To speak to men to announce to them mysteries, is to give and retain, it
is to speak not to be understood. He who talks but by enigmas, either
seeks to amuse himself by the embarrassment which he causes, or finds it
to his advantage not to explain himself too clearly. Every secret
betrays suspicion, weakness, and fear. Princes and their ministers make
a mystery of their projects for fear that their enemies in penetrating
them would cause them to fail. Can a good God amuse Himself by the
embarrassment of His creatures? A God who enjoys a power which nothing
in the world can resist, can He apprehend that His intentions could be
thwarted? What interest would He have in putting upon us enigmas and
mysteries? We are told that man, by the weakness of his nature, is not
capable of comprehending the Divine economy which can be to him but a
tissue of mysteries; that God can not unveil secrets to him which are
beyond his reach. In this case, I reply, that man is not made to trouble
himself with Divine economy, that this economy can not interest him in
the least, that he has no need of mysteries which he can not understand;
finally, that a mysterious religion is not made for him, any more than
an eloquent discourse is made for a flock of sheep.