[ANON.], MASONRY VINDICATED: A SERMON. WHEREIN IS CLEARLY AND DEMONSTRATIVELY PROVED, THAT A SERMON, LATELY PUBLISHED, ‘INTITLED MASONRY THE WAY TO HELL’, IS AN INTIRE PIECE OF THE UTMOST WEAKNESS, AND ABSURDITY (1768)

The publication of Masonry the Way to Hell generated an unprecedented pamphlet war in 1768. Five different refutations of this anti-masonic sermon appeared within a few months of its first publication, one of which was translated into German. R. Goadby’s bookshop must have played a key role in disseminating the pamphlets – the attack and two defences were sold in his shop (see items 2 and 6 below). The number of defences is unusual and not characteristic of masonic apologetics of the period. It also underlines the significance of this hot debate, the analysis of which has so far been largely ignored in scholarship. Apart from the anonymous Masonry Vindicated (1), which is probably the earliest refutation (published in March),2 the following defences were printed:

(2) Masonry the Turnpike-Road to Happiness in this Life, and Eternal Happiness Hereafter (London: Printed for S. Bladon in Pater-Noster Row and sold by R. Goadby in Sherborne, published 18 April 1768).3 No copy of this edition, which is not listed in the English Short Title Catalogue, seems to survive.