lasting, and they should possess
forever the country He should give them. Now it is plain that these
promises-never were fulfilled.

Firstly. It is certain that the Jewish people, or the people of
Israel--which is the only one that can be regarded as having descended
from the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the only ones to whom
these promises should have been fulfilled--have never been so numerous
that it could be compared with the other nations of the earth, much less
with the sands of the sea, etc., for we see that in the very time when
it was the most numerous and the most flourishing, it never occupied
more than the little sterile provinces of Palestine and its environs,
which are almost nothing in comparison with the vast extent of a
multitude of flourishing kingdoms which are on all sides of the earth.

Secondly. They have never been fulfilled concerning the great blessings
with which they were to be favored; for, although they won a few small
victories over some poor nations whom they plundered, this did not
prevent them from being conquered and reduced to servitude; their
kingdom destroyed as well as their nation, by the Roman army; and even
now the remainder of this unfortunate nation is looked upon as the
vilest and most contemptible of all the earth, having no country, no
dominion, no superiority.

Finally, these promises have not been fulfilled in respect to this
everlasting covenant, which God ought to have fulfilled to them; because
we do not see now, and we have never seen, any evidence of this
covenant; and, on the contrary, they have been for many centuries
excluded from the possession of the small country they pretended God had
promised that they should enjoy forever. Thus, since these pretended
promises were never fulfilled, it is certain evidence of their falsity;
which proves, plainly, that these pretended Holy Books which contain
them were not of Divine inspiration. Therefore it is useless for our
Christ-worshipers to pretend to make use of them as infallible testimony
to prove the truth of their religion.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

V.--(1) OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

Our Christ-worshipers add to their reasons for credulity and to the
proofs of the truth of their testimony, the prophecies which are, as
they pretend, sure evidences of the truth of the revelations or
inspirations of God, there being no one but God who could predict future
events so long before they came to pass,