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MASONRY DISSECTED
The original Institution of Masonry consisteth on the Foundation of the Liberal Arts and
Sciences; but more especially on the Fifth, viz, Geometry. For at the Building of the
Tower of Babel, the Art and Mystery of Masonry was first introduc'd, and from thence
handed down by Euclid, a worthy and excellent Mathematician of the Egyptians, and he
communicated it to Hiram, the Master-Mason concern'd in the Building of Solomon's
Temple in Jerusalem, where was an excellent and curious Mason thet was the chief under
their Grand-Master Hiram, whose Name was Mannon Grecus, who taught the Art of
Masonry to one Carlos Marcil in France, and from thence was brought into England in
the Time of King Athelstone, who order'd an Assembly to be held once every Year at
York, which was the first Introduction of it into England, and Masons were made in the
Manner following.
Tunc unus ex Senioribus teneat Librum, ut illi vel ille ponant vel ponat Manus supra
Librum; tum Praecepta debeant legi. i.e. Whilst one of the Seniors holdeth the Book,
that he or they put their Hands upon the Book, whilst the Master ought to read the
Laws or Charges.
Which Charges were, That they should be true to one another without Exception, and
should be obliged to relieve their Brothers and Fellows Necessities, or put them to labour
and reward them accordingly.
But in these latter Days Masonry is not composed of Artificers, as it was in its primaeval
State, when some few Catechetical Questions were necessary to declare a Man sufficiently
qualified for an Operative Mason.
The Terms of Free and Accepted Masonry (as it now is) has not been heard of till within
these few Years; no Constitued Lodges or Quarterly Communications were heard of till
1691, when Lords and Dukes, Lawyers and Shopkeepers, and the other inferior Tradesmen,
Porters not excepted, were admitted into this Mystery or no Mystery; the first
sort being introduc'd at very great Expence, the second sort at a moderate Rate, and
the latter for the Expence of six or seven Shillings, for which they receive that Badge of
Honour, which (as they term it) is more ancient and more honourable than is the Star
and Garter, which Antiquity is accounted, according to the Rules of Masonry, as delivered
by their Tradition, ever since Adam, which I shall leave the candid Reader to determine.
From the Accepted Masons sprang the Real Masons, from both sprang the Gormogons,
whose Grand-Master the Volgi deduces his Original from the Chinese, whose Writings, if
to be credited, maintains the Hypotheses of the Pre-Adamites, and consequently must
be more antique than Masonry.
The most free and open society is that of the Grand Kaihebar, which consist of a select
Company of Responsible People, whose chief Discourse is concerning Trade and Business,
and promoting mutual Friendship without Compulsion or Restriction.
But if after the Admission into the Secrets of Masonry, any new Brother should dislike
their Proceedings, and reflect upon himself for being so easily cajoled out of his Money,
declines the Fraternity or secludes himself upon the Account of the Quarterly Expences
of the Lodge and Quarterly communications, notwithstanding ha has been legally admitted
into a Constituted and Regular Lodge, shall be denied the Privilege (as a Visiting
Brother) of Knowing the Mystery for which he has already paid, which is a manifest
Contradiction according to the Institution of Masonry itself, as will evidently appear by
the following Treatise.
ENTER'D 'PRENTICE'S DEGREE.
Q. FROM whence came you? A. From the Holy Lodge of St. John's.
Q. What Recommendations brought you from thence?
A. The Recommendations which I brought from the Right Worshipful Brothers and
Fellows of the Right Worshipful and Holy Lodge of St. John's, from whence I
came, and Greet you thrice heartily well.
Q. What do you come here to do?
A. Not to do my own proper Will,
But to subdue my Passion still;
The Rules of Masonry in hand to take,
And daily Progress therein make.
Q. Are you a Mason?
A. I am so taken and Accepted to be amongst Brothers and Fellows.
Q. How shall I know that you are a Mason?
A. By Signs and Tokens and perfect Points of my Entrance.
Q. What are Signs?
A. All Squares, Angles and Perpendiculars.
Q. What are Tokens?
A. Certain Regular and Brotherly Gripes.
Exam.Give me the Points of your Entrance. Resp. Give me the first, and I'll give you the
second.
