If they attempt to proceed further, they disown the foundation upon which their own establishment was built, and they claim a religious assent upon mere human authority, which has been just now shown to be absurd and preposterous, and which they in fact confess to be so.
Burke critiques the absurdity of claiming religious authority based solely on human power, which undermines the foundation of belief.
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Of this consolation whoever deprives them deadens their industry, and strikes at the root of all acquisition as of all conservation.
Rome, under her emperors, united the evils of both systems; and this unnatural combination was one great cause of her ruin.
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
Every honest mind, every true lover of liberty and humanity, must rejoice to find that injustice is not always good policy, nor rapine the high-road to riches.
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