Freemasonry And Its Institutes

This wisdom is that law eternal by which God appointed the working of all things , and which he himself is jileased to work by who worketh all things according to his own will . Bo that the law eternal has two parts—the first containing that order which God has eternally proposed himself to observe in all his works—the second , that order which he has

set down to be kept by all his creatures ; so that , as Dawson says , ( de Lag . Orig . ) the law eternal will consist of four parts ¦ —hrst , the law of divine operations ad extra , such as creation , providence , Arc . ; second , the law which natural agents , such as the sun , stars , and ah brutes work by , which is properly the law of nature ; third , the law which angels act by ,

and which we may call the law celestial ; fourth , the law which man , as ' ( wov Xoyuzov , acts by , or the law of reason . Now man may be further considered in a threefold capacity—as a citizen of the world ; as a member of a body politic ; and as an immortal creature . As a citizen of the -world , ho must act by laws which , by the Creator ' s appointment , are common to him with all mankind . As a member of a body politic , he must act by laws which are made for the good of that community of which he is a member . And as an

immortal creature , ho must act by laws which oblige him to own and worship his Maker , and to live such a life as is becoming a son of eternity . These distinctions arc well expressed in the charge used at initiation into the first degree of Ereemasonry , where it says , " Let me recommend to your most serious contemplation the volume of the sacred law , charging you

to consider it as the unerring standard of truth and justice , and to regulate your actions by the divine precepts it contains . As a citizen of the world , I am to enjoin you to be exemplary in the dischai'ge of your civil duties , by never rn-oposiug or at all countenancing any act which may have a tendency to subvert the peace and good order of societ y ; by

paying due obedience to the laws of any state which may for a time become the place of your abode , or affords you its protection ; and , above all , by never losing sight of the allegiance you owe to the sovereign of your native land . As an individual , let me recommend the practice of every domestic as well as public virtue ; let prudence direct you , temperance chasten you , fortitude support you , and justice be the guide of all your actions . " It is a difficult task to delineate the state of mankind in

the earliest ages of the world ; we want information to g ive us positive ideas upon the subject ; but as man advances in civilization , and as history becomes clearer and its certainty increases , the materials are more abundant . The books of Moses afford the earliest authentic history of the ages immediately following the deluge . Various theories have been

started respecting the inhabitants of the antediluvian world , but as all the inhabitants of that world were swept away by the- waters of the flood , and as Noah was again to repeople the earth , it seems plain that the state of nature would be the same in the second world as in the first , only it would be sooner peopled . The same laws , however , which related to

order , rule , and government of society in the first world , would hold good in the second , e . g ., the subjection of the wife to her husband ( Gen . iii . 16 ); the elder brother ruling over the younger ( Gen . iv . 7 ) . The patriarchal is the earliest form of government which we find from the rudest periods of societ y , and which was most probably derived from God

saying ( Gen iv . 7 ) to Cain , concerning Abel , " Unto thee shall be his desire , and thou shalt rule over him , " or , as the margin translates it , " He shall be subject unto thee , and thou shalt rule over him . " It appears from Gen . xii . 9-17 , that from the flood to the bivth of Peleg was a period of one hundred and one yearsand ( Gen . x . 25 ) that in his days the

, earth was divided ; so that before his days the whole progeny of Noah lived as one great family : this one hundred years , as many learned men have thought , was that golden age , so much celebrated by poets for peace , love , and justice , < fec , but especially that in it all things were in common ; not because all men were equal and had an equal right to all things , but

Freemasonry And Its Institutes

because Noah , who was then sole governor , was not only so just as to live according to the divine law , but daily called on all others so to do ; for it is expressly said that ho was not only just , but also a "justitiai prcecou , " a declarer , deliverer , or publisher of law and justice , so that in his days the graces of brotherly love , truth , meekness , humility ,

charity , and simplicity , all flourished . The learned Bochart makes it appear plain that Noah was identical with Saturn ; and that character of Saturn in Justin ( Hist . lib . 42 ) , agrees with uhat of Noah in scripture . " Rex Saturnus tantaj justitia ? fuisse fertur ut neque serviret sub illo quisquam , neque quisquam privatie rci habuerit , sed omnia

communia et indivisa omnibus fuerint , veluti uimiii cunctis patrimonium esset . " "Saturn was so just a king that none needed to fear either servitude or want in his happy reign ; for all things were common and undivided , even as one great patrimony belonging to all ; " or , as the ancient Masonic charge has itthey all agreed in the three great

, articles of Noah , enough to preserve the cement of the Lodge . In the heroic ages , before the period of authentic history begins , we find in the Homeric , and other poems , traces of a . general belief among the Greeks that government ought to be controlled by law , as even the supreme God was supposed

to he subjected to a higher power , ' Arayw / , or Eate , so that the Atorpeytis BaaiXevc , or Jove , or God—trained or nourished king , was bound to govern according to the rules of justice . That the origin and oblig ing power of laws is from God , is further p lain from the fact that Themis , which we call jus , or right , was said to be the daughter of Heaven ; and "Jus "

was derived from Jove , the chief God ; sometimes , also , the origin and dependence of laws was symbolically represented by a chain from Jupiter ' s throne to the earth . The patriarchal led on by easy stages to the monarchical and hereditary governments—till it was a limited power ; the monarchs were leaders or guardianshound to consult the

, good of their people and to listen to the advice of their counsellors or the chief men of their state , and also to administer justice . These notions of law and justice were somewhat vague ; the regal power , though limited among the Greeks in practice , appears to have been absolute in theory , and therefore easily liable to be abused . The first monarchies

must have been but weak , and their extent limited , as the kings mentioned in holy writ seem to have been no more than the chiefs of tribes ; Joshua defeated , in his wars , thirtyone kings ; Adonizedec seventy ; and there were five kings in the valley of Sodom . R . H . W . ( To he continued ) .

ST . IVBUHURGH . —This , like other monasteries , was a stone world complete in itself , ignoring all outside it but God ' s sky , its roof and shelter . There was its choir for prayer and praise , where the incense fumed and the yellow lights burned on the altar—there was the lady chapel beyond , where you listened and hoard the white robed boys singing as if they were angels—the side aisles , where the crusaders sleptthe vestrywhere the abbot put on his alb and —the Magdalen

, cope chapel , where the chanting priests knelt all day muttering—and 8 t . jSficholas chapel , where the carver chipped , laughing , at the friar ' s ribald , face on the corbel—the steeple , where the swallows circled—the turret , where the great bells rocked in an imhurrying way . There were the chapter house , where the conclave sat—the bakehouse and the cellarsthe lodge and the kitchens—the larclev and the pantry—the brewhousc and kiln—the courtyard and cloisters—the garden and the dormitory . and

There were all sorts of nooks about the roofs and cornices vaultings —fluted moulding and toothings that the moss chokes greenly , and niches long since widowed of their statues—great windows radiant with the unfading flowers of paradise , which , to poor drudges , must have seemed as the portals of Eden , showing through their jewelled panels the transfigured saints and martyrs treading the sea of pearl , or radiant with the blood of the Lamb . It may be well for us to scoff at the ok ! of these monasteries into im

devotion that drove the builder voluntary - prisonment , to toil , at their little , gardens between the buttresses , to scoop out steeple stairs with their ever ascending feet , to dry thenbrains in dim libraries , to imagine that they pleased God by doing some duties at the neglect of others ; but let us own that a vital faith repeats its responses ( whieh are echoes ) still as we paced the cloister , on whose every tombstone seemed engraved that craving , sorrowful cry , " Host , rest . "—Mcdiwvvl Architecture ufChatcr , by J . II . Parker .