In Numbers v. 12-31 we find the command to practise the brutal and superstitious custom of the ordeal, the endorsement of the whole ordeal system of the Middle Ages.  Deuteronomy xiii. is entirely devoted to commands of murder, and is the indulgence given beforehand to every persecuting priest.  The prophet whom God uses to prove his people, is to be put to death for being God’s instrument; anyone who tries to turn people aside from God is to be stoned, and the hand of the nearest and dearest is to be “first upon him to put him to death;” any city which becomes idolatrous is to be destroyed, the inhabitants and the cattle are to be slain, and everything else is to be burnt.  Deuteronomy xvii. 2-7 is to the same effect.  These commands have also borne abundant fruit.  Who can reckon the millions of human lives that have been spilt in obedience to them?  The slaughter of the Midianites, of the people of Jericho, Ai, Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, and of many another city, marking with blood each step of the people of God, who smote “all the souls that were” in each, and “let none remain”—­all these are but as the first-fruits of the great harvest of human slaughter, reaped for the glory of God.  Right through the “sacred volume” runs the scarlet river, staining every page; when its record closes, the Church takes it up, and the river rolls on down the centuries; let the Inquisition tell over its victims; let Spain reckon her murdered ones, 31,912 burnt alive in that one land alone; let the Netherlands speak of their slain sons and daughters; let France and Italy swell the tale; nor let England and Scotland be forgotten, nor the blood-roll of Ireland be missed; Catholic murdering Arian; Arian slaying Catholic; Romanist burning Protestant; Protestant hanging Romanist.  The names of those who obey God’s command may be changed, but they all do the same accursed work, spreading religion everywhere with fire and sword; nor does the harm confine itself to Jews and Christians only, for Mahomet, the prophet of Arabia, catches up the teaching of Moses and re-echoes it, and the Moslem follows on the inspired path, and stains it once again with human blood.  A God, a Bible, a priesthood—­how have they ruined the world; how fair and bright might earth have been had there been no teachers of religion!

  “How powerless were the mightiest monarch’s arm,
  Vain his loud threat and impotent his frown! 
  How ludicrous the priest’s dogmatic roar! 
  The weight of his exterminating curse
  How light! and his affected charity,
  To suit the pressure of the changing times,
  What palpable deceit! but for thy aid,
  Religion! but for thee, prolific fiend,
  Who peoplest earth with demons, hell with men,
  And heaven with slaves! 
  Thou taintest all thou look’st upon.......”

—­("Queen Mab,” by P.B.  Shelley; can. 6.  Collected works, p. 12, edition 1839.)