A natural religiosity

(J. C. Philpot, "Contemplations & Reflections")

There is in some people a natural religiosity--that is,
a disposition to be religious. If they had been born in
Turkey, they would have been devout Muslims; if in
Italy, they would have become priests, monks, or nuns,
and as ready to burn a heretic as their fathers; if born
and bred in England, they would be devout churchmen,
pious dissenters, and so forth--just as the various
circumstances of birth and education, habits and
associations, might dispose or determine.

Now to these naturally religious minds, when fully
ripened and blended with a stern spirit of self-denial,
which usually accompanies and grows up with it, no
system so thoroughly adapts itself as that of Popery
--for it just meets and gives full play to that habit of
mind which yields, like clay, to every object of
groveling, superstitious veneration.