Part 19

There is nothing more to be said on intolerance when we consider it in its excess. We all now know what we ought to think of the severities and persecutions which history has transmitted an account of, and we know the opinion we should form of many acts of intolerance and inhumanity which some have for a long time gloried in; and we cannot stifle our indignation at the sight of the faggots that are still lighted round those unhappy wretches scattered over the face of the earth, of whom Jesus Christ himself said, with so much goodness, in the midst of his agonies; _Father forgive them, for they know not what they do_. It is time to abolish for ever those dreadful customs, ignominious remembrance of our ancient phrensies! O God, are these Thy creatures that they dare to torment in Thy name! Is it the work of Thy hand that they sacrifice to Thy glory?—Petty tyrants! ferocious inquisitors! do you expect to obtain the favour of Heaven, with a heart hardened, after mutilating the members and tearing the bosoms of those whom you can only draw to you by a sentiment of pity? whose emotions you are not acquainted with? The God of goodness rejects such offerings—He cannot away with them. Who then will pardon errors, if not men who are continually deceived! Alas! if exactness of judgment, or the perfection of reason, were the only title to divine benevolence, there is not any one who might not cast down his eyes devoid of all hope.

Those who proudly flatter themselves, that they alone know the worship agreeable to the Supreme Being, lose all their claim to our confidence, when, guided by a spirit of intolerance, they depart so visibly from the character which ought to inspire the idea of a God, protector of human weakness. But the absurd attempt to inspire faith by acts of rigour and severity, has been so often and so ably combated, that I shall not dwell on a principle, the truth of which common sense will discover. I shall only make one observation sufficient to intimidate the conscience of inquisitors, and all those who adopt their maxims. The operations of the mind can only be influenced by reasoning, all the designs formed to attain this end by violence are attempts to subvert the belief of the spirituality of the soul, and indirect associations with materialists; for we must believe in the identity of matter and thought to have a right of presuming, that the empire exercised on us by rigorous treatment can have an influence on our opinions; and then we must consider man as a being governed by mechanical laws, to be able to imagine, that with instruments of torture we can excite a sensation, which, by an unknown conduit, might act instead of judgment and the sentiment of persuasion.

It is because, the indignant emotions of a worthy heart are more powerful than the cool arguments of offended reason, that we rise with warmth against intolerance; for without this motive it would only deserve our contempt, as indicating a singular littleness of soul. Who can remember without pity, those dissensions so long maintained, in which men, both weak and blind, united in the name of devotion, actuated by self-love, unintelligible decrees, to some important controversy? All these disputes appear foolish when we coolly examine them; and we have only to consider, abstractedly, those quarrels, to discover all their absurdity.

But as it is only by spreading knowledge and diffusing wholesome precepts that we can hope to cure enthusiasm and intolerance; we ought to be on our guard against the dangerous spirit of indifference, otherwise one evil will be removed only to introduce another equally fatal; when trying to divert men from fanaticism, we destroy the ideas which served as a foundation for religion. There could not subsist any sound opinion or estimable principle, if the different errors which creep round them were torn away by an awkward or violent hand; and is the evil, which continually mixes with the good, became the subject of blind proscription.

Let us loudly acknowledge the benefits which we have received from distinguished writers, who have defended with zeal and energy the cause of toleration; it is an obligation, added to many others, which it is just to acknowledge, that we have received from genius and talents united: but permit us also to observe, that several of those writers have lost a part of the applause due to them, by seeking to depress religion, in order to succeed in their attempt; such a proceeding was unworthy of enlightened philosophers, who more than others ought to assign limits to reason, and never despair of its influence. What should we think, if, amongst those who justly attack the tyranny exercised over conscience, there were some intolerant in the defence of toleration; and if we had reason to reproach them with despising, and sometimes hating those who do not concur with them; and by an inconsiderate imputation of pusillanimity or hypocrisy, make the characters and intentions of those who do not adopt their sentiments appear suspicious? What a strange inconsistency, in a different way, do they not exhibit; forgetting, sometimes, their own opinions, and contradicting, without thinking, their acknowledged incredulity, they raise a clamour about the miseries to which mankind are subject, and display the pretended disorders of the universe, in order, afterwards, to throw an odium on the God whose existence they contest, to ridicule a Providence they do not rely on! One would think, that after having overturned the empire of the Deity, that they might remain the only legislators of the world; they regretted not having any longer a rival, and wished to rebuild the temple they have destroyed, to have again a vain idol to insult. Another inconsistency appears in their asperity against those who resist their dogmas, whilst, in the system of fate, reason does not preserve its empire, and the master, as well as the disciple, are equally subject to the laws of necessity.

