at there is no impostor in the matter of religion, who
does not pretend to be clothed with the name and the authority of God,
and who does not claim to be especially inspired and sent by God. Not
only is this faith and blind belief which they accept as a basis of
their doctrine, a principle of errors, etc., but it is also a source of
trouble and division among men for the maintenance of their religion.
There is no cruelty which they do not practice upon each other under
this specious pretext.

Now then, it is not credible that an Almighty, All-Kind, and All-Wise
God desired to use such means or such a deceitful way to inform men of
His wishes; for this would be manifestly desiring to lead them into
error and to lay snares in their way, in order to make them accept the
side of falsehood. It is impossible to believe that a God who loved
unity and peace, the welfare and the happiness of men, would ever have
established as the basis of His religion, such a fatal source of trouble
and of eternal divisions among them. Such religions can not be true,
neither could they have been instituted by God. But I see that our
Christ-worshipers will not fail to have recourse to their pretended
motives for credulity, and that they will say, that although their faith
and belief may be blind in one sense, they are nevertheless supported by
such clear and convincing testimonies of truth, that it would be not
only imprudence, but temerity and folly not to surrender one's self.
They generally reduce these pretended motives to three or four leading
features. The first, they draw from the pretended holiness of their
religion, which condemns vice, and which recommends the practice of
virtue. Its doctrine is so pure, so simple, according to what they say,
that it is evident it could spring but from the sanctity of an
infinitely good and wise God.

The second motive for credulity, they draw from the innocence and the
holiness of life in those who embraced it with love, and defended it by
suffering death and the most cruel torments, rather than forsake it: it
not being credible that such great personages would allow themselves to
be deceived in their belief, that they would renounce all the advantages
of life, and expose themselves to such cruel torments and persecutions,
in order to maintain errors and impositions. Their third motive for
credulity, they draw from the oracles and prophecies which have so long
been rendered in their favor, and whic