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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.)[111]

614. 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.

615. 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.

616. Perpetuity.--The Messiah has always been believed in. The tradition
from Adam was fresh in Noah and in Moses. Since then the prophets have
foretold him, while at the same time foretelling other things, which, being
from time to time fulfilled in the sight of men, showed the truth of their
mission, and consequently that of their promises touching the Messiah. Jesus
Christ performed miracles, and the Apostles also, who converted all the
heathen; and all the prophecies being thereby fulfilled, the Messiah is for
ever proved.

617. Perpetuity.--Let us consider that since the beginning of the world the
expectation of worship of the Messiah has existed uninterruptedly; that
there have been found men who said that God had revealed to them that a
Redeemer was to be born, who should save His peo