Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 02.djvu/156

132 .—But if you are a Christian, tell me if you conscientiously think the rest of mankind will be damned?

.—It does not become me to limit the compassion or the justice of God.

.—But to come to the point, if you are a Christian, what do you believe?

.—I believe with Jesus Christ that we ought to love God and our neighbor, forgive our enemies, and do good for evil. These are the maxims of Jesus. So true are they, that no legislator, no philosopher, ever had other principles before him, and it is impossible that there can be any other. These truths never have and never can meet with contradiction, save from our passions.

.—But, in regard to the passions, is it true that your bishops, priests, and deacons are all married?

.—Quite true. St. Joseph, who passed for the father of Jesus, was married. James the Less, surnamed Oblia, brother of our Lord, was his son, who, after the death of Jesus, spent his life in the temple. St. Paul—the great St. Paul—was a married man.

.—But Grillandus and Molina assert the contrary.

.—Let them say what they please; I prefer believing St. Paul himself on the subject. In Corinthians, ix. 4-7, he says: "Have we not