Every religion is a system of opinions and conduct founded upon the
notions, true or false, that we entertain of the Divinity. To judge of
the truth of any system, it is requisite to examine its principles, to
see if they accord, and to satisfy ourselves whether all its parts lend
a mutual support to each other. A religion, to be _true_, should give us
_true_ ideas of God; and it is by our reason alone that we are able
to decide whether what theology asserts concerning this being and his
attributes is true or otherwise. Truth for men is only conformity to
reason; and thus the same reason which the clergy proscribe is, in the
last resort, our only means of judging the system that religion
proposes for our assent. That God can only be the true God who is most
conformable to our reason, and the true worship can be no other than
that which reason approves.
Religion is only important in accordance with the advantages it
bestows upon mankind. The best religion must be that which procures
its disciples the most real, the most extensive, and the most durable
advantages. A false religion must necessarily bestow upon those who
practise it only a false, chimerical, and transient utility. Reason must
be the judge whether the benefits derived are real or imaginary. Thus,
as we constantly see, it belongs to reason to decide whether a religion,
a mode of worship, or a system of conduct is advantageous or injurious
to the human race.
It is in accordance with these incontestable principles that I shall
examine the religion of the Christians. I shall commence by analyzing
the ideas which their system gives us of the Divinity, which it boasts
of presenting to us in a more perfect manner than all other religions in
the world.
I shall examine whether these ideas accord with each other, whether
the dogmas taught by this religion are conformable to those fundamental
principles which are every where acknowledged, whether they are
consonant with them, and whether the conduct which Christianity
prescribes answers to the notions which itself gives us of the Divinity.
I shall conclude the inquiry by investigating the advantages that the
Christian religion procures the human race--advantages, according to its
partisans, that infinitely surpass those which result from all the other
religions of the earth.
The Christian religion, as the basis of its belief, sets forth an only
God, which it defines as a pure spirit, as an eternal intelligence, as
independent and immutable, who has infinite power, who is the cause of
all things, who foresees all things, who fills immensity, who created
from nothing the world and all it encloses, and who preserves and
governs it according to the laws of his infinite wisdom, and the
perfections of his infinite goodness and justice, which are all so
evident in his works.
Such are the ideas that Christianity gives us of the Divinity. Let us
now see whether they accord with the other notions presented to us
by this religious system, and which it pretends were revealed by God
himself; or, in other words, that these truths were received directly
from the Deity, who concealed them from the remainder of mankind, and
deprived them of a knowledge of his essence. Thus the Christian religion
is founded upon a special revelation. And to whom was the revelation
made? At first to Abraham, and then to his posterity. The God of the
universe, then, the Father of all men, was only willing to be known to
the descendants of a Chaldean, who for a long series of years were the
exclusive possessors of the knowledge of the true God. By an effect of
his special kindness, the Jewish people was for a long time the only
race favored with a revelation equally necessary for all men. This
was the only people which understood the relations between man and the
Supreme Being. All other nations wandered in darkness, or possessed no
ideas of the Sovereign of nature but such as were crude, ridiculous, or
criminal.
Thus, at the very first step, do we not see that Christianity impairs
the goodness and justice of its God? A revelation to a particular people
only announces a partial God, who favors a portion of his children, to
the prejudice of all the others; who consults only his caprice, and not
real merit; who, incapable of conferring happiness upon all men, shows
his tenderness solely to some individuals, who have, however, no titles
upon his consideration not possessed by the others. What would you say
of a father who, placed at the head of a numerous family, had no eyes
but for a single one of his children, and who never allowed himself to
be seen by any of them except that favored one? What would you say if he
was displeased with the rest for not being acquainted with his features,
notwithstanding he would never allow them to approach his person? Would
you not accuse such a father of caprice, cruelty, folly, and a want of
reason, if he visited with his anger the children whom he had himself
excluded from his presence? Would you not impute to him an injustice
of which none but the most brutal of our species could be guilty if he
actually punished them for not having executed orders which he was never
pleased to give them?
Conclude, then, with me, Madam, that the revelation of a religion to
only a single tribe or nation sets forth a God neither good, impartial,
nor equitable, but an unjust and capricious tyrant, who, though he may
show kindness and preference to some of his creatures, at any rate
acts with the greatest cruelty towards all the others. This admitted,
revelation does not prove the goodness, but the caprice and partiality
of the God that religion represents to us as full of sagacity,
benevolence, and equity, and that it describes as the common father of
all the inhabitants of the earth. If the interest and self-love of those
whom he favors makes them admire the profound views of a God because
he has loaded them with benefits to the prejudice of their brethren,
he must appear very unjust, on the other hand, to all those who are
the victims of his partiality. A hateful pride alone could induce a few
persons to believe that they were, to the exclusion of all others, the
cherished children of Providence. Blinded by their vanity, they do not
perceive that it is to give the lie to universal and infinite goodness
to suppose that God was capable of favoring with his preference some
men or nations, to the exclusion of others. All ought to be equal in his
eyes if it is true they are all equally the work of his hands.
It is nevertheless, upon partial revelations that are founded all
the religions of the world. In the same manner that every individual
believes himself the most important being in the universe, every nation
entertains the idea that it ought to enjoy the peculiar tenderness of
the Sovereign of nature, to the exclusion of all the others. If the
inhabitants of Hindostan imagine that it was for them alone that Brama
spoke, the Jews and the Christians have persuaded themselves that it was
only for them that the world was created, and that it is solely for them
that God was revealed.
But let us suppose for a moment that God has really made himself known.
How could a pure spirit render himself sensible? What form did he take?
Of what material organs did he make use in order to speak? How can an
infinite Being communicate with those which are finite? I may be assured
that, to accommodate himself to the weakness of his creatures, he made
use of the agency of some chosen men to announce his wishes to all the
rest, and that he filled these agents with his spirit, and spoke by
their mouths. But can we possibly conceive that an infinite Being could
unite himself with the finite nature of man? How can I be certain that
he who professes to be inspired by the Divinity does not promulgate his
own reveries or impostures as the oracles of heaven? What means have
I of recognizing whether God really speaks by his voice? The immediate
reply will be, that God, to give weight to the declarations of those
whom he has chosen to be his interpreters, endowed them with a portion
of his own omnipotence, and that they wrought miracles to prove their
divine mission.
I therefore inquire, What is a miracle? I am told that it is an
operation contrary to the laws of nature, which God himself has fixed;
to which I reply, that, according to the ideas I have formed of the
divine wisdom, it appears to me impossible that an immutable God can
change the wise laws which he himself has established. I thence conclude
that miracles are impossible, seeing they are incompatible with our
ideas of the wisdom and immutability of the Creator of the universe.
Besides, these miracles would be useless to God. If he be omnipotent,
can he not modify the minds of his creatures according to his own will?