To exercise an authority over the mind by the power of eloquence is a great advantage; for such an authority is not confined to any place or time; but to have a right to such an extensive reign, we must renounce fashionable opinions, the counsels of vanity and the instigations of self-love; and be only actuated by that universal and durable interest, the happiness of mankind.

I would not wish to prohibit the wise man or philosopher from treating any subject proper to direct our judgment; for there are abuses and prejudices every where, which we cannot destroy without making a step towards reason and truth; but as there is a philosophy for the thoughts, there is one also for the actions. I indeed wish that men of an enlarged turn of mind, who perceive at a glance the moral order of things, would attack with more caution and moderation, and at a proper season, that which directly relates to the opinions most essential to our happiness; and that a respect for these opinions should be manifest, even when they censure fanaticism and superstition.

Such a wish is far from being realized; and I cannot help lamenting, when I consider the design of the greater part, who have written for some time past on religious subjects: some seek artfully to destroy, or, at least, relax the band which unites men to the idea of a Supreme Being; and others shut up in some mystic idea, as in a dark den, blindly level their anathemas against every kind of doubt and uncertainty; and confound, in their rigorous censures, the accessary ideas with the principal opinions.

However, in taking a course so opposite, they unfortunately have an equal interest in ranking the essential principles of religion with the most insignificant symbols: but influenced by very different motives; the former act with a view of making religious zeal serve to defend every part of the worship of which they are the ministers; the latter, guided by a motive of self-love, readily admit confusion, that they may have an opportunity of undermining religion when they attack its outworks.

We have need, more than ever, to be directed to religion by wise and moderate discourses, by a happy mixture of reason and sensibility, the true characteristic of evangelical morality. It is only by these means that the authority of salutary truths can be strengthened: we are easily hurried beyond the just line, when the human mind is not in a state to mark any limits; but the daily progress of knowledge obliges us to use more exactness: it is necessary then to rein in the imagination, and to allow reason to take place of it: yet it is still allowed us to animate reason, and even useful to do so, but we must absolutely avoid disguising it. False notions only have need of the assistance of exaggeration; it seems that some are very fond of extremes, that common sense may not investigate them.

I will make another observation. Those who, to free us from superstition, endeavour to relax religious restrictions; and those who, to strengthen them, have recourse to intolerance, equally miss their aim. The hatred so naturally excited by every kind of violence and constraint, in matters of opinion, creates a repugnance in those persons to religion who are insensibly led to consider this excellent system as the motive or excuse for a blind spirit of persecution. And the direct attacks against religious opinions engage well-disposed minds to adhere more strenuously to every custom which appears a form of respect or adoration; as we redouble our zeal for a friend in the midst of those who neglect or slight him.

Let us unite, and it is certainly time, to render to the Supreme Being sincere worship; and let that worship always be worthy of the dignity of our Creator: let us banish severity and superstition; but let us equally dread that culpable indifference, the cause of so many misfortunes; and when we shall have strengthened the influence of sound reason, let us adhere more closely to the useful opinions which have been refined from errors, and with all our force repulse those who wish us to bury our hopes to free ourselves from the wanderings of the imagination. Yes, a religion, disengaged from the passions of men, in its native beauty, ought to dwell with us; public order and private happiness equally claim it, and all our reflections lead us to elevate our hearts towards an Omnipotent Being, of whose existence all nature reminds us: religion well understood, far from being the necessary principle of rigour or violence, should be the foundation of every social virtue, and of every mild and indulgent sentiment. We are not called to tyrannize over the opinions of others, or to give despotic laws to the mind; we must observe, that a moderate and rational religion only will guide us to the path of happiness and virtue, by addressing equally our hearts and minds.

CHAP. XVII. _Reflections on the Morality of the Christian Religion._

I will venture a few reflections on a subject which has often been treated; the course of my subject naturally leads to it: but in order to avoid, as much as possible, what is generally known, I shall confine myself to consider the morality of the gospel, under a point of view which seems to me to distinguish its sublime instructions.

