After having seen the inutility and even danger of the perfections,
virtues, and duties proposed by the Christian religion, let us enquire
whether its political influences be more happy, and whether it can in
reality promote the welfare of nations among whom it is established and
faithfully observed. We at once find, that wherever this religion is
admitted, two opposite legislations, ever at variance with each other,
establish themselves. Although this religion preaches love and peace, it
soon annihilates the effects of those precepts by the divisions which
it necessarily sows among its sectaries, who unavoidably interpret
diversely the ambiguous oracles announced in Holy Writ. We find,
that from the infancy of religion the most acrimonious disputes
have continually taken place among divines. The successive ages of
Christianity have been stained with schisms, heresies, persecutions,
and contests, widely discordant from its boasted spirit of peace and
concord; which is in fact incompatible with a religion whose precepts
are so dark and equivocal. In all religious disputes, each party
believes that God is on its side, and consequently they are obstinate.
Indeed, how can it be otherwise, when they confound the cause of God
with that of their own vanity? Thus, mutually averse to concession, they
quarrel and fight until force has decided a contest in which they never
appeal to reason, in fact, political authorities have ever been forced
to interfere in all the dissensions which have arisen among Christians.
Governments have always taken in the frivolous disputes of priests, and
foolishly considered them as objects of the last importance. They have
conceived, that in a religion established by God himself there could
be nothing of a trifling nature. Thus, princes have armed themselves
against their own subjects, whose opinions differed from theirs. The way
of thinking at court has decided the creed and the faith of subjects.
Opinions supported by kings and priests have been the only true
ones. Their creatures have been the guardians of orthodoxy, and were
commissioned to exterminate all whom they chose to denominate heretics
and rebels.
The prejudices of princes or their false policy, have caused them
to look upon those of their subjects, who differ from themselves in
religious opinions, as bad citizens, dangerous to the state, and enemies
to their power. If, leaving to priests the business of finishing their
own impertinent disputes, they had not assisted their quarrels and
persecutions, they would have died away of themselves, and never
have disturbed the peace of nations. If those kings had impartially
recompensed the good and punished the bad, without regard to their
worship, ceremonies, and speculative opinions, they would not have made
many of their subjects such enemies to that power, by which they found
themselves oppressed. Christians have always attempted to reclaim
heretics by injustice, violence, and persecution. Ought not they to have
perceived, that this conduct was calculated only to produce hypocrites
and hidden enemies, of open rebellions? But these reflections are not
designed for princes, who from their infancy, have been filled with
fanaticism and prejudices; They, instead of being actuated by virtuous
motives, have formed obstinate attachments to frivolities, and impetuous
ardour for doctrines foreign to the welfare of their states, and
a boundless wrath against all who refuse to bend to their despotic
opinions. Such sovereigns find it a shorter way to destroy mankind than
reclaim them by mild means. Their haughty despotism will not condescend
to reason. Religion assures them that tyranny is lawful, and cruelty
meritorious when they are employed in the cause of heaven.
The Christian religion, in fact, always makes despots and tyrants of all
the sovereigns by whom it is adopted. It represents them as gods upon
earth; it causes their very caprices to be respected as the will of
heaven itself. It delivers mankind into their hands as an herd of
slaves, of whom they may dispose at their pleasure. In return for their
zeal for religion, all the outrages upon justice that they can commit
are forgiven, and their subjects are commanded, under pain of the wrath
of the Most High, to submit without a murmur to the sword that strikes
instead of protecting themselves. It is not, therefore, matter of
surprise, that since the establishment of this religion, we see so
many nations groaning under devout tyrants, who, although obstinately
attached to religion, have been unjust, licentious, and cruel. Whatever
were the oppressions and ravages of these religious or hypocritical
princes, the priests have not failed to preach submission to their
subjects: On the other hand, let us not be surprised to see so many weak
and wicked princes, support in their turns the interest of a religion,
which their false policy judged necessary to the maintenance of their
authority. If kings were enlightened, just and virtuous, and knew and
practised their real duties, they would have had no need of the aid of
superstition in governing nations. But as it is more easy to conform to
rites than to acquire talents or practise virtue, this religion has,
in princes, too often found support for itself, and destruction for its
enemies.