To convince and to persuade them, he has only to will that they shall be
convinced and persuaded. He has only to tell them things that are clear
and sensible, things that may be demonstrated; and to evidence of such
a kind they will not fail to give their assent. To do this, he will have
no need either of miracles or interpreters; truth alone is sufficient to
win mankind.
Supposing, nevertheless, the utility and possibility of these miracles,
how shall I ascertain whether the wonderful operation which I see
performed by the interpreter of the Deity be conformable or contrary to
the laws of nature? Am I acquainted with all these laws? May not he who
speaks to me in the name of the Lord execute by natural means, though to
me unknown, those works which appear altogether extraordinary? How shall
I assure myself that he does not deceive me? Does not my ignorance of
the secrets and shifts of his art expose me to be the dupe of an able
impostor, who might make use of the name of God to inspire me with
respect, and to screen his deception? Thus his pretended miracles ought
to make me suspect him, even though I were a witness of them; but how
would the case stand, were these miracles said to have been performed
some thousands of years before my existence? I shall be told that they
were attested by a multitude of witnesses; but if I cannot trust to
myself when a miracle is performing, how shall I have confidence in
others, who may be either more ignorant or more stupid than myself,
or who perhaps thought themselves interested in supporting by their
testimony tales entirely destitute of reality?
If, on the contrary, I admit these miracles, what do they prove to
me? Will they furnish me with a belief that God has made use of his
omnipotence to convince me of things which are in direct opposition
to the ideas I have formed of his essence, his nature, and his divine
perfections? If I be persuaded that God is immutable, a miracle will not
force me to believe that he is subject to change. If I be convinced that
God is just and good, a miracle will never be sufficient to persuade me
that he is unjust and wicked. If I possess an idea of his wisdom, all
the miracles in the world would not persuade me that God would act like
a madman. Shall I be told that he would consent to perform miracles that
destroy his divinity, or that are proper only to erase from the minds of
men the ideas which they ought to entertain of his infinite perfections?
This, however, is what would happen were God himself to perform, or
to grant the power of performing, miracles in favor of a particular
revelation. He would, in that case, derange the course of nature, to
teach the world that he is capricious, partial, unjust, and cruel; he
would make use of his omnipotence purposely to convince us that his
goodness was insufficient for the welfare of his creatures; he would
make a vain parade of his power, to hide his inability to convince
mankind by a single act of his will. In short, he would interfere with
the eternal and immutable laws of nature, to show us that he is subject
to change, and to announce to mankind some important news, which they
had hitherto been destitute of, notwithstanding all his goodness.
Thus, under whatever point of view we regard revelation, by whatever
miracles we may suppose it attested, it will always be in contradiction
to the ideas we have of the Deity. They will show us that he acts in
an unjust and an arbitrary manner, consulting only his own whims in the
favors he bestows, and continually changing his conduct; that he was
unable to communicate all at once to mankind the knowledge necessary
to their existence, and to give them that degree of perfection of which
their natures were susceptible. Hence, Madam, you may see that the
supposition of a revelation can never be reconciled with the infinite
goodness, justice, omnipotence, and immutability of the Sovereign of the
universe.
They will not fail to tell you that the Creator of all things, the
independent Monarch of nature is the master of his favors; that he owes
nothing to his creatures; that he can dispose of them as he pleases,
without any injustice, and without their having any right of complaint;
that man is incapable of sounding the profundity of his decrees; and
that his justice is not the justice of men. But all these answers, which
divines have continually in their mouths, serve only to accelerate
the destruction of those sublime ideas which they have given us of the
Deity. The result appears to be, that God conducts himself according to
the maxims of a fantastic sovereign, who, satisfied in having rewarded
some of his favorites, thinks himself justified in neglecting the rest
of his subjects, and to leave them groaning in the most deplorable
misery.
You must acknowledge, Madam, it is not on such a model that we can form
a powerful, equitable, and beneficent God, whose omnipotence ought to
enable him to procure happiness to all his subjects, without fear of
exhausting the treasures of his goodness.
If we are told that divine justice bears no resemblance to the justice
of men, I reply, that in this case we are not authorized to say that God
is _just_; seeing that by justice it is not possible for us to conceive
any thing except a similar quality to that called justice by the beings
of our own species. If divine justice bears no resemblance to human
justice,--if, on the contrary, this justice resembles what we call
injustice,--then all our ideas confound themselves, and we know not
either what we mean or what we say when we affirm that God is just
According to human ideas, (which are, however, the only ones that men
are possessed of,) justice will always exclude caprice and partiality;
and never can we prevent ourselves from regarding as iniquitous and
vicious a sovereign who, being both able and willing to occupy himself
with the happiness of his subjects, should plunge the greatest number
of them into misfortune, and reserve his kindness for those to whom his
whims have given the preference.
With respect to telling us that _God owes nothing to his creatures_,
such an atrocious principle is destructive of every idea of justice and
goodness, and tends visibly to sap the foundation of all religion. A God
that is just and good owes happiness to every being to whom he has given
existence; he ceases to be just and good if he produce them only to
render them miserable; and he would be destitute of both wisdom and
reason were he to give them birth only to be the victims of his caprice.
What should we think of a father bringing children into the world for
the sole purpose of putting their eyes out and tormenting them at his
ease?
On the other hand, all religions are entirely founded upon the
reciprocal engagements which are supposed to exist between God and his
creatures. If God owes nothing to the latter, if he is not under an
obligation to fulfil his engagements to them when they have fulfilled
theirs to him, of what use is religion? What motives can men have to
offer their homage and worship to the Divinity? Why should they feel
much desire to love or serve a master who can absolve himself of all
duty towards those, who entered his service with an expectation of the
recompense promised under such circumstances?
It is easy to see that the destructive ideas of divine justice which are
inculcated are only founded upon a fatal prejudice prevalent among the
generality of men, leading them to suppose that unlimited power must
inevitably exempt its possessor from an accordance with the laws of
equity; that force can confer the right of committing bad actions; and
that no one could properly demand an account of his conduct of a man
sufficiently powerful to carry out all his caprices. These ideas are
evidently borrowed from the conduct of tyrants, who no sooner find
themselves possessed of absolute power than they cease to recognize any
other rules than their own fantasies, and imagine that justice has no
claims upon potentates like them.
