Produced by David Widger THE CHARACTER OF A PRIEST By Philanthropos London: Printed And Published By R. Carlile, 55, Fleet-Street 1821. Price Twopence THE CHARACTER OF A PRIEST Nature pregnant with equality, with justice, and generosity, has given all men the same organization, the same functions, the same powers; she has neither created higher nor lower, superior nor inferior, master nor slave; inequality would imply monopoly; monopoly, partiality; and partiality, divine injustice; all the operations of Nature are simple, just, equitable, and invariable: nothing is done at random, nothing is effected by chance, nothing is the result of uncertain laws. The operations of Nature, the physical laws of men and of morality are as uniform as the revolutions of the solar system; every action is consistent with the essence of the acting body; nothing can act inconsistently with its elements. All Nature acts in conformity with universal laws; man forms an integral part of Nature, and must act in unison with his elements; the laws of Nature are beyond human controul, they are independent of man, unchangeable by any power less than the contriver; the laws of Nature are neither arrested, interrupted, biassed, or controverted by venal, bigoted, fanatical Priests. A Priest has the same essence, is composed of the same elements, endowed with the same organization as other men; he has no more natural command, no greater power, no greater right; Priests do not come into the world with crosiers, or with, mitres, or with rosaries; the revolutions of matter create and destroy them; they are decomposed as a cow or a cabbage. It is not Nature, but the folly of man that has given consequence to the Priest; all the wealth, all the advancement, all the power the Priests enjoy, are acquired by hypocrisy, by perjury, by extortion, and by swindling: the trade is founded in fraud, in blasphemy, and impiety; matured by cupidity, by venality, and by masked villainy. The impostor pretends to have exclusive access to exclusive favour from the Deity.