by Jean Meslier
[841] The Cartesians make a 3rd element in a coarse manner, which they say was formed from the subtlest matter, many parts of which were obliged in certain places to be attached and connected, and even to harden into a crust. And, as the parts of matter, of which this third element is composed, are of three sorts of shapes, it’s also necessary that their 3rd element must assume an infinity of different forms and shapes.
[842] Tome 2. 349.
[843] Page 340.
[844] Page 341.
[845] Page 354.
[846] Page 356.
[847] Page 360.
[848] Page 361.
[849] Vidi iniquitatem et contradictionem in civitate. Psalm 54:10.
[850] Luke 1:71.
[851] Aug. Existentia Dei.
[852] Fénélon, De l'Existence de Dieu. Page 298.
[853] Ibid., page 294.
[854] Romans 3:5.
[855] Sess. 6 cap. 16.
[856] Domin 12. post Pent.
[857] Isaiah 63:17.
[858] Matt. 5:12.
[859] Acts 5:41.
[860] Acts 14: 22.
[861] James 1:2.
[862] 2 Cor. 4:17.
[863] Rom. 3:5, 7.
[864] Si flagellat occidat semel, et non de poenis innocentum rideat; said the good man. Job. 9:28.
[865] Matt. 20:16.
[866] Psalm 41 (42): 7.
[867] Rom. 5:8.
[868] Rom. 5:19.
[869] Rom. 5:20.
[870] Genesis 3:22.
[871] Rom. 9:22.
[872] “Is there anyone,” says Montaigne, “who wants to be sick, so they can visit their Doctor? And wouldn’t it be right to have a Doctor flogged if they wished the plague on us, only so that he could put his art into practice? Essays, book 3, ch. 10.
[873] Justin Martyr, Theodoret, Origen, Lactantius, St. Hilarius, St. Ambrose, St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, etc.
[874] Tome 2. Page 329.
[875] Tom. 2 pages 331 & 332. (The author himself has confused being with the manners of being, which is where he goes wrong; being remains forever, but the manners of being nearly always change.)
[876] Page 392.
[877] Ibid. p. 15.
[878] Recherche de la vérité. Tome 2. p. 17.
[879] Ibid. p. 18 & 19.
[880] Ibid. p. 16.p. 16.
[881] I am certain that I myself am a substance that thinks, that desires, that feels, and that reasons. I am also certain that I am a material substance, therefore, etc.
[882] Recherche de la vérité. Tom. I, page 94.
[883] Recherche de la vérité. Tom. II, page 419.
[884] Recherche de la vérité, Tome 1, Page 348.
[885] Ibid. Tome 2, Page 421.
[886] Recherche de la vérité, Tome 1, Page 222.
[887] Ibid. page 224.
[888] Recherche de la vérité, Tome 1, Page 226.
[889] Exist. de Dieu, §47, pag. 156ff.
[890] §949
[891] Exist. de Dieu, p. 174, 949.
[892] § 953, Page 179.
[893] § 43, Page 147.
[894] Augustine's Confess. Bk 12, Ch. 11.
[895] “We are”, says Montaigne, “built of two main essential parts, the separation of which is death and the destruction of our being” (Essays, book 2, ch. 12). The two main parts of our Being are none other than this subtle and agitated matter that gives us life and the coarse matter which form the parts of our body.
[896] Lucian, Vol. 2.
[897] Enfin lorsque le corps baisse, / Qui des ans alors sous le poids s’abaisse, / Sent avec lui dans le même tems / L’esprit s’affoiblir sous le poids des ans, / Peu du premier ordre, et que la nature / Se plut à former d’argile plus pure, / Conservent, quand l’âge a leur poil blanchi / De l’hyver des ans, l’esprit affranchi; / Le reste paitri d’argile grossière / Tout entier vieillit avec la matière, / Et n’a pour partage en un corps cassé, / Qu’une raison trouble, un esprit glacé.
[898] Lucretius Bk. 3. 747 & 765.
[899] Ibid. 670.
[900] Ibid. 175.
[901] Ibid. book 1. 113.
[902] Ibid. 3. 446.
[903] Ibid. 509.
[904] Ibid. 491.
[905] 464.
[906] Ibid. 456.
[907] Lucr. ibid. 804.
[908] Virgil Aeneid. Book 6. p. 739.
[909] Essays, page 534, book 2, ch. 12.
[910] “All our knowledge,” says Montaigne, “enters us via our senses; these are our teachers. Science begins with them and is resolved in them... anyone,” he says, “can urge me to contradict the senses, grabbing me by the throat and cannot make me retreat further backwards. The senses are the beginning and the end of human knowledge: invenies primo ab sensibus esse creatam notitiam veri.” Essays, book 2, ch. 12.
[911] Recherche de la vérité, Tome 1, p. 210.
[912] Ibid. p. 86.
[913] Ibid. p. 222.
[914] Recherche de la vérité, Tome 1, Page 224.
[915] Ibid. p. 224.
[916] Recherche de la vérité, Tome 1, Page 227.
[917] Recherche de la vérité. Tome 1. p. 94.
[918] Existence de Dieu. p. 179.
[919] Existence de Dieu.
[920] Gen. 1:30.
[921] Levit. 17:14.
[922] Gen. 2:7.
[923] Gen. 2:7.
[924] Job 23:4.
[925] Gen 2:12.
[926] Psalm 145:4.
[927] Deut. 28.
[928] Job 14:14.
[929] Ibid. 7:7, 9.
[930] Job. 21:13.
[931] Psalm 6:5.
[932] Psalm 87:11, 12, 13 (88:10, 11, 12) 3, 16, 17.
[933] Psalm 113: 25, 26, 27.
[934] Isaiah 38:18.
[935] Eccles. 2: 14, 15, 16.
[936] Ibid. 3: 19, 21, 22.
[937] Eccles 3: 19, 21, 12.
[938] Ibid. 9:5, 9.
[939] Problems of this sort are not currently evident among our Christ-cultists, apparently, they have no desire for this supposed immortality, and they themselves scarcely believe what tell others.
[940] Pliny, book 7, ch. 56.
[941] One of the Sages of Greece.
[942] The third King of the Romans.
[943] Essays, Book 2, ch. 12.
[944] Seneca, Epistle 102.
[945] Psalm 73: 24.
[946] Psalm 72: 7.
[947] Psalm 72:7.
[948] Isaiah 10:1.
[949] Men like Cato, Agesilaus, Epimonidas, Fabius, Phosius, Scipio, Regulus, etc.
[950] Job 12:12.
[951] Prov. 28:2.
[952] Eccles 10:16.
[953] Eccles. 10:17, 18.
[954] Psalm 93:8.
[955] Psalm 24:3.
[956] Psalm 96:7.
[957] Psalm 70:13.
[958] Isaiah 42:17.
[959] Ezek. 36:32.
[960] Whosoever refuses to submit to this tribunal, departs from reason itself and also renders himself worthy of condemnation.
[961] Psalm 118.
[962] Ibid. 104.
[963] Ibid. 163.
[964] Ibid. 113.
[965] Psalm 138, 20.
[966] Psalm 17:41.
[967] Psalm 58:12.