I refrain from considering here the other points of the Christian doctrine, and I will show only how Jesus Christ brought about the conversion of natural religion into law, and gained for it the authority of a public dogma.  He alone did that which so many philosophers had endeavoured in vain to do; and Christians having at last gained the upper hand in the Roman Empire, the master of the greater part of the known earth, the religion of the wise men became that of the nations.  Later also Mahomet showed no divergence from the great dogmas of natural theology:  his followers spread them abroad even among the most remote races of Asia and of Africa, whither Christianity had not been carried; and they abolished in many countries heathen superstitions which were contrary to the true doctrine of the unity of God and the immortality of souls.

It is clear that Jesus Christ, completing what Moses had begun, wished that the Divinity should be the object not only of our fear and veneration but also of our love and devotion.  Thus he made men happy by anticipation, and gave them here on earth a foretaste of future felicity.  For there is nothing so agreeable as loving that which is worthy of love.  Love is that mental state which makes us take pleasure in the perfections of the object of our love, and there is nothing more perfect than God, nor any greater delight than in him.  To love him it suffices to contemplate his perfections, a thing easy indeed, because we find the ideas of these within ourselves.  The perfections of God are those of our souls, but he possesses them in boundless measure; he is an Ocean, whereof to us only drops have been granted; there is in us some power, some knowledge, some goodness, but in God they are all in their entirety.  Order, proportions, harmony delight us; painting and music are samples of these:  God is all order; he always keeps truth of proportions, he makes universal harmony; all beauty is an effusion of his rays.

It follows manifestly that true piety and even true felicity consist in the love of God, but a love so enlightened that its fervour is attended by insight.  This kind of love begets that pleasure in good actions which gives relief to virtue, and, relating all to God as to the centre, transports the human to the divine.  For in doing one’s duty, in obeying reason, one [52] carries out the orders of Supreme Reason.  One directs all one’s intentions to the common good, which is no other than the glory of God.  Thus one finds that there is no greater individual interest than to espouse that of the community, and one gains satisfaction for oneself by taking pleasure in the acquisition of true benefits for men.  Whether one succeeds therein or not, one is content with what comes to pass, being once resigned to the will of God and knowing that what he wills is best.  But before he declares his will by the event one endeavours to find it out by doing that which appears most in accord with his commands.  When we are in this