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sciences-their mediators, and substitutes in the service of God, and their despotic spiritual rulers.

'There is undoubtedly much truth in such a representation; but it leaves on the mind an erroneous impression, because it is (at the utmost) only half the truth.

'If, indeed, in any country, priests had been Beings of a different species-or a distinct caste, as in some of the Pagan nations where the priesthood is hereditary;—if this race had been distinguished from the people by intellectual superiority and moral depravity, and if the people had been sincerely desirous of knowing, and serving, and obeying God for themselves, but had been persuaded by these demons in human form that this was impossible, and that the laity must trust them to perform what was requisite, in their stead, and submit implicitly to their guidance, then, indeed, there would be ground for regarding priestcraft as altogether the work of the priests, and in no degree of the people. But we should remember, that in every age and country (even where they were, as the Romish priests were not, a distinct caste), priests must have been mere men, of like passions with their brethren; and though sometimes they might have, on the whole, a considerable intellectual superiority, yet it must always have been impossible to delude men into the reception of such gross absurdities, if they had not found in them a readiness-nay, a craving-for delusion. The reply which is recorded of a Romish priest, is, (not in the sight of God indeed, but) as far as regards any complaint on the part of the laity, a satisfactory defence; when taxed with some of the monstrous impostures of his Church, his answer was, 'The people wish to be deceived; and let them be deceived.'' Such, indeed, was the case of Aaron, and similar the defence he offered, for making the Israelites an image, at their desire. Let it not be forgotten, that the first recorded instance of departure from purity of worship, as established by the revelation to the Israelites, was forced on the priest by the people.

The truth is, mankind have an innate propensity, as to other errors, so, to that of endeavouring to serve God by proxy; -to commit to some distinct Order of men the care of their religious concerns, in the same manner as they confide the care

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of their bodily health to the physician, and of their legal transactions to the lawyer; deeming it sufficient to follow implicitly their directions, without attempting themselves to become acquainted with the mysteries of medicine or of law. For Man, except when unusually depraved, retains enough of the image of his Maker, to have a natural reverence for religion, and a desire that God should be worshipped; but, through the corruption of his nature, his heart is (except when divinely purified) too much alienated from God to take delight in serving Him. Hence the disposition men have ever shown, to substitute the devotion of the priest for their own; to leave the duties of piety in his hands, and to let him serve God in their stead. This disposition is not so much the consequence, as itself the origin of priestcraft. The Romish hierarchy did but take advantage from time to time of this natural propensity, by engrafting successively on its system such practices and points of doctrine as favoured it, and which were naturally converted into a source of profit and influence to the priesthood. Hence sprung-among other instances of what Bacon calls the stratagems of prelates for their own ambition and lucre,'—the gradual transformation of the christian minister-the Presbyter-into the sacrificing priest, the Hiercus (in Latin, sacerdos,' as the Romanists call theirs) of the Jewish and Pagan religions. Hence sprung the doctrine of the necessity of Confession to a priest, and of the efficacy of the Penance he enjoins, and of the Absolution he bestows. These corruptions crept in one by one; originating for the most part with an ignorant and depraved people, but connived at, cherished, consecrated, and successively established, by a debased and worldly-minded Ministry; and modified by them just so far as might best favour the views of their secular ambition. The system thus gradually compacted, was not like Mahometism-the deliberate contrivance of a designing impostor. Mahomet did indeed most artfully accommodate his system to Man's nature, but did not wait for the gradual and spontaneous operations of human nature to produce it. He reared at once the standard of proselytism, and imposed on his followers a code of doctrines and laws ready framed for their reception. The tree which he planted did indeed find a congenial soil; but he planted it at once with its trunk full-formed and its branches displayed. The Romish

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system, on the contrary, rose insensibly, like a young plant from the seed, making a progress scarcely perceptible from year to year, till at length it had fixed its root deeply in the soil, and spread its baneful shade far around.

'Infecunda quidem, sed læta et fortia surgunt,
Quippe solo natura subest ;'

it was the natural offspring of man's frail and corrupt character, and it needed no sedulous culture. It had its source in human passions, not checked and regulated by those who ought to have been ministers of the Gospel, but who, on the contrary, were ever ready to indulge and encourage men's weakness and wickedness, provided they could turn it to their own advantage. The good seed 'fell among thorns;' which being fostered by those who should have been occupied in rooting them out, not only'sprang up with it,' but finally choked and overpowered it.

'In all superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments are fitted to practice in a reverse order.'

