Thursday, January 10, 2013

EVEN MANDEVILLE DESPISED THE CLERICS OF HIS TIME

We've seen that David Hume didn't think much of Christianity and the same can be said of Bernard Mandeville earlier in the 18th Century.  In Free thoughts on religion, the Church & national happiness (1729), he unloads on clerics of all the denominations he is aware of:
Ecclesiastick Censures are per­petual Torments to the Laity: The chief use they are of, besides puff­ ing up the Priests with [281] Pride, is for Envious and Malicious People, when they want a handle to be vexatious to their Neighbours, and it seldom happens, that Courts of Judicature, where Clergymen preside, are not sad grievances to a Nation, let their Religion or Church Government be what it will.
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Such a Power must make all Clergymen Tyrants, and would do the same to all Professions, or any other set of Men, invested with the same Authority the Clergy claim; and I would as soon trust the Inquisition of Spain for Lenity and Discretion in punishing, as I would the Rulers of the Quakers in America, if not sooner; for the more Men Pretend to Virtue and Religion, the less fit they are to judge others. The reason is plain: Hypocrites are under greater temptation to be cruel, than other Sinners; because they are always in hopes that we shall (what many are Fools enough to do) judge of the Holiness and Purity of their own Hearts from the hatred and strong aversion they express against Vice, which must make them unmercifully severe against the least Frailties of others.
[From Chapter 10, Of the Reciprocal Duties between the Clergy and the Laity]

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