divisions of time, and as the source of all physical and all moral phenomena. The Masonic building of Solomon’s temple is the getting a knowledge of the celestial globe, knowing the mysteries of all the figures and grouping of stars on that globe ; knowing further, that this globe is the foundation of all religion, knowing how to calcu- late the precession of the equinoxes, the return of comets and eclipses, and all the planetary motions and astronomical rela- tions of time. Such is not the knowledge now gained in Ma- sonjic Lodges; I will present the reader with that knowledge; but) such should be the knowledge; for such would be real and usejful knowledge. The ancient priests thought that knowledge shojuld be concealed from the multitude, or found it profitable .thajt it should be so ; and hence our sacred and mysterious writings. But now, we do not think that knowledge should be (kept from the multitude, and hence our infidelity and our reyealings. It may be well to mention here, that I am in possession of entire disproofs of the present pretended historical origination of the Christian religion ; and I was in that possession, before yJL attempted to seek any other origin. I have long felt the necessity of tracing another origin, and I now do so, in con- necting it with the ancient Pagan mysteries. On reading thexiv INTRODUCTION. New Testament, with the Key which I here present, and with the remembrance, that, in relation to history, the book is alto- gether, from beginning to ending, a fiction ; and on reading the Old Testament in the same way, there will remain on the mind something like knowledge gained from its mysterious matter; but now, in the course of reading under the commonly received notions of it, and beyond its moral precepts, there is no knowledge gained. Such is the case with modern Free- masonry. I sum up these observations, with the conclusion, that the Key Stone of the Royal Arch of Freemasonry is the ancient science of the Zodiac, with its moral counter-part of human culture made mysterious in secret and priestly associations; which is also the science of all religions that, pretend to revela, tions; and also of the religion of the Druids, and of all the Pagans from Hindostan to Rome. I have omitted all those remarks which, in the Nos. of the Vol. 12 of “ The Republican,5’ must have been so offensive jto Masons. My great object is here to instruct Masons as wejll as others, and not to give them offence. They ask for light. Here is light. They ask for fellowship. Here is the only basis of true and general fellowship. I see the evils of sectarianism among mankind, and I labour hard; I endure persecution patiently, for the sole purpose of rooting out those evils. I have objections for all societies, excepting those divisions of mankind which are essential, or may be essential, to good go- vernment and the most happy existence. Here we are, lilp other animals, for life, and nothing more; and it will be wijse if we so carry ourselves, as to enjoy the greatest possible amount of happiness, and to make it an essential and primitive point of that happiness, to inflict uo pain on man, woman, child, or other animal. However unpleasant or objectionable this doctrine may be, in relation to present' education, it is true; and nothing opposed to it is true; for we cannot alter the facts of nature ; we cannot change that which is immuta-INTRODUCTION. XV ■ie : though, we may regulate our moral, we cannot regulate >ur physical, destiny. Necessity is less stern in morals than .n physics, and in morals, is called liberty. I have studied well die purpose and business of life ; I have determined to spend line well, and to form the best character the present times .equire. I strive to be the most useful and most important an living. My principles are Republican in politics, and IAtheistical only as to a God made up of human ignorance, an idol God, nowhere more denounced than in the Bible. This ignifies a fair equality of condition in life, and no pretensions o future life. These appear to me to be the extreme of good in principles : indeed I am sure that they are so ; for the greatest mount of happiness among the greatest number . cannot be imagined on any other ground of principle. We have seen enough of the mischief of monarchy and priestcraft, of mys- tery, sectarianism, and secret societies. Let us now be open, be inquisitive, and be equal in knowledge. Any secret recipe for human disorder is but murder towards those who need it and cannot reach it. I rejoice in having no secrets ; I rejoice in being able to expose to the world the professed secrets of others, I am sure that secrecy is a vice ; and I therefore expose and explain Freemasonry. RICHARD CARLILE.s MANUAL OF FREEMASONRY. PART L There are three degrees in Craft-Freemasonry: First—En- tered Apprentice. Second—Fellow Craft. Third—Master Mason. A Lodge of Masons consists of the following officers: a Master who is styled Worshipful, and may be considered the President of the body. There are also Past Masters who have served as Masters, and are distinguished as such in the Lodge. The next in order to the Master is the Senior Warden, then the Junior Warden, Senior Deacon, and Junior Deacon; lastly, an Inner Guard, and a Tiler9 or Door Keepers, the one inside, the other out« The Tiler is armed with a sword. Their seve- ral duties are explained by a description of the opening of an Entered Apprentice’s Lodge. There are some slight variances in, the proceedings of the different Lodges; but the following is tiie most correct. OPEN A LODGE IN THE FIRST OR ENTERED APPRENTICE’S i DEGREE. 