e; for he performed no miracles, he
was not foretold. No man can do what Christ has done.

600

The heathen religion has no foundation [at the present day. It is said
once to have had a foundation by the oracles which spoke. But what are
the books which assure us of this? Are they so worthy of belief on
account of the virtue of their authors? Have they been preserved with
such care that we can be sure that they have not been meddled with?]

The Mahometan religion has for a foundation the Koran and Mahomet. But
has this prophet, who was to be the last hope of the world, been
foretold? What sign has he that every other man has not, who chooses to
call himself a prophet? What miracles does he himself say that he has
done? What mysteries has he taught, even according to his own tradition?
What was the morality, what the happiness held out by him?

The Jewish religion must be differently regarded in the tradition of the
Holy Bible, and in the tradition of the people. Its morality and
happiness are absurd in the tradition of the people, but are admirable
in that of the Holy Bible. (And all religion is the same; for the
Christian religion is very different in the Holy Bible and in the
casuists.) The foundation is admirable; it is the most ancient book in
the world, and the most authentic; and whereas Mahomet, in order to make
his own book continue in existence, forbade men to read it, Moses,[217]
for the same reason, ordered every one to read his.

Our religion is so divine that another divine religion has only been the
foundation of it.

601

_Order._--To see what is clear and indisputable in the whole state of
the Jews.

602

The Jewish religion is wholly divine in its authority, its duration, its
perpetuity, its morality, its doctrine, and its effects.

603

The only science contrary to common sense and human nature is that alone
which has always existed among men.

604

The only religion contrary to nature, to common sense, and to our
pleasure, is that alone which has always existed.

605

No religion but our own has taught that man is born in sin. No sect of
philosophers has said this. Therefore none have declared the truth.

No sect or religion has always existed on earth, but the Christian
religion.

606

Whoever judges of the Jewish religion by its coarser forms will
misunderstand it. It is to be seen in the Holy Bible, and in the
tradition of the prophets, who have made it plain