Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/331

284 its power came from this false assumption, that it alone had the Word of God. So its organization was based on a lie, and required new lies to uphold, and prophets of lies to defend it. Its servants, the priests, became proud of spirit. The only keepers of Scripture and Tradition; the only recipients of inspiration, they forbid free inquiry as of no use; stifled Conscience as only leading men into trouble; and excommunicated Common Sense, who asked “terrible questions,” calling for the title-deeds of the Church. They went further, and forbid the bands between Reason and Religion; and when the parties insisted on the union, turned them both out of doors with a curse. The laity must not approach God, as the clergy; must only commune with Him “in one kind.” The Church forgot God grants inspiration to no one except on condition he conforms to the divine law, living pure and true, and grants it only in proportion to his gifts and his use thereof: so, relying on the office and “apostolical succession” for inspiration, the priests lived shameless and wicked lives, rivalling Sardanapalus and Domitian in their cruelty and sin. They forgot that God withholds inspiration from none that is faithful; so they stoned the prophets who rebuked their lies and published their sin; they shamefully entreated men whom God sent of his errands to these unworthy husbandmen. They became spiritual tyrants, forcing all men to utter the same creed, submit to the same rite, reverence the same symbol, and be holy in the same way.

In its zeal to separate the spiritual power from temporal hands it took what was not its own—power over men's bodies; and made laws for the State. In its haste to give preëminence to spiritual things, it made its offices a bribe, greater than the State could give. The honour of sainthood—what was the fame of king and conqueror to that? It promised the rewards of high clerical office, and even of canonization, to the most mercenary and cruel of men, whose touch was pollution. Its list of saints is full of knaves and despots. The State was taken into the Church,—a refractory member. The Flesh and the Devil were baptized; “took holy orders;” governed the Church in some cases, but were still the Flesh and the Devil, though