7-9.) You present to an unbeliever a volume of writings of which you claim to show him the divinity.

But, before going into your proofs, he will be sure to put some questions about your collection.

Has it always been the same?
Why is it less ample now than it was some centuries ago?
By what right have they banished this work or that, which another sect reveres, and preserved this or that, which the other has repudiated ?...

You only answer all these difficulties by the avowal that the first foundations of the faith are purely human; that the choice between the manuscripts, the restoration of passages, finally the collection, has been made according to rules of criticism.

Well, I do not refuse to concede to the divinity of the sacred books a degree of faith proportioned to the certainty of these rules.