Exam. I Hail it. Resp. I Conceal it.
Exam. What do you Conceal? Resp. All Secrets and Secresy of Masons and Masonry,
unless to a True and Lawful Brother after due Examination, or in a just and worshipful
Lodge of Brothers and Fellows well met.
Q. Where was you made a Mason?
A. In a Just and Perfect Lodge.
Q. What makes a Just and Perfect Lodge?
A. Seven or more.
Q. What do they consist of?
A. One Master, two Wardens, two Fellow-Crafts and two Enter'd 'Prentices.
Q. What makes a Lodge?
A. Five.
Q. What do they consist of?
A. One Master. Two Wardens, one Fellow-Craft, one Enter'd 'Prentice.
Q. Who brought you to the Lodge?
A. An Enter'd 'Prentice.
How did he bring you?
A. Neither naked nor cloathed, barefoot nor shod, deprived of all Metal and in a
right moving Posture.
How got you Admittance?
A. By three great Knocks.
Q. Who receiv'd you?
A. A Junior Warden.
Q. How did he dispose of you?
A. He carried me up to the North-East Part of the Lodge, and brought me back again
to the West and deliver'd me to the Senior Warden.
Q. What did the Senior Warden do with you?
A. He presented me, and shew'd me how to walk up (by three Steps) to the Master.
Q. What did the Master do with you?
A. He made me a Mason.
Q. How did he make you a Mason?
A. With my bare-bended Knee and Body within the Square, the Compass extended
to my naked Left Breast, my naked Right Hand on the Holy Bible; there I took the
Obligation (or Oath)of a Mason.
Q. Can you repeat that Obligation.
A. I'll do my Endeavour.
(Which is as follows.)
I Hereby solemnly Vow and Swear in the Presence of Almighty God and this Right
Worshipful Assembly, that I will Hail and Conceal, and never Reveal the Secrets
or Secresy of Masons or Masonry, that shall be Revealed unto me; unless to a
True and Lawful Brother, after due Examination, or in a Just and Worshipful
Lodge of Brothers and Fellows well met.
I furthermore Promise and Vow, that I will not Write them, Print them, Mark
them, Carve them or Engrave them, or cause them to be Written, Printed,
Marked, Carved or Engraved on Wood or Stone, so as the Visible Character or
Impression of a Letter may appear, whereby it may be unlawfully obtain'd.
All this under no less Penalty than to have my Throat cut, my Tongue taken from
the Roof of my Mouth, my Heart pluck'd from under my Left Breast, them to be
buried in the Sands of the Sea, the Length of a Cable-rope from Shore, where
the Tide ebbs and flows twice in 24 Hours, my Body to be burnt to Ashes, my
Ashes to be be scatter'd upon the Face of the Earth, so that there shall be no
more Remembrance of me among Masons.
So help me God.
Q. What Form is the Lodge?
A. A long Square.
Q. How long?
A. From East to West.
Q. How broad?
A. From North to South.
Q. How high?
A. Inches, Feet, and Yards innumerable, as high as the Heavens.
Q. How deep?
A. To the Centre of the Earth.
Q. Where does the Lodge stand?
A. Upon Holy Ground, or the highest Hill or lowest Vale, or in the Vale of Jehosaphat,
or any other secret Place.
Q. How is it situated?
A. Due East and West.
Q. Why so?
A. Because all Churches and Chappels are or ought to be so.
Q. What supports a Lodge?
A. Three great Pillars.
Q. What are they called?
A. Wisdom, Strength to support, and Beauty.
Q. Why so?
A. Wisdom to contrive, Strength to support, and Beauty to adorn.
Q. What Covering have you to the Lodge?
A. A clouded Canopy of divers Colours (or the Clouds.)
Q. Have you any Furniture in your Lodge?
A. Yes.
Q. What is this?
A. Mosaick Pavement, Blazing Star and Indented Tarsel.
Q. What are they?
A. Mosaick Pavement, the Ground Floor of the Lodge, Blazing Star the Centre, and
Indented Tarsel the Border round about it.
