ruel they are, the more agreeable they suppose they are to their
God, whose cause they imagine cannot be supported with too much warmth.

All religions have authorized innumerable crimes. The Jews, intoxicated
with the promises of their God, arrogated the rights of exterminating
whole nations. Relying on the oracles of their God, the Romans conquered
and ravaged the world. The Arabians, encouraged by their divine prophet,
carried fire and sword among the Christians and the idolaters. The
CHRISTIANS, under pretext of extending their holy religion, have often
deluged both hemispheres in blood.

In all events favourable to their own interest, which they always call
_the cause of God_, priests show us the _finger of God_. According to
these principles, the devout have the happiness to see the _finger of
God_ in revolts, revolutions, massacres, regicides, crimes, prostitutions,
horrors; and, if these things contribute ever so little to the triumph
of religion, we are told, that "God uses all sorts of means to attain his
ends." Is any thing more capable of effacing every idea of morality from
the minds of men, than to inform them, that their God, so powerful and
perfect, is often forced to make use of criminal actions in order to
accomplish his designs?

159.

No sooner do we complain of the extravagancies and evils, which Religion
has so often caused upon the earth, than we are reminded, that these
excesses are not owing to Religion; but "that they are the sad effects of
the passions of men." But I would ask, what has let loose these passions?
It is evidently Religion; it is zeal, that renders men inhuman, and serves
to conceal the greatest atrocities. Do not these disorders then prove,
that religion, far from restraining the passions of men, only covers them
with a veil, which sanctifies them, and that nothing would be more useful,
than to tear away this sacred veil of which men often make such a terrible
use? What horrors would be banished from society, if the wicked were
deprived of so plausible a pretext for disturbing it!

Instead of being angels of peace among men, priests have been demons of
discord. They have pretended to receive from heaven the right of being
quarrelsome, turbulent, and rebellious. Do not the ministers of the
Lord think themselves aggrieved, and pretend that the divine Majesty is
offended, whenever sovereigns have the temerity to prevent them from
doing evil? Priests are like the spiteful