than
they are, incline them seriously to study the welfare of the nations, whom
Providence has intrusted to their care? Does the pretended terror, which
ought to be inspired into them by the idea of an invisible judge, to whom
alone they acknowledge themselves accountable for their actions, render
them more equitable, more compassionate, more sparing of blood and
treasure of their subjects, more temperate in their pleasures, more
attentive to their duties? In fine, does this God, by whose authority
kings reign, deter them from inflicting a thousand evils upon the people
to whom they ought to act as guides, protectors, and fathers? Alas! If we
survey the whole earth, we shall see men almost every where governed by
tyrants, who use religion merely as an instrument to render more stupid
the slaves, whom they overwhelm under the weight of their vices, or whom
they sacrifice without mercy to their extravagancies.

Far from being a check upon the passions of kings, Religion, by its
very principles, frees them from all restraint. It transforms them into
divinities, whose caprice the people are never permitted to resist. While
it gives up the reins to princes, and on their part breaks the bonds of
the social compact, it endeavours to chain the minds and hands of their
oppressed subjects. Is it then surprising, that the gods of the earth
imagine every thing lawful for them, and regard their subjects only as
instruments of their caprice or ambition?

In every country, Religion has represented the Monarch of nature as a
cruel, fantastical, partial tyrant, whose caprice is law; the Monarch God,
is but too faithfully imitated by his representatives upon earth. Religion
seems every where invented solely to lull the people in the lap of
slavery, in order that their masters may easily oppress them, or render
them wretched with impunity.

144.

To guard against the enterprises of a haughty pontiff who wished to
reign over kings, to shelter their persons from the attempts of credulous
nations excited by the priests, several European princes have pretended to
hold their crowns and rights from God alone, and to be accountable only
to him for their actions. After a long contest between the civil and
spiritual power, the former at length triumphed; and the priests, forced
to yield, acknowledged the divine right of kings and preached them to the
people, reserving the liberty of changing their minds and of preaching
revolt, whenever