Men must have received very gloomy and cruel ideas of their God, who
is called so good, to believe that the most dreadful calamities and
piercing afflictions are marks of his favour! Would an evil genius,
a demon, be more ingenious in tormenting his enemies, than the God
of goodness sometimes is, who so often exercises his severity upon
his dearest friends?


79. What shall we say of a father, who, we are assured, watches
without intermission over the preservation and happiness of his weak
and short-sighted children, and who yet leaves them at liberty to
wander at random among rocks, precipices, and waters; who rarely
hinders them from following their inordinate appetites; who permits
them to handle, without precaution, murderous arms, at the risk of
their life? What should we think of the same father, if, instead
of imputing to himself the evil that happens to his poor children,
he should punish them for their wanderings in the most cruel manner?
We should say, with reason, that this father is a madman, who unites
injustice to folly. A God, who punishes faults, which he could have
prevented, is a being deficient in wisdom, goodness, and equity.
A foreseeing God would prevent evil, and thereby avoid having to
punish it. A good God would not punish weaknesses, which he knew
to be inherent in human nature. A just God, if he made man, would
not punish him for not being made strong enough to resist his desires.
_To punish weakness is the most unjust tyranny._ Is it not calumniating
a just God, to say, that he punishes men for their faults, even in
the present life? How could he punish beings, whom it belonged to
him alone to reform, and who, while they have not _grace_, cannot act
otherwise than they do?