ontrary, each, on his
side, pretends to sustain truth, the true means of banishing all errors,
and of uniting all men in peace in the same sentiments and in the same
form of religion, would be to produce convincing proofs and testimonies
of the truth; and thus show that such religion is of Divine origin, and
not any of the others; then each one would accept this truth; and no
person would dare to question these testimonies, or sustain the side of
error and imposition, lest he should be, at the same time, confounded by
contrary proofs: but, as these proofs are not found in any religion, it
gives to impostors occasion to invent and boldly sustain all kinds of
falsehoods.

Here are still other proofs, which will not be less evident, of the
falsity of human religions, and especially of the falsity of our own.
Every religion which relies upon mysteries as its foundation, and which
takes, as a rule of its doctrine and its morals, a principle of errors,
and which is at the same time a source of trouble and eternal divisions
among men, can not be a true religion, nor a Divine Institution. Now,
human religions, especially the Catholic, establish as the basis of
their doctrine and of their morals, a principle of errors; then, it
follows that these religions can not be true, or of Divine origin. I do
not see that we can deny the first proposition of this argument; it is
too clear and too evident to admit of a doubt. I pass to the proof of
the second proposition, which is, that the Christian religion takes for
the rule of its doctrine and its morals what they call faith, a blind
trust, but yet firm, and secured by some laws or revelations of some
Deity. We must necessarily suppose that it is thus, because it is this
belief in some Deity and in some Divine Revelations, which gives all the
credit and all the authority that it has in the world, and without which
we could make no use of what it prescribes. This is why there is no
religion which does not expressly recommend its votaries to be firm in
their faith. ["Estate fortes in fide!"] This is the reason that all
Christians accept as a maxim, that faith is the commencement and the
basis of salvation, that it is the root of all justice and of all
sanctification, as it is expressed at the Council of Trent.--Sess. 6,
Ch. VIII.

Now it is evident that a blind faith in all which is proposed in the
name and authority of God, is a principle of errors and falsehoods. As a
proof, we see th