ishes invincible arguments against Divine Providence and its
infinite benefactions.

LXI.--CONTINUATION.

According to theologians, the afflictions and evils of this life are
chastisements which culpable men receive from Divinity. But why are men
culpable? If God is Almighty, does it cost Him any more to say, "Let
everything remain in order!"--"let all my subjects be good, innocent,
fortunate!"--than to say, "Let everything exist?" Was it more difficult
for this God to do His work well than to do it so badly? Was it any
farther from the nonexistence of beings to their wise and happy
existence, than from their non-existence to their insensate and
miserable existence? Religion speaks to us of a hell--that is, of a
fearful place where, notwithstanding His goodness, God reserves eternal
torments for the majority of men. Thus, after having rendered mortals
very miserable in this world, religion teaches them that God can make
them much more wretched in another. They meet our objections by saying,
that otherwise the goodness of God would take the place of His justice.
But goodness which takes the place of the most terrible cruelty, is not
infinite kindness. Besides, a God who, after having been infinitely
good, becomes infinitely wicked, can He be regarded as an immutable
being? A God filled with implacable fury, is He a God in whom we can
find a shadow of charity or goodness?

LXII.--THEOLOGY MAKES OF ITS GOD A MONSTER OF NONSENSE, OF INJUSTICE, OF
MALICE, AND ATROCITY--A BEING ABSOLUTELY HATEFUL.

Divine justice, such as our theologians paint it, is, without doubt, a
quality intended to make us love Divinity. According to the notions of
modern theology, it appears evident that God has created the majority of
men with the view only of punishing them eternally. Would it not have
been more in conformity with kindness, with reason, with equity, to
create but stones or plants, and not sentient beings, than to create men
whose conduct in this world would cause them eternal chastisements in
another? A God so perfidious and wicked as to create a single man and
leave him exposed to the perils of damnation, can not be regarded as a
perfect being, but as a monster of nonsense, injustice, malice, and
atrocity. Far from forming a perfect God, the theologians have made the
most imperfect of beings. According to theological ideas, God resembles
a tyrant who, having deprived the majority of his slaves of their
eyesight, woul