Q. What is the other Furniture of a Lodge?
A. Bible to God, Compass to the Master, and Square to the Fellow-Craft.
Q. Have you any Jewels in the Lodge?
A. Yes.
Q. How many?
A. Six. Three Moveable, and three Immoveable.
Q. What are the Moveable Jewels?
A. Square, Level and Plumb-Rule.
Q. What are their Uses.
A. Square to lay down True and Right Lines, Level to try all Horizontals, and the
Plumb-Rule to try all Uprights.
Q. What are the Immoveable Jewels?
A. Trasel Board, Rough Ashler, and Broach'd Thurnel.
Q. What are their Uses?
A. Trasel Board for the aster to draw his Designs upon, Rough Ashler for the Fellow-
Craft to try their Jewels upon, and the Broach'd Thurnel for the Enter'd 'Prentice
to learn to work upon.
Q. Have you any Lights in your Lodge?
A. Yes, Three.
Q. What do they represent?
A. Sun, Moon and Master-Mason.
N.B. These Lights are three large Candles placed on high Candlesticks.
Q. Why so?
A. Sun to rule the Day, Moon to the Night, and Master-Mason his Lodge.
Q. Have you any fix'd Lights in tour Lodge?
A. Yes.
Q. How many?
A. Three.
N.B. These fix'd Lights are Three Windows, suppos'd (tho' vainly) to be in every
Room where a Lodge is held, but more properly the four Cardinal Points according
to the antique Rules of Masonry.
Q. How are they situated?
A. East, South and West.
Q. What are their Uses?
A. To light the Men to, at and from their Works.
Q. Why are there non Lights in the North? A. Because the Sun darts no Rays from
thence.
Q. Where stands your Master?
A. In the East.
Q. Why so?
A. As the Sun rises in the East and opens the Day, so the Master stands in the East
[with his Right Hand upon his Left Breast being a Sign, and the Square about his
Neck] to open the Lodge and to set his Men at Work.
Q. Where stands your Wardens? A. In the West.
Q. What's their Business?
A. As the Sun sets in the West to close the Day, so the Wardens stand in the West.
[with their Right Hands upon their Laft Breasts being a Sign, and the Level and
Plumb-Rule about their Necks] to close the Lodge and dismiss the Men from Labour,
paying their Wages.
Q. Where stands the Senior Enter'd 'Prentice?
A. In the south.
What is his Business?
A. to hear and receive Instructions and welcome strange Brothers.
Q. Where stands the Junior Enter'd 'Prentice?
A. In the North.
Q. What is his Business?
A. To keep off all Cowans and Evesdroppers.
Q. If a Cowan (or Listner) is catch'd, how is he to be punished?
A. To be plac'd under the Eves of the Houses (in rainy Weather) till the Water runs
in at his Shoulders and out at his Shoos.
Q. What are the Secrets of a Mason?
A. Signs, Tokens and many Words.
Q. Where do you keep those Secrets?
A. Under my Left Breast.
Q. Have you any Key to those Secrets?
A. Yes.
Q. Where do you keep it?
A. In a Bone Bone Box that neither opens nor shuts but with Ivory Keys.
Q. Does it hang or does it lie?
A. It hangs.
Q. What does it hang by?
A. A Tow-Line 9 Inches or a Span.
Q. What Metal is ir of?
A. No manner of Metal at all; but a Tongue of good Report is as good behind a
Brother's Back as before his Face.
N.B. The Key is the Tongue, the Bone Bone Box is the Teeth, the Tow-Line the
Roof of the Mouth.
Q. How many Principles are there in Masonry?
A. Four.
Q. What are they?
A. Point, Line, Superficies and Solid.
Q. Explain them.
A. Point the Centre (round which the Master cannot err) Line Length without
Breadth, Superficies Length and Breadth, Solid comprehends the whole.
Q. How many Principle-Signs?
A. Four.
Q. What are they?
A. Guttural, Pectoral, Manual and Pedestal.
Q. Explain Them.
A. Guttural the Throat, Pectoral the Breast, Manual the Hand, Pedestal the Feet.
Q. What do you learn by being a Gentleman-Mason.
A. Secresy, Morality and Goodfellowship.
Q. What do you learn by being an Operative Mason?
A. Hue, Square, Mould-stone, lay a Level and raise a Perpendicular.
Q. Have you seen your Master to-day?
A. Yes.
Q. How was he Cloathed?
A. In a Yellow Jacket and Blue Pair of Breeches.
N.B. The Yellow Jacket is the Compasses, and the Blue Breeches the Steel
Points.
