Ramsay ’ s Spiritual Entourage in France
In this , philanthropy is a way of progressing toward salvation because it offers a first schooling in pure love :
As souls by departing from the love of eternal order have no other principle of union but self-love , nature is so regulated that we cannot subsist without each other . At present men are join ’ d in society chiefly by indigence ; whereas the principle of union in our primitive state was divine charity . The same love that united us then to our almighty original , united us with all his living images ; whereas now the state of corrupt nature has much of a state of war ; and the bonds of our mutual union , are our corporeal wants . By this beautiful order of providence all men stand in need of each other , from the king to the beggar ; yea every individual that lives in society is served by numbers of men without more expence [ sic ] than what he can gain by his own labour . 51
In this need for each other , in the separation of nations , God gives those who have a real understanding of natural religion 52 the opportunity to love the divine order freely , even in its inevitable degradation . “ Exempt from human passions , vengeance and cruelty , all his penal laws are salutary cures ; he is the Physician as well as the Father of spirits , and therefore inflicts no pains , but what are remedies .” 53
That is why , according to Ramsay ’ s Discourses , the Freemason must begin by practicing brotherhood and philanthropy , otherwise known as charity . This must be universal , because this is the way of ensuring that nothing is expected in return , and that the Creator may be loved through His creatures . The reconciliation of mankind is one of the first stages toward the true love of God and final reconciliation . The call for universal brotherhood thus has its roots in a mystical substratum that was gradually forgotten as the Discourses reached a wider readership . The political stance that Ramsay drew from natural and revealed religion accords with his defense of absolute monarchy in his
51 Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 1 , pp . 371-372 .
52 “ The Jews were depositarys of all the sacred doctrines of faith [ ... ]. They were , so to speak , the registers of heaven . We must say the same of the Christian church , under the Gospel . All other nations have only imperfect glimpses , rays and vestiges of true wisdom , and of the hidden science of the saints [ ... ]. Tho ’ these sacred truths have been degraded , altered , obscured and disfigured by the schoolmen , or the Christian mythologists , and tho ’ some faint vestiges of them , may be discovered in the tradition of all nations , yet they are to be found nowhere pure , intire , and uncorrupted in any system of philosophy , in any plan of Paganism , in any ancient books , but in the sacred oracles of the Old and New Testament , deposited in , entrusted to , and preserved by the true Christian church , whose advantages and privileges are , therefore , far superior to these of any other communion . God , however , is still the common Father of spirits , and has left no nation without an inward testimony wrote in their own hearts ; by which they may know and practice the eternal law of love , order , and justice , prayer , mortification and self-denial , supernatural faith , hope and charity alone necessary to salvation .” Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 2 , pp . 383-385 .
53 Ramsay , The Philosophical Principles , Part 1 , p . 369 .
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