Page:Rousseau - Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, 1889.djvu/111

 was so just, so benevolent, and so desirous of knowing the truth?

“Be honest, and suppose yourself in my place. Do you think that I can believe, upon your testimony alone, all these incredible things you tell me, or that I can reconcile so much injustice with the character of that just God, whom you pretend to make known?

“Let me first, I pray you, go and see this distant country where so many miracles have happened that are totally unknown here. Let me go and be well-informed why the inhabitants of that Jerusalem you speak of presumed to treat God like a thief or a murderer.

“They did not, you will say, acknowledge his divinity. How then can I, who never have heard of him but from you?

“You add, that they were punished, dispersed, and led into captivity;—not one of them ever approaching their former city.

“Assuredly, they deserved all this: but its present inhabitants,—what say they of the unbelief and Deicide of their predecessors? Do they not deny it, and acknowledge the divinity of the sacred personage just as little as did its ancient inhabitants?

“What! in the same city in which your God was put to death, neither the ancient nor present inhabitants acknowledge his divinity! And yet you would have me believe it, who was born nearly two thousand years after the event, and two thousand leagues distant from the place!

“Do you not see that, before I can give credit