THE

ANTIQUITIES

OP

FREE-MASONRY.

PERIOD I.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

Of Masonic Tradition.

"THE true stress of tradition lies in an appeal to the common sense of all mankind. It is a reliance upon the testimony of men, considered as men, and not as persons of this or that people or persuasion, actuated by principles implanted in that nature which the whole species partake of, and not influenced by the power of such as are peculiar to any particular community or religion."

On this principle have the traditions of Masonry been transferred from father to son, along with the knowledge of God's eternal existence and the immortality of the soul. Before the time of Moses tradition could scarcely err, and that legislator modelled Masonry into so perfect a system, and circumscribed its mysteries by land-marks so significant and unalterable, that from him its trans

1 Stanhope's Boyle Lect.

mission was little liable to perversion or error. The length of life, in the early ages of the world, was such, that oral tradition, in general, might be safely relied on, proceeding to Amram, the father of Moses, as it did, from Joseph, who received it from Isaac, who received it from Abraham, to whom it was communicated by Shem, who had it from Lamech, and to Lamech it was revealed by Adam. The Samaritan Pentateuch makes the communication still more direct, by placing Adam as contemporary with Noah.

Bishop Tomline inquires, with his usual penetration and judgment :-"Could the grandchildren of Jacob be ignorant of their own pedigree, and of the time when they came into Egypt? Can we think that so many remarkable circumstances as attended the selling and advancement of Joseph could be forgotten in so short a time? Could Jacob be ignorant whence his grandfather Abraham came, especially, as he lived so long in the country himself, and married into that branch of the family which was remaining there? Could Abraham be ignorant of the Flood, when he was contemporary with and descended from Shem, one of the eight persons who escaped in the Ark? Could Shem be ignorant of what passed before the Flood, when Adam, the first man, lived so near the time of Noah? And could Noah be ignorant of the creation and fall of man, when he was contemporary with those who conversed with Adam ?"

2 Howard thinks it extraordinary that every remarkable event which actually occurred in the infancy of the world should have been accurately preserved by idolatrous nations, how widely soever they had departed from that peculiar people to whom the conservation of the antedeluvian history was committed. A son of the first man was violently assaulted and slain by his brother, as we are told by Moses. Accordingly, other nations Have a corresponding tradition. Sanchoniatho has recorded that a son of Uranus was killed by his brothers. In Diodorus we find Hesperion meets a similar fate; and the Persian annals represent Siameck, the son of Cai Amurath, the first king of Persia, as being killed by giants. (Thoughts on the Structure of the Globe, p. 229.) There is, however, nothing very extraordinary in the naked fact. The outline of the history of the antediluvian world was known to the family of Noah, and consequently to their immediate descendants, the Cuthites of Shinar. And when the language was confounded, the memory of all the principal events would remain, and be transmitted by every tribe which wandered thence to people the distant parts of the earth.

3 El. of Theol., part 1, chap. 1.

Oral tradition is fairly admissible when its subject contains nothing improbable or inconsistent with Scripture or reason; and the traditions of Masonry, tried by this standard, will be possessed of irresistible claims to our belief. But in matters of religion, as we possess a book of revelation to regulate our faith and practice, it must be carefully rejected, because the Scriptures contain every thing necessary to salvation; and the passions and contending interests of men would induce such numerous perversions, as would place our hopes on too precarious a basis. A most remarkable instance of this perversion occurs in the extraordinary oblivion of God's. power and providences, as well as the degeneracy of man, which so rapidly succeeded the Deluge amongst the posterity of Ham. It appears from the testimony of Sanchoniatho, whom Eusebius and Theodoret speak of as an accurate and faithful historian, that in the time of Thoth, the son of Mizraim, an acknowledgment of the power of God in the creation of the world, and of his vengeance against idolatrous pursuits displayed in the universal Deluge, was disallowed and prohibited. In his Cosmogony, which was professedly compiled from the records of the Cabiri, the sons of (Evdux) Melchizedek or Shem, the production of the world is described as proceeding from a heterogeneous mixture of wind, air and mud, or putrefaction. After a visionary account of the creation, the secretaries of Thoth are wholly silent about the Deluge, which creates a suspicion that their silence is rather the effect of design than ignorance; for, they acknowledge that Cronus (Ham) was living after the death of his son Misor (Mizraim); and placed Thoth, the reputed author of these Records, on the throne of his father, in Egypt. Now as Ham was one of those who miraculously escaped the general destruction, it can scarcely be supposed that he would conceal so remarkable an event from Thoth, who was his private and confidential adviser. But as they intended to erect themselves into objects of divine adoration, they erased that great event from their Records, lest mankind should

"Cronus begat on Rhea seven sons, the youngest of which was consecrated a god as soon as he was born!"-Sanch. in Euseb. de Præp. 1. 1, c. 10. This infant deity, according to the best authorities was Muth, whom the Phoenicians call Pluto.

be confirmed in their adherence to the true worship, by the recollection of so fearful a display of vengeance inflicted on the human race for idolatrous practices.

The facts of the creation, and the destruction of mankind by a general Deluge, were, however, too important to be buried in utter oblivion, even by apostate nations ;5 and, therefore, as they were unequivocal testimonies of God's infinite power and justice, they were hid under the impenetrable veil of mystery, which overshadowed the knowledge of the one true God. Thus the elevation of a ship formed a prominent ceremony in these mysteries, which, though not explicitly applied to that event, could have no significant reference to any thing but Noah's salvation in the ark: and to involve the subject still deeper in mystery and darkness, innumerable fables were invented and engrafted on the true account of that memorable occurrence, which perplexed even the Epopte themselves; and, by directing their inquiries into a false channel, prevented a discovery of the truth."

Thus was the knowledge of this event obscurely transmitted in the heathen world. The Deluge was a circumstance, which, though omitted in the public

5 The cosmogony of Hesiod is the most ancient system extant amongst the Greeks. He makes Chaos precede Earth, Tartarus, and Love, and the father of Darkness and Night; who, in like manner, were the progenitors of Day and Ether. But Night was the mother of all obnoxious qualities, as Discord, Old Age, and Death. Then follows a series of complicated theogonies, which it is far from my intention to follow, including numerous allegorical personages, blended with the record of wild adventure; all of which have some remote symbolical reference to the process of creation, as it is described by Moses.

"A coin of Philip the elder, which was struck at Apamea, of Cibotus, contained, on its reverse, an epitome of this history. The reverse of most Asiatic coins relates to the religion and mythology of the places they were struck at. On the reverse of this coin is delineated a kind of square machine floating upon water. Through an opening in it are seen two persons, a man and a woman, as low as the breast, and upon the head of the woman is a veil. Over this ark is a triangular kind of pediment, on which there sits a dove; and below it another, which seems to flutter its wings, and hold in its mouth a small branch of a tree. Before the machine is a man following a woman, who, by their attitude, seem to have just quitted it, and have got upon dry land. Upon the Ark itself, underneath the persons there inclosed, is to be read, in distinct characters, NOE."-Bryant's Myth.