by Jean Meslier
“My brothers,” one of these first disciples told them, “you should consider it a cause to rejoice greatly when affliction finds you, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, that the perfection of your works is found in patience, so that you may be perfect and complete without lacking anything[861]: omne gaudium existimate, fratres! cum in tentationes varias incidetis scientes, etc. And their great St. Paul said, generously: “We do not lose courage in our sufferings, since we know that the brief and fleeting afflictions we suffer in this life will produce the eternal duration of an incomparable glory[862]: id enim, he says, quod in praesenti est momentaneum et leve tribulationis nostrae supra modum in sublimitate aeternum gloriae pondus operatur in nobis. But, as our God-cultists no longer have these pious views and even seem to evidence a completely opposite opinion by the way they act, and since they pay far more attention to the goods of the present life than any supposed future blessings, and since they pay far more attention to the physical and tangible blessings than to these supposed spiritual blessings of grace, this is a plain and sure sign that they no longer give heed themselves to all that’s said about the omnipotence, goodness, and wisdom of their God, and that they have no time for these supposed greater goods that they can find in the ills that He would send them, or that He would allow to come to them by the wickedness of men.
Thus, it’s clearly an error and an illusion for them to say that it’s for a greater good that their God allows and permits so much evil and wickedness in the world. And we see this confirmed by the fact that if He allows and permits them, He would have no reason to get to bent out of shape, or to get so angry, as our Christ-cultists say, against the vicious and against all evildoers. For why would He be annoyed and so enraged at the wicked; since He might use, and since He even would use, according to the doctrine of our Christ-cultists, the greatest wickedness and the worst evils they might do, to bring forth the greatest goods. Certainly, it is not clear why He should get so upset, in the hypothesis that He would, by His infinite goodness and wisdom, mean to bring forth greater goods from them. And, according to what our Christ-cultists say, yet there is nothing that displeases their God as much as human sin, vice, and wickedness, nothing sparks His anger, His indignation, and His fury more than the detestable crimes that men commit in their wickedness. Their Scriptures are full of testimonies which show us His wrath and indignation against sinners. And thus, there is no reason or basis for our God-cultists to say that their God never allows or permits any evil except to make some greater good from it.
But let’s look a little closer at the supposedly great goods which they imagine their God has the skill to so fortunately and charitably bring from the greatest evils. Let’s listen and observe whether we can definitely defeat them on this point. It is certain, say these gentlemen, that God governs and guides all things with a sovereign power and wisdom, so that nobody can say that He does anything in vain, or even the worst and most wicked things, because God utilizes, they say, even those things that are the worst of all for the manifestation of His glory, His power, and His justice. For, they say, just as it’s especially in a time of contagion that a capable physician displays his knowledge, his skill, and his capacity, by ably healing his patients, in the same way, say our God-cultists, it’s the greatness and the multitude of the evils, the vices, and the wickedness of men which makes the goodness, the mercy, and the justice of God shine forth. “Our injustice,” says the great St. Paul[863], “shows the justice of God and our lies,” he says, “accentuate the truth of God, to His glory.” This is why, even though He could prevent human malice, He refuses to prevent it, since He finds it more fitting to bring good from the evil he allows, than to not allow any at all.
It is by the malice of the wicked, they say, that God exercises the virtue of the good: for if there had been no wicked to afflict and try the righteous, the beauty and merit of their virtue would remain unknown, and they would have no opportunity to suffer patiently; nor would they have such great or glorious rewards in Heaven, if there had no tyrants to persecute the faithful, there wouldn’t have been such generous and glorious martyrs who have so generously suffered death for the faith of Jesus Christ. If there had never been any Demons to tempt and lure men into evil, there would have been no invisible enemies to fight, and without any enemies to fight, there would have been no victories to win over them, and consequently no crowns or rewards to aspire to. If there were no vices or wickedness then all the beauty and merit of all virtues wouldn’t be so well known. Opposites never stand out as much as when they are set up in mutual contrast. The same thing, it will be said, applies to the beauty and merit of all the virtues; they never appear so starkly as when set against their opposite vices. Thus, say our Christ-cultists, God has an astounding ability to make good from the evil that He permits.
