Mis fotos nuevas
Ramón
www.galeriade.com/RamonCarlos
Espero las criticas a todas las fotos para mejorar en todo.
Ser criticado es aprender.
Ramón
"Ramón" <ramon...@telecable.es> escribió en el mensaje
news:46a32...@filemon1.isp.telecable.es...
Ramón
everywhere rashly introduced. He who would follow reason only would be
deemed foolish by the generality of men. We must judge by the opinion of the
majority of mankind. Because it has pleased them, we must work all day for
pleasures seen to be imaginary; and, after sleep has refreshed our tired
reason, we must forthwith start up and rush after phantoms, and suffer the
impressions of this mistress of the world. This is one of the sources of
error, but it is not the only one.
Our magistrates have known well this mystery. Their red robes, the ermine in
which they wrap themselves like furry cats, the courts in which they
administer justice, the fleurs-de-lis, and all such august apparel were
necessary; if the physicians had not their cassocks and their mules, if the
doctors had not their square caps and their robes four times too wide, they
would never have duped the world, which cannot resist so original an
appearance. If magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true
art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of
these sciences would of itself be venerable enough. But having only
imaginary knowledge, they must employ those silly tools that strike the
imag
Ramón
excellence? And is it not equally true that we experience every hour the
results of our deplorable condition? What does this chaos and monstrous
confusion proclaim to us but the truth of these two states, with a voice so
powerful that it is impossible to resist it?
436. Weakness.--Every pursuit of men is to get wealth; and they cannot have
a title to show that they possess it justly, for they have only that of
human caprice; nor have they strength to hold it securely. It is the same
with knowledge, for disease takes it away. We are incapable both of truth
and goodness.
437. We desire truth, and find within ourselves only uncertainty.
We seek happiness, and find only misery and death.
We cannot but desire truth and happiness, and are incapable of certainty or
happiness. This desire is left to us, partly to punish us, partly to make us
perceive wherefrom we are fallen.
438. If man is not made for God, why is he only happy in God? If man is made
for God, why is he so opposed to God?
439. Nature corrupted.--Man does not act by reason, which constitutes his
being.
440. The corruption of reason is shown by the existence of so many different
and extravagant customs. It was necessary that truth should come, in order
that man should no longer dwell within himself.
441. For myself, I confess that, so soon as the Christian religion reveals
the principle that human nature is corrupt and fallen from God, that opens
my eyes to see everywhere the mark of this truth: for nature is such that
she testifies everywhere, both within man and without him, to a lost God and
a corrupt nature.
442. Man's true nature, his true good, true virtue, and true religion, are
things of which the knowledge is inseparable.
443. Greatness, wretchedness.--The more light we have, t
Ramón
Jesus Christ spoke neither against God, nor against Moses.
Antichrist and the false prophets, foretold by both Testaments, will speak
openly against God and against Jesus Christ. Who is not hidden... God would
not allow him, who would be a secret enemy, to do miracles openly.
In a public dispute where the two parties profess to be for God, for Jesus
Christ, for the Church, miracles have never been on the side of the false
Christians, and the other side has never been without a miracle.
"He hath a devil." John 10:21. And others said, "Can a devil open the eyes
of the blind?"
The proofs which Jesus Christ and the apostles draw from Scripture are not
conclusive; for they say only that Moses foretold that a prophet should
come. But they do not thereby prove that this is He; and that is the whole
question. These passages, therefore, serve only to show that they are not
contrary to Scripture and that there appears no inconsistency, but not that
there is agreement. Now this is enough, namely, exclusion of inconsistency,
along with miracles.
There is a mutual duty between God and men. We must pardon Him this saying:
Quid debui?207 "Accuse me, " said God in Isaiah.
"God must fulfil His promises," etc.
Men owe it to God to accept the religion which He sends. God owes it to men
not to lead them into error. Now, they would be led into error, if the
workers of miracles announced a doctrine which should not appear evidently
false to the light of common sense, and if a greater worker of miracl
Ramón
occasion as before. And thus, while the present never satisfies us,
experience dupes us and, from misfortune to misfortune, leads us to death,
their eternal crown.
What is it, then, that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but
that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him
only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his
surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in
things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can
only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by
God Himself. He only is our true good, and since we have forsaken him, it is
a strange thing that there is nothing in nature which has not been
serviceable in taking His place; the stars, the heavens, earth, the
elements, plants, cabbages, leeks, animals, insects, calves, serpents,
fever, pestilence, war, famine, vices, adultery, incest. And since man has
lost the true good, everything can appear equally good to him, even his own
destruction, though so opposed to God, to reason, and to the whole course of
nature.
S
Ramón
Church visible signs to make Himself known to those who should seek Him
sincerely, and that He has nevertheless so disguised them that He will only
be perceived by those who seek Him with all their heart; what advantage can
they obtain, when, in the negligence with which they make profession of
being in search of the truth, they cry out that nothing reveals it to them;
and since that darkness in which they are, and with which they upbraid the
Church, establishes only one of the things which she affirms, without
touching the other, and, very far from destroying, proves her doctrine?
