Death itself does not terminate the empire of the priesthood in certain
sects, which finds means to make money even out of the dead bodies
of their followers. These, for a sufficient sum, are permitted to
be deposited in temples, where they have the privilege of spreading
infection and disease. The sacerdotal power extends still further. The
prayers of the church are purchased at a dear rate, to deliver the souls
of the dead from their pretended torments in the other world, inflicted
for their purification. Happy they who are rich in a religion, whose
priests being favourites with God, can be hired to prevail on him
to remit the punishments which his immutable justice had intended to
inflict!
Such are the principal duties recommended by the Christians; and upon
the observation of these they believe their salvation to depend. Such
are the arbitrary, ridiculous, and hurtful practices substituted for the
real duties of morality. We shall not combat the different superstitious
practices, admitted by some sects and rejected by others; such as the
honours rendered to the memory of those pious fanatics and obscure
contemplators whom Roman pontiffs have ranked among the saints. We say
nothing of those pilgrimages which superstition has so often produced,
nor those indulgences by means of which sins are remitted. We shall only
observe, that these things are commonly' more respected where they are
admitted, than the duties of morality, which in those places frequently,
are wholly unknown. Mankind find their natural propensities much
less thwarted by such rites, ceremonies, and practices, than by being
virtuous. A good Christian is a man who conforms exactly to all that his
priests exact from him; these substitute blindness and submission in the
place of all virtues.