'When the Brethren are assembled to open a Lodge, the Master calls to order by giving a knock,* which is repeated by thle Wardens, and the following dialogue begins:— 1 In all ordinary affairs of the Lodge, as to call attention either by the Mas- ter, Tiler, or Inner Guard, one single rap is made use of, but in opening, closing, <&et, in the First or Entered Apprentice’s Degree, three distinct knocks are gi^en :—in the Second or Fellow-Craft’s Degree, there is a distinction, and they are not given at equidistant time ; a pause being made after the first, and the two subsequently in quicker succession.. And in the Third, or Master-Mason’s Degree, the pause is made between the second and third, the two first being given quickly, thus reversing the plan in the Fellow-Craft’s Degree. The Tiler always gives one rap as an alarm, when any one applies for admittance, and the Inner Guard conies out to prove the applicant, if unknown. By this means, the mode is concealed from intruders. B2 MANUAL OF FREEMASONRY. Worshipful Master. Brethren, assist me to open the Lodge, To tlie Junior Warden, Mr. N------: What is the first care in the Lodge P „ £ Junior Warden. To see the Lodge properly tiled. f W. M. Direct that duty to be done. J. W. Brother Inner Guard, ascertain that the Lodge is properly tiled. The Inner Guard gives a rap on the door, which is an- swered in the same way by the Tiler, or Outer Guard, and indicates that all is right, that there are no cowans^ or lis- teners about the Lodge. The Inner Guard reports to the Junior Warden; and the latter, with three knocks, reports to the Worshipful Master that the Lodge is properly filed. The W. M. then asks, What is the next care, Brother Senior Warden? S. W. To see the Brethren appear to order as Masons. W. M. See that duty done. The Senior Warden examines any present if thought ne- cessary by the sign of an Entered Apprentice, and with the same sign reports to the W. M. that none but Masons are present. W. M. To order Brethren, as Masons in the first degree. Brother Junior Warden, how many principal officers are there in a Lodge ? ( J. W. Three ; namely the Worshipful'Master and his Two Wardens. W. M. Brother Senior Warden, how many assistants are there ? S. W. Three ; besides the Outer Guard or Tiler; namely”, the Senior and Junior Deacons, and the Inner Guard. i W. M. Brother Junior Warden, where is the Outer Guaijd or tiler placed ? J. W. Without the door of the Lodge. W. M. His duty? J. W. Being armed with a drawn sword, to keep all cowans and listeners from Masons, and to see that the candidate for admission comes properly prepared. *The word Cowan is a flash'word, peculiar to Masons. It signifies Enemy $ but formerly it was expressive of Kings, and all those who had the power to per- secute and who did persecute the associated Masons. ' \MANUAL OF FREEMASONRY. 3 W. M. Brother Senior Warden, where is the Inner Guard placed ? S. W. Within the entrance of the Lodge. W. M. His duty? S. W. To admit Masons upon proof, to receive the candi- date in due form, and to obey the commands of the Junior W arden. W. M. Brother Junior Warden, where is the Junior Dea- con placed P J. W. At the right of the Senior Warden. W. M. His duty ? J. W. To carry the messages and commands of the Wor- shipful Master from the Senior to the Junior Warden, that the same may be punctually obeyed. W. M. Brother Senior Warden, where is the Senior Dea- con placed p S. W. At the right of the Worshipful Master. W. M. His duty? S. W. To carry eomihunications and commands from the Worshipful Master to the Senior Warden, and wait the return of the Junior Deacon. W. M. Lodge ? J. W. W. M. J. W. Brother Junior Warden, your constant place in the In the South. Why are you placed there ? To mark the Sun at its meridian, to call the Bre- thren from labour to refreshment, and from refreshment to labour, that profit and pleasure may be the result. W. M. Brother Senior Warden, your constant place in the Lodge ? S. W. In the West. W. M. Why are you placed there ? p. W. To mark the setting Sun, to close the Lodge by the command of the Worshipful Master, after seeing that every one Las his just