For, lastly, if there be no future state, what design, worthy of his wisdom, could God have proposed in creating man? What, in forming them, had he no other view than in forming the beast? Man, that being so noble, who is capable of such sublime thoughts, such vast desires, and such grand sentiments, — susceptible of love, truth, and justice; man, of all creatures, alone worthy of a great destination, that of knowing and loving the Author of his being; that man should be made only for the earth, to pass a small portion of days, like the beast, in trifling employments, or sensual gratifications: he should fulfil his purpose, by acting so risible and so pitiable a part; and afterward should sink back to nonentity, without any other use having been made of that vast mind and elevated heart which the Author of his being had given him? O God! where would here be thy wisdom, to have made so grand a work for the duration only of a moment; to have exhibited men upon the earth only as a playful essay of thy power; or to amuse thy leisure by a variety of shows! The deity of the freethinker is not grand, therefore, but because he is more unjust, capricious, and despicable than men! Pursue these reflections, and support, if you can, all the extravagance of their folly.
How worthy, then, of God, my brethren, to watch over the universe; to conduct man, whom he has created, by the laws of justice, truth, charity, and innocence; to make virtue and reason the bond of union and the foundation of human society! How worthy of God to love in his creatures those virtues which render himself amiable; to hate the vices which disfigure in them his image; not to confound for ever the just with the impious; to render happy with himself those souls who have lived only for him; and to deliver up to their own misery those who believed they had found a happiness independent of him!
Behold the God of the Christians; behold that wise, just, and holy Deity whom we adore; and the advantage we have over the freethinker is, that ours is the God of an innocent and pure heart; the God whom all creatures manifest to us; whom all ages have invoked; whom the sages, even of Paganism, have acknowledged; and of whom nature has deeply engraven the idea on the very foundation of our being!
But, since God is so just, ought he to punish, as crimes, inclinations for pleasure born with us; nay, which he alone has given us? Last blasphemy of impiety, and last part of this Discourse. I shall abridge it, and conclude.
But, in the first place, be whom you may, who hold this absurd language, if you pretend to justify all your actions by the inclinations which induce you to them; if whatever we wish become legitimate; if our desires ought to be the only regulation of our duties; on that principle, you have only to regard with an envious eye the fortune of your brother, to acquire a right to despoil him of it: his wife, with a corrupted heart, to be authorized to violate the sanctity of the nuptial bed, in opposition to the most sacred rights of society and nature. You have only to suspect, or dislike
