It's pretty clear Spurgeon was familiar with freemasonry and their terminology. After all 19th century England was a bastion of freemasonry. However, that in no way at all indicates that he was a member or somehow amenable to the sect.
Most claims that he was, that I have seen, are merely based on the fallacy of association. For example, the following connection has been forwarded as "proof" of where his loyalties really lay:
Spurgeon: “In that time before all time, when there was no day but “The Ancient of Days,” when matter and created mind were alike unborn, and even space was not, God, the great I Am, was as perfect, glorious, and blessed as he is now. There was no sun, and yet Jehovah dwelt in light ineffable; there was no earth, and yet his throne stood fast and firm; there were no heavens, and yet his glory was unbounded.”
Freemasonry text: “May all Elect Masons, like the Elect of God, put on charity, which is the bond of perfection. May our loins be girt about with the girdle of truth ; and finally, having been faithful in all our course, may we be brought to behold the light ineffable, and admitted into that sacred place where the sun shall no more give light by day"
The same kind of "proofs" have been used to link Spurgeon to the cult of Theosophy:
Spurgeon: “This is spoken of as one of the results of the coming of the Lord: he would test and try all things, destroy the false and the evil, and make those pure whom he permitted to remain. Behold, the Promised One has come!”
Theosophic writing: "Baha Ulah, his life thus spared, was exiled with his family and some of his followers to the Turkish dominions. There is Bagdad he declared to his followers, what they had already suspected, that he was the Promised One, foretold by the Bab, the great Manifestation of God come for all the religions of the world.”
It doesn't take much to immediately see that these are utterly ridiculous cases of claiming that because both used the same (common) terminology they must be linked.
Insofar as Spurgeon did employ popular freemasonic or other occultic terms, it seems to me he did so not as a means of promoting or commending them, but rather with the intent of expropriating them. In other words, he would demonstrate that the spiritual claims they would make, or desirable traits they were claiming for themselves actually have their true and authentic fulfillment in Christianity. In this he was a master at turning such groups' very concepts against them. Consider these statements invoking freemasonry itself:
"The life of a Christian is an entirely different thing from the life of other men, entirely different from his own life before his conversion. And when people try to counterfeit it, they cannot accomplish the task. A person writes you a letter and wants to make you think he is a believer, but within about half-a-dozen sentences there occurs a line which betrays the lie. The hypocrite has very nearly copied our expressions, but not quite! There is a Freemason among us, and the outside world watches us a bit, and by-and-by they pick up certain of our signs. But there is a private sign which they can never imitate, and therefore at a certain point, they break down. A godless man may pray as much as a Christian, read as much of the Bible as a Christian, and even go beyond us in externals—but there is a secret which he knows not and cannot counterfeit!" (Sermon, October 30, 1881)
"If any railing accusation is raised against any brother in Christ, reckon that his character is as dear to you as your own! Let a sacred Freemasonry be maintained among us, if I may liken a far higher and more spiritual union to anything which belongs to common life. You are members, one of another—see that you fervently love each other with a pure heart." (Christ and His Table Companions)
One must also consider this extremely unflattering comment that Spurgeon made regarding the influence of freemasonary:
We are ourselves acquainted with many who have been ruined by bad company, — such were C , who became a reprobate through spending his Sabbaths in excursions and amusement; F, who was led into peculation and ultimate embezzlement through his friends of the billiardtable; He, who was never worth a penny-piece after he had found his heaven in the banquets of the Freemasons; and J, who went from bad to worse through the company of those who laugh at purity, and call vice pleasure. Indeed, the list is endless; and we shall be conceited to no ordinary degree if we imagine that we shall be safe where so many have fallen, never to rise again.
(The Sword and the Trowel, December, 1884)
