The making _Cyril_ a Saint a Dishonour to Religion. Three Sorts of
Persons canonized for Saints.
And now that _Cyril_’s Name puts me once more in mind of him, how
insufferable a burlesquing of God and Man is it to revere so ambitious,
so turbulent, so perfidious, and so cruel a Man, as a _Saint_? since
History shows that this was his just Character. But in good Earnest this
same Title of _Saint_ has not seldom been most wretchedly conferred; for
the greatest Part of the Saints after _Constantine_’s Reign, and
especially since Canonization came in Fashion, are made up of three
Sorts of Persons, the least of all others meriting Veneration. First,
Men have been dubbed Saints, for promoting the Grandeur of the Church by
all their Endeavours, especially by their Writings; which, instead of
employing for the Happiness or Instruction of their Fellow Citizens,
they prostituted to magnify spiritual Authority, to the debasing and
enslaving of their Spirits. The second Sort that have been honoured with
Saintship, were Princes and other powerful or rich Men, however vicious
or tyrannical, who gave large Possessions and Legacies to the Church; or
that with Incapacity, Faggot, Gibbet, Sword, and Proscription, chastised
the Temerity of such as dared to question her Decrees. The third Sort,
were poor groveling Visionaries, boasting of their delirious Enthusiasms
and Extasies; or imposing on the ignorant by formal Mortifications,
falsely reputed Devotion, and were recompensed with this imaginary
Reward, by those that despised their Austerity, at the same Time that
they mainly thrived by the Credit of it. It is no Wonder then, that when
the Epithet _Saint_, which peculiarly belonged to Piety and Innocence,
was thus pompously bestowed on Vice and Impiety, there should prevail
that Deluge of Ignorance, Superstition, and Tyranny, which overwhelmed
almost the whole Christian World. All the Persecutions that ensued, were
so many forcible Means, employed to suppress any Efforts that might be
used for the restoring of Virtue and Learning. By that Antichristian
Spirit fell _Hypatia_, to whom the Clergy of her Time could never
forgive, that she was beautiful yet chaste, far more learned than
themselves, not to be endured in the Laity; and in greater Credit with
the civil Magistrate, whom the Clergy of that Time would needs drive or
lead as their Pack-ass.
_FINIS._