Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/161

 in gradually and insensibly; renders Men tame and submissive; is acceptable to the Magistrate, and seems inoffensive to the People: Till at last the Priest, having firmly establish'd his Authority, becomes the Tyrant and Disturber of human Society, by his endless Contentions, Persecutions, and religious Wars. How smoothly did the Romish Church advance in their Acquisition of Power? But into what dismal Convulsions did they throw all Europe, in order to maintain it? On the other Hand, our Sectaries, who were formerly such dangerous Bigots, are now become our greatest Free-thinkers; and the Quakers are, perhaps, the only regular Body of Deists in the Universe, except the Literati or Disciples of Confucius in China.

second Observation, with regard to these Species of false Religion, is, That Superstition is an Enemy to Civil Liberty, and Enthusiasm a Friend to it. As Superstition groans under the Dominion of the Priests, and Enthusiasm is an Enemy to all Ecclesiastical Power, this sufficiently accounts for the present Observation. Not to mention, that Enthusiasm, being the Infirmity of bold and