Jachin and Boaz, or, The Free Mason's Catechism/Entered Prentice's Degree
ENTERED PRENTICE'S DEGREE.
Q. From whence came you?
A. From the Holy Lodge of St John's.
Q. What recommendation brought you from thence?
A. The recommendation which I brought from the Right Worshipful Brothers and Fellows, of the Right Worshipful and Holy Lodge of St John's, from whence I come and greet you thrice heartily well.
Q. What do you come here to do?
A. Not to do my own proper will.
But to subdue my passion still;
The rules of Masonry in hand to take,
And daily progress therein to make.
Q. Are you a Mason?
A. I am so taken and accepted to be among Brothers and Fellows.
Q. How can I know that you are a Mason?
A. By signs and Tokens, and Perfect Points of Entrance,
Q. What are signs?
A. All Squares, Angles and Perpendiculars.
Q. What are Tokens?
A. Certain regular and brotherly grips.
Ex. Give me the Points of your entrance.
Resp. Give the first, and I will give you the second.
Ex. I bail it.
Resp. I conceal it.
Ex. What do you conceal?
Resp. All secrets and secrecy of Masons and Masonry, unless to a true and lawful Brother, after due examination, or in a just and worshipful Lodge of Brothers and Fellows well met.
Q. Where was you made a Mason?
A. In a just and perfect Lodge.
Q. What makes a just and perfect Lodge?
A. Seven or more.
Q. What do they consist of?
A. One Master, two Fellow-crafts, and two Entered Prentices.
Q. What makes a lodge?
A. Five.
Q. What do they consist of?
A. One Master, two Wardens, one Fellow-craft and one Entered Prentice.
Q. Who brought you to the Lodge?
A. An Entered Prentice.
Q. How did he bring you?
A. Neither clothed nor naked, bare footed nor shod, deprived of all metal, and in a right moving posture.
Q. How got you admittance?
A. By three great knocks.
Q. Who received you?
A. A Junior Warden.
Q. How did he dispose of you?
A. He carried me to the north-east part of the lodge, and brought me back again to the west, and delivered me to the Senior Warden.
Q. What did the Senior Warden do with you?
A. He presented me, and shewed me how to walk up by three steps to the Master.
Q. What did the Master do with you?
A. He made me a Mason.
Q. How did he make you a Mason?
A. With my bare-bended knee, and my body within the square, the compass extended to my naked left breast; my naked right hand on the Holy Bible, there I took the obligation or oath of a Mason.
Q. Can you repeat that obligation?
A. I will do my endeavour.
Which is as follows:—
"I hereby solemnly vow and swear, in the presence of ——— and this Right Worshipful Assembly, that I will hail and conceal, and never reveal the secrets or secrecy of Masons or Masonry that shall be revealed unto me, unless to a true and lawful Brother, after an examination, or in a just and and worshipful Lodge of Brothers and Fellows well met."
"I furthermore promise and vow, That I will not write them, print them, mark them, carve them, or engrave them, or cause them to be written, carved, or engraven, on wood or stone, so as the visible character or impression of a letter may appear, whereby it may be unlawfully obtained. All this under no less penalty than to have my throat cut, my tongue taken from the roof of my mouth, my heart plucked from under my left breast, then to be buried in the sands of the sea, the length of a cable rope from the shore, where the sea ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours; my body to be then burnt to ashes, my ashes to be scattered upon the face of the earth, so that there shall be no more remembrance of me among Masons.
Q. What form is a Lodge?
A. A long square.
Q- How long?
A. From east to west.
Q. How broad?
A. From north to south.
Q. How high?
A. Inches, feet, and yards innumerable, as high as the clouds.
Q. How deep?
A. To the centre of the earth.
Q. Where does the Lodge stand?
A. Upon the highest hill or lowest vale, or in the valley of Jehosaphat, or any other secret place,
Q. How is it situated?
A. Due East and West.
Q. Why so?
A. Because all churches and chapels are or ought to be so.
Q. What supports a Lodge?
A. Three great pillars.
Q. What are they called?
A. Wisdom, to contrive; Strength, to support; and Beauty, to adorn.
Q. What is the covering of a Lodge?
A. A cloudy canopy of divers colours, or the clouds.
Q. Is there any furniture in a lodge?
A. Yes.—Q. What is it?
A. A Mosaic pavement, the ground-floor of the lodge; blazing star, the centre; and indented tarsel, the border around it.
Q. What is the other furniture in a Lodge?
A. A Bible, compass, and Square.
Q. Who do they properly belong to?
A. The Bible to God, the compass to the Master, and square to the Fellow-craft.
Q. Have you any jewels in the Lodge?
A. Yes.
Q. How many?
A. Six, three moveable, and three immoveable.
Q. What are the moveable jewels?
A. The Square, Level, and Plumb-rule.
Q. What are their uses?
A. The square, to lay down true and right lines; a level, to try all horizontals; And the plumb-rule, to try all uprights.
