Re: my academic bow won't include before I count it
Lloyd
sign has he that every other man has not who chooses to call himself a
prophet? What miracles does he himself say that he has done? What mysteries
has he taught, even according to his own tradition? What was the morality,
what the happiness held out by him?
The Jewish religion must be differently regarded in the tradition of the
Holy Bible and in the tradition of the people. Its morality and happiness
are absurd in the tradition of the people, but are admirable in that of the
Holy Bible. (And all religion is the same; for the Christian religion is
very different in the Holy Bible and in the casuists.) The foundation is
admirable; it is the most ancient book in the world, and the most authentic;
and whereas Mahomet, in order to make his own book continue in existence,
forbade men to read it, Moses, for the same reason, ordered every one to
read his.
Our religion is so divine that another divine religion has only been the
foundation of it.
602. Order.--To see what is clear and indisputable in the whole state of the
Jews.
603. The Jewish religion is wholly divine in its authority, its duration,
its perpetuity, its morality, its doctrine, and its effects.
604. The only science contrary to common sense and human nature is that
alone which has always existed among men.
605. The only religion contrary to nature, to common sense, and to our
pleasure, is that alone which has always existed.
606. No religion but our own has taught that man is born in sin. No sea of
philosophers has said this. Therefore none have declared the truth.
No sect or religion has always existed on e