IMPORTANT EXAMINATION OF The Holy Scriptures. ATTRIBUTED TO LORD BOLINGBROKE, BUT WRITTEN BY M. VOLTAIRE, AND FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1736. NOW FIRST TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. London: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY R. CARLILE, 55, FLEET STREET. PREFACE. THE ambition of domineering over the mind, is one of the strongest passions. A theologian, a missionary, or a partisan of any description, is always for conquering like a prince, and there are many more sects than there are sovereigns in the world. To whose guidance shall I submit my mind? Must I be a Christian, because I happened to be born in London, or in Madrid? Must I be a Mussulman, because I was born in Turkey? As it is myself alone that I ought to consult, the choice of a religion is my greatest interest. One man adores God by Mahomet, another by the Grand Lama, and another by the Pope. Weak and foolish men! adore God by your own reason. The stupid indolence which takes possession of the generality of men, and sets aside this most important of all concerns, seems to intimate to us that they are nothing but stupid machines, endowed with animal functions, whose instinct never occupies itself beyond the present moment. We make use of our understandings in the same way as we use our bodies; both are frequently abandoned to quacks, whose chief concern is to get possession of our money. The prodigious multitude of Christian sects already forms a great presumption that they are all founded on erroneous systems. The wise man says to himself"If God had intended us to render him any particular worship, this worship would have been necessary to our species. If this worship were necessary, he him |