'It is a mistake, and a very common, and practically not unimportant one, to conclude that the origin of each tenet or practice is to be found in those arguments or texts which are urged in support of it;-that they furnish the cause, on the removal of which the effects will cease of course; and that when once those reasonings are exploded, and those texts rightly explained, all danger is at an end, of falling into similar errors.

'The fact is, that in a great number of instances, and by no means exclusively in questions connected with religion, the erroneous belief or practice has arisen first, and the theory has been devised afterwards for its support. Into whatever opinions or conduct men are led by any human propensities, they seek to defend and justify these by the best arguments they can frame and then, assigning (as they often do in perfect sincerity) these arguments as the cause of their adopting such notions, they misdirect the course of our inquiry; and thus the chance (however small it may be at any rate) of rectifying their errors is diminished. For if these be in reality traceable to some deep-seated principle of our nature, as soon as ever one false foundation on which they have been placed is removed, another will be substituted; as soon as one theory is proved untenable,

And in the mean time,

a new one will be devised in its place. we ourselves are liable to be lulled into a false security against errors whose real origin is to be sought in the universal propensities of human nature.

Not only Romanism, but almost every system of superstition, in order to be rightly understood, should be (if I may so speak) read backwards. To take an instance, in illustration of what has been said, from the mythological system of the ancients: if we inquire why the rites of sepulture were regarded by them as of such vast importance, we are told that, according to their system of religious belief, the souls of those whose bodies were unburied were doomed to wander disconsolate on the banks of the river Styx. Such a tenet, supposing it previously established, was undoubtedly well calculated to produce or increase the feeling in question; but is it not much the more probable supposition, that the natural anxiety about our mortal remains, which has been felt in every Age and Country, and which many partake of who are at a loss to explain and justify it, drove them to imagine and adopt the theory which gave a rational appearance to feelings and practices already existing?

'And the same principle will apply to the greater part of the Romish errors; the cause assigned for each of them will in general be found to be in reality its effect,-the arguments by which it is supported, to have gained currency from men's partiality for the conclusion. It is thus that we must explain what is at first sight so great a paradox: the vast difference of effect apparently produced in minds of no contemptible powers, by the same arguments, the frequent inefficacy of the most cogent reasonings, and the hearty satisfaction with which the most futile are often listened to and adopted. Nothing is in general easier than to convince one who is prepared and desirous to be convinced; or to gain any one's full approbation of arguments tending to a conclusion he has already adopted; or to refute triumphantly in his eyes any objections brought against what he is unwilling to doubt. An argument which shall have made one convert, or even ettled one really doubting mind, though it is not of course necessarily a sound argument, will have accomplished more than one which receives the unhesitating assent and loud applause of thousands who had

already embraced, or were predisposed to embrace, the conclusion.''

'It is of great practical importance to trace, as far as we are able, each error to its real source. For instance, if we suppose the doctrine of Transubstantiation to have in fact arisen from the misinterpretation of the text, we shall expect to remove the error by showing reasons why the passage should be understood differently, a very reasonable expectation, where the doctrine has sprung from the misinterpretation, but quite otherwise where, as in this case, the misinterpretation has sprung from the doctrine. And that it has so sprung, besides the intrinsic improbability of men being led by the words in question to believe in Transubstantiation, we have the additional proof that the passage was before the eyes of the whole Christian world for ten centuries before the doctrine was thought of.

'Another exemplification of this principle may be found in the origin of the belief in Romish supremacy and infallibility. This indeed had been gradually established before it was distinctly claimed. Men did not submit to the authority, because they were convinced it was of divine origin, and infallible; but on the contrary, they were convinced of this, because they were disposed and accustomed so to submit. The tendency to teach for doctrines the commandments of men,' and to acquiesce in such teaching, is not the effect, but the cause, of their being taken for the commandments of God."

'The causes of superstition are-pleasing and sensual rites and

ceremonies.

The attributing of some sacred efficacy to the performance of an outward act, or the presence of some material object, without any inward devotion of the heart being required to accompany it, is one of the most prevailing characteristics of superstition. It is at least found, more or less in most species of it. The tendency to disjoin religious observances (that is, what are intended to be such), from heartfelt and practical religion, is one of the most besetting evils of our corrupt nature. Now, no one can fail to perceive how opposite this is to true piety. Empty forms not only supersede piety by standing in its place, but

1 Errors of Romanism, 3rd edition, Essay IV. § 2, p. 186-189.

2 Ibid. pp. 192, 193.

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