Of religious tales. gether, and the same instrument, that is, the same judgment to combine them; they have therefore necessarily formed the same conclusions: it is, because, in general, all are proud; that, without any particular revelation, and consequently without proof, all regard man as the only favourite of heaven, and the principal object of its cares. May we not, after a certain monk, sometimes repeat, "What is a capuchin compared to " a planet." Must we, to found the haughty pretensions of man on facts, suppose, as in certain religions, that the Divinity, forsaking heaven for earth, formerly came down to converse with mortals in the form of a fish, a serpent, or a man? Must we, to prove the interest which heaven takes in the inhabitants of the earth, publish books, in which, according to some impostures, are included all the precepts and duties that God requires of man? Such a book, if we believe the Mussulmans, composed in heaven, was brought down to the earth by the angel Gabriel, and given by that angel to Mahomet. It is called the Koran. When we open this book, we find it capable of a thousand interpretations: it is obscure and unintelligible; yet such is human blindness, that they still regard as divine, a work in which God is painted under the form of a tyrant; where this same God is incessantly employed in punishing his slaves for not comprehending what is incomprehensible; in short, where Impostures of the ministers of false religions. this God, the author of phrases that are unintelligible without the commentary of an Iman, is properly nothing more than a stupid legislator, whose laws have constantly need of interpretation. How long will the Mussulmans preserve so much veneration for a work so filled with absurdities and blasphemies? To conclude; if the metaphysics of false religions, if the excursions of human minds in the countries of souls, and the discoveries in the intellectual regions have been every where the same, let us further see if the impostures (33) of the sacerdotal bodies for sup porting these false religions, have not in all countries preserved amongst themselves the same resemblances. CHAP. XXI. THE IMPOSTURES OF THE MINISTERS OF FALSE RELIGIONS. In every country, the same motives of interest, and IN the same facts have combined to furnish sacerdotal bodies with the same means to impose on the people ; and in every country the priests have made use of them*. A private person may be moderate in his * In the Indies the priests annex certain virtues, and indulgences desires, Methods by which the priests attain power and wealth. desires, and content with what he possesses; a body is always ambitious: it constantly endeavours, with greater or less rapidity, to increase its power and wealth. The desire of the clergy has been in all times to be powerful and opulent*. By what method can it satisfy this desire? By the vending of hope and fear. The priests, wholesale dealers in these commodities, were sensible that the sale would be certain and lucrative; and that if hope supported the hawker who sold in the streets the chance of a great prize, and the quack who sold on a scaffold the chance of a cure, it would in like manner maintain the bonze, and talapoin, who sold in their temples the fear of hell and the hope of heaven: and if the quack made a fortune by vending one of these commodities only, that is hope, the priest must make a greater by selling both hope and fear. Man, said they, is timid; there will consequently be most got by the sale of the last article. But to whom shall we sell it? To the sinners. And to whom sell hope? To to extinguished fire brands, and sell them very dear. At Rome father Peepe, a jesuit, sold in like manner little prayers to the Virgin: he made hens swallow them, affirming, that they would make them lay their eggs better. * What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year: And that which was prov'd true before Proved false again?-Two hundred more. T. HUDIBRAS. the Methods by which the priests attain power and wealth. the penitents. Convinced of this truth, the priesthood considered that a great number of buyers supposed a great number of sinners; and that as the presents of the sick enriched the physician, offerings and expiations of sinners would enrich the priest; and therefore as sick people were necessary to one, sinners were to the other. The sinner would be constantly a slave to the priest; and by the multiplication of sins, which would promote the sale of indulgences, masses, &c. the power and riches of the clergy would increase. But if among the sins the priests counted those actions only that were really prejudicial to society, the sacerdotal power would be of little consequence; it would only extend to cheats and villains: now the clergy would have it extend to honest men also. To effect this it was necessary to create such crimes as honest men might commit. The priest therefore ordained that the least liberties between the two sexes, that the mere desire of pleasure, should be a sin. They moreover instituted a great number of superstitious ceremonies, and ordered every individual to obey them; declaring that the neglect of the observation of those ceremonies was the greatest of all crimes, and that the violation of the ritual law should be, as among the Jews, if possible, more severely punished than the most abominable villainy. These rites and ceremonies, more or less numerous among the different nations, were every where nearly the same: they every where held sacred and secured Methods by which the priests attain power and wealth. secured to the priesthood the greatest authority over the several orders of the state (34). There were however among the priests of different nations, some, who, more dexterous than others, exacted from the people not only the observance of certain ceremonies, but the belief of certain dogmas also. The number of these dogmas increased insensibly, and with them increased infidels and heretics*. What did the clergy then? They ordained that heresy should be punished with the confiscation of property; and this law augmented the riches of the church: they decreed moreover, that infidelity should be punished with death; and this law augmented their power. From the moment the priests condemned Socrates, genius, virtue, and even kings themselves trembled before the sacerdotal power; its throne was supported by consternation and panic terror: which spreading over the minds of the people the darkness of ignorance, became the unshaken props of pontifical power. When man is forced to extinguish the light of reason within him, and has no knowledge of what is just or unjust, it is then he consults the priest, and implicitly follows his counsels. But why has not man recourse rather to the natural law? The false religions themselves are founded on * We say in Europe, God is in heaven: to say so in Bulgaria is heresy and impiety. that |