54

CHAP. V.

EPISCOPAL POWER AND USURPATION FOUNDED ON THE WEAKNESS OF HUMAN NATURE.

THERE is not a living creature in the universe which has not some constitutional weakness, or original imbecility coeval with its being; I mean some inclinations or disgusts, some peculiar desires or fears, that render it an easy prey to other animals, which, from their constitutional sagacity or experience, know how to take advantage of this infirmity. Of this it would be endless to enumerate particulars. My object is only to shew that all the dignity of human nature, and the superiority which the Almighty has given to man above other beings, have not exempted him from imperfections, which probably were left in his nature to put him in remembrance of his mortality, to humble his pride, and to excite his diligence.

The peculiar foible of mankind is superstition, or an intrinsic and panic fear of beings invisible and unknown. It is obvious to every one that there

must be causes in nature for all the good or evil which does, or ever can, happen to us; and it is impossible for any man so far to divest himself of all concern for his own happiness, as not to be solicitous to know what those causes are; and since, for the most part, they are so hidden and out of sight that we cannot perceive or discover them by our own endeavours; since they are immaterial and in their own nature invisible, we are generally ready to take the ipse dixit of those men who have the dexterity to make us believe that they know more of the matter than we do ourselves.

To this ignorance and credulity we are indebted for the most grievous frauds and impositions which ever did, or do now, oppress mankind. To these we owe the revelations and visions of enthusiasts, all the forged religions in the world, and the abuses and corruptions of the true one, as well as all the idle and fantastical stories of conjurers and witches, of spirits, apparitions, fairies, demons, hobgoblins, and fortune-tellers; the belief in dreams, portents, omens, prognostics, and the various sorts of divinations; all of which, more or less, disturb the greatest part of the world, and have made mankind the dupes and property of knaves and impostors in all ages.

Every thing in the universe is in constant motion, and wherever we move we are surrounded with bodies, every one of which must, in a certain degree, operate on themselves and us; and it can

not be otherwise, that in the variety of actions and events which happen in all nature, but some must appear very extraordinary to those who know not their true causes. Men naturally admire what they cannot comprehend, and seem to do some sort of homage to their understandings in believing whatever is out of their reach to be supernatural.

From hence perpetual advantages have been given, and occasions taken by priests to circumvent and oppress the credulous and unwary. What fraudulent uses have been made of eclipses, meteors, epidemical plagues, inundations, great thunders and lightnings, and amazing prodigies and seeming menaces of nature! What juggling tricks have been, or may be, practised upon the ignorant with glasses, speaking-trumpets, ventriloquies, echoes, phosphorus, magic-lanthorns, mirrors, and innumerable other things! The Americans were made to believe that paper and letters were spirits, which conveyed men's thoughts from one to another; and a dancing mare was in the last century burnt for a witch in the inquisition in Portugal!

Nature works by a thousand ways imperceptible to us. The loadstone draws iron to its embrace; and gold, quicksilver. The sensitive plant shrinks from the touch; some sort of vegetables attract one another and twine together; others grow best apart. The treading upon the torpedo affects and gives freezing pain to the whole body; turkeycocks and pheasants fly at a red rag; a rattle-snake

is said to possess a magical power in his eyes that will force a squirrel to run into his mouth; music will cure the bite of a tarantula; and the frights and longings of pregnant women will stamp impressions upon the babes in embryo. People in their sleep will walk securely over precipices, and the ridges of houses, where they durst not venture when awake. Lightning will melt a sword without injuring the scabbard.

There is a sympathy and antipathy within us, which we all feel, that baffle and get the better of our best reasonings and philosophy. These are shewn in love, in fear, in hatred, in ambition, and in almost every act of the mind; but in nothing so much as in superstition. Sometimes we find a secret panic, and at other times a strange and uncommon energy, a feeling of a mighty power within us; and not being able to account by any deduction of reason, or by any cause of nature, for such sensations, we are easily persuaded to believe them to be supernatural. Hence great philosophers, poets, legislators, illustrious conquerors, and often madmen, have been thought in many ages, by themselves as well as by others, to have been inspired; and even distempers, such as apoplexies, epilepsies, and trances, have been deemed miraculous.

Nothing strikes so strongly upon our senses as that which causes surprise and admiration. There are few men who are not affected by unusual sounds

pomp

and voices, with the groans of others in misery, the solemnity of a coronation or any public show, the of a funeral, the farce of a procession, the power of eloquence, the charms of poetry, the rich and splendid equipage of great men, or the solemn phiz and mien of an enthusiast. Whoever, therefore, can find out the secret of hitting luckily upon this foible and native imbecility in mankind, may govern and lead them as he pleases. Herein has consisted the great skill and success of crafty priests in all ages. They have made use of this power to turn us and wind us to all their purposes, and have built and founded most of their superstitions upon it. They have always adapted their worship rather to catch our passions than convince our minds and enlighten our understandings; all of which I shall prove is directly contrary to the spirit of Christianity and the precepts of the gospel.

For this reason the heathens built their temples in groves, in solitary dark and desert recesses, near or over caverns and grottoes, or in the midst of echoing and resounding rocks, that the hideous and dismal aspect, and often hollow and hoarse bellowing of such places, might strike a solemn awe and religious horror into their votaries, and sometimes help their imaginations to hear voices, and see forms, and so intimidate and prepare them for any stories and impressions which they should think it their interest to make upon them.