The ministers of religion have not had the same complaisance for
princes, who refused to make a common cause with them, espouse their
quarrels, and become subservient to their passions. They have arisen
against those who have thwarted their views, punished their excesses,
touched their immunities, endeavoured to subject them to reason, or
repress their ambitious designs. The priests on such occasions, cry out,
Impiety! Sacrilege! Then they pretend that the sovereign puts his hand
to the censor, and usurps the rights granted them by God himself. Then
they endeavour to excite nations to rebellion. They arm fanatics against
sovereigns, whom they declare tyrants, for having been wanting in
submission to the church. Heaven is always ready to revenge any
injustice done to its ministers. They are themselves submissive, and
preach submission to others, only when they are permitted to share the
authority, or are too feeble to resist it. This is the reason why the
apostles, in the infancy of Christianity, being destitute of power,
preached subordination. No sooner had this religion gained sufficient
strength, than it preached resistance and rebellion; dethroning some
kings and assassinating others.
In every political body, where this religion is established, there are
two rival powers, which, by incessant contention, convulse and wound the
state. The citizens divide into opposite parties, each of which
fights, or thinks it fights, for God. These contests at different times
terminate differently, but the triumphant party is always in the right.
By attentive examination of such events, we shall escape the dominion of
fanaticism. It is by stimulating mankind to enquiry, that they must be
freed from the shackles of superstition. Let mankind think till they
have thrown aside their prejudices, and they will think justly. The
reign of the priesthood will cease when men cease to be ignorant and
credulous. Credulity is the offspring of ignorance, and superstition is
the child of credulity.
But most kings dread that mankind should be enlightened. Accomplices
with the priesthood, they have formed a league with them to stifle
reason, and persecute all who confide in its guidance. Blind to their
own interests, and those of their subjects, they wish only to command
slaves, forgetting those slaves are always at the disposal of the
priests. Thus we see science neglected, and ignorance triumphant, in
those countries where this religion holds the most absolute dominion.
Arts and sciences are the children of liberty, and separated from
their parent they languish and die. Among Christian nations, the least
superstitious are the most free, powerful, and happy. In countries where
spiritual and temporal despotism are leagued, the people grovel in the
most shameful ignorance and lethargic inactivity. The European nations,
who boast of possessing the purest faith, are not surely the most
flourishing and powerful. Their kings, enslaved themselves by priests,
have not energy and courage enough to make a single struggle for their
own welfare or that of their subjects. Priests, in such states, are the
only order of men who are rich; other citizens languish in' the deepest
indigence. But of what importance are the power and happiness of nations
to the sectaries of a religion who seek not for happiness in this world,
who believe riches injurious, preach a God of poverty, and recommend
abasement to the soul, and mortification of the flesh? It is without
doubt to oblige people to practise these maxims, that the clergy, in
many Christian states, have taken possession of most of the riches, and
live in splendour, while their fellow-citizens are set forward in the
road to heaven, unincumbered with any burthen of earthly wealth.
Such are the advantages political society derives from the Christian
religion. It forms an independent state within a state. It renders the
people slaves.
When sovereigns are obedient to it, it favours their tyranny. When they
are disobedient, it renders their subjects fanatic and rebellious. When
it accords with political power, it convulses, debases, and impoverishes
nations; when not, it makes citizens unsocial, turbulent, intolerant,
and mutinous.
If we examine in detail the precepts of this religion, and the maxims
which flow from its principles, we shall find it interdicts every thing
that can make a nation flourish. We have already seen the ideas of
imperfection that it attaches to marriage, and its esteem of celibacy.
