302 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



disement ; and, to ensure the accomplishment of 

 these ends, they began with children, well knowing 

 that, when creeds and catechisms were once in- 

 stilled into the infant mind, they would grow with 

 their growth, and would acquire a firm-rooted foot- 

 ing ; for, when early impressions and prejudices 

 are once fixed in the mind by ignorance, they can 

 seldom or ever be eradicated. In this state, these 

 victims to deception might have been made Pagans 

 in India, Mahometans in Turkey, or disciples of 

 Confucius in China : or, have been moulded into 

 any of the various sects of misled Christians which 

 have, like wens and carbuncles, often disfigured the 

 comely face of religion, and the pure and plain doc- 

 trines of Christianity. 



The next important step taken by these teachers, 

 was to get this their religion, of whatever kind it 

 might be, interwoven deeply into all the various 

 governments of the different countries under their 

 influence ; but, preparatory to their religion becom- 

 ing firmly established, the heads of it, who were 

 called "saints" and "fathers of the Church," were 

 gathered together to judge and determine upon 

 the creeds and doctrines which were to be obeyed. 

 Some of them might, indeed, be actuated by good 

 and others of them by impure motives, but it always 

 appeared to me like their own "act of parliament," 

 to oblige people to offer to Omnipotence that kind 

 of worship only which they had been pleased to 

 dictate, and which by many is considered as arro- 

 gant presumption. But, when these doctrines were 

 thus interwoven into all the different governments, 

 they then became "part and parcel of the law of the 

 land;" and, thus fenced, barricaded, and fortified, 

 few ever dared to say that anything these laws pro- 