In order to attack it, they should have protested that they had made every
effort to seek Him everywhere, and even in that which the Church proposes
for their instruction, but without satisfaction. If they talked in this
manner, they would in truth be attacking one of her pretensions. But I hope
here to show that no reasonable person can speak thus, and I venture even to
say that no one has ever done so. We know well enough how those who are of
this mind behave. They believe they have made great efforts for their
instruction when they have spent a few hours in re
Ramón
543. Preface.--The metaphysical proofs of God are so remote from the
reasoning of men, and so complicated, that they make little impression; and
if they should be of service to some, it would be only during the moment
that they see such demonstration; but an hour afterwards they fear they have
been mistaken.
Quod curiositate cognoverunt superbia amiserunt.91
This is the result of the knowledge of God obtained without Jesus Christ; it
is communion without a mediator with the God whom they have known without a
mediator. Whereas those who have known God by a mediator know their own
wretchedness.
544. The God of the Christians is a God who makes the soul feel that He is
her only good, that her only rest is in Him, that her only delight is in
loving Him; and who makes her at the same time abhor the obstacles which
keep her back and prevent her from loving God with all her strength.
Self-love and lust, which hinder us, are unbearable to her. Thus God makes
her feel that she has this root of self-love which destroys her, and which
He alone can cure.
545. Jesus Christ did nothing but teach men that they loved themselves, that
they were slaves, blind, sick, wretched, and sinners; that He must deliver
them, enlighten, bless, and heal them; that this would be effected by hating
self, and by following Him through suffering and the death on the cross.
546. Without Jesus Christ man must be in vice and misery; with Jesus Christ
man is free from vice and misery; in Him is all our virtue and all our
happiness. Apart from Him there is but vice, misery, darkness, death,
despair.
547. We know God only by Jesus Christ. Without this mediator, all communion
with God is taken away; through Jesus Christ we know God. All those who have
claime
Ramón
eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times
more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is
in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn
rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you
from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing
else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered
to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And
there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell
since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up.
There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell,
since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by
your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is
nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very
moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace
of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you
are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and
incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You
hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about
it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you
have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save
yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own,
nothing that you ever have d
Ramón
Only the saints entered it.
It is there, not on the Cross, that Jesus Christ takes a new life.
It is the last mystery of the Passion and the Redemption.
Jesus Christ had nowhere to rest on earth but in the Sepulchre. His enemies
only ceased to persecute Him at the Sepulchre.
553. The Mystery of Jesus.--Jesus suffers in His passions the torments which
men inflict upon Him; but in His agony He suffers the torments which He
inflicts on himself; turbare semetipsum.95 This is a suffering from no
human, but an almighty hand, for He must be almighty to bear it.
Jesus seeks some comfort at least in His three dearest friends, and they are
asleep. He prays them to bear with Him for a little, and they leave Him with
entire indifference, having so little compassion that it could not prevent
their sleeping even for a moment. And thus Jesus was left alone to the wrath
of God.
Jesus is alone on the earth, without any one not only to feel and share His
suffering, but even to know of it; He and Heaven were alone in that
knowledge.
Jesus is in a garden, not of delight as the first Adam, where he lost
himself and the whole human race, but in one of agony, where He saved
himself and the whole human race.
He suffers this affliction and this desertion in the horror of night.
I believe that Jesus never complained but on this single occasion; but then
He complained as if he could no longer bear His extreme suffering. "My soul
is sorrowful, even unto death."
Jesus seeks companionship and comfort from men. This is the sole occasion in
all His life, as it
Ramón
by it, but that which leads there without danger of going out of that road.
921.... The saints indulge in subtleties in order to think themselves
criminals and impeach their better actions. And these indulge in subtleties
in order to excuse the most wicked.
The heathen sages erected a structure equally fine outside, but upon a bad
foundation; and the devil deceived men by this apparent resemblance based
upon the most different foundation.
Man never had so good a cause as I; and others have never furnished so good
a capture as you...
The more they point out weakness in my person, the more they authorise my
cause.
You say that I am a heretic. Is that lawful? And if you do not fear that men
do justice, do you not fear that God does justice?
You will feel the force of the truth, and you will yield to it...
There is something supernatural in such a blindness. Digna necessitas.231
Mentiris impudentissime.232
Doctrina sua noscetur vir...[233]
False piety, a double sin.
I am alone against thirty thousand. No. Protect you, the court; protect,
you, deception; let me protect the truth. It is all my strength. If I lose
it, I am undone. I shall not lack accusations, and persecutions. But I
possess the truth, and we shall see who will take it away.
I do not need to defend religion, but you do not need to defend error and
injustice. L
Ramón
He is to be the precious corner-stone. Is. 28:16.
