It is particularly observable in the esprit du corps of theologians, that in order to epitomise and mould the mind of man into a total subjection to their interest and power, and to establish the absolute necessity of their mediatorial office, it is indispensable that he should, through what they call original sin, be degraded below the scale of his true position in the order of nature, in exact proportion to the elevation above that scale, which they confer upon him on the score of his soul's immortality. In this final destination which they assign him, his fate must either be eternal blessedness, through their official interference in his favor, in wiping off his imputed transgressions, committed six thousand years before he was born, or everlasting perdition and misery, should that intercession be wanting.* * Though the commissioned attornies of the immaterial being pretend a deep interest in having his edicts obeyed, yet their real views and interests can only be served by the multiplication of offences, which is their harvest. When their sway was at its zenith, crime created the lucrative season of repentance; and the posthumous terrors with which they debase the minds of their dupes are the best of all preparatives for their dominion; for when these horrors are raised to a certain height, the fatal machinery for mental subjugation is irresistible, and almost as perfect as it is among the Brahmin priests of India. In England, the statute of mortmain is a lasting attestation of the height to which death-bed expiations and commutations were actually carried; and it is not extravagant to affirm, that if no change in public opinion had taken place, in regard to the selfish intrigues and frauds of the clergy, "and no interposition on the part of the legislature to put a stop to them, nearly all the land in that kingdom would have become the property of the church."