But who can’t see that this is also a pure illusion? What? To abandon the righteous to the insolence and fury of the wicked, to try their virtue and their patience, to afflict people with plague, disease, war, famine, and all the worst things in life, to try the virtue and patience of the righteous, to humble the proud, and to inspire feelings of penitence in sinners; to deliver men to the attacks and temptations of the Demons, who constantly woo them into all sorts of sins and wickedness, as our Christ-cultists think, so that, having enemies both within and without, visible and invisible, to combat, they might win the glory of conquering them, and finally, to make people miserable and unhappy on earth, on the pretext of meaning to lead them and guide them to a greater perfection, and let them earn thereby a greater reward in Heaven, this, my dear Christ-cultists, is a peculiar wisdom of God’s; these are, you say, the particular effects of His goodness and mercy; and those are the goods, and the greatest goods that He can take from all the evils that He allows and from all the wickedness He allows to go on. Rather say that it's an error and folly for you to even hold such thoughts. Rather say that it’s the folly, weakness, and ignorance of your God that makes Him allow so many and so serious and detestable evils, to make such vain and feeble goods as those which you say He makes from them; for this would mean allowing an infinity of evils for the sake of very meager benefits; it would mean allowing very real and effectual evils, to bring such exhausted and weak goods as you claim that He brings out of them, because He would allow an infinity of evils, only for the sake of very few blessings, He would allow very real and effective evils for the sake of false and imaginary goods; in brief, this would mean taking away people’s true and solid goods to make them truly miserable in life, to feed them vainly on the mere idea of a greater perfection and a greater good which are only imaginary; for, at bottom, what are all these alleged goods which God is supposed to make from the evils? It’s certainly only very minor and weak goods, which most often only imaginary goods, as I’ve just said. If God takes pleasure in the righteous, is it really necessary for Him to let or tyrannically have their virtue by the malice of the wicked? If He means to purify and perfect them all the more in virtue[864], does He really have to make them languish miserably and groan in pain? If He wants men to be wise and virtuous, and if He wants them to be gentle and humble, charitable, benevolent, and obedient to His laws, does He really have to strike them to harshly and afflict them with all manner of evil, rather than to benignly give them the spirit of kindness and wisdom? And finally, if He wants to make them eternally blessed in Heaven, do does He really have to make them miserable and unhappy on Earth? How foolish to even hold such thoughts! If an all-powerful, infinitely good, and infinitely wise God, had any blessings for mankind, we must believe that He would deliver them in a manner that would be worthy of Him, and consequently, that He would give them to them without making or letting them suffer from any harm.
But let us consider whether these supposed spiritual goods, such as they are, are still at the outcome of the evils, the vices, and the afflictions which happen in life. Will men always profit so richly, that they become wiser and more virtuous all the time? Are they al
ways humble and patient in their suffering and in their adversity? Will even the righteous be sanctified and purified more every day? When they’re miserable and unhappy, will they always bless the hand that strikes them? Will even the righteous always persevere in their virtue, amid temptations and opportunities for sin? Far from it. The number of those who succumb to temptation, who are exasperated by pain, and who are lost amid the misery of the world’s afflictions is, according to our Christ-cultists themselves, far larger than the number of those who are sanctified or who are confirm their innocence. For one, perhaps, who is firm in their virtue and who is patient in suffering and affliction, there are a thousand who will lose their patience, who curse their fate, and who would succumb beneath the weight of their miseries and their afflictions. This is why even our Christ-cultists say, echoing their divine Christ, that many are called, but few are chosen[865]: multi enim vocati sunt, pauci vero electi. That is, that there are some saved and many reprobates. Far, then, from a good and a greater good coming always in the wake of an evil, to the contrary, we more often see that one evil attracts another, that a little evil brings a greater one, that, ultimately, an evil brings many others with it[866]: abissus abissum invocat. This is seen in daily experience in countless conjunctures. It is, therefore, clearly false to say, as our Christ-cultists say, that God allows evil to take some greater good from it.
But to show the fallacy of this doctrine even more clearly, let’s go back to the source, and even according to what our Christ-cultists themselves tell us about their origin. They say that the whole human race and all humans descend from a single first man and a single first woman, that God would have created in a state of innocence and holiness; that He created them free from all sorts of diseases, infirmities, and even death, and that He placed them in a place of delights and felicity; where they would have always lived, along with their posterity, in a perfect natural blessedness, if they had always been obedient to God. But, since these first Parents of mankind, as our Christ-cultists say, transgressed a commandment of God, by eating, in a garden, fruit that He had forbidden them, they were, in punishment for this disobedience, immediately expelled from this place of bliss and happiness, and were at the same time, along with their descendants, subject not only to all the trouble and all the miseries of this life, but also to an eternal reprobation and damnation, which consists in suffering, after this life, in the infernal realms, tortures and torments that are more horrid and fearsome than any evil imaginable in this life.
If that is as they say, then this certainly is the worst misfortune that could befall men, to have fallen so soon and so miserably, by the fault of one, from such a perfect and happy state into such a miserably state, so full of all sorts of misery. Then, all the evils and miseries of life only come, according to our Christ-cultists, from the fault of this first man who tactlessly ate the fruit that God had forbidden him. God certainly meant to allow it; since He was all-powerful, as He’s said to be, He would certainly have been able to prevent it and might, had He wanted, have maintained and preserved all men in the state of innocence and perfection in which He had created them, and by this means made them perpetually happy and content; and since He didn’t want to do this, He allowed the fault and disobedience of this first man. This disobedience was the first evil and the first sin in the world, at least for men; and, having allowed this first evil and this first sin, it was, according to the doctrine of our Christ-cultists, for a good and a greater good, even, that God allowed it; since He allowed no evil except to bring some greater good from it.
