Else
it is evident, that any power which, by standing above all human control,
occupies the next relation to superhuman modes of authority, must be
invested by all minds alike with some dim and undefined relation to the
sanctities of the next world. Thus, for instance, the Pope, as the father
of Catholic Christendom, could not _but_ be viewed with awe by any
Christian of deep feeling, as standing in some relation to the true and
unseen Father of the spiritual body. Nay, considering that even false
religions, as those of Pagan mythology, have probably never been utterly
stripped of all vestige of truth, but that every such mode of error has
perhaps been designed as a process, and adapted by Providence to the case
of those who were capable of admitting no more perfect shape of truth;
even the heads of such superstitions (the Dalai Lama, for instance) may
not unreasonably be presumed as within the cognizance and special
protection of Heaven. Much more may this be supposed of him to whose care
was confided the weightier part of the human race; who had it in his power
to promote or to suspend the progress of human improvement; and of whom,
and the motions of whose will, the very prophets of Judea took cognizance.
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