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A PRAYER SAID AT THE OPENING OF
A LODGE, BY JEWISH FREE-MASONS.
O LORD! excellent thou art in thy truth, and there is nothing greater in comparison to thee; for thine is the praise, from all the works of thy hands, for evermore. Enlighten us, we beseech thee, in the true knowledge of Masonry. By the sorrows of Adam, thy first made man—by the blood of Abel, thy holy one—by the righteousness of Seth, in whom thou art well pleased,—and by the covenant with Noah, in whose architecture thou wast pleased to save the seed of thy beloved; number us not among those that know not the statutes, nor the divine mysteries of the secret Cabballa. But grant, we beseech thee, that the Ruler of the Lodge may be endued with knowledge and wisdom, to in-struct us, and explain his secret mysteries, as our holy brother Moses did (in his Lodge) to Aaron, to Eleazer, and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, and the seventy Elders of Israel. And grant that we may understand, learn, and keep all the commandments of the Lord, and this holy mystery, pure and undefiled unto our lives end.
IN THE PREFACE TO THE MISHNAW, WE FIND
TRADITION OF THE JEWS EXPLAINED AS
FOLLOWS,
God not only delivered the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, but the explanation of it likewise. When Moses came down from the Mount and entered into his tent, Aaron went to visit him, and Moses acquainted Aaron with the laws he had
