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Zwack assumed the name of Cato. He appears to have been well fitted by his Free Masonry for the highest degrees of Illuminism.

And so, indeed, were a multitude of the fraternity in Germany in 1776, when Weishaupt appeared as the founder of a new school of mystical philosophy.

(P. 81.) "The spirit of innovation had seized all the brethren. No man could give a tolerable account of the origin, history, or object of the order, and it appeared as a lost or forgotten mystery.

"The symbols seemed to be equally susceptible of every interpretation, and none of these seemed entitled to any decided preference. This rendered it a fit instrument for the Illuminees, who commenced operations at Munich, in Bavaria, in the Lodge Theodore of Good Counsel. Of this sect it will be proper to take especial notice."

CHAPTER XLIX.

Free Masonry's Base Service to the Illuminati.

"So spake the enemy of mankind, enclosed
"In Serpent, inmate bad! and toward Eve
"Addressed his way: not with indented wave
"Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear,
"Circular base of rising folds, that towered
"Fold above fold, a surging maze!”

Milton, 9th book.

"WHY introduce the Illuminati into a treatise upon Free Masonry? To burden Masonry with sins not her own?

The Illuminees were a hateful race of demoralizing philosophers, who sought the entire abolition of every form of government, religion, and civil polity; who aimed, under the delusive hope of an Age of Reason, to reduce man to the primitive state of lawless simplicity, when each father should, like Abraham and the Patriarchs, become the priest and absolute sovereign of his own family, and reason be the only book of laws, the sole, code of man.'-What has Free Masonry to do with them?"

Not so much, gentle reader, as they had to do with Free Masonry. They wanted a cloak to cover their schemes; "For," say they, "in secrecy our strength principally lies. On this account we should always conceal ourselves under the name of some other association. The inferior lodges of Free Masonry are the most convenient cloaks for our grand object; [why ?] because the world is already familiarized with the idea that nothing of importance, or worthy of attention, can spring from Masonry." Free Masonry was their chosen servant, and this will not recommend her as an inmate to the mansions of the just.

The chiefs were learned men, practised in the ways of the world, and possessed infernal cunning beyond compare. They chose their measures with much foresight, and prosecuted them with singular address. They studied Free Masonry, what it was; they proved its convenience by a free use. Their knights swore, among other things, "to labour at rendering the ancient Free Masonry triumphant over the false systems which have crept into it."—" I will dedicate my life to the discovery of the true religion and real doctrines of Free Masonry, and I will impart my discoveries to my superiors." (B. p. 84.) And a part of the knight's duty was to obtain the control of the masonic lodges. "In every town of any note situated within their district, the secret chapters shall establish lodges for the three ordinary degrees, and shall cause men of sound morals, of good repute, and of easy circumstances, to be received into the lodges. Such men are much to be sought

after, and are to be made Masons, even though they should not be of any service to Illuminism in its ulterior projects.' "Spare no pains to gain the ascendancy in those lodges which are established, either to reform, or to destroy." (B. vol. iii. p. 91.)

The investigations of such men into the origin of Free Masonry, and their speculations upon its character and design, will be worth having. If they were utterly at a loss to tell whence it sprung, we shall not be sure it was the gift of God to the first Masons, as both editions of the Book of Constitutions of Massachusetts, Preston, Calcott, Hutchinson, and others, declare; if they deemed it a medley of puerilities which the craft themselves do not understand, we shall doubt whether it teaches the seven liberal arts and sciences, as Webb, and Cross, and Preston, and Tannehill, and Dalcho, and a host, maintain. If they describe it, and use it, as the fittest of all instruments for the accomplishment of their diabolical purposes against every form of religion and every system of civil government, we shall doubt, reader, shall we not, whether it does rest, according to Mr. Town, and the Grand Chapter of New-York, "on the same co-eternal and unshaken foundation, contain and inculcate, in substance, the same truths, and propose the same ultimate end, as the doctrines of Christianity taught by divine revelation!"

These impious self-worshippers, to effect their monstrous designs, entered into Free Masonry as Satan in Paradise entered into the serpent. The ruin they wrought in the French revolution, is enough to make every considerate man shudder, and to be jealous of the means by which it was effected. Why should we embrace this modern serpent, court it, honour it? Why not rather shun it with abhorrence, if not with dread? Say to it as of old:

"Because thou hast done this, thou art accursed

"Above all cattle, each beast of the field;

"Upon thy belly grovelling shalt thou go,

"And dust thou shalt eat all the days of thy life."

Milton, 10th book.

It is difficult to conceive that men can be so abandoned to all sense of virtue and of piety-learned men, cunning men, observing men, be so absolutely blind, and stupid, and ignorant, as to seek the subversion of every city, and town, and form of government, and semblance of religious worship. But the proof is indisputable.

I charge not Free Masonry with this guilt; nor yet is her character quite untarnished in the work. She was their willing and faithful servant. (B. p. 158.) "Let the laughers laugh, the scoffers scoff; still the day will come when princes and nations shall disappear from the face of the earth, and when each man shall recognise no other law than his reason. This shall be the grand work of secret societies."

(B. p. 111.) Again, speaking of the means by which to gain his wicked ends, the chief, Weishaupt, says: "these means are the secret schools of philosophy. These schools have been in all ages the archives of nature and of the rights of man. These schools shall one day retrieve the fall of human nature, and princes and nations shall disappear from the face of the earth, and that without any violence. Human nature shall form one great family, and the earth shall become the habitation of the man of reason."

"The inferior lodges of Free Masonry are the most convenient cloaks for our grand object," &c. And not a cloak merely. Weishaupt understands how to moralize upon the meanest implements of handicraft, equal to the fabled Solomon himself. Hear him. (B. p. 125.) "The rough stone of Masonry represents man in the primitive state, savage, but free: the stone split, or broken, is the state of fallen nature, of mankind in a state of civil society, no longer united in one family, but divided according to their states, governments, or religions. The polished stone represents mankind reinstated in its primitive dignity and independence."

Hear him address one of his polished stones, (those who had ascended to the top degrees of Illuminism.) (B. p. 156.) "All we have done for you hitherto, was only to prepare

you to co-operate with us in the annihilation of all magistracy, all governments, all laws, and all civil society; of every republic, and even of democracy, as well as aristocracy and monarchy. If you ask how it is possible for men assembled in towns to live in future without laws or magistrates, the answer is clear-desert your towns and villages, and fire your houses. Did men build houses in the days of the patriarchs? They were all equal and free: the earth belonged to them all: each had an equal right," &c. Weishaupt is mistaken.

Now, a society which was an excellent cloak for such as these, ought to form no part of the habit of an honest man. Weishaupt like the devil,

"With inspection deep

"Considered every creature, which of all

"Most opportune might serve his wiles, and found"
In Masonry, what Satan in serpent,

"Fit vessel, filtest imp of fraud, in whom

To enter, and his dark suggestions hide

“ From sharpest sight.”

Milton, 9th book.

The sin of Masonry was, that it basely received and faithfully served the destroyer; for that alone it deserves to perish, with the reprobation of every honest man.

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