and wisdom in the arrangement of things; one would have a right to
accuse him of an oversight in the choice of the agents and instruments,
which he makes, prepares, and puts in action. In short, if the order
of nature proves the power and intelligence of the Deity, disorder
must prove his weakness, instability, and irrationality.

You say, that God is omnipresent, that he fills the universe with
his immensity, that nothing is done without him, that matter could
not act without his agency. But in this case, you admit, that your
God is the author of disorder, that it is he who deranges nature,
that he is the father of confusion, that he is in man, and moves
him at the moment he sins. If God is every where, he is in me,
he acts with me, he is deceived with me, he offends God with me,
and combats with me the existence of God! O theologians! you
never understand yourselves, when you speak of God.


46. In order to have what we call intelligence, it is necessary
to have ideas, thoughts, and wishes; to have ideas, thoughts, and
wishes, it is necessary to have organs; to have organs, it is necessary
to have a body; to act upon bodies, it is necessary to have a body;
to experience disorder, it is necessary to be capable of suffering.
Whence it evidently follows, that a pure spirit can neither be intelligent,
nor affected by what passes in the universe.

Divine intelligence, ideas, and views, have, you say, nothing common
with those of men. Very well. How then can men judge, right or wrong,
of these views; reason upon these ideas; or admire this intelligence?
This would be to judge, admire, and adore that, of which we can have
no ideas. To adore the profound views of divine wisdom, is it not