The most distinct characteristic of christianity is the spirit of charity and forbearance which pervades all its precepts. The ancients, undoubtedly, respected the beneficent virtues; but the precept which commends the poor and the weak, to the protection of the opulent, belongs essentially to our religion. With what care, with what love, the Christian legislator returns continually to the same sentiment and interest! the tenderest pity lent to his words a persuasive unction; but I admire, above all, the awful lesson he has given, in explaining the close union established between our sentiments towards the Supreme Being and our duties towards men. Thus, after having termed the love of God, _the first commandment of the law_, the Evangelist adds; _and the second, which is like unto it, is to love thy neighbour as thyself_. The second, which is like unto it! what simplicity, what extent in that expression! Can any thing be more interesting and sublime, than to offer continually to our mind the idea of a God taking on himself the gratitude of the unfortunate? Where find any principle of morality, of which the influence can ever equal such a grand thought? The poor, the miserable, however abject their state, appear surrounded with the symbol of glory, when the love of humanity becomes an expression of the sentiments which elevate us to God; and the mind ceases to be lost in the immensity of His perfections, when we hope to maintain an habitual intercourse with the Supreme Being, by the services which we render to men; it is thus that a single thought spreads a new light on our duty, and gives to metaphysical ideas a substance conformable to our organs.

Justice, respect for the laws, and duty to ourselves, may be united, in some manner, to human wisdom; goodness alone, among all the virtues, presents another character; there is in its essence something vague and undeterminate which claims our respect; it seems to have a relation with that intention, that first idea which we must attribute to the Creator of the world, when we wish to discover the cause of its existence. Goodness then is the virtue, or to express myself with more propriety, the primitive beauty, that which has preceded time. Thus the pressing exhortations to benevolence and charity, which we find running through the gospel, should elevate our thoughts, and penetrate us with profound respect; it recals us, it unites us, to a sentiment more ancient than the world, to a sentiment, by which we have received existence, and the hopes which compose our present happiness[9].

But if, from these elevated contemplations, we, for a moment, descend to the political principles which have the greatest extent, we shall find there the influence of a truth on which I have already had occasion to dwell; but I shall now treat it in a different manner. The unequal division of property has introduced amongst men an authority very like that of a master over his slaves; we may even justly say, that in many respects the empire of the rich is still more independent; for they are not bound constantly to protect those from whom they require services: the taste and caprice of these favourites of fortune fix the terms of their convention with men, whose only patrimony is their time and strength; and as soon as this convention is interrupted, the poor man, absolutely separated from the rich, remains again abandoned to accidents; he is obliged then to offer his labours with precipitation to other dispensers of subsistence; and thus he may experience, several times in the year, all the inquietudes that must necessarily arise from uncertain recourses. Undoubtedly, in giving the support of the laws to a similar constitution, it has been reasonably supposed, that in the midst of the multiplied relations of social life, there would be a kind of balance and equality between the wants which oblige the poor to solicit wages, and the desires of the rich which engage them to accept their services; but this equilibrium, so essentially necessary, can never be established in an exact and constant manner, since it is the result of a blind concourse of combinations, and the uncertain effect of an infinite multitude of movements, not one of which is subject to a positive direction. However, since to maintain the distinction of property they were obliged to leave to chance the fate of the greater number of men, it was indispensably necessary to find some salutary opinion, proper to temper the abuses inseparable from the free exercise of the rights of property; and that happy and restoring idea could only have been discerned in an obligation of benevolence imposed on the will, and a spirit of general charity recommended to all men: these sentiments and duties, the last resource offered to the unfortunate, can alone mitigate a system, in which the fate of the most numerous part of a nation rests, on the doubtful agreement of the conveniences of rich with the wants of the poor. Yes, without the aid, without the intervention of the most estimable of virtues, the generality would have just reason to regret the social institutions, which, at the price of their independance, left to the master the care of their subsistence; and it is thus that charity, respectable under so many different views, becomes still an intelligent and political idea, which serves to blend personal liberty and the imperious laws of property.

I know not if ever the christian precepts have been considered under this point of view; but reflecting a little on this subject, we perceive more than ever of what importance the salutary institutions are, which place in the first rank of our duties the beneficent spirit of charity, and which lends to the most essential virtue all the force and constancy which religion gives birth to. Thus, at the same time that the doctrines of the gospel elevate our thoughts, its sublime morality accompanies, in some measure, our laws and institutions, to sustain those which are really conformable to reason, and to remedy the inconveniences inseparable from the imperfections of human wisdom.

