790. Jesus would not be slain without the forms of justice; for it is far
more ignominious to die by justice than by an unjust sedition.
791. The false justice of Pilate only serves to make Jesus Christ suffer;
for he causes Him to be scourged by his false justice, and afterwards puts
Him to death. It would have been better to have put Him to death at once.
Thus it is with the falsely just. They do good and evil works to please the
world, and to show that they are not altogether of Jesus Christ; for they
are ashamed of Him. And at last, under great temptation and on great
occasions, they kill Him.
792. What man ever had more renown? The whole Jewish people foretell Him
before His coming. The Gentile people worship Him after His coming. The two
peoples, Gentile and Jewish, regard Him as their centre.
And yet what man enjoys this renown less? Of thirty-three years, He lives
thirty without appearing. For three years He passes as an impostor; the
priests and the chief people reject Him; His friends and His nearest
relatives despise Him. Finally, He dies, betrayed by one of His own
disciples, denied by another, and abandoned by all.
What part, t
295. Mine, thine.--"This dog is mine," said those poor children; "that is my
place in the sun." Here is the beginning an
841. Miracles furnish the test in matters of doubt, between Jews and
heathens, Jews and Christians, Catholics and heretics, the slandered and
slanderers, between the two crosses.
But miracles would be useless to heretics; for the Church, authorised by
miracles which have already obtained belief, tells us that they have not the
true faith. There is no doubt that they are not in it, since the first
miracles of the Church exclude belief of theirs. Thus there is miracle
against miracle, both the first and greatest being on the side of the
Church.
These nuns, astonished at what is said--that they are in the way of
perdition; that their confessors are leading them to Geneva; that they
suggest to them that Jesus Christ is not in the Eucharist, nor on the right
hand of the Father--know that all this is false and, therefore, offer
themselves to God in this state. Vide si via iniquitatis in me est.192 What
happens thereupon? This place, which is said to be the temple of the devil,
God makes His own temple. It is said that the children must be ta
618. This is positive fact. While all philosophers separate into different
sects, there is found in one corner of the world the most ancient people in
it, declaring that all the world is in error, that God has revealed to them
the truth, that they will always exist on the earth. In fact, all other seas
come to an end, this one still
Midrasch el Kohelet on Ecclesiastes 9:14: "A great king besieged a little
city." This great king is the evil leaven; the great bulwarks built against
it are temptations; and there has been found a poor wise man who has
delivered it--that is to say, virtue.
And on Psalm 41:1: "Blessed is he that considereth the poor."
And on Psalm 78:39: "The spirit passeth away, and cometh not again"; whence
some have erroneously argued against the immortality of the soul. But the
sense is that this spirit is the evil leaven, which accompanies man till
death and will not return at the resurrection.
And on Psalm 103 the same thing.
And on Psalm 16.
Principles of Rabbinism: two Messiahs.
447. Will it be said that, as men have declared that righteousness has
departed the earth, they therefore knew of original sin?--Nemo ante obitum
beatus est[72]--that is to say, they knew death to be the beginning of
eternal and essential happiness?
448. Milton sees well that nature is corrupt and that men are averse to
virtue; he does not know why they cannot fly higher.
449. Order.--After Corruption to say: "It is right that all those who are in
that state should know it, both those who are content with it, and those who
are not content with it; but it is not right that all should see
Redemption."
450. If we do not know ourselves to be full of pride, ambition, lust,
weakness, misery, and injustice, we are indeed blind. And if, knowing this,
we do