Q. How long do you serve your Master?
A. From Monday Morning to Saturday Night.
Q. How do you serve him?
A. With Chalk, Charcoal and Earthen Pan.
Q. What do they denote?
A. Freedom, Fervency and Zeal.
Ex. Give me the Enter'd 'Prentice's Sign.
Resp. Extending the Four Fingers of the Right Hand and drawing of them cross his
Throat, is the Sign, and demands a Token.
N.B. A Token is by joining the Ball of the Thumb of the Right Hand upon the first
Knuckle of the Fore-finger of the Brother's Right Hand that demands a Word.
Q. Give me the Word.
A. I'll letter it with You.
Exam.BOAZ. [N.B. The Exam. Says B, Resp. O, Exam. A, Resp. Z, i.e. Boaz.] Give me
another.
Resp. JACHIN. [N.B. Boaz and Jachin were two Pillars in Solomon's Porch. I Kings,
chap. Vii. Ver. 21.]
Q. How old are you?
A. Under Seven. [Denoting he has not pass'd Master.]
Q. What's the Day for?
A. To See in.
Q. What's the Night for?
A. To Hear.
Q. How blows the Wind?
A. Due East and West.
Q. What's a Clock?
A. High Twelve.
The End of the Enter'd 'Prentice's Part.
FELLOW-CRAFT'S DEGREE.
Q. Are you a Fellow-Craft?
A. I am.
Q. Why was you made a Fellow-Craft?
A. For the sake of the Letter G.
Q. What does the G denote?
A. Geometry, or the fifth Science.
Q. Did you ever travel?
A. Yes. East and West.
Q. Did you ever work?
A. Yes, in the Building of the Temple.
Q. Where did you receive your Wages?
A. In the middle Chamber.
Q. How came you to the middle Chamber?
A. Through the Porch.
Q. When you came through the Porch, what did you see?
A. Two great Pillars.
Q. What are they called?
A. J. B. Jachim and Boaz.
Q. How high are they?
A. Eighteen Cubits.
Q. How much in Circumference?
A. Twelve Cubits.
Q. What were they adorn'd with?
A. Two Chapiters.
Q. How high were the Chapiters?
A. Five Cubits.
Q. What were they adorn'd with?
A. Net-Work and Pomegranates.
Q. How came you to the middle Chamber?
A. By a winding Pair of Stairs.
Q. How many?
A. Seven or more.
Q. Why Seven or more?
A. Because Seven or more makes a Just and Perfect Lodge.
Q. When you came to the door of the middle Chamber, who did you see?
A. A Warden.
Q. What did he demand of you?
A. Three Things.
Q. What were they?
A. Sign, Token and a Word.
N.B. The Sign is placing the Right Hand on the Left Breast, the Token is by joining
you Right Hand to the Person that demands it, and squeezing him with the
Ball of your Thumb on the first Knuckle of the middle Finger, and the Word is
Jachin.
Q. How high was the Door of the middle Chamber?
A. So high that a Cowan could not reach to stick a Pin in.
Q. When you came into the middle, what did you see?
A. The Resemblance of the Letter G.
Q. Who doth that G denote?
Vide I Kings,
Chap. 7.
One that's greater than you.
Q. Who's greater than I, That am a Free and Accepted Mason, the Master of a
Lodge.
A. The Grand Architect and Contriver of the Universe, or He that was taken up to
the top of the Pinnacle of the Holy Temple.
Q. Can you repeat the Letter G?
A. I'll do my Endeavour.
THE REPEATING OF THE LETTER G.
Resp. In the midst of Solomon's Temple there stands a G,
A Letter fair for all to read and see,
But few there be that understands
What means that Letter G.
Ex. My Fiend, if you pretend to be
Of this Fraternity,
You can forthwith and rightly tell
What means that Letter G.
Resp. By Sciences are brought to Light
Bodies of various Kinds,
Which do appear to perfect Sight;
But none but Males shall know my Mind.
Ex. The Right shall. Resp. If Worshipful.