It is upon this frightful model that theologians have formed that God
whom they, notwithstanding, assert to be a just being, while, if the
conduct they attribute to him was true, we should be constrained
to regard him as the most unjust of tyrants, as the most partial of
fathers, as the most fantastic of princes, and, in a word, as a being
the most to be feared and the least worthy of love that the imagination
could devise. We are informed that the God who created all men has been
unwilling to be known except to a very small number of them, and that
while this favored portion exclusively enjoyed the benefits of his
kindness, all the others were objects of his anger, and were only
created by him to be left in blindness for the very purpose of punishing
them in the most cruel manner. We see these pernicious characteristics
of the Divinity penetrating the entire economy of the Christian
religion; we find them in the books which are pretended to be inspired,
and we discover them in the dogmas of predestination and grace. In
a word, every thing in religion announces a despotic God, whom his
disciples vainly attempt to represent to us as just, while all that they
declare of him only proves his injustice, his tyrannical caprices, his
extravagances, so frequently cruel, and his partiality, so pernicious to
the greater portion of the human race.
When we exclaim against conduct which, in the eyes of all reasonable
men, must appear so excessively capricious, it is expected that our
mouths will be closed by the assertion that God is omnipotent, that
it is for him to determine how he will bestow benefits, and that he
is under no obligations to any of his creatures. His apologists end
by endeavoring to intimidate us with the frightful and iniquitous
punishments that he reserves for those who are so audacious as to
murmur.
It is easy to perceive the futility of these arguments. Power, I do
contend, can never confer the right of violating equity. Let a sovereign
be as powerful as he may, he is not on that account less blamable when
in rewards and punishments he follows only his caprice. It is true, we
may fear him, we may flatter him, we may pay him servile homage; but
never shall we love him sincerely; never shall we serve him faithfully;
never shall we look up to him as the model of justice and goodness. If
those who receive his kindness believe him to be just and good, those
who are the objects of his folly and rigor cannot prevent themselves
from detesting his monstrous iniquity in their hearts.
If we be told that we are only as worms of earth relatively to God, or
that we are only like a vase in the hands of a potter, I reply in this
case, that there can neither be connection nor moral duty between the
creature and his Creator; and I shall hence conclude that religion
is useless, seeing that a worm of earth can owe nothing to a man who
crushes it, and that the vase can owe nothing to the potter that has
formed it. In the Supposition that man is only a worm or an earthen
vessel in the eyes of the Deity, he would be incapable either of serving
him, glorifying him, honoring him, or offending him. We are, however,
continually told that man is capable of merit and demerit in the sight
of his God, whom he is ordered to love, serve, and worship. We are
likewise assured that it was man alone whom the Deity had in view in all
his works; that it is for him alone the universe was created; for him
alone that the course of nature was so often deranged; and, in short, it
was with a view of being honored, cherished, and glorified by man that
God has revealed himself to us. According to the principles of the
Christian religion, God does not cease, for a single instant, his
occupations for man, this _worm of earth_, this _earthen vessel_, which
he has formed. Nay, more: man is sufficiently powerful to influence
the honor, the felicity, and the glory of his God; it rests with man to
please him or to irritate him, to deserve his favor or his hatred, to
appease him or to kindle his wrath.
Do you not perceive, Madam, the striking contradictions of those
principles which, nevertheless, form the basis of all revealed
religions? Indeed, we cannot find one of them that is not erected on the
reciprocal influence between God and man, and between man and God. Our
own species, which are annihilated (if I may use the expression)
every time that it becomes necessary to whitewash the Deity from some
reproachful stain of injustice and partiality,--these miserable beings,
to whom it is pretended that God owes nothing, and who, we are assured,
are unnecessary to him for his own felicity,--the human race, which is
nothing in his eyes, becomes all at once the principal performer on the
stage of nature. We find that mankind are necessary to support the glory
of their Creator; we see them become the sole objects of his care; we
behold in them the power to gladden or afflict him; we see them meriting
his favor and provoking his wrath. According to these contradictory
notions concerning the God of the universe, the source of all felicity,
is he not really the most wretched of beings? We behold him perpetually
exposed to the insults of men, who offend him by their thoughts, their
words, their actions, and their neglect of duty. They incommode him,
they irritate him, by the capriciousnes of their minds, by their
actions, their desires, and even by their ignorance. If we admit those
Christian principles which suppose that the greater portion of the human
race excites the fury of the Eternal, and that very few of them live
in a manner conformable to his views, will it not necessarily result
therefrom, that in the immense crowd of beings whom God has created
for his glory, only a very small number of them glorify and please
him; while all the rest are occupied in vexing him, exciting his wrath,
troubling his felicity, deranging the order that he loves, frustrating
his designs, and forcing him to change his immutable intentions?
You are, undoubtedly, surprised at the contradictions to be encountered
at the very first step we take in examining this religion; and I take
upon myself to predict that your embarrassment will increase as you
proceed therein. If you coolly examine the ideas presented to us in
the revelation common both to Jews and Christians, and contained in the
books which they tell us are _sacred_, you will find that the Deity who
speaks is always in contradiction with himself; that he becomes his own
destroyer, and is perpetually occupied in undoing what he has just done,
and in repairing his own workmanship, to which, in the first instance,
he was incapable of giving that degree of perfection he wished it to
possess. He is never satisfied with his own works, and cannot, in spite
of his omnipotence, bring the human race to the point of perfection he
intended. The books containing the revelation, on which Christianity is
founded, every where display to us a God of goodness in the commission
of wickedness; an omnipotent God, whose projects unceasingly miscarry;
an immutable God, changing his maxims and his conduct; an omniscient
God, continually deceived unawares; a resolute God, yet repenting of his
most important actions; a God of wisdom, whose arrangements never attain
success. He is a great God, who occupies himself with the most puerile
trifles; an all-sufficient God, yet subject to jealousy; a powerful God,
yet suspicious, vindictive, and cruel; and a just God, yet permitting
and prescribing the most atrocious iniquities. In a word, he is a
perfect God, yet displaying at the same time such imperfections and
vices that the most despicable of men would blush to resemble him.
Behold, Madam, the God whom this religion orders you to adore _in spirit
and in truth_. I reserve for another letter an analysis of the holy
books which you are taught to respect as the oracles of heaven. I
now perceive for the first time that I have perhaps made too long a
dissertation; and I doubt not you have already perceived that a system
built on a basis possessing so little solidity as that of the God whom
his devotees raise with one hand and destroy with the other, can have no
stability attached to it, and can only be regarded as a long tissue of
errors and contradictions. I am, &c.
LETTER III. An Examination of the Holy Scriptures, of the Nature of the
Christian Religion, and of the Proofs upon which Christianity is founded
You have seen, Madam, in my preceding letter, the incompatible and
contradictory ideas which this religion gives us of the Deity. You will
have seen that the revelation which is announced to us, instead of being
the offspring of his goodness and tenderness for the human race, is
really only a proof of injustice and partiality, of which a God who is
equally just and good would be entirely incapable. Let us now examine
whether the ideas suggested to us by these books, containing the divine
oracles, are more rational, more consistent, or more conformable to the
divine perfections. Let us see whether the statements related in the
Bible, whether the commands prescribed to us in the name of God himself,
are really worthy of God, and display to us the characters of infinite
wisdom, goodness, power, and justice.