dues. W. M. Worshipful and worthy Bast Master, where is the Master’s situation in the Lodge ? P. M. In the East. W. Mo Why is he placed there P P. Mo As the Sun rises in the East to open and enliven the day, so the Worshipful Master is placed in the East to open4 MANUAL OF FREEMASONRY. and enlighten his Lodge, to employ and instruct the Brethren m Masonry. W. Mi Brethren, our Lodge being thus duly formed, before I proceed to declare it opened, let us invoke a blessing from the Great Architect of the Universe upon ail our undertakings. May our labour thus begun in order, be conducted in peace, and closed in harmony. P. M. So mote it be. (The Past Master then advances three steps, opens the Bible, (at the------- Chapter of----) and. remains with his hand on it, until the ceremony finishes. W. M. Brethren, in the name of the Great Architect of the Universe, I declare this Lodge duly opened, for the purposes of Masonry in the first degree. The W. M., S. W., J. W., I. G., and T., then give three knocks each, in rotation, which announce the Lodge opened ; the Brethren take their seats, &c., and the business of the Lodge proceeds. If any doubtful Brethren appear, they are made to take a new oath that they are real Masons, and that they have not been expelled from any Lodge. CEREMONY OF MAKING, OR INITIATION, IN THE FIRST OR ENTERED APPRENTICE’S DEGREE. The Lodge being duly opened, and a candidate applying for initiation, he has to sign a declaration, that he wishes jto become a Mason ; and on its being presented to the Lodte, and the candidate approved, which is generally done tby ballot, a Brother, called the Steward, is sent out to prepare him in an antechamber. This preparation consists in the candidate being divested of all money and metal, of having the right arm, left breast, and left knee bare, the right heel slip-shod; in being blindfolded, and a rope, which is tech- nically called a Cable Tow, is put round the neck, with a sword pointed to the breast. In this state, the Steward leads the candidate to the Tiler, or Outer Guard of ihe Lodge Door. The Tiler examines and sees the candidate properly prepared, and announces liis approach by three knocks. The Inner Guard gives the alarm, and is ordered to ask who is there. The Steward or Tiler answers :— A poor candidate in a state of darkness, who comes of his own free will and accord, and also properly prepared, humblyMANUAL OF FREEMASONRY. 5 soliciting to be admitted to the mysteries and privileges of Freemasonry. I. G. How does he hope to obtain those privileges 1 T. By the help of God, and the tongue of good report. I. G. Halt, till I make due report.— (Turning to the Master.) Worshipful Master—a poor candidate in a state of darkness, who has been well and worthily recommended, regularly proposed and approved in Open Lodge, now comes of his own free will, and also properly prepared, humbly soliciting to be admitted to the mysteries and privileges of Freemasonry. W. M. How does he hope to obtain those privileges ? I. G. By the*help of God, being free born, and of good report. W. M. The tongue of good report has already been heard in his favour, do you, Brother Inner Guard, vouch that he is properly prepared. ? I. G. I do. W. M. Then let him be admitted in due form. I. G. (to the candidate at tlie door.) Enter, free born and of good report. He is received bv the J. D. from the Steward. W. M. {to the candidate.) As no person can be made a Mason unless he is free born and of mature age, I demand of you, are you free by birth, and of the age of twenty-one y ears ? | Candidate. I am. W. M. Thus assured, I will thank you to kneel, whilst the blessing of Heaven is invoked on our proceedings. (W. M. prays.) Vouchsafe thine aid, Almighty Father and Supreme Governor of the universe, to this our present conven- tion, and grant that this candidate for Masonry may so dedicate- and devote his life to thy service, as to become a true and faithful brother among us. Endow him with a competency ot thy divine wisdom, that, assisted by the secrets of this our masonic art, lie may the better be enabled to display the beau- ties of true godliness to the honour and glory of thy holy name. So mote it be. W. M. To the candidate, Mr. N-----------. In all cases of difficulty and danger, in whom do you put your trust ? Mr. N. In God.6 MANUAL OF FREEMASONRY. W. M, flight glad I am to find your faith so well founded; relying on such sure support, and since your trust is so firmly placed, you may safely rise and follow your leader with a firm but humble confidence; for where the name of God is invoked, we trust no danger can ensue. The Brethren from the North, East, South and West, will take notice, that Mr. N----is about to pass in view before them, to show that he is a candidate pro- perly prepared, and a fit and proper person to be made a mason. He is then conducted round the Lodge, for the view of the Brethren, and