y a lad, had not yet come with
his magnificent and cleansing evangel. Empty formalism on one side, a
dead polemical dogmatism on the other, bigotry, bitterness,
intolerance, and interminable feud everywhere, no wonder Bishop Butler
sat oppressed in his castle with hardly a hope surviving.

As for Masonry, it had fallen far and fallen low betimes, but with the
revival following the great fire of London, in 1666, it had taken on
new life and a bolder spirit, and was passing through a
transition--or, rather, a transfiguration! For, when we compare the
Masonry of, say, 1688 with that of 1723, we discover that much more
than a revival had come to pass. Set the instructions of the _Old
Charges_--not all of them, however, for even in earliest times some of
them escaped the stamp of the Church[114]--in respect of religion
alongside the same article in the _Constitutions_ of 1723, and the
contrast is amazing. The old charge read: "The first charge is this,
that you be true to God and Holy Church and use no error or heresy."
Hear now the charge in 1723:

/#
_A Mason is obliged by his Tenure, to obey the moral law; and if
he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist
nor an irreligious Libertine. But though in ancient times Masons
were charged in every country to be of the religion of that
country or nation, whatever it was, yet it is now thought more
expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men
agree, leaving their particular Opinions to themselves: that is,
to be Good men and True, or Men of Honor and Honesty, by whatever
Denomination or Persuasion they may be distinguished; whereby
Masonry becomes the Centre of Union and the Means of conciliating
true Friendship among persons that must have remained at a
perpetual distance._
#/

If that statement had been written yesterday, it would be remarkable
enough. But when we consider that it was set forth in 1723, amidst
bitter sectarian rancor and intolerance unimaginable, it rises up as
forever memorable in the history of men! The man who wrote that
document, did we know his name, is entitled to be held till the end
of time in the grateful and venerative memory of his race. The temper
of the times was all for relentless partisanship, both in religion and
in politics. The alternative offered in religion was an ecclesiastical
tyranny, allowing a certain liberty of belief, or a doctrinal tyranny,
allowing a slight liber