These inspired books go back to the origin of the world. Moses, the
confidant, the interpreter, the historian of the Deity, makes us (if we
may use such an expression) witnesses of the formation of the universe.
He tells us that the Eternal, tired of his inaction, one fine day took
it into his head to create a world that was necessary to his glory. To
effect this, he forms matter out of nothing; a pure spirit produces a
substance which has no affinity to himself; although this God fills all
space with his immensity, yet still he found room enough in it to admit
the universe, as well as all the material bodies contained therein.
These, at least, are the ideas which divines wish us to form respecting
the creation, if such a thing were possible as that of possessing a
clear idea of a pure spirit producing matter. But this discussion is
throwing us into metaphysical researches, which I wish to avoid. It will
be sufficient to you that you may console yourself for not being able
to comprehend it, seeing that the most profound thinkers, who talk about
the creation or the eduction of the world from nothing, have no ideas on
the subject more precise than those which you form to yourself. As soon,
Madam, as you take the trouble to reflect thereon, you will find that
divines, instead of explaining things, have done nothing but invent
words, in order to render them dubious, and to confound all our natural
conceptions.
I will not, however, tire you by a fastidious display of the blunders
which fill the narrative of Moses, which they announce to us as being
dictated by the Deity. If we read it with a little attention, we
shall perceive in every page philosophical and astronomical errors,
unpardonable in an inspired author, and such as we should consider
ridiculous in any man, who, in the most superficial manner, should have
studied and contemplated nature.
You will find, for example, light created before the sun, although this
star is visibly the source of light which communicates itself to our
globe. You will find the evening and the morning established before the
formation of this same sun, whose presence alone produces day, whose
absence produces night, and whose different aspects constitute morning
and evening. You will there find that the moon is spoken of as a body
possessing its own light, in a similar manner as the sun possesses it,
although this planet is a dark body, and receives its light from the
sun. These ignorant blunders are sufficient to show you that the Deity
who revealed himself to Moses was quite unacquainted with the nature of
those substances which he had created out of nothing, and that you at
present possess more information respecting them than was once possessed
by the Creator of the world.
I am not ignorant that our divines have an answer always ready to those
difficulties which would attack their divine science, and place their
knowledge far below that of Galileo, Descartes, Newton, and even below
that of young people who have scarcely studied the first elements of
natural philosophy. They will tell us that God, in order to render
himself intelligible to the savage and ignorant Jews, spoke in
conformity to their imperfect notions, in the false and incorrect
language of the vulgar. We must not be imposed upon by this solution,
which our doctors regard as triumphant, and which they so frequently
employ when it becomes necessary to justify the Bible against the
ignorance and vulgarities contained therein. We answer them, that a God
who knows every thing, and can perform every thing, might by a single
word have rectified the false notions of the people he wished to
enlighten, and enabled them to know the nature of bodies more perfectly
than the most able men who have since appeared. If it be replied that
revelation is not intended to render men learned, but to make them
pious, I answer that revelation was not sent to establish false notions;
that it would be unworthy of God to borrow the language of falsehood and
ignorance; that the knowledge of nature, so far from being an injury to
piety, is, by the avowal of divines, the most proper study to display
the greatness of God. They tell us that religion would be unmovable,
were it conformable to true knowledge; that we should have no objections
to make to the recital of Moses, nor to the philosophy of the Holy
Scriptures, if we found nothing but what was continually confirmed by
experience, astronomy, and the demonstrations of geometry.
To maintain a contrary opinion, and to say that God is pleased in
confounding the knowledge of men and in rendering it useless, is to
pretend that he is pleased with making us ignorant and changeable, and
that he condemns the progress of the human mind, although we ought to
suppose him the author of it. To pretend that God was obliged in the
Scriptures to conform himself to the language of men, is to pretend that
he withdrew his assistance from those he wished to enlighten, and
that he was unable of rendering them susceptible of comprehending the
language of truth. This is an observation not to be lost sight of in the
examination of revelation, where we find in each page that God expresses
himself in a manner quite unworthy of the Deity. Could not an omnipotent
God, instead of degrading himself, instead of condescending to speak the
language of ignorance, so far enlighten them as to make them understand
a language more true, more noble, and more conformable to the ideas
which are given us of the Deity? An experienced master by degrees
enables his scholars to understand what he wishes to teach them, and
a God ought to be able to communicate to them immediately all the
knowledge he intended to give them.
However, according to Genesis, God, after creating the world, produced
man from the dust of the earth. In the mean while we are assured that he
created him _in his own image_; but what was the image of God? How could
man, who is at least partly material, represent a pure spirit, which
excludes all matter?
How could his imperfect mind be formed on the model of a mind possessing
all perfection, like that which we suppose in the Creator of the
universe? What resemblance, what proportion, what affinity could there
be between a finite mind united to a body, and the infinite spirit of
the Creator? These, doubtless, are great difficulties; hitherto it has
been thought impossible to decide them; and they will probably for
a long time employ the minds of those who strive to understand
the incomprehensible meaning of a book which God provided for our
instruction.
But why did God create man? Because he wished to people the universe
with intelligent beings, who would render him homage, who should witness
his wonders, who should glorify him, who should meditate and contemplate
his works, and merit his favors by their submission to his laws.
Here we behold man becoming necessary to the dignity of his God, who
without him would live without being glorified, who would receive no
homage, and who would be the melancholy Sovereign of an empire without
subjects--a condition not suited to his vanity. I think it useless to
remark to you what little conformity we find between those ideas and
such as are given us of a self-sufficient being, who, without the
assistance of any other, is supremely happy. All the characters in which
the Bible portrays the Deity are always borrowed from man, or from a
proud monarch; and we every where find that instead of having made man
after his own image, it is man that has always made God after the image
of himself, that has conferred on him his own way of thinking, his own
virtues, and his own vices.
But did this man whom the Deity has created for his glory faithfully
fulfil the wishes of his Creator? This subject that he has just
acquired--will he be obedient? will he render homage to his power? will
he execute his will? He has done nothing of the kind. Scarcely is he
created when he becomes rebellious to the orders of his Sovereign; he
eats a forbidden fruit which God has placed in his way in order to tempt
him, and by this act draws the divine wrath not only on himself, but on
all his posterity. Thus it is that he annihilates at one blow the great
projects of the Omnipotent, who had no sooner made man for his glory
than he becomes offended with that conduct which he ought to have
foreseen.
Here he finds himself obliged to change his projects with regard to
mankind; he becomes their enemy, and condemns them and the whole of the
race (who had not yet the power of sinning) to innumerable penalties,
to cruel calamities, and to death! What do I say? To punishments which
death itself shall not terminate! Thus God, who wished to be glorified,
is not glorified; he seems to have created man only to offend him, that
he might afterwards punish the offender.
