in a favourable light; the bigot views him in the most hideous light.
The folly of the one is cheerful, that of the other is melancholy;
but both are equally delirious.


65. If I draw my ideas of God from theology, he appears to inspire
aversion. Devotees, who tell us, that they sincerely love their God,
are either liars or fools, who see their God only in profile. It is
impossible to love a being, the very idea of whom strikes us with
terror, and whose judgments make us tremble. How can we, without
being alarmed, look upon a God, who is reputed to be barbarous enough
to damn us? Let not divines talk to us of a filial, or respectful fear,
mixed with love, which men ought to have for their God. A son can
by no means love his father, when he knows him to be cruel enough
to inflict upon him studied torments for the least faults he may commit.
No man upon earth can have the least spark of love for a God, who
reserves chastisements, infinite in duration and violence, for
ninety-nine hundredths of his children.


66. The inventors of the dogma of eternal hell-torments have made
of that God, whom they call so good, the most detestable of beings.
Cruelty in men is the last act of wickedness. Every sensible mind
must revolt at the bare recital of the torments, inflicted on the
greatest criminal; but cruelty is much more apt to excite indignation,
when void of motives. The most sanguinary tyrants, the Caligulas,
the Neros, the Domitians, had, at least, some motives for tormenting
their victims. These motives were, either their own safety, or the
fury of revenge, or the design of frightening by terrible examples,
or perhaps the vanity of making a display of their power, and the