IV. Of Masters, Wardens, Fellows and Apprentices.

All preferment among Masons is grounded upon real worth and personal merit only; that so the lords may be well served, the brethren not put to shame, nor the Royal Craft despised. Therefore, no Master or Warden is chosen by seniority, but for his merit. It is impossible to described these things in writing, and every brother must attend in his place, and learn them in a way peculiar to his fraternity: Only candidates may know, that no Master should take an Apprentice unless he has sufficient employment for him, and unless he be a perfect youth, having no maim or defect in his body, that may render him incapable of learning the art, of serving his Master's lord, and of being made a brother, and then a Fellow craft in due time, even after he has served such a term of years as the custom of the country directs; and that he should be descended of honest parents; that so, when otherwise qualified, he may arrive to the honor of being the Warden and then the Master of the Lodge, the Grand Warden, and at length the Grand Master of all the Lodges, according to his merit.

No Brother can be a Warden until he has passed the part of a Fellowcraft; or a Master until he has acted as a Warden nor Grand Warden until he has been Master of a Lodge, nor Grand Master unless he has been a Fellowcraft before his election, who is also to be nobly born, or a gentleman of the best fashion, or some eminent scholar, or some curious architect, or other artist, descended of honest parents, and who is singular great merit in the opinion of the Lodges. And for the better and easier and more honorable discharge of his office, the Grand Master has a power to choose his own Deputy Grand Master, who must be then, or must have been formerly the Master of a particular Lodge, and has the privilege of acting whatever the Grand Master, his principal, should act, unless the said principal be present, or by a letter.

These rulers and governors, supreme and subordinate, of the Ancient Lodge, are to be obeyed in their respective stations by all the brethren, according to the old charges and regulation, with all humility, reverence, love and alacrity.