In this recital, which is founded on the Bible, can you recognize,
Madam, an omnipotent God, whose orders are always accomplished, and
whose projects are all necessarily executed? In a God who tempts us, or
who permits us to be tempted, do you behold a being of beneficence and
sincerity? In a God who punishes the being he has tempted, or subjected
to temptation, do you perceive any equity? In a God who extends his
vengeance even to those who have not sinned, do you behold any shadow
of justice? In a God who is irritated at what he knew must necessarily
happen, can you imagine any foresight? In the rigorous punishments by
which this God is destined to avenge himself of his feeble creatures,
both in this world and the next, can you perceive the least appearance
of goodness?
It is, however, this history, or rather this fable, on which is founded
the whole edifice of the Christian religion.
If the first man had not been disobedient, the human race had not
been the object of the divine wrath, and would have had no need of a
Redeemer. If this God, who knows all things, foresees all things, and
possesses all power, had prevented or foreseen the fault of Adam, it
would not have been necessary for God to sacrifice his own innocent Son
to appease his fury. Mankind, for whom he created the universe,
would then have been always happy; they would not have incurred the
displeasure of that Deity who demanded their adoration. In a word,
if this apple had not been imprudently eaten by Adam and his spouse,
mankind would not have suffered so much misery, man would have enjoyed
without interruption the immortal happiness to which God had destined
him, and the views of Providence towards his creatures would not have
been frustrated.
It would be useless to make reflections on notions so whimsical, so
contrary to the wisdom, the power, and the justice of the Deity. It
is doing quite enough to compare the different objects which the
Bible presents to us, to perceive their inutility, absurdities, and
contradictions. We there see, continually, a wise God conducting himself
like a madman. He defeats His own projects that he may afterwards repair
them, repents of what he has done, acts as if he had foreseen nothing,
and is forced to permit proceedings which his omnipotence could not
prevent. In the writings revealed by this God, he appears occupied only
in blackening his own character, degrading himself, vilifying himself,
even in the eyes of men whom he would excite to worship him and pay
him homage; overturning and confounding the minds of those whom he
had designed to enlighten. What has just been said might suffice to
undeceive us with respect to a book which would pass better as being
intended to destroy the idea of a Deity, than as one containing the
oracles dictated and revealed by him. Nothing but a heap of absurdities
could possibly result from principles so false and irrational;
nevertheless, let us take another glance at the principal objects which
this divine work continually offers to our consideration. Let us pass on
to the Deluge. The holy books tell us, that in spite of the will of
the Almighty, the whole human race, who had already been punished by
infirmities, accidents, and death, continued to give themselves up to
the most unaccountable depravity. God becomes irritated, and repents
having created them. Doubtless he could not have foreseen this
depravity; yet, rather than change the wicked disposition of their
hearts, which he holds in his own hands, he performs the most
surprising, the most impossible of miracles. He at once drowns all the
inhabitants, with the exception of some favorites, whom he destines to
re-people the earth with a chosen race, that will render themselves more
agreeable to their God.
But does the Almighty succeed in this new project? The chosen race,
saved from the waters of the deluge, on the wreck of the earth's
destruction, begin again to offend the Sovereign of nature, abandon
themselves to new crimes, give themselves up to idolatry, and forgetting
the recent effects of celestial vengeance, seem intent only on provoking
heaven by their wickedness. In order to provide a remedy, God chooses
for his favorite the idolater Abraham. To him he discovers himself; he
orders him to renounce the worship of his fathers, and embrace a new
religion. To guarantee this covenant, the Sovereign of nature prescribes
a melancholy, ridiculous, and whimsical ceremony, to the observance of
which a God of wisdom attaches his favors. The posterity of this chosen
man are consequently to enjoy, for everlasting, the greatest advantages;
they will always be the most partial objects of tenderness, with the
Almighty; they will be happier than all other nations, whom the Deity
will abandon to occupy himself only for them.
These solemn promises, however, have not prevented the race of Abraham
from becoming the slaves of a vile nation, that was detested by the
Eternal; his dear friends experienced the most cruel treatment on the
part of the Egyptians. God could not guarantee them from the misfortune
that had befallen them; but in order to free them again, he raised up to
them a liberator, a chief, who performed the most astonishing miracles.
At the voice of Moses all nature is confounded; God employs him to
declare his will; yet he who could create and annihilate the world
could not subdue Pharaoh. The obstinacy of this prince defeats, in
ten successive trials, the divine omnipotence, of which Moses is the
depositary. After having vainly attempted to overcome a monarch whose
heart God had been pleased to harden, God has recourse to the most
ordinary method of rescuing his people; he tells them to run off, after
having first counselled them to rob the Egyptians. The fugitives are
pursued; but God, who protects these robbers, orders the sea to
swallow up the miserable people who had the temerity to run after their
property.
The Deity would, doubtless, have reason to be satisfied with the
conduct of a people that he had just delivered by such a great number
of miracles. Alas! neither Moses nor the Almighty could succeed in
persuading this obstinate people to abandon the false gods of that
country where they had been so miserable; they preferred them to the
living God who had just saved them. All the miracles which the Eternal
was daily performing in favor of Israel could not overcome their
stubbornness, which was still more inconceivable and wonderful than the
greatest miracles. These wonders, which are now extolled as convincing
proofs of the divine mission of Moses, were by the confession of this
same Moses, who has himself transmitted us the accounts, incapable of
convincing the people who were witnesses of them, and never produced the
good effects which the Deity proposed to himself in performing them.
The credulity, the obstinacy, the continual depravity of the Jews,
Madam, are the most indubitable proofs of the falsity of the miracles
of Moses, as well as those of all his successors, to whom the Scriptures
attribute a supernatural power. If, in the face of these facts, it be
pretended that these miracles are attested, we shall be compelled, at
least, to agree that, according to the Bible account, they have been
entirely useless, that the Deity has been constantly baffled in all
his projects, and that he could never make of the Hebrews a people
submissive to his will.
We find, however, God continues obstinately employed to render his
people worthy of him; he does not lose sight of them for a moment; he
sacrifices whole nations to them, and sanctions their rapine, violence,
treason, murder, and usurpation. In a word, he permits them to do
any thing to obtain his ends. He is continually sending them chiefs,
prophets, and wonderful men, who try in vain to bring them to their
duty. The whole history of the Old Testament displays nothing but the
vain efforts of God to vanquish the obstinacy of his people. To succeed
in this, he employs kindnesses, miracles, and severity. Sometimes
he delivers up to them whole nations, to be hated, pillaged, and
exterminated; at other times he permits these same nations to exercise
over his favorite people the greatest of cruelties. He delivers them
into the hands of their enemies, who are likewise the enemies of God
himself. Idolatrous nations become masters of the Jews, who are left to
feel the insults, the contempt, and the most unheard-of severities, and
are sometimes compelled to sacrifice to idols, and to violate the law of
their God. The race of Abraham becomes the prey of impious nations. The
Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans make them successively undergo
the most cruel treatment and suffer the most bloody outrages, and God
even permits his temple to be polluted in order to punish the Jews.