Q. What are the immoveable jewels?
A. The trazel-board, rough-ashler, and broached thurnal.
Q. What are their uses?
A. A trazel-board, for the Master to draw his designs upon; rough-ashler, for the fellow craft to try their jewels upon; and the broached-thurnal for the Entered Prentice to learn to work upon.
Q. Have you any lights in the Lodge?
A. Yes, three.
Q. What do they represent?
A. The sun; moon, and Master-mason.
N.B.—These lights are three large candles, placed on high candlesticks.
Q. Why so?
A. The Sun to rule the day, the Moon the night, and the Master-Mason his Lodge.
Q. Have you any fixed lights in the Lodge?
A. Yes.
Q. How many?
A. Three.
N.B.—These fixed lights are three windows, supposed, though vainly, to be in every room where a Lodge is held; but more properly, by the four cardinal points, according to the ancient rules of Masonry.
Q. How are they situated?
A. East, South, and West; to light the men to, at, and from their work.
Q. Why are there no lights in the North?
A. Because the sun darts no rays from thence.
Q. Where stands your Master?
A. In the East.
Q. Why so?
A. As the sun rises in the East, and opens the day; so the Master stands in the East, with his right hand upon his left breast, being a sign, and the square about his neck, to open the Lodge, and set his men to work.
Q. Where stands your Wardens?
A. In the West.
Q. What is their business?
A. As the Sun sets in the West, to close the day; so the Wardens stand in the West, with their right hands upon their left breasts, being a sign, and the Level and Plumb-rule about their necks, to close the Lodge, and dismiss the men from their labour, paying their wages.
Q. Where stands the Senior Entered Prentice?
A. In the South.
Q. What is his business?
A. To hear and receive instructions, and welcome strange brothers.
Q. Where stands the junior Entered Prentice?
A. In the North.
Q. What is his business?
A. To keep off cowans and eves-droppers.
Q. If a cowan or listener is catched, how is he to be punished?
A. He is to be placed under the eves of the houses in rainy weather, till the water run in at his shoulders and out at his shoes. Q. What are the secrets of a Mason?
A. Signs, Tokens, and many words.
Q. Where do you keep those secrets?
A. Under my left breast.
Q. Have you any key to those secrets?—A. Yes.
Q. Where do you keep it?
A. In a bone-box, that neither opens nor shuts but with ivory keys.
Q. Does it hang, or does it lie?
A. It hangs.
Q. What does it hang by?
A. By a tow-line, nine inches or a span.
Q. What metal is it made of?
A. No manner of metal at all, but a tongue of good report behind a brother's back, or before his face.
N.B.—The key is the tongue, the bone-box the teeth, the tow line the root of the mouth.
Q. How many Principles are there in Masonry?
A. Four.
Q. What are they?
A. Point, Line, Superficials and Solid.
Q. Explain them?
A. Point, the centre line, round which the Master cannot err: Length, without breadth.— Superficials, length and breadth. Solid comprehends the whole.
Q. How many principal signs are there?
A. Four.
Q. What are they?
A. A Gutteral, the throat; Pectoral, the breast; Manuel, the hand; Pedestal, the feet.
Q. What do you learn by being a Gentleman Mason?
A. Secrecy, morality, and good fellowship.
Q. What do you learn by being an Operative Mason?
A. To hew, square, mould stone, lay a level, and raise a perpendicular.
Q. Have you seen your Master to-day?—A. Yes.
Q. How was he cloathed?
A. In a yellow jacket, and a blue pair of breeches.
N.B.—The yellow jacket is the compasses, the blue breeches is the steel points.
Q. How long do you serve your Master?
A. From Monday morning till Saturday night.
Q. How do you serve him?
A. With chalk, charcoal, and earthern pan.
Q. What do they denote? A. Freedom, fervency, and zeal.
Ex. Give me the Entered Prentice's Sign.
Resp. Extending the four fingers of the right hand, and drawing them across his throat, is the Sign, and demands a Token.
N.B.—A Token is, by joining the ball of the thumb of the right hand to the first knuckle of the fore-finger of the Brother's right hand, that demands a Word. Ex. Give me the Word.
Resp. I will letter it with you.
Ex. BOAZ. N.B.—The Ex. says B. Resp. O. Ex. A. Resp. Z., i. e. BOAZ.
Ex. Give me another.
Resp. JACHIN.
N.B.—Boaz and Jachin were two pillars in Solomon's porch, 1. Kings, vii. 21.
Q. How old are you?
A. Under seven.
(Denoting he has not passed Master.)
Q. What is the day for?
A. To see in.
Q. What is the night for?
A. To hear.
Q. How blows the wind?
A. Due East and West.
Q. What o'clock is it?
A. High twelve.