[900] An Address, delivered in Essex Lodge, Massachusetts, Dec. 27, 5798 (1798), on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, at the induction of officers. By William Bentley. Essex Lodge was located at Salem, Bentley’s home. The address may be found in the Freemason’s Magazine, February, 1812, pp. 333 et seq. Bentley’s further reflections upon President Adams’s unsatisfactory response to the Vermont Grand Lodge led him to make even more pointed observations. Under date of Feb. 4, 1799, he wrote in his diary: “My address to Essex Lodge out of press. Pres. A. talks like a boy about the danger of the institution. Men of sense who ridicule or oppose the Institution are surprised at his simplicity. If he affects to be afraid, he loosens by the pretence because indifferent persons consider it as a weakness & his judgment suffers, so that he gets neither aid nor confidence.” (Diary, vol. ii, p. 296.)
[901] An Oration, delivered in the Meeting house of the First Parish in Portland, Monday, June 24th, 5799 … in celebration of the anniversary festival of St. John the Baptist. By Brother Amos Stoddard … Portland, 1799.
[902] Ibid., p. 9.
[903] Ibid., p. 10.
[904] Ibid.
[905] Ibid.
[906] A Sermon delivered before Mount Moriah Lodge: at Reading in the County of Middlesex; at the celebration of St. John: June 24th, A. D. 1799. By Caleb Prentiss, A. M., pastor of the First Parish in said town … Leominster (Mass.) … Anno Lucis, 5799.
[907] Prentiss, op. cit., pp. 12, 13.
[908] A Sermon, at the Consecration of the Social Lodge in Ashby, and the Installation of its Officers, June 24, A. D. 1799. By Seth Payson, A. M., pastor of the church in Rindge, Amherst, N. H. 1800.