To terminate, at length, the troubles of his cherished people, the pure
Spirit that created the universe sends his own Son. It is said that he
had already been announced by his prophets, though this was certainly
done in a manner admirably adapted to prevent his being known on his
arrival. This Son of God becomes a man through his kindness for the
Jews, whom he came to liberate, to enlighten, and to render the most
happy of mortals. Being clothed with divine omnipotence, he performs the
most astonishing miracles, which do not, however, convince the Jews.
He can do every thing but convert them. Instead of converting and
liberating the Jews, he is himself compelled, notwithstanding all his
miracles, to undergo the most infamous of punishments, and to terminate
his life like a common malefactor. God is condemned to death by the
people he came to save. The Eternal hardened and blinded those among
whom he sent his own Son; he did not foresee that this Son would be
rejected. What do I say? He managed matters in such a way as not to
be recognized, and took such steps that his favorite people derived no
benefit from the coming of the Messiah. In a word, the Deity seems to
have taken the greatest care that his projects, so favorable to the
Jews, should be nullified and rendered unprofitable!
When we expostulate against a conduct so strange and so unworthy of the
Deity, we are told it was necessary for every thing to take place in
such a manner, for the accomplishment of prophecies which had announced
that the Messiah should be disowned, rejected, and put to death. But why
did God, who knows all, and who foresaw the fate of his dear Son, form
the project of sending him among the Jews, to whom he must have known
that his mission would be useless? Would it not have been easier neither
to announce him nor send him? Would it not have been more conformable to
divine omnipotence to spare himself the trouble of so many miracles,
so many prophecies, so much useless labor, so much wrath, and' so many
sufferings to his own Son, by giving at once to the human race that
degree of perfection he intended for them?
We are told it was necessary that the Deity should have a victim; that
to repair the fault of the first man, no expedient would be sufficient
but the death of another God; that the only God of the universe could
not be appeased but by the blood of his own Son. I reply, in the first
place, that God had only to prevent the first man from committing a
fault; that this would have spared him much chagrin and sorrow, and
saved the life of his dear Son. I reply, likewise, that man is incapable
of offending God unless God either permitted it or consented to it. I
shall not examine how it is possible for God to have a Son, who, being
as much a God as himself, can be subject to death. I reply, also, that
it is impossible to perceive such a grave fault and sin in taking an
apple, and that we can find very little proportion between the crime
committed against the Deity by eating an apple and his Son's death.
I know well enough I shall be told that these are all mysteries; but I,
in my turn, shall reply, that mysteries are imposing words, imagined by
men who know not how to get themselves out of the labyrinth into which
their false reasonings and senseless principles have once plunged them.
Be this as it may, we are assured that the Messiah, or the deliverer
of the Jews, had been clearly predicted and described by the prophecies
contained in the Old Testament. In this case, I demand why the Jews have
disowned this wonderful man, this God whom God sent to them. They answer
me, that the incredulity of the Jews was likewise predicted, and that
divers inspired writers had announced the death of the Son of God. To
which I reply, that a sensible God ought not to have sent him under such
circumstances, that an omnipotent God ought to have adopted measures
more efficacious and certain to bring his people into the way in which
he wished them to go. If he wished not to convert and liberate the Jews,
it was quite useless to send his Son among them, and thereby expose him
to a death that was both certain and foreseen.
They will not fail to tell me, that in the end the divine, patience
became tired of the excesses of the Jews; that the immutable God, who
had sworn an eternal alliance with the race of Abraham, wished at length
to break the treaty, which he had, however, assured them should last
forever. It is pretended that God had determined to reject the Hebrew
nation, in order to adopt the Gentiles, whom he had hated and despised
nearly four thousand years. I reply, that this discourse is very little
conformable to the ideas we ought to have of a God who _changes not_,
whose mercy is _infinite_, and whose goodness is _inexhaustible_. I
shall tell them, that in this case the Messiah announced by the Jewish
prophets was destined for the Jews, and that he ought to have been their
liberator, instead of destroying their worship and their religion. If
it be possible to unravel any thing in these obscure, enigmatical, and
symbolical oracles of the prophets of Judea, as we find them in the
Bible,--if there be any means of guessing the meaning of the obscure
riddles, which have been decorated with the pompous name of prophecies,
we shall perceive that the inspired writers, when they are in a
good humor, always promised the Jews a man that will redress their
grievances, restore the kingdom of Judah, and not one that should
destroy the religion of Moses. If it were for the Gentiles that the
Messiah should come, he is no longer the Messiah promised to the Jews
and announced by their prophets. If Jesus be the Messiah of the Jews, he
could not be the destroyer of their nation.
Should I be told that Jesus himself declared that he came to fulfil the
law of Moses, and not to abolish it, I ask why Christians do not observe
the law of the Jews?
Thus, in whatever light we regard Jesus Christ, we perceive that he
could not be the man whom the prophets have predicted, since it is
evident that he came only to destroy the religion of the Jews, which,
though instituted by God himself, had nevertheless become disagreeable
to him. If this inconstant God, who was wearied with the worship of the
Jews, had at length repented of his injustice towards the Gentiles, it
was to them that he ought to have sent his Son. By acting in this way
he would at least have saved his old friends from a frightful _deicide_,
which he forced them to commit, because they were not able to recognize
the God he sent amongst them. Besides, the Jews were very pardonable in
not acknowledging their expected Messiah in an artisan of Galilee, who
was destitute of all the characteristics which the prophets had related,
and during whose lifetime his fellow-citizens were neither liberated nor
happy.
We are told that he performed miracles. He healed the sick, caused the
lame to walk, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead. At length he
accomplished his own resurrection. It might be so believed; yet he has
visibly failed in that miracle for which alone he came upon earth. He
was never able either to persuade or to convert the Jews, who witnessed
all the daily wonders that he performed. Notwithstanding those
prodigies, they placed him ignominiously on the cross. In spite of his
divine power, he was incapable of escaping punishment. He wished to die,
to render the Jews culpable, and to have the pleasure of rising again
the third day, in order to confound the ingratitude and obstinacy of his
fellow-citizens. What is the result? Did his fellow-citizens concede to
this great miracle, and have they at length acknowledged him? Far from
it; they never saw him. The Son of God, who arose from the dead in
secrecy, showed himself only to his adherents. They alone pretend
to have conversed with him; they alone have furnished us with the
particulars of his life and miracles; and yet by such suspicious
testimony they wish to convince us of the divinity of his mission
eighteen hundred years after the event, although he could not convince
his contemporaries, the Jews.
