ith
Lavater) "have done their duties, and instructed their flocks as they
ought, in the principles of Christian religion, or had not forbidden them
the reading of scriptures, they had not been as they are." But being so
misled all their lives in superstition, and carried hoodwinked like hawks,
how can they prove otherwise than blind idiots, and superstitious asses?
what else shall we expect at their hands? Neither is it sufficient to keep
them blind, and in Cimmerian darkness, but withal, as a schoolmaster doth
by his boys, to make them follow their books, sometimes by good hope,
promises and encouragements, but most of all by fear, strict discipline,
severity, threats and punishment, do they collogue and soothe up their
silly auditors, and so bring them into a fools' paradise. _Rex eris aiunt,
si recte facies_, do well, thou shalt be crowned; but for the most part by
threats, terrors, and affrights, they tyrannise and terrify their
distressed souls: knowing that fear alone is the sole and only means to
keep men in obedience, according to that hemistichium of Petronius, _primus
in orbe deos fecit timor_, the fear of some divine and supreme powers,
keeps men in obedience, makes the people do their duties: they play upon
their consciences; [6446]which was practised of old in Egypt by their
priests; when there was an eclipse, they made the people believe God was
angry, great miseries were to come; they take all opportunities of natural
causes, to delude the people's senses, and with fearful tales out of
purgatory, feigned apparitions, earthquakes in Japonia or China, tragical
examples of devils, possessions, obsessions, false miracles, counterfeit
visions, &c. They do so insult over and restrain them, never hoby so dared
a lark, that they will not [6447]offend the least tradition, tread, or
scarce look awry: _Deus bone_ ([6448]Lavater exclaims) _quot hoc commentum
de purgatorio misere afflixit!_ good God, how many men have been miserably
afflicted by this fiction of purgatory!

To these advantages of hope and fear, ignorance and simplicity, he hath
several engines, traps, devices, to batter and enthral, omitting no
opportunities, according to men's several inclinations, abilities, to
circumvent and humour them, to maintain his superstitions, sometimes to
stupefy, besot them: sometimes again by oppositions, factions, to set all
at odds and in an uproar; sometimes he infects one man, and makes him a
principal agent; sometimes