to see that he is properly prepared ; he is in- structed in the South and West by the Junior and Senior Wardens, and the J. E). gives three knocks on their shoulders, witli the candidate’s hand,. on which the demand who comes there ? is made ; to which the same answers are given as at the door; and after their pronouncing, pass, free born and of good report, he is presented to the W. M. S. W. Worshipful Master, I present to you Mr. N----------, a candidate properly prepared to be a mason. W. M. Brother Senior Warden, your presentation shall be Attended to ; for which purpose I shall address a few questions to the candidate, which I trust he will answer with candour:— Mr. N------, do you seriously declare, on your honour, that, unbiassed by the improper solicitations of friends against your .own inclinations, and uninfluenced by mercenary or other un- worthy motives, you freely and voluntarily offer yourself a cah- .didate for the mysteries and privileges of Freemasonry ? Mr. N. Ido. ^ 1 W. M. Ho you 'likewise pledge yourself, that you are prompted to solicit those privileges from a favourable opinion preconceived of the institution, a general desire of knowledge, and a sincere wish to render yourself more extensively ser- viceable to your fellow-creatures P Mr. N. I do. * W. M. Ho you further seriously declare on your honour, that, avoiding fear on the one hand, and rashness on the .other, you will steadily persevere through the ceremony of your initiation, and, if once admitted, will afterwards act and &bide by the ancient usages, and established customs of the .order. Mr. N. I will. W. M. Brother Senior Warden, you will direct the JuniorMANUAL OF FREEMASONRY. A Deacon to instruct the candidate to advance to the pedestal in due form. S. W. Brother Junior Deacon, it is the Worshipful Mas- ter’s command that you instruct the candidate to advance to the chair in due form. This form is by three irregular steps. W. M. Mr. N.--------, it is my duty to inform you, that Masonry is free, and requires a perfect freedom of inclination in every candidate for its mysteries. It is founded on the purest principles of piety and virtue. It possesses great and invaluable privileges to worthy men, and, I trust, , to the worthy alone. Yows of fidelity are required; but let me assure you, that in those vows, there is nothing incompatible with your civil, moral, or religious duties. Are you, therefore, willing to take a solemn obligation, founded on the principles I have stated, to keep inviolate the secrets and mysteries of the order? Mr. N. I am. W. M. Then you will kneel with your left knee, keeping your right foot in the form of a square, place your right hand on this book, which is the volume of the sacred law, while, with your left, you will support one point of these compasses to your naked breast, so as not to hurt yourself, and then repeat the following obligation:— I, Mr. N----, in the presence of the great Architect of the universe, and of this warranted, worthy, and worshipful Lodge of freaand accepted Masons, regularly assembled and properly dedicated, of my own free will and accord, do, hereby and hereon, most solemnly and sincerely swear, that I will always hale, conceal, and never reveal, any part or parts, point or points, of the secrets and mysteries of, or belonging to, free and accepted masons in masonry, which have been, shall now, or hereafter may be, communicated to me, unless it be to a true and lawful brother or brothers, and not even to him or them, till after due trial* strict examination, or sure information from a well-known brother, that he or they are worthy of that confi- dence, or in the body of a just, perfect, and regular lodge of accepted Freemasons. I further solemnly promise, that 1 will not write those secrets, print, carve, engrave, or otherwise them delineate, or cause or suffer them to be done so by others, if in my power to prevent it, on anything moveable or immoveable8 MANUAL OF FREEMASONRY. ■under the canopy of heaven, whereby or whereon any letter, character, or figure, or the least trace of a letter, character, or figure may become legible or intelligible to myself, or to any one in the world, so that our secrets, arts, and hidden myste- ries, may improperly become known through my unworthiness. These several points I solemnly swear to observe, without eva- sion, equivocation, or mental reservation of any kind, under no less a penalty, on the violation of any of them, than to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the root, and my body buried in the sand of the sea at low water mark, or a cable’s length from the shore, where the tide regularly ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours, or the more efficient punishment of being branded as a wilfully perjured individual, void of all moral worth, and unfit to be received in this warranted lodge, or in any other warranted lodge, or society of masons, who prize honour and virtue above all the external advantages of rank and fortune : So help me God, and keep me steadfast in this my great and solemn obligation of an Entered Apprentice Free Mason. W. M. What you have repeated may be considered a sa- cred promise as a pledge of your fidelity, and to render it a solemn obligation, I will thank you to seal it with your lips on the volume of the sacred law. (Kisses the Bible.) 