Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of FreemasonryPike, Albert
Religion
Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Pike, Albert
Freemasons
And yet it is here that man most dogmatizes, classifies and describes
God's attributes, makes out his map of God's nature, and his inventory
of God's qualities, feelings, impulses, and passions; and then hangs and
burns his brother, who, as dogmatically as he, makes out a different map
and inventory. The common understanding has no humility. _Its_ God is an
_incarnate_ Divinity. Imperfection imposes its own limitations on the
Illimitable, and clothes the Inconceivable Spirit of the Universe in
forms that come within the grasp of the senses and the intellect, and
are derived from that infinite and imperfect nature which is but God's
creation.
We are all of us, though not all equally, mistaken. The cherished dogmas
of each of us are not, as we fondly suppose, the pure truth of God; but
simply our own special form of error, our guesses at truth, the
refracted and fragmentary rays of light that have fallen upon our own
minds. Our little systems have their day, and cease to be; they are but
broken lights of God; and He is more than they. Perfect truth is not
attainable anywhere. We style this Degree that of Perfection; and yet
what it teaches is imperfect and defective. Yet we are not to relax in
the pursuit of truth, nor contentedly acquiesce in error. It is our duty
always to press forward in the search; for though absolute truth is
unattainable, yet the amount of error in our views is capable of
progressive and perpetual diminution; and thus Masonry is a continual
struggle toward the light.
All errors are not equally innocuous. That which is most injurious is to
entertain unworthy conceptions of the nature and attributes of God; and
it is this that Masonry symbolizes by ignorance of the True Word. The
true word of a Mason is, not the entire, perfect, absolute truth in
regard to God; but the highest and noblest conception of Him that our
minds are capable of forming; and this _word_ is Ineffable, because one
man cannot communicate to another his own conception of Deity; since
every man's conception of God must be proportioned to his mental
cultivation, and intellectual powers, and moral excellence. God is, as
man conceives Him, the reflected image of man himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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