THE ANTIQUITIES OF FREE-MASONRY; COMPRISING ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE FIVE GRAND PERIODS OF MASONRY, FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD TO THE DEDICATION OF KING SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. BY. GEORGE OLIVER, VICAR OF CLEE IN THE COUNTY OF LINCOLN; P. G. CHAPLAIN TO THE RIGHT ON LORD KENSINGTON. Αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἁγγελία, ἣν ἀκούσατε ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, ἵνα ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους. LONDON: G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER, AVE-MARIA LANE. ADVERTISEMENT. This volume is laid before the Public, in the present extension and increasing popularity of Free-Masonry, with a view of recommending it as an auxiliary to Religion. The magnitude of our Fraternity, and the importance attached to the proceedings of the Grand Lodge, as a dignified assembly, with His Most Gracious Majesty and our Royal Brethren at its head, make it essentially necessary that Masonry be received in its true and genuine acceptation ; as a Society founded on the basis of Religion, which cultivates and enforces the Chrissian virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, ana the moral duties emanating from them, like rays of light from the meridian sun. If this attempt meet the approbation of my Brethren, I shall probably complete the undertaking at some future time, by laying before them a View of the Two Additional Periods of Masonry, ending with the Advent of Jesus Christ; in which the Science, or its substitute, will be investigated, in all the various forms which it assumed, in every nation and amongst every people of the ancient world. G. O. Great Grimsby, Feb. 17, 1823. |