These notions are highly unfavourable to population, which is,
incontrovertibly, the first source of power in a state.
Commerce is not less contradictory to the spirit of a religion, the
founder of which pronounced an anathema against riches, and excluded
them from his kingdom. All industry is interdicted to perfect
Christians; they live a provisory life on earth, and never concern
themselves with the morrow.
Must it not be a great temerity and sin for a Christian to serve in war?
Is not the man, who has never the right to believe himself absolutely
in a state of grace, extremely rash when he exposes himself to eternal
damnation? Is not the Christian, who ought to have charity for all men,
and love even his enemies, guilty of an enormous crime, when he kills
a man of whose dispositions he is ignorant, and whom he, perhaps,
precipitates at once into hell? A Christian soldier is a monster;
unless, indeed, he fights in the cause of religion. Then, if he dies,
"he dies a blessed martyr."
The Christian religion has always declared war against science and all
human knowledge. These have been looked upon as obstacles to salvation.
Neither reason nor study are necessary to men, who are to submit
their reason to the yoke of faith. From the confession of Christians
themselves, the founders of their religion were simple and ignorant men.
Their disciples must be as little enlightened as they were to admit the
fables and reveries they have received from them. It has always been
remarked, that the most enlightened men seldom make the best Christians.
Science is apt to embarrass faith; and it moreover turns the attention
from the great work of salvation, which is represented as the only
necessary one. If science be serviceable to political society, ignorance
is much more so to religion and its ministers.. Those ages, destitute of
science and industry, were the garden age of the church of Christ. Then
were kings dutifully submissive to priests; then the coffers of priests
held all the riches of society. The priests of a very numerous sect
have kept from the eyes of their followers even the sacred pages which
contain the laws of their religion. This conduct is, undoubtedly, very
discreet. Reading the Bible is the surest of all means to prevent its
being respected.
In one word, if the maxims of the Christian religion were rigorously
and universally followed, no political society could subsist. If this
assertion be doubted, listen to what was said by the earliest doctors of
the church, and it will be acknowledged, that their precepts are wholly
incompatible with the power and preservation of states. According to
Lactantius, no Christian can become a soldier. According, to St. Justin,
no Christian can be a magistrate. According to St. Chrysostom, no
Christian can meddle with commerce. And, according to a great number, no
man ought to study. In fine, join these maxims to those of Christ, apply
them in practice, and the result will be a perfect Christian, useless to
his family, his country, and mankind; an idle contemplator, unconcerned
in the interests of this world, and occupied entirely with the other,
whither it is his most important business to go.
Let us look into Eusebius, and see if the Christian be not a real
fanatic, from whom society can derive no advantage. "The manner of
life," says he, "in the Christian church, surpasses our present nature,
and the ordinary life of man. There they seek neither marriages,
children, nor riches. In fact, it is wholly foreign to the human manner
of living. The church is given up to an immense love of heavenly things.
The members, detached from earthly existence, and leaving only their
bodies below, transfer their souls to heaven, where they already dwell
as pure and celestial intelligences, and despise the life of other men."
A man strongly persuaded of the truth of Christianity cannot, in fact,
attach himself to any thing below. Every thing here is to him a cause
of stumbling, and calls away his attention from the great work of
his salvation. If Christians were not, fortunately, inconsistent
with themselves, and wandered not incessantly from their fanatical
perfections and sublime speculations, no Christian society could
subsist, and the nations illuminated by the gospel would return to their
pristine barbarity. We should see only wild beings, broken loose from
every social tie, and wandering in solitude through this vale of tears,
whose only employment would be to groan, to weep, and pray, and render
themselves and others wretched, in order to merit heaven.
In fine, a religion whose maxims tend to render mankind in general
intolerant, to make kings persecutors, and their subjects slaves or
rebels; a religion, the obscure doctrines of which give birth to eternal
disputes; a religion which debases mankind, and turns them aside from
their true interests; such a religion, I say, is destructive to every
society.