Pawtucket Herald, And Independent Inquirer

We earnestly recommend to our readers the following lucid exhibition of Masonry, and especially to those belonging to the fraternity who have imbibed the notion that Freemasonry is the "Handmaid of Religion," and that they would read it not only once, but read it till the truths therein contained become imprinted on the memory.

From Freedom's Sentinel.

TO THE REV. CLERGY WHO ARE ROYAL ARCH MASONS.

Reverend Gentlemen.--Permit me to address you on the subject of your masonic obligations. From recent information, I understand that some of you already have--some qualms of conscience, in relation to your connection with the hitherto mystic fraternity; but from motives of policy, or the dread of vengeance, you, as yet, decline openly renouncing your connection with the society.

I shall say nothing to you, gentlemen, to try to convince you that the secrets of more than forty of the degrees of masonry are now fairly before the world.--From the tenor of my letter, you must know that I know they are, and that the world knows so too. It is worse than idle and useless to pretend to deny it.--More satisfactory proofs of the authenticity of any works ever published, not even excepting the Bible; were never given to man, than are given in the revelations of masonry, which, from time to time have been published within the last three years. These facts you well know, and you know that the public knows them. In the language of the martyr to masonic vengeance, whose blood has sealed the doom of the society, "Masonry is naked and worthless," and in that of a virtuous and bold seceder, and an elegant writer--"Masonry now stands before the world with the incendiary's torch in one hand, and with the dagger reeking with a brother's blood in the other."

With these facts staring you full in the face, I am now to inquire how you, "spiritual watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem," can reconcile your puerile and unearthly obligations, and your ridiculous and blasphemous ceremonies, with the principles of the meek and lowly Jesus, whose precepts it is your duty to teach?

Not to dwell on some of the silly, nonsensical, and indecent mummery, which masons in the lower degrees pass through, and which are calculated only to amuse a child, suffer me to inquire, what must have been your sensations, when you were led into the lodge room, nearly naked and blindfolded, with a cable-tow, rope, or halter round your necks, to choke you in case of your disobedience; and in that degraded and degrading situation, with a sword or sharp pair of compasses goading your naked breasts, led three times round the room, the sports of idle gossips who have gone through the same silly nonsense themselves? I acknowledge there is nothing criminal in all this; but it must be extremely edifying to men of sense. But can you say the same of the penalty to which you subjected yourselves, of having your throats cut from ear to ear in case of your revealing the disgusting mummery; and of the obligations to obey the mandates of the higher orders, without knowing what those orders are or may be? or in all cases to keep the secrets of a brother, "murder and treason excepted, and these to be left at your own election?"

And has a man a right to give up his life to any other authority than God and his country? The religion of Jesus, which enjoins upon a man to "swear not at all," has not yet taught me that any such right exists.

I will not detain you long by inquiring what must have been your feelings at the impious sport of initiation, when one of the most sublime spectacles ever ushered into our world was made light of in a masonic lodge room. "Let there be light." Comment is unnecessary. Nor at your mock murders, as the case of the noble Hiram Abiff, by Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum: nor of the disgusting ceremony of your being raised from the grave, and of the putrid flesh slipping from your Mah-hah-bone, or marrow bones--once, if not now, your masonic pass word in the third degree. Nor shall I longer dwell upon the three first or blue degrees.

These are but the alphabet, the entering wedge to the upper, and are comparatively harmless. The mason who has received but three degrees, is almost as ignorant as a child of the objects and designs of the institution. He certainly does not know enough even to attempt a defence of it. I, too, will pass over the idle nonsense of the intermediate degrees, which may be found in Bernard's book, and the revelations published at Rochester, and come directly to the royal arch. And here, gentlemen permit me to ask, how you, ministers of the gospel, or perchance candidates for that holy office, could ever have submitted to witness the irreverent and blasphemous personification of the great and holy God, who inhabiteth eternity, and who frowns on mockery, by a poor frail, sinful worm of the dust, whose breath is in his nostril?--Could this have been in conformity with christianity and religion? If so, I have yet to learn what religion is. Had you no compunctious feelings when taking the name of JEHOVAH, JAH-BUL-ON, and GOD, as pass words to the chapter, when passing under the royal arch? Is this then the handmaid of religion? I envy not your feelings if you believe it to be so, nor those of your flocks who agree with you. How must your horrid obligations have preyed upon your consciences and appalled your hearts!--Read the following:--"I promise and swear that I will aid and assist a companion royal arch mason--when engaged in any difficulty, espouse his cause so far as to extricate him from the same, if in my power, whether he be right or wrong."

Further--more do I promise and swear that a companion R. A. Mason's secrets, given me in charge as such, and knowing them to be such, shall remain as secure and inviolable in my breast as in his own, murder and treason not excepted." At the latter part of this clause, I am happy to learn that one of you acted like a christian and a man. I understand he absolutely refused to take it, and declared he would suffer death rather than receive it. Upon this (most fortunate and almost unheard of instance of forbearance,) I am informed the oath was modified and rendered less exceptionable. Since that memorable night, I understand he has not attended a lodge of this handmaid of religion, which is guarded by a tyler with a drawn sword at midnight. Sublime and pacific religion!

