To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod, And own’d a father when he own’d a God. Love all the faith, and all th’ allegiance then; For nature knew no right divine in men, No ill could fear in God; and understood A sov’reign being, but a sov’reign good. True faith, true policy, united ran, That was but love of God, and this of man. Who first taught souls enslav’d, and realms undone, Th’ enormous faith of many made for one; That proud exception to all nature’s laws, T’invert the world, and counter-work its cause? Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law; ‘Till superstition taught the tyrant awe, Then shar’d the tyranny, then lent it aid, And gods of conqu’rors, slaves of subjects made: She, ‘midst the lightning’s blaze, and thunder’s sound, When rock’d the mountains, and when groan’d the ground, She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, To pow’r unseen, and mightier far than they: She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies, Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise: Here fix’d the dreadful, there the blest abodes; Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods; Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust;