Admit then, according to your own principles, that God cannot have what
we call virtues, and that man cannot be virtuous with respect to him.


49. Man, wrapped up in his own merit, imagines the human race to
be the sole object of God in creating the universe. Upon what does
he found this flattering opinion? We are told: that man is the only
being endued with intelligence, which enables him to know the Deity,
and to render him homage. We are assured, that God made the world
only for his own glory, and that it was necessary that the human species
should come into this plan, that there might be some one to admire his
works, and glorify him for them. But, according to these suppositions,
has not God evidently missed his object? 1st. Man, according to
yourselves, will always labour under the completest impossibility
of knowing his God, and the most invincible ignorance of his divine
essence. 2ndly. A being, who has no equal, cannot be susceptible
of glory; for glory can result only from the comparison of one's own
excellence with that of others. 3rdly. If God be infinitely happy,
if he be self-sufficient, what need has he of the homage of his feeble
creatures? 4thly. God, notwithstanding all his endeavours, is not
glorified; but, on the contrary, all the religions in the world
represent him as perpetually offended; their sole object is to reconcile
sinful, ungrateful, rebellious man with his angry God.


50. If God be infinite, he has much less relation with man, than
man with ants. Would the ants reason pertinently concerning the
intentions, desires, and projects of the gardener? Could they
justly imagine, that a park was planted for them alone, by an
ostentatious monarch, and that the sole object of his goodness was