But his duty is not yet done. So long as he does not renounce the institution, he is acting under the mandates of the higher order, some of whom impiously deride the ordinances of christianity by the mock celebration of the Lord's supper in a lodge room. [See Masonic Revelations.] And in the higher orders still, in that of the knights adepts of the eagle or sun, read the following:--"Behold this monster which you must conquer--a serpent which we detest as an idol that is adored by the idiot and vulgar, under the name of RELIGION!!." It is to be found in Bernard's book, in Robinson's Proofs, in Barruel, and other writers, and is genuine masonry; and I challenge you to disprove it. See the whole ceremony of the philosophical lodge--knights adepts of the eagle or sun.

If your feelings are shocked at this revelation, they are not more than mine were at the revelation of your blasphemous ceremonies in the royal arch degree. Remember gentlemen, you are acting under the orders of men who are inculcating such sentiments, and so long as you remain connected with the society, you are bound to obey their orders, and are encouraging their sentiments. You can no longer plead that you are ignorant of them. I repeat, gentlemen, you have yet a great duty to perform. You should openly renounce and denounce such a confederacy, and come out from her Golgotha. At the time you passed through the ceremonies of the royal arch, I acknowledge you might have suffered the penalty of having "your skulls smote off, and your brains exposed to the scorching rays of the sun, &c." as none previous to the death of the martyr, ever escaped the punishment, and the society intended that none ever should. But the times are now altered, and applause and honor, rather than death, await all those who come out from this mystic Babylon, this mother of abominations. It is criminal neglect longer to delay. The members of our parishes and societies demand of you a full confession of your sins in relation to masonry.

Do you ask for precedents for such a course? Let me refer you to the names and characters of more than five hundred as respectable men as are to be found in this or any other country, who have seceded from the contaminating embrace of this harlot of iniquity, and have given satisfactory reasons why the impious oaths of masonry are not binding; but, on the contrary, they have demonstrated that it is perjury against the laws of God and man, to adhere to them.

You are familiar, if not with the writings of Morgan, with the principles of the institution as he has promulgated them. Read the proceedings of the Lewiston convention, and see the manner in which masons treat offending brethren. Take also Bishop Hobart's advice, requesting his ministers to secede from the society, and "regretting that so many of them belonged to it." Read also the following works, and answer me upon your consciences, whether religion and masonry are not at war:--The Rev. Mr. Emerson's address to the Genesee consociation of ministers and their reply to it; Rev. Mr. Sanborn's sermon; Rev. Mr. Thacher's address; Stearns' Speculative Freemasonry, and his Plain Truth: the Rev. Mr. Jones' Letters; the Rev. Mr. Strong's letters; Ward's Free Masonry, and his Anti-Masonic Review; Southwick's Solemn Warning, his 4th July oration, and his other anti-masonic writings; the Revelations of the first fifteen degrees of Free Masonry by the Convention at Le Roy; Hon. Cadwallader D. Colden's renunciation; Elder Bradley's renunciation: the addresses upon this subject to the legislature of New-York: address to the Dedham convention; and above all, the revelations of the first forty-eight degrees of masonry by Elder Bernard;--and if these are not sufficient to satisfy you of your duty, I can point out other facts, which show that the higher degrees of masonry came from infidel France, and from the infidel king of Prussia to America, and that they are rank Illuminism, subversive of all religion, and the object of them is to overthrow the religion of the Bible, and to substitute infidelity upon its ruins. I can prove to you, if you will only read, that no more than the three first degrees are tolerated in Great Britain, on account of their warfare with Government and religion. But time will not allow me to proceed, although these facts are perfectly at command. Gentlemen you are situated in parishes and among a people, very many of whom are now deeply engaged in investigating the Morgan outrage and the principles of speculative Free Masonry. They are not to be satisfied that you do not merely attend the society in their midnight orgies, or that you ever denounce it as bad. They require of you publicly and boldly to renounce it. A hundred Argus eyes are upon you, and your opportunities of doing good among them as preachers, will much depend upon the resolution you take of renouncing or adhering to masonry. To be sure, by renouncing you draw upon yourselves the slanders of the fraternity, or they are bound so to do, and they will not violate their obligations. But do you dread their vengeance more than you covet the approbation of the good and wise?--But as yesterday, Bernard, and Strong, and Bradley, and Colden, and Jones, and Thacher, and innumerable others, were saints in the masonic calendar. To-day, they are branded as perjured villains, thieves and rascals. But by whom are these charges made? By those from whom it is an honor to receive them.

By renouncing, you will receive the approbation of the virtuous and good, and above all the benedictions of your God.

But if you determine upon a different course, stick to your red woollen drawers, your hood-wink, and your cable tow; adhere still to your Jachin and Boaz, your Tubal Cain, your Shibboleth, your Mah-hah-bone and Jah-bul-on--stick to your mock ceremonies of the murdered Hiram Abiff, and to the personification of God in the burning bush, and see what effect your preaching will ultimately have upon your people. Should you condescend to reply to this, I have much more in store for you. I subscribe myself, not Jah-buh-lun, but MAH-HAH-BONE.