Men have in the first age of the world been carried away into every kind of debauchery, and yet there were saints, as Enoch, Lamech, and others, who waited patiently for the Christ promised from the beginning of the world.  Noah saw the wickedness of men at its height; and he was held worthy to save the world in his person, by the hope of the Messiah of whom he was the type.  Abraham was surrounded by idolaters, when God made known to him the mystery of the Messiah, whom he welcomed from afar.[219] In the time of Isaac and Jacob abomination was spread over all the earth; but these saints lived in faith; and Jacob, dying and blessing his children, cried in a transport which made him break off his discourse, “I await, O my God, the Saviour whom Thou hast promised. Salutare taum expectabo, Domine."[220] The Egyptians were infected both with idolatry and magic; the very people of God were led astray by their example.  Yet Moses and others believed Him whom they saw not, and worshipped Him, looking to the eternal gifts which He was preparing for them.

The Greeks and Latins then set up false deities; the poets made a hundred different theologies, while the philosophers separated into a thousand different sects; and yet in the heart of Judaea there were always chosen men who foretold the coming of this Messiah, which was known to them alone.

He came at length in the fullness of time, and time has since witnessed the birth of so many schisms and heresies, so many political revolutions, so many changes in all things; yet this Church, which worships Him who has always been worshipped, has endured uninterruptedly.  It is a wonderful, incomparable, and altogether divine fact that this religion, which has always endured, has always been attacked.  It has been a thousand times on the eve of universal destruction, and every time it has been in that state, God has restored it by extraordinary acts of His power.  This is astonishing, as also that it has preserved itself without yielding to the will of tyrants.  For it is not strange that a State endures, when its laws are sometimes made to give way to necessity, but that.... (See the passage indicated in Montaigne.)

613

States would perish if they did not often make their laws give way to necessity.  But religion has never suffered this, or practised it.  Indeed, there must be these compromises, or miracles.  It is not strange to be saved by yieldings, and this is not strictly self-preservation; besides, in the end they perish entirely.  None has endured a thousand years.  But the fact that this religion has always maintained itself, inflexible as it is, proves its divinity.

614

Whatever may be said, it must be admitted that the Christian religion has something astonishing in it.  Some will say, “This is because you were born in it.”  Far from it; I stiffen myself against it for this very reason, for fear this prejudice bias me.  But although I am born in it, I cannot help finding it so.