Ex. Both Right and Worshipful I am,
To Hail you I have Command,
That you do forthwith let me know,
As I you may understand.
Resp. By Letters Four and Science Five
This G aright doth stand,
In a due Art and Proportion,
You have your Answer, Friend.
N.B. Four Letters are Boaz. Fifth Science Geometry.
Ex. My Friend, you answer well,
If Right and Free Principles you discover,
I'll change your Name from Friend,
And henceforth call you Brother.
Resp. The Sciences are well compos'd
Of noble Structure's Verse,
A Point, a Line, and an Outside;
But a Solid is the last.
Ex. God's good Greeting be to this our happy Meeting.
Resp. And all the Right Worshipful Brothers and Fellows.
Ex. Of the Right Worshipful and Holy Lodge of St. John's.
Resp. From whence I came.
Ex. Greet you, greet you, greet you thrice, heartily well, craving your Name.
Resp. Timothy Ridicule.
Exam. Welcome, Brother, by the Grace of God.
N.B. The Reason why they Denominate Themselves of the Holy Lodge of St.
John's, is, Because he was the Fore-runner of our Saviour, and laid the first Parallel
Line to the Gospel (others do assert, that our Saviour himself was accepted
a Free-Mason whilst he was in the Flesh) but how ridiculous and prophane it
seems, I leave to judicious Readers to consider.
The End of the Fellow-Craft Part.
THE MASTER'S DEGREE.
Q. Are you a Master-Mason?
A. I am; try me, prove me, disprove me if you can.
Q. Where was you pass'd Master?
In a Perfect Lodge of Masters.
Q. What makes a Perfect Lodge of Masters?
A. Three.
How came you to be pass'd Master?
A. By the Help of God, the Square and my own Industry.
Q. How was you pass'd Master?
A. From the Square to the Compass.
Ex. An Enter'd 'Prentice I presume you have been.
R. Jachin and Boaz I have seen;
A Master Mason I was made most rare,
With Diamond, Ashler and the Square.
Ex. If a Master Mason you would be,
You must rightly understand the Rule of Three.
And *M.B. shall make you free: *Machbenah
And what you want in Masonry,
Shall in this Lodge be shewn to thee.
R. Good Masonry I understand;
The Keys of all Lodges are all at my Command.
Ex. You're an heroick Fellow; from whence came you?
R. From the East.
Ex. Where are you going?
R. To the West.
What are you a going to do there?
R. To seek for that which was lost and is now found.
E. What was that which was lost and is now found?
R. The Master-Mason' Word.
Ex. How was it lost?
R. By Three Great Knocks, or the Death of our Master Hiram.
Ex. How came he by his Death?
In the Building of Solomon's Temple he was Master-Mason, and at high 12 at
Noon, when the Men was gone to refresh themselves, as was his usual Custom, he
came to survey the Works, and when he was enter'd into the Temple, there were
Three Ruffians, suppos'd to be Three Fellow-Crafts, planted themselves at the
Three Entrances of the Temple, and when he came out, one demanded the Master's
Word of him, and he reply'd he did not receive it in such a manner, but
Time and a little Patience would bring him to it: He, not satisfied with that Answer,
gave him a Blow, which made him reel; he went to the other Gate, where
being accosted in the same manner and making the same Reply, he received a
greater Blow, and at the third his Quietus.
Ex. What did the Ruffians kill him with?
R. A Setting Maul, Setting Tool and Setting Beadle.
Ex. How did they dispose of him?
R. Carried him out at the West Door of the Temple, and hid him under some Rubbish
till High 12 again.
Ex. What time was that?
R. High 12 at Night, whilst the Men were at Rest.
Ex. How did they dispose of him afterwards? R. They carried him up to the Brow of
the Hill, where they made a decent Grave and Buried him.
Ex. When was he miss'd?
R. The same Day.
Ex. When was he found?