It is not, however, only to pecuniary sacrifices, that the gospel applies its precepts respecting charity; it extends to those generous acts of self-denial, that religion alone can render supportable; and which makes some descend with a firm step into the dreary abodes, in which the culprit is a prey to the remorse that tears his heart; and when his very relations have abandoned him, he still beholds a comforter, whom religion conducts to pour consolation into his afflicted soul. The same motives and thoughts induce some to renounce the world and its hopes, to consecrate themselves entirely to the service of the sick, and to fulfil those sad functions with an assiduity and a constancy, that the most splendid reward could never excite. O rare and disinterested virtue, perfection of piety! what a tribute of admiration is due to the sublime sentiment which inspires such painful self-denial! Men are only stimulated by notions of right and justice; it belongs to christianity to impose duties, whose base is placed beyond the narrow circle of our terrestrial interests. I know not, but it seems to me, that, notwithstanding a diversity of opinions, we cannot help being affected, when we contemplate the sketch of the last day which the gospel delineates: it exhibits a terrific and sublime picture of that day, in which all actions are to be revealed, and the most secret thoughts have the universe for a witness, and God as a judge; and at the moment when we wait to see the retinue of virtues and vices which have rendered men celebrated, it is a single quality, a virtue without splendour, which is chosen by the Divine Arbiter of our fate, to derive an immortality of happiness from, and He pronounces these memorable words, which contain in a small compass our whole duty:—_I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a prisoner and ye visited me. Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you_, &c. Men love to contemplate the triumphs of goodness—love to exalt it under different forms. We have so many wants, are so weak, and we are able to do so little for ourselves, that this interesting virtue appears our safeguard and the mysterious tie of all nature.

The spirit of charity, so essential in its exact interpretation, may be applied to the regard and delicate attention that different degrees of talents, render necessary: society, under this relation, has also its rich and poor; and we know the extent of charity and the secrets of our moral nature, when we practice that general benevolence, which preserves others from feeling a painful sentiment of inferiority, and which makes it a duty to respect the veil, that a beneficent hand has designedly placed between the light of truth and those imperfections which we cannot entirely correct.

It is always about the generality of men that the author of christianity seems to be interested; the gospel takes cognizance of their private sentiments, condemning pride, and recommending modesty; and it applies itself to level those distances which appear to us so important, when we only view the little points of gradation which compose our scale of vanity. Religion enables us to discern that haughtiness and contempt, only display our ignorance and folly: _what hast thou, that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory?_—What is the pride that does not melt away before these awful words? Religion seems ever to tend towards the same end, and by continually reminding us of the brevity of life, to prevent strong illusions from engrossing our thoughts.

The greater part of ancient moral instructions were in general addressed, either to man considered as an individual occupied with the care of his destiny, or to the citizen connected by his duties to his country, and none of them had sufficient extent: it is necessary, when giving counsel to a solitary individual, only to try to free him from those passions which would destroy his repose and happiness; and the obligations that are imposed on the different members of a political state, necessarily participate of a jealous spirit, which the will of the government may turn into hatred. The Christian religion, more universal in its views, turns its attention from the contrariety of interests which divide men when they belong to different governments; it considers us indistinctly as citizens of a great society, united by the same origin, nature, and dependencies, and by the same sentiment of happiness. Recommending the reciprocal duties of benevolence, the gospel does not make any difference between the inhabitant of Jerusalem and Samaria; it takes man in the most simple of his relations, and the most honourable, those which arise from his intercourse with the Supreme Being; and under this point of view, all the hostile divisions of kingdom against kingdom, absolutely disappear; it is the whole human race which has a right to the protection and the beneficence of the Author of Nature, and it is in the name of every intelligent being that we credit the alliance which unites heaven to earth.

The rich and powerful made the first laws, or, at least, directed the spirit of them; it was especially to defend their possessions and privileges that they extolled justice: the legislator of our religion, speaking of this virtue, has shown, that the interests of all men were equally present to his thoughts; we might even say, that he made an old obligation a new duty, by the manner in which he prescribed it: _Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them_, is a maxim ever remarkable, if we consider the extent of the precept which it contains: there are so many acts of severity and oppression, so much tyranny, which escapes the reach of the law, and the superintendency of opinion, that we cannot too highly value its importance; Christianity indeed affords a simple guide and measure for all our actions.