there, and to discover his hopes. Far from flattering their pride, they held forth only the ingratitude of their fathers: in every page they announced misfortunes to them as the just punishment of their crimes; to kings they reproached their dissipations, to the pontiffs their profusion, to the people their inconstancy and unbelief; and, nevertheless, these holy books were dear to them; and, from the oracles which they saw continually accomplishing in them, they awaited with confidence the fulfilment of those which the whole universe hath now witnessed. Now, the knowledge of what is to come is the least suspicious character of the Divinity.
Secondly. These mysteries are found upon facts so evidently miraculous, so well known in Judea, so agreed to then, even by those whose interest it was to reject them, so signalized by events which interested the whole nation, so often repeated in the cities, in the country, in the temple, and in the public places, that the eyes must be shut against the light to call them in question. The apostles have preached them, have written them, even in Judea, a very short time after their fulfilment; that is to say, in a time when the pontiffs, who had condemned Jesus Christ, still living, might so easily have controverted and proclaimed their imposture, had they really been a deception upon mankind. Jesus Christ, by fulfilling his promise of rising again, confirmed his gospel, and it is not to be supposed, either that the apostles could be deceived on a fact so decisive and so essential for them, — on that fact so often foretold, and looked forward to, as the principal point on which all the rest was to turn; that fact so often confirmed, and that before so many witnesses; nor that they themselves wished to deceive us, and to preach a falsehood to men at the expence of their own ease, honour, and life, the only return which they had to expect for their imposture. Would these men, who have left to us only such pious and wise precepts, have given to the earth an example of folly hitherto unknown to every people, and, without view, interest, or motive, have coolly devoted themselves to the most excruciating tortures, and to a death suffered with the most heroical piety, merely to maintain the truth of a thing of which they themselves knew the falsehood? Would these men have all tranquilly submitted to death for the sake of another man who had deceived them, and who, having failed in his promise of rising again from the grave, had only imposed, during life, upon their credulity and weakness? Let the impious man no longer reproach to us, as a credulity, the incomprehensible mysteries of faith. He must be very credulous himself to be able to persuade himself of the possibility of suppositions so absurd.
Lastly. The whole universe hath been docile to the faith of these mysteries; the Caesars, whom it degraded from the rank of gods; the philosophers, whom it convicted of ignorance and vanity; the voluptuous, to whom it preached self-denial and sufferance; the rich, whom it obliged to poverty and humility; the poor, whom it commanded to love even their abjection and indigence; all men, of whom it combated all the passions. This faith, preached by
