more unhappy in another! The theologian gets over this, by saying,
that the goodness of God will then give place to his justice. But
a goodness, which gives place to the most terrible cruelty, is not
an infinite goodness. Besides, can a God, who, after having been
infinitely good, becomes infinitely bad, be regarded as an immutable
being? Can we discern the shadow of clemency or goodness, in a God
filled with implacable fury?


62. Divine justice, as stated by our divines, is undoubtedly a quality
very proper to cherish in us the love of the Divinity. According to
the ideas of modern theology, it is evident, that God has created
the majority of men, with the sole view of putting them in a fair
way to incur eternal punishment. Would it not have been more conformable
to goodness, reason, and equity, to have created only stones or plants,
and not to have created sensible beings; than to have formed men,
whose conduct in this world might subject them to endless punishment
in the other? A God perfidious and malicious enough to create a
single man, and then to abandon him to the danger of being damned,
cannot be regarded as a perfect being; but as an unreasonable, unjust,
and ill-natured. Very far from composing a perfect God, theologians
have formed the most imperfect of beings. According to theological
notions, God would resemble a tyrant, who, having put out the eyes
of the greater part of his slaves, should shut them up in a dungeon,
where, for his amusement, he would, incognito, observe their conduct
through a trap-door, in order to punish with rigour all those, who,
while walking about, should hit against each other; but who would
magnificently reward the few whom he had not deprived of sight, in
avoiding to run against their comrades. Such are the ideas, which
the dogma of gratuitous predestination gives us of the divinity!