R. Fifteen Days afterwards.
Ex. Who found him? R. Fifteen Loving Brothers, by Order of King Solomon, went out
of the West Door of the Temple, and divided themselves from Right to Left
within Call of each other; and they agreed that if they did not find the Word in
him or about him, the first Word should be the Master's Word; one of the Brothers
being more weary than the rest, sat down to rest himself, and taking hold of
a Shrub, which came easily up, and perceiving the Ground to have been broken,
he Hail'd his Brethren, and pursuing their Search found him decently buried in a
handsome Grave 6 Foot East, 6 West, and 6 Foot perpendicular, and his Covering
was green Moss and Turf, which surprised them; whereupon they replied, Muscus
Domus Dei Gratia, which, according to Masonry, is, Thanks be to God, our Master
has got a Mossy House: So they cover'd him closely, and as farther Ornament
placed a Sprig of Cassia at the Head of his Grave, and went and acquainted King
Solomon.
Ex. What did King Solomon say to all this?
R. He order'd him to be taken up and decently buried, and that 15 Fellow-Crafts
with white Gloves and Aprons should attend his Funeral [which ought amongst
Masons to be perform'd to this Day.]
Ex. How was Hiram rais'd?
R. As all other Masons are, when they receive the Master's Word.
Ex. How is that?
R. By the Five Points of Fellowship.
Ex. What are they?
R. Hand to Hand, Foot to Foot, Cheek to Cheek, Knee to Knee, and Hand in Back.
N.B. When Hiram was taken up, they took him by the Fore-fingers, and her Skin
came off, which is called the Slip; the spreading the Right Hand and placing the
middle Finger to the Wrist, clasping the Fore-finger and the Fourth to the Sides
of the Wrist; is called the Gripe, and the Sign is placing the Thumb of the Right
Hand to the Left Breast, extending the Fingers.
Ex. What's a Master-Mason nam'd.
R. Cassia is my Name, and from a Just and Perfect Lodge I came.
Ex. Where was Hiram inter'd?
R. In the Sanctum Sanctorum.
Ex. How was he brought in?
R. At the West-Door of the Temple.
Q. What are the Master-Jewels?
A. The Porch, Dormer, and Square Pavement.
Q. Explain them.
A. The Porch the Entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum, the Dormer the Windows of
Lights within, the Square Pavement the Ground Flooring.
Ex. Give me the Master's Word.
R. Whisper him in the Ear, and supported by the Five Points of Fellowship beforementioned,
says Machbenah, which signifies The Builder is smitten.
N.B. If any Working Masons are at Work, and you have a desire to distinguish Accepted
Masons from the rest, take a Piece of Stone, and ask him what it smells
of, he immediately replies, neither Brass, Iron, nor Steel, but of a Mason; then
by asking him, how old he is, he replies above Seven, which denotes he has
pass'd Master.
The End of the Master's Part.
THE AUTHOR'S VINDICATION OF HIMSELF FROM THE PREJUDICED PART OF MANKIND.
Of all the Imposition that have appear'd amongst Mankind, none are so ridiculous as the
Mystery of Masonry, which has amus'd the World, and caused various Constructions and
these Pretences of Secrecy, invalid, has (tho' not perfectly) been revealed, and the
grand Article, viz. the Obligation, has several Times been printed in the publick Papers,
but is entirely genuine in the Daily Journal of Saturday, Aug. 22. 1730. which agrees in
its Veracity with that deliver'd in this Pamphlet; and consequently when the Obligation
of Secrecy is abrogated, the aforesaid Secret becomes of no Effect, and must be quite
extinct; for some Operative Masons (but according to the polite Way of Expression, Accepted
Masons) made a Visitation from the first and oldest constituted Lodge (according
to the Lodge Book in London) to a noted Lodge in this City, and was denied Admittance,
because their old Lodge was removed to another House, which, tho' contradictory
to this great Mystery, requires another Constitution, at no less Expence than two
Guineas with an elegant Entertainment, under the Denomination of being put to charitable
Uses, which is justly applied, will give great Enconiums to so worthy an Undertaking,
but it is very much doubted, and most reasonable to think it will be expended towards
the forming another System of Masonry, the old Farbick being so ruinous, that,
unless repair'd by some occult Mystery, will soon be annihilated.
I was induced to publish this mighty Secret for the publick Good, at the Request of several
Masons, and it will, I hope, give entire Satisfaction, and have its desired Effect in
preventing so many credulous Persons being drawn into so pernicious a Society.
FINIS.
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