t great miracles; history also informs me, that these
reformers and their adherents were commonly buffeted, persecuted, and put
to death, as disturbers of the peace of nations. I am therefore tempted to
believe, that they did not perform the miracles ascribed to them;
indeed, such miracles must have gained them numerous partisans among the
eye-witnesses, who ought to have protected the operators from abuse. My
incredulity redoubles, when I am told, that the workers of miracles
were cruelly tormented, or ignominiously executed. How is it possible to
believe, that missionaries, protected by God, invested with his divine
power, and enjoying the gift of miracles, could not have wrought such a
simple miracle, as to escape the cruelty of their persecutors?

Priests have the art of drawing from the persecutions themselves, a
convincing proof in favour of the religion of the persecuted. But a
religion, which boasts of having cost the lives of many martyrs, and
informs us, that its founders, in order to extend it, have suffered
punishments, cannot be the religion of a beneficent, equitable and
omnipotent God. A good God would not permit men, intrusted with announcing
his commands, to be ill-treated. An all-powerful God, wishing to found a
religion, would proceed in a manner more simple and less fatal to the most
faithful of his servants. To say that God would have his religion sealed
with blood, is to say that he is weak, unjust, ungrateful, and sanguinary;
and that he is cruel enough to sacrifice his messengers to the views of
his ambition.

133.

To die for religion proves not that the religion is true, or divine; it
proves, at most, that it is supposed to be such. An enthusiast proves
nothing by his death, unless that religious fanaticism is often stronger
than the love of life. An impostor may sometimes die with courage; he then
makes, in the language of the proverb, _a virtue of necessity_.

People are often surprised and affected at sight of the generous courage
and disinterested zeal, which has prompted missionaries to preach their
doctrine, even at the risk of suffering the most rigorous treatment. From
this ardour for the salvation of men, are drawn inferences favourable to
the religion they have announced. But in reality, this disinterestedness
is only apparent. He, who ventures nothing should gain nothing. A
missionary seeks to make his fortune by his doctrine. He knows that, if he
is fortunate enough to sell