We are then told that many Jews have been converted to Jesus Christ;
that after his death many others were converted; that the witnesses of
the life and miracles of the Son of God have sealed their testimony
with their blood; that men will not die to attest falsehood; that by a
visible effect of the divine power, the people of a great part of the
earth have adopted Christianity, and still persist in the belief of this
divine religion.
In all this I perceive nothing like a miracle. I see nothing but what is
conformable to the ordinary progress of the human mind. An enthusiast,
a dexterous impostor, a crafty juggler; can easily find adherents in
a stupid, ignorant, and superstitious populace. These followers,
captivated by counsels, or seduced by promises, consent to quit a
painful and laborious life, to follow a man who gives them to understand
that he will make them _fishers of men_; that is to say, he will enable
them to subsist by his cunning tricks, at the expense of the multitude
who are always credulous. The juggler, with the assistance of
his remedies, can perform cures which seem miraculous to ignorant
spectators. These simple creatures immediately regard him as a
supernatural being. He adopts this opinion himself, and confirms the
high notions which his partisans have formed respecting him. He feels
himself interested in maintaining this opinion among his sectaries, and
finds out the secret of exciting their enthusiasm. To accomplish this
point, our empiric becomes a preacher; he makes use of riddles, obscure
sentences, and parables to the multitude, that always admire what they
do not understand.
To render himself more agreeable to the people, he declaims among poor,
ignorant, foolish men, against the rich, the great, the learned; but
above all, against the _priests_, who in all ages have been _avaricious,
imperious, uncharitable, and burdensome_ to the people. If these
discourses be eagerly received among the vulgar, who are always morose,
envious, and jealous, they displease all those who see themselves the
objects of the invective and satire of the popular preacher.
They consequently wish to check his progress, they lay snares for him,
they seek to surprise him in a fault, in order that they may unmask him
and have their revenge. By dint of imposture, he outwits them; yet,
in consequence of his miracles and illusions, he at length discovers
himself. He is then seized and punished, and none of his adherents
abide by him, except a few idiots, that nothing can undeceive; none
but partisans, accustomed to lead with him a life of idleness; none but
dexterous knaves, who wish to continue their impositions on the
public, by deceptions similar to those of their old master, by obscure,
unconnected, confused, and fanatical harangues, and by declamations
against _magistrates and priests_. These, who have the power in their
own hands, finish by persecuting them, imprisoning them, flogging them,
chastising them, and putting them to death. Poor wretches, habituated
to poverty, undergo all these sufferings with a fortitude which we
frequently meet with in malefactors. In some we find their courage
fortified by the zeal of fanaticism. This fortitude surprises, agitates,
excites pity, and irritates the spectators against those who torment
men whose constancy makes them looked upon as being innocent, who, it
is supposed, may possibly be right, and for whom compassion likewise
interests itself. It is thus that enthusiasm is propagated, and that
persecution always augments the number of the partisans of those who are
persecuted.
I shall leave to you, Madam, the trouble of applying the history of our
juggler, and his adherents, to that of the founder, the apostles, and
the martyrs of the Christian religion.
With whatever art they have written the life of Jesus Christ, which
we hold only from his apostles, or their disciples, it furnishes a
sufficiency of materials on which to found our conjectures. I shall only
observe to you, that the Jewish nation was remarkable for its credulity;
that the companions of Jesus were chosen from among the dregs of the
people; that Jesus always gave a preference to the populace, with whom
he wished, undoubtedly, to form a rampart against the _priests_; and
that, at last, Jesus was seized immediately after the most splendid of
his miracles. We see him put to death immediately after the resurrection
of Lazarus, which, even according to the gospel account, bears the most
evident characters of fraud, which are visible to every one who examines
it without prejudice.
I imagine, Madam, that what I have just stated will suffice to show
you what opinion you ought to entertain respecting the founder of
Christianity and his first sectaries. These have been either dupes or
fanatics, who permitted themselves to be seduced by deceptions, and by
discourses conformable to their desires, or by dexterous impostors, who
knew how to make the best of the tricks of their old master, to whom
they have become such able successors. In this way did they establish a
religion which enabled them to live at the people's expense, and which
still maintains in abundance those we pay, at such a high rate, for
transmitting from father to son the fables, visions, and wonders which
were born and nursed in Judea. The propagation of the Christian faith,
and the constancy of their martyrs, have nothing surprising in them. The
people flock after all those that show them wonders, and receive without
reasoning on it every thing that is told them. They transmit to their
children the tales they have heard related, and by degrees these
opinions are adopted by kings, by the great, and even by the learned.
As for the martyrs, their constancy has nothing supernatural in it. The
first Christians, as well as all new sectaries, were treated, by the
Jews and pagans, as disturbers of the public peace. They were already
sufficiently intoxicated with the fanaticism with which their religion
inspired them, and were persuaded that God held himself in readiness to
crown them, and to receive them into his eternal dwelling. In a word,
seeing the heavens opened, and being convinced that the end of the
world was approaching, it is not surprising that they had courage to
set punishment at defiance, to endure it with constancy, and to despise
death. To these motives, founded on their religious opinions, many
others were added, which are always of such a nature as to operate
strongly upon the minds of men. Those who, as Christians, were
imprisoned and ill-treated on account of their faith, were visited,
consoled, encouraged, honored, and loaded with kindnesses by their
brethren, who took care of and succored them during their detention, and
who almost adored them after their death. Those, on the other hand, who
displayed weakness, were despised and detested, and when they gave way
to repentance, they were compelled to undergo a rigorous penitence,
which lasted as long as they lived. Thus were the most powerful motives
united to inspire the martyrs with courage; and this courage has nothing
more supernatural about it than that which determines us daily to
encounter the most perilous dangers, through the fear of dishonoring
ourselves in the eyes of our fellow-citizens. Cowardice would expose us
to infamy all the rest of our days. There is nothing miraculous in the
constancy of a man to whom an offer is made, on the one hand, of eternal
happiness and the highest honors, and who, on the other hand, sees
himself menaced with hatred, contempt, and the most lasting regret.
You perceive, then, Madam, that nothing can be easier than to overthrow
the proofs by which Christian doctors establish the revelation which
they pretend is so well authenticated. Miracles, martyrs, and prophecies
prove nothing.