1 W. M. Mr. N--------, having been kept a considerable timje in a state of darkness, what, in your present situation, is the most predominant wish of your heart ? \ Mr. 1ST. Light. | W. M. Brother Junior Deacon, let that blessing be re- stored to the candidate. i The Junior Deacon removes the bandage from the eyes cjf the candidate. | W. M. Having been restored to the blessing of material light, let me point out to your attention, what we consider thje three great, though emblematic, lights in Masonry—namely, the Volume of the Sacred Law, the Square, and the Conji- passes. The sacred volume is to rule and govern our faith: the square to regulate our actions : and the compasses to keep us within due bounds to all mankind,particularly with our brethren in Masonry. Bise, newly obligated brother among masons. (He rises.) You are now enabled to discover the threedesssr 4 lights in Masonry. They are situated East, South, and West,MANUAL OF FREEMASONRY. mid are meant to represent the Sun, Moon, and Master of the Lodge. The Sun to rule the day, the Moon to govern the night, and the Master to rule and direct his lodge. By your meek and candid behaviour this evening, you have escaped two great dangers ; but there is a third which will await you to the latest period of your existence. The dangers which you have escaped are those of stabbing and strangling ; for, at your entrance into the lodge, this sword was presented to your naked left breast, so that, had you rashly attempted to rush forward, you would have been accessary to your own death by stabbing. Not so with the Brother who held it; as he would have only remained firm to do his duty. There was likewise this Cable Tow, with a running noose about your neck, which would have rendered any attempt to retreat equally fatal by strangling. But the danger which will await you to your latest hour, is the penalty of your obligation, that you would rather have your throat cut across, than to improperly divulge the secrets of Masonry. A s you have taken the solemn obligation of Masonry, I am now permitted to inform you, that there are several degrees in Free- masonry, and peculiar secrets restricted to each. These, how- ever, are not communicated indiscriminately ; but are conferred on candidates according to merit and abilities. I shall now proceed to intrust you with the sign of this degree, or those marks by which we are known to each other, and distinguished! from the rest of the world. I must first premise, for your gegeral information, that all squares, levels, and perpendicu- lars (alluding to the positions of the body and its limbs), are proper signs by which to know a Mason. You are, therefore, expected to stand perfectly erect, with your feet formed into a* square, your body being thus considered an emblem of your mind, and your feet the rectitude of your actions^ On your advancement from West to East, you advanced by three irre-: guiar steps ; irregular from the situation you were then in, not knowing where you were then going ; but they allude to three more regular steps, namely, right lines and angles,, morally teaching us upright lives and. well-squared actions. You will now advance towards me by one pace with your left foot, bringing the right heel into its hollow.—That is the first re^^£. step in Freemasonry; and it is in this position that the secrets of the degree are communicated. They consist till a sign, a grip or token, and a word.MANUAL OF FREEMASONRY. You will place your right hand in this position (level, with the thumb extended in a square towards the throat), and the thumb to the left of the windpipe. The sign is given by- drawing the hand smartly across the throat, and dropping it to the side. This is in allusion to the penalty of the obliga- tion ; implying, that, as a man of honour and a mason, you would rather have your throat cut across, than improperly di- vulge the secrets intrusted to you. That is the sign. The grip or token is given by a distinct pressure of the top of the ^ight-kand thumb, of thelfirst joint from the wrist, of the right-hand fore-finger, grasping the finger with the hand.# This demands a word, a word highly prized among masons, as the guard to their privileges: too much caution cannot, there- fore, be used in communicating it. It must never be given at leogth ; but always either by letters or syllables ; to enable you to do which, I must first tell you what the word is. It is