their dogmas, upon the principle of morality, which men received from God, are heretics; since their opinions, their morals, their dogmas, their worship, are all, more or less, in opposition to the divine moral. The clergy who are the most powerful, are those who are the most heretical.
Con. What will become of the Christian religion, if, as you suppose, the men charged with the office of teaching it have become heretics?
Inn. Christianity will become the universal and only religion. The nations of Asia and Africa will be converted; the European clergy will become good Christians, they will abandon the different heresies which they now profess. The true doctrine of Christianity, that is to say, the doctrine the most general which can be deduced from the fundamental principle of the divine morality, will be produced, and then the differences which exist in religious opinions will be at an end.
The first Christian doctrine has given to society but a partial and very incomplete organization. The rights of Cæsar have remained independent of the rights attributed to the church. "Render to Cæsar that which is Cæsar's,"—such is the famous maxim which has separated the two powers. The temporal power has continued to found its dominion upon the law of the strongest; whilst the church has professed that society can only acknowledge as legitimate institutions those which have for their object the amelioration of the condition of the poorest classes.
The new Christian organization will deduce both the temporal and the spiritual institutions from the principle that "all men ought to act towards each other as brothers." It will direct all institutions, of whatever sort they be, towards the increase of the well-being of the poorest class.
Con. Upon what facts do you found this opinion? Who authorizes you to believe that one and the same principle of morality will become the sole regulator of human associations?