Now tell us, dear Christ-cultists, what is this greater good that your God would have brought forth from this first fault and from this first evil? Where is it, this greater good? Show it to us, so that we may see it, so that we might see this miracle of the greatness, of the goodness, of the wisdom, and of the almightiness of your God. If this supposed greater good were found in humanity, they should certainly now be in a state that is more perfect, holier, and happier than what they were in before this first fault, and before this first evil, since God wouldn’t have allowed this first evil unless it was for a greater good. If this greater good is found among humanity, then they should be better off and in a better state than they were before, and this is precisely what your great Apostle St. Paul says in his Epistle to the Romans. “God”, he says, “shows the love He bears us in that, when we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us; now, therefore, since we are justified by his blood, God will instead preserve us from His wrath through Jesus Christ[867]; for if, when we were the enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him by His dying son, with all the more reason, he says, having been restored to grace, we will be saved by his living…”
However, he says, it’s not the same with grace as with sin; since many have died by the sin of one man, grace is nevertheless scattered far more abundantly upon many by the grace of one man, namely, Jesus Christ. And God’s gift is not like sin, which came by a single man; for the condemnation proceeded from a single sin, whereas grace justifies us after many sins. And if,” he continues, “a sin caused death to reign, with all the more reason will those on whom grace, the gift and justice are scattered profusely, reign in life by a single man, namely, Jesus Christ. Since then,” he says, “by the sin of a single man condemnation fell upon all men, thus the righteousness of a single man[868] brings to all men the justice of life, for, since many have been made sinners by the disobedience of a single individual, even so by the obedience of a single individual many will be made just. Now, the law”, he says, “came to multiply sin; but where there is an abundance of sins, there is”, he says, “a greater abundance of grace”[869]: ubi abundavit delictum superabundavit gratia.
According to what this Apostle says, and according to the doctrine of our Christ-cultists, it is clear that the condition of the human race ought to be now far better, more perfect, and happier than it ever was in its first Creation. For since, according to their doctrine, God would have only allowed the first evil to take His greater good from it and since, according to what this Apostle says, whom I just quoted, wherever there is an abundance of sin, there would also be a greater abundance of grace, if clearly follows that, since the whole human race has fallen into this first evil and this first misfortune that God would only have allowed for a greater good, he must be far worthier than before, and he should, according to what this Apostle says, have received a greater abundance of gifts, of graces, and of blessings. And, since prior to this first evil and this first misfortune, men were already, according to the doctrine of our Christ-cultists, in a happy condition as to the body and as to the soul, that they were exempted from all sorts of illness and infirmity, and even death itself, that they were in a state of perfect innocence, and that they would always happily have enjoyed all the pleasures and all the contentment of life in an earthly Paradise, i.e., in a place of bliss and delights, it clearly follows that, after this first fault, after this first sin, and this first misfortune, which God would have allowed for a greater good, he should have, by drawing a greater good from this fault, placed them in a happier and more perfect that than the one He created them in to start with. That clearly follows from the Principles of our Christ-cultists and the doctrine of their great Apostle St. Paul.
However, that’s not the case at all. Nobody sees that the condition of men has become better, or happier, or more perfect, in any way; but what is actually seen everywhere in the world is an overflowing of vices and wickedness, as it were a deluge of evils, sickness, infirmities, and calamities, which make most men miserable and unhappy on earth. It is, therefore, clearly wrong to say that God would always make some greater good from the evil He permits. And it’s clearly false and illusory for our Christ-cultists to say that He would never allow any harm if it weren’t to draw some greater good from it. And, far from them having any reason to say that He would draw some greater good from this first evil, or from this first fault of men, they would rather have far better reasons to say that He would have d
rawn from all the worst evils and that from the least fault of men, which was certainly only a very slight and trifling evil, He would have meant to take all the greatest and most detestable evils, since they themselves say that all the ills and wickedness of men and even that all the eternal torments of a Hell are only the unhappy effects of this first fault of men. And, as this fault, as it is thought to have been, would nevertheless at the same time only a very slight fault, and even a fault that didn’t even deserve a slap, as I’ve said above, God would then have been able and in possession of the requisite skill and wisdom to take from the least evil all the greatest, all the most hateful, and all the most fearsome evils imaginable. Judge from this whether this can be said of a God, or a being who is supposed to be infinitely good, infinitely wise, and infinitely perfect; certainly, that’s too repugnant, it’s too absurd. It is, then, clear and evident that this supposed greater good that God would have taken from this first evil, which is in no way present on the human side of things.