Were all the wonders true that are related in the Old and New Testament,
they would afford no proof in favor of divine omnipotence, but, on
the contrary, would prove the inability under which the Deity has
continually labored, of convincing mankind of the truths he wished to
announce to them. On the other hand, supposing these miracles to have
produced all the effects which the Deity had a right to expect from
them, we have no longer any reason to believe them, except on the
tradition and recitals of others, which are often suspicious, faulty,
and exaggerated. The miracles of Moses are attested only by Moses, or
by Jewish writers interested in making them believed by the people
they wished to govern. The miracles of Jesus are attested only by his
disciples, who sought to obtain adherents, in relating to a credulous
people prodigies to which they pretended to have been witnesses, or
which some of them, perhaps, believed they had really seen. All those
who deceive mankind are not always cheats; they are frequently
deceived by those who are knaves in reality. Besides, I believe I have
sufficiently proved, that miracles are repugnant to the essence of an
immutable God, as well as to his wisdom, which will not permit him to
alter the wise laws he has himself established. In short, miracles are
useless, since those related in Scripture have not produced the effects
which God expected from them.
The proof of the Christian religion taken from prophecy has no better
foundation. Whoever will examine without prejudice these oracles
pretended to be divine will find only an ambiguous, unintelligible,
absurd, and unconnected jargon, entirely unworthy of a God who intended
to display his prescience, and to instruct his people with regard to
future events. There does not exist in the Holy Scriptures a single
prophecy sufficiently precise to be literally applied to Jesus Christ.
To convince yourself of this truth, ask the most learned of our doctors
which are the formal prophecies wherein they have the happiness to
discover the Messiah. You will then perceive that it is only by the aid
of forced explanations, figures, parables, and mystical interpretations,
by which they are enabled to bring forward any thing sensible and
applicable to the _god-made-man_ whom they tell us to adore. It would
seem as if the Deity had made predictions only that we might understand
nothing about them.
In these equivocal oracles, whose meaning it is impossible to penetrate,
we find nothing but the language of intoxication, fanaticism, and
delirium. When we fancy we have found something intelligible, it is
easy to perceive that the prophets intended to speak of events that took
place in their own age, or of personages who had preceded them. It is
thus that our doctors apply gratuitously to Christ prophecies or rather
narratives of what happened respecting David, Solomon, Cyrus, &c.
We imagine we see the chastisement of the Jewish people announced
in recitals where it is evident the only matter in question was the
Babylonish captivity. In this event, so long prior to Jesus Christ,
they have imagined finding a prediction of the dispersion of the Jews,
supposed to be a visible punishment for their _deicide_, and which
they now wish to pass off' as an indubitable proof of the truth of
Christianity.
It is not, then, astonishing that the ancient and modern Jews do not
see in the prophets what our doctors teach us, and what they themselves
imagine they have seen. Jesus himself has not been more happy in his
predictions than his predecessors. In the gospel he announces to his
disciples in the most formal manner the destruction of the world and the
last judgment, as events that were at hand, and which must take place
before the existing generation had passed away. Yet the world still
endures, and appears in no danger of finishing. It is true, our doctors
pretend that, in the prediction of Jesus Christ, he spoke of the ruin of
Jerusalem by Vespasian and Titus; but none but those who have not read
the gospel would submit to such a change, or satisfy themselves with
such an evasion. Besides, in adopting it we must confess at least that
the Son of God himself was unable to prophesy with greater precision
than his obscure predecessors.
Indeed, at every page of these sacred books, which we are assured were
inspired by God himself, this God seems to have made a revelation
only to conceal himself. He does not speak but to be misunderstood. He
announces his oracles in such a way only that we can neither comprehend
them nor make any application of them. He performs miracles only to
make unbelievers. He manifests himself to mankind only to stupefy their
judgment and bewilder the reason he has bestowed on them. The Bible
continually represents God to us as a seducer, an enticer, a suspicious
tyrant, who knows not what kind of conduct to observe with respect to
his subjects; who amuses himself by laying snares for his creatures, and
who tries them that he may have the pleasure of inflicting a punishment
for yielding to his temptations. This God is occupied only in building
to destroy, in demolishing to rebuild. Like a child disgusted with its
playthings, he is continually undoing what he has done, and breaking
what was the object of his desires. We find no foresight, no constancy,
no consistency in his conduct; no connection, no clearness in his
discourses. When he performs any thing, he sometimes approves what
he has done, and at other times repents of it. He irritates and vexes
himself with what he has permitted to be done, and, in spite of his
infinite power, he suffers man to offend him, and consents to let Satan,
his creature, derange all his projects. In a word, the revelations
of the Christians and Jews seem to have been imagined only to render
uncertain and to annihilate the qualities attributed to the Deity, and
which are declared to constitute his essence. The whole Scripture, the
entire system of the Christian religion, appears to be founded only
on the incapability of God, who was unable to render the human race as
wise, as good, and as happy as he wished them. The death of his innocent
Son, who was immolated to his vengeance, is entirely useless for the
most numerous portion of the earth's inhabitants; almost the whole human
race, in spite of the continued efforts of the Deity, continue to offend
him, to frustrate his designs, resist his will, and to persevere in
their wickedness.
It is on notions so fatal, so contradictory, and so unworthy of a God
who is just, wise, and good, of a God that is rational, independent,
immutable, and omnipotent, on whom the Christian religion is founded,
and which religion is said to be established forever by God, who,
nevertheless, became disgusted with the religion of the Jews, with whom
he had made and sworn an eternal covenant.
Time must prove whether God be more constant and faithful in fulfilling
his engagements with the Christians than he has been to fulfil those
he made with Abraham and his posterity. I confess, Madam, that his
past conduct alarms me as to what he may finally perform. If he himself
acknowledged by the mouth of Ezekiel that the laws he had given to the
Jews _were not good_, he may very possibly, some day or other, find
fault with those which he has given to Christians.
Our priests themselves seem to partake of my suspicions, and to fear
that God will be wearied of that protection which he has so long granted
to his church. The inquietudes which they evince, the efforts which they
make to hinder the civilization of the world, the persecutions which
they raise against all those who contradict them, seem to prove that
they mistrust the promises of Jesus Christ, and that they are not
certainly convinced of the eternal durability of a religion which
does not appear to them divine, but because it gives them the right to
command like gods over their fellow-citizens. They would undoubtedly
consider the destruction of their empire a very grievous thing; but yet
if the sovereigns of the earth and their people should once grow weary
of the sacerdotal yoke, we may be sure the Sovereign of heaven would not
require a longer time to become equally disgusted.
However this may be, Madam, I venture to hope the perusal of this letter
will fully undeceive you of a blind veneration for books which are
called _divine_, although they appear as if invented to degrade and
destroy the God who is asserted to be their author. My first letter, I
feel confident, enabled you to perceive that the dogmas established by
these same books, or subsequently fabricated to justify the ideas thus
given of God, are not less contrary to all notions of a Deity infinitely
perfect. A system which in the outset is based upon false principles can
never become any thing else than a mass of falsehoods. I am, &c.