1 It is evident that the Roman Catholics are indebted to
Plato for their purgatory. That great philosopher divided
souls into three classes: the pure, the curable, and the
incurable. The first returned, by refusion, to the universal
soul of the world, or the divinity, from which they had
emanated; the second went to hell, where they passed in
review every year before the judges of that dark empire, who
suffered them to return to light when they had sufficiently
expiated their faults; the incurables remained in Tartarus,
where they were to suffer eternal torment. Plato, as well
as, Christian casuists, described the crimes, faults, &c.
which merit those different degrees of punishment.
Protestant divines, jealous probably of the riches of the Catholic clergy, have imprudently rejected the doctrine of a purgatory, whereby they have much diminished their own credit. It would, perhaps, have been wiser to have rejected the doctrine of an hell, whence souls can never be released, than that of purgatory, which is more reasonable, and from which the clergy can deliver souls by means of that all-powerful agent, money.
The preceding remarks shew, that the Christian religion has been often inculcated and spread by dint of terror. By striking mankind with horror they render them submissive, and remove all his dependence on his reason.1
1 Mahomet perceived, as well as Christian divines, the
necessity of frightening mankind, in order to govern them.
"Those," says the Koran, "who do not believe, shall be
clothed in a garment of fire; boiling water shall be poured
on their heads; their skins and their entrails shall be
smitten with rods of iron. Whenever they shall strive to
escape from hell, and avoid its torments, they shall be
thrust again into it; and the devils say unto them, 'taste
the pain of burning'." See Alcoran, ch. viii.
CHAP. IX.—OF THE RITES AND MYSTERIOUS CEREMONIES
OR THEURGY OF THE CHRISTIANS.
If the doctrines of the Christian religion be mysteries inaccessible to reason; if the God it announces be inconceivable, we ought not to be surprised at seeing the rites and ceremonies of this religion mysterious and unintelligible. Concerning a God, who hath revealed himself only to confound human reason, all things must necessarily be incomprehensible and unreasonable.
The most important ceremony of the Christian religion is called baptism. Without this, no man, it is held, can be saved. It consists in pouring water on the infant or adult, with an invocation on the name of the Trinity. By the mysterious virtue of this water, and the words by which it is accompanied, the person is spiritually regenerated. He is cleansed from the stains, transmitted through successive generations, from the father of the human race. In a word, he becomes a child of God, and is prepared to enter into his glory at death. Now, it is said, that the death of man is the effect of the sin of Adam; and if, by baptism, sin be effaced, why is man still subject to death? But here we are told, it is from the spiritual, not bodily death, that Christ has delivered mankind. Yet this spiritual death is only the death of sinfulness. In this case, how does it happen that Christians continue to sin, as if they had never been redeemed and delivered from sin? Whence it results, that baptism is a mystery impenetrable to reason; and its efficacy is disproved by experience.1
In some Christian sects, a bishop or pontiff, by pronouncing a few words, and applying a few drops of oil to the forehead, causes the spirit to descend upon whom he pleases. By this ceremony the Christian is confirmed in the faith, and receives invisibly a profusion of graces from the Most High. Those who wandering farthest from reason, have entered most deeply into the spirit of the Christian religion, not contented with the dark mysteries common to other sects, have invented one still darker and more astonishing, which they denominate transubstantiation. At the all-powerful command of a priest, the God of the Universe is forced to descend from the habitation of his glory, and transform himself into a piece of bread. This bread is afterwards worshipped by a people, who boast their detestation of idolatry.2