The reformation in religion, and the establishment of manufactures in England, date from nearly the same period; it was about the same time, also, that the spirit of liberty began to break out first in Scotland, and then in England, which terminated in the revolution. There are, therefore, many reasons, from experience, for believing that the Protestant religion is particularly favourable to industry and freedom. There are other reasons, likewise, that arise from a consideration of the subject, that would lead one to the same conclusion, even if there were no experience of the fact.
Whatever frees the human mind from useless prejudice, and leads it to pure morality, gives dignity to man, and increases his power of becoming a good and useful member of society.
The Christian religion not only contains the most pure moral code, but the best, most useful, and simple rules for conduct in life are
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{203} The great influence, founded on attachment to her person, and the feeling of the long happiness they had enjoyed, under Queen Elizabeth: her great authority, supported by esteem, and confirmed by long habit, restrained the spirit of freedom which so soon after tormented her successors. James had had full experience of that spirit before he left Scotland; and, when he mounted the English throne, was known, frequently, to exclaim against presbytry, as the enemy of monarchy. He, as was very natural, thought that the difference of religion caused the superior love of freedom in Scotland, for he was not sensible of the different effects produced by the calm, steady, and dignified deportment of Elizabeth, and the unsteady conduct of his unhappy mother, Mary. He also confounded hatred for arbitrary prerogative in kings, with hatred for kings themselves; and considered monarchy, and his own sort of monarchy, as essentially the same. Had he lived in our days, he would have experienced the difference, and not have considered the church of Scotland as being a greater enemy to kingly power than that of England, or as being more favourable to liberty.
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there promulgated. The Roman Catholic faith was clogged, in the early days of the church, with a great number, both of dogmatical and practical errors, that tend not only to fetter the mind, but actually embarrass the business of human life.
In a former chapter, we had occasion to speak of the encroachments made by public bodies on the general mass of the people, but none ever was so pernicious in its effects, so grasping, and so well calculated to retain, as the Roman Catholic church.
Their celibacy took away from the clergy every disposition to alienate even personal property, while the practice of auricular confession, and the doctrine of the remission of sins, gave them an opportunity of besieging the human mind in its weakest moment, and the weakest place, in order to rob posterity, and enrich the church. In the moment of weakness, when a man's mind is occupied in reflecting on the errors, and perhaps the crimes, of a long and variegated life; when his ties to this world are loosened, and his interest in eternity becomes more lively, and near; a religion that enables a zealous or interested priest (aided by the casuistry and argument of centuries) to barter a promise of everlasting bliss, for lands and tenements bequeathed to the church, provides amply for the acquisition of earthly treasure, for its ministers, and those devoted to a life of religious pursuits. It is, indeed, wonderful, that, with such means, the church, in Roman Catholic countries, did not become more wealthy than it was. {204} With a continual means of acquiring, and none of alienating, it appears well qualified for absorbing the whole landed property of a nation. Such an encroachment on the public wealth, and industry of a people, is a sufficient reason for the Protestant countries (where the clergy have not the same means) becoming more wealthy and industrious.