re and so little
practise, is followed, in a whole century only by half a dozen obscure
saints, and fanatics, and unknown monks, who alone will have the glory
of shining in the celestial court, while all the rest of mortals, though
redeemed by the blood of this God, will be the prey of eternal flames.

165.

When a man is strongly inclined to sin, he thinks very little about
his God. Nay more, whatever crimes he has committed, he always flatters
himself, that this God will soften, in his favour, the rigour of his
decrees. No mortal seriously believes, that his conduct can damn him.
Though he fears a terrible God, who often makes him tremble, yet, whenever
he is strongly tempted, he yields; and he afterwards sees only the God
of _mercies_, the idea of whom calms his apprehensions. If a man commits
evil, he hopes, he shall have time to reform, and promises to repent at a
future day.

In religious pharmacy, there are infallible prescriptions to quiet
consciences: priests, in every country, possess sovereign secrets to
disarm the anger of heaven. Yet, if it be true that the Deity is appeased
by prayers, offerings, sacrifices, and penances, it can no longer be said,
that Religion is a check to the irregularities of men; they will first
sin, and then seek the means to appease God. Every Religion, which
expiates crime and promises a remission of them, if it restrain some
persons, encourages the majority to commit evil. Notwithstanding his
immutability, God, in every Religion, is a true _Proteus_. His priests
represent him at one time armed with severity, at another full of clemency
and mildness; sometimes cruel and unmerciful, and sometimes easily melted
by the sorrow and tears of sinners. Consequently, men see the Divinity
only on the side most conformable to their present interests. A God always
angry would discourage his worshippers, or throw them into despair.
Men must have a God, who is both irritable, and placable. If his anger
frightens some timorous souls, his clemency encourages the resolutely
wicked, who depend upon recurring, sooner or later, to the means of
accommodation. If the judgments of God terrify some faint-hearted pious
persons, who by constitution and habit are not prone to evil, _the
treasures of divine mercy_ encourage the greatest criminals, who have
reason to hope they participate therein equally with the others.

166.

Most men seldom think of God, or, at least, bestow on him serious