Tears.—The tears and regret of the two kings are the emblem of the regret you ought to have when you perceive a brother depart from the road of virtue.
The Man Peeping.—By the man you saw peeping, and who was discovered and seized, and conducted to death, is an emblem of those who come to be initiated into our sacred mysteries through a motive of curiosity; and, if so indiscreet as to divulge their obligations, we are bound to take vengeance on the treason by the destruction of the traitor. Let us pray the Eternal to preserve our order from such an evil you have hereof seen an example, in that degree to which you came, by your zeal, fervor and constancy. In that degree you have remarked, that from all the favorites that were at that time in the apartment of Solomon, only nine were elected to avenge the death of Hiram Abiff; this makes good, that a great many are often called, but few chosen. To explain this enigma, a great many of the profane have the happiness to divest themselves of that name, to see and obtain the entrance in our sanctuary; but very few are constant, zealous and fervent, to merit the happiness of coming to the height and knowledge of the sublime truth.
Requisitions To Make a Good Mason.—If you ask me what are the requisite qualities that a Mason must be possessed of, to come to the centre of truth, I answer you, that you must crush the head of the serpent of ignorance. You must shake off the yoke of infant prejudice concerning the mysteries of the reigning religion, which worship has been imaginary, and only founded on the spirit of pride, which envies to command and be distinguished, and to be at the head of the vulgar; in affecting an exterior purity, which characterizes a false piety, joined to a desire of acquiring that which is not its own, and is always the subject of this exterior pride, and unalterable source of many disorders, which being joined to gluttonness, is the daughter of hypocrisy, and employs every matter to satisfy carnal desires, and raises to these predominant passions, altars, upon which she maintains, without ceasing, the light of iniquity, and sacrifices continually offerings to luxury, voluptuousness, hatred, envy, and perjury. Behold, my dear brother, what you must fight against and destroy before you can come to the knowledge of the true good and sovereign happiness! Behold this monster which you must conquer—a serpent which we detest as an idol, that is adored by the idiot and vulgar under the name of religion.
Solomon, King Hiram, and St. John the Baptist.—In the degrees of Elected of Fifteen, Illustrious Knights, Grand Master Architects, and Knights of the Ninth Arch, you have seen many things which are only a repetition of what you have already examined. You will always find in those degrees initial letters enclosed in different triangles, or Deltas. You have also seen the planet Mercury, the chamber called "Gabaon," or the "Third Heaven;" the "winding staircase," the "Ark of Alliance," the "tomb of Hiram Abiff," facing the ark and the urn—the precious treasure found by the assiduous travels—the three zealous brethren Masons—the punishment of the haughty Master Mason, in being buried under the ancient ruins of Enoch's temple—and finally, you have seen the figures of Solomon, and Hiram, King of Tyre, and St. John the Baptist.
3. I. I. I.—By the 3. I. I. I. you know the three sacred names of the Eternal and "Mount Gabaon" (Third Heaven) which you came to by seven degrees that compose the winding staircase.
The seven stars represent the seven principal and different degrees to which you must come to attain the height of glory represented by the mount, where they formerly sacrificed to the Most High! When you arrive to that, you are to subdue your passions, in not doing anything that is not prescribed in our laws.
By the planet Mercury, you are taught continually to mistrust, shun, and run away from those who, by a false practice, maintain commerce with people of a vicious life, who seem to despise the most sacred mysteries—that is, to depart from those who by the vulgar fear, or a bad understanding, are ready to deny the solemn obligations that they have contracted among us.—When you come to the foot of our arch you are to apprehend that you come to the "Sanctum Sanctorum." You are not to return; but rather to persist in sustaining the glory of our order, and the truth of our laws, principles, and mysteries, in like manner as our Respectable Father Hiram Abiff, who deserved to have been buried there for his constancy and fidelity. We have also another example in the firmness of "Galaad," the son of "Sophonia," chief of the Levites, under Surnam, the High Priest, as mentioned in the history of perfection. Learn in this moment, my dear brother, what you are to understand by the figures of Solomon, Hiram, King of Tyre, and St. John the Baptist. The two first exert you, by their zeal in the royal art, to follow the sublime road of which Solomon was the institutor, and Hiram of Tyre, the "supporter;" a title legitimately due to that king, who not only protected the order, but contributed with all his might to the construction of the temple (furnishing stone from Tyre, and the cedars of Lebanus) which Solomon built to the honor of the Almighty.
The third, or St. John the Baptist, teaches you to preach marvellous to this order, which is as much as to say, you are to make secret missions among men, which you believe to be in a state of entering the road of truth, that they may be able one day to see her virtues and visage uncovered.
Hiram Abiff was the symbol of truth on earth. Jubelum Akirop was accused by the serpent of ignorance, which to this day raises altars in the hearts of the profane and fearful. This profaneness, backened by a fanatic zeal, becomes an instrument to the religious power, which struck the first stroke in the heart of our dear Father, Hiram Abiff; which is as much as to say, undermined the foundation of the celestial temple, which the Eternal himself had ordered to be raised to the sublime truth and his glory.
The first age of the world has been witness to what I have advanced. The simple, natural law rendered to our first fathers the most uninterrupted happiness. They were in those times more virtuous; but as soon as the "monster of pride" started up in the air and disclosed herself to those unhappy mortals, she promised to them every seat of happiness, and seduced them by her soft and bewitching speeches, viz.: That "they must render to the Eternal Creator of all things an adoration with more testimony, and more extensive, than they had hitherto done," etc. This Hydra with a hundred heads, at that time misled, and continues to this day to mislead men who are so weak as to submit to her empire; and it will subsist, until the moment that the true elected shall appear and destroy her entirely.