If, closing our eyes upon all that transpires in this world, we should
rely upon the votaries of the Christian religion, we would believe that
the coming of our Divine Saviour has produced the most wonderful
revolution and the most complete reform in the morals of nations. The
Messiah, according to Pascal, [See Thoughts of Pascal] ought of Himself
alone to produce a great, select, and holy people; conducting and
nourishing it, and introducing it into the place of repose and sanctity,
rendering it holy to God, making it the temple of God, saving it from
the wrath of God, delivering it from the servitude of sin, giving laws
to this people, engraving these laws upon their hearts, offering Himself
to God for them, crushing the head of the serpent, etc. This great man
has forgotten to show us the people upon whom His Divine Messiah has
produced the miraculous effects of which He speaks with so much
emphasis; so far, it seems, they do not exist upon the earth!
If we examine ever so little the morals of the Christian nations, and
listen to the clamors of their priests, we will be obliged to conclude
that their God, Jesus Christ, preached without fruit, without success;
that His Almighty will still finds in men a resistance, over which this
God either can not or does not wish to triumph. The morality of this
Divine Doctor which His disciples admire so much, and practice so
little, is followed during a whole century but by half a dozen of
obscure saints, fanatical and ignorant monks, who alone will have the
glory of shining in the celestial court; all the remainder of mortals,
although redeemed by the blood of this God, will be the prey of eternal
flames.
CLXV.--THE DOGMA OF THE REMISSION OF SINS HAS BEEN INVENTED IN THE
INTEREST OF THE PRIESTS.
When a man has a great desire to sin, he thinks very little about his
God; more than this, whatever crimes he may have committed, he always
flatters himself that this God will mitigate the severity of his
punishments. No mortal seriously believes that his conduct can damn him.
Although he fears a terrible God, who often makes him tremble, every
time he is strongly tempted he succumbs and sees but a God of mercy, the
idea of whom quiets him. Does he do evil? He hopes to have the time to
correct himself, and promises earnestly to repent some day.
There are in the religious pharmacy infallible receipts for calming the
conscience; the priests in every country possess sovereign secrets for
disarming the wrath of Heaven. However true it may be that the anger of
Deity is appeased by prayers, by offerings, by sacrifices, by
penitential tears, we have no right to say that religion holds in check
the irregularities of men; they will first sin, and afterward seek the
means to reconcile God. Every religion which expiates, and which
promises the remission of crimes, if it restrains any, it encourages the
great number to commit evil. Notwithstanding His immutability, God is,
in all the religions of this world, a veritable Proteus. His priests
show Him now armed with severity, and then full of clemency and
gentleness; now cruel and pitiless, and then easily reconciled by the
repentance and the tears of the sinners. Consequently, men face the
Deity in the manner which conforms the most to their present interests.
An always wrathful God would repel His worshipers, or cast them into
despair. Men need a God who becomes angry and who can be appeased; if
His anger alarms a few timid souls, His clemency reassures the
determined wicked ones who intend to have recourse sooner or later to
the means of reconciling themselves with Him; if the judgments of God
frighten a few faint-hearted devotees who already by temperament and by
habitude are not inclined to evil, the treasures of Divine mercy
reassure the greatest criminals, who have reason to hope that they will
participate in them with the others.