and in all times;
but their morality cannot please me, nor can their proofs convince me. Thus
I should equally have rejected the religion of Mahomet and of China, of the
ancient Romans and of the Egyptians, for the sole reason that none having
more marks of truth than another, nor anything which should necessarily
persuade me, reason cannot incline to one rather than the other.

But, in thus considering this changeable and singular variety of morals and
beliefs at different times, I find in one corner of the world a peculiar
people, separated from all other peoples on earth, the most ancient of all,
and whose histories are earlier by many generations than the most ancient
which we possess.

I find, then, this great and numerous people, sprung from a single man, who
worship one God and guide themselves by a law which they say that they
obtained from His own hand. They maintain that they are the only people in
the world to whom God has revealed His mysteries; that all men are corrupt
and in disgrace with God; that they are all abandoned to their senses and
their own imagination, whence come the strange errors and continual changes
which happen among them, both of religions and of morals, whereas they
themselves remain firm in their conduct; but that God will not leave other
nations in this darkness for ever; that there will come a Saviour for all;
that they are in the world to announce Him to men; that they are expressly
formed to be forerunners and heralds of this great event and to summon all
nations to join with them in the expecta