He is to be a stone of stumbling and offence. Is. viii. Jerusalem is to dash
against this stone.
The builders are to reject this stone. Ps. 117:22.
God is to make this stone the chief corner-stone.
And this stone is to grow into a huge mountain and fill the whole earth.
Dan. 2.
So He is to be rejected, despised, betrayed (Ps. 108:8), sold (Zech. 11:12),
spit upon, buffeted, mocked, afflicted in innumerable ways, given gall to
drink (Ps. 68), pierced (Zech. 12), His feet and His hands pierced, slain,
and lots cast for His raiment.
He will rise again (Ps. 15) the third day (Hosea 6:3).
He will ascend to heaven to sit on the right hand. Ps. 110.
The kings will arm themselves against Him. Ps. 2.
Being on the right hand of the Father, He will be victorious over His
enemies.
The kings of the earth and all nations will worship Him. Is. lx.
The Jews will continue as a nation. Jeremiah.
They will wander, without kings, etc. (Hosea 3), without prophets (Amos),
looking for salvation and finding it not (Isaiah).
Calling of the Gentiles by Jesus Christ. Is. 52:15; 55:5; 60, etc. Ps. 81.
Hosea 1:9:
Ramón
the sayings of the prophets who had gone before, and to restore to the
people the law given by Moses." This is Pascal's rendering into Latin of the
passage from Eusebius of which the last lines are in Greek, above.
[115]"Each time that."
116Mark 2:10, 11. "But that ye may know that the son of man hath power on
earth to forgive sins... I say unto thee, Arise."
117Rom. 5:14. "The figure of him that was to come."
118Ps. 75. 5. "They have slept their sleep."
1191 Cor. 7:31 "The fashion of this world."
120Deut. 8:9. "Bread without scarceness."
121Luke 11:3. "Our daily bread."
122Ps. 71:9. "The enemies of the Lord shall lick the dust."
123Exod. 12:8. Cum lacticibus agrestibus. "With bitter herbs."
124Ps. 140:10. "Whilst that I withal escape."j
[125]Ps. 44:4 "O most mighty."
126Exod. 25:40. "Make them after their pattern, which was showed thee on the
mount."
127Mark 2:10, 11. "That ye may know... I say unto thee: Arise."
[128]John 4:23. "True worshippers."
[129]John 1:29. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world."
130"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can
know it?"
131Is. 44:24. "I am the Lord."
132"I will do unto this house."
133"For I spoke not unto your fathers."
134"According to the number."
135Rev. 1
Ramón
corruption, which renders them during all their life subject to error,
misery, death, and sin; and it proclaims to the most ungodly that they are
capable of the grace of their Redeemer. So making those tremble whom it
justifies, and consoling those whom it condemns, religion so justly tempers
fear with hope through that double capacity of grace and of sin, common to
all, that it humbles infinitely more than reason alone can do, but without
despair; and it exalts infinitely more than natural pride, but without
inflating; thus making it evident that alone being exempt from error and
vice, it alone fulfils the duty of instructing and correcting men.
Who, then, can refuse to believe and adore this heavenly light? For is it
not clearer than day that we perceive within ourselves ineffaceable marks of
Ramón
mount."
127Mark 2:10, 11. "That ye may know... I say unto thee: Arise."
[128]John 4:23. "True worshippers."
[129]John 1:29. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world."
130"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can
know it?"
131Is. 44:24. "I am the Lord."
132"I will do unto this house."
133"For I spoke not unto your fathers."
134"According to the number."
135Rev. 13:8. "The Lambs slain from the foundation of the world."
136Ps. 109:1. " Sit then at my right hand."
137Ps. 147:13. Quoniam not quia. "For he hath strengthened the bars."
[138]Acts 17:11. "They received the word with all readiness of mind, and
searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
[139]"Read what has been announced. See what has been accomplished. Meditate
on what is to be done."
[140]John 19:15. "We have no king but Caesar."
141Is. 65:2. "Arebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good."
[142]"They have pierced."
[143]Ps. 130:8. "from all his iniquities."
144Deut. 28:29. Et palpes in meridie. "And thou shalt grope at noonday."
145Is. 29:11. Quem (librum) cum dederint scienti litteras et respondebit:
Non possum. "Which men deliver to one that is learned... and he saith, I
cannot."
146Job 19:23-25. "for I know that my redeemer liveth."
147Luke 22:32, 61. "And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brother."
"And the Lord turned, and
Ramón
is a cowardly and effeminate one.
64. It is not in Montaigne, but in myself, that I find all that I see in
him.
65. What good there is in Montaigne can only have been acquired with
difficulty. The evil that is in him, I mean apart from his morality, could
have been corrected in a moment, if he had been informed that he made too
much of trifles and spoke too much of himself.
66. One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at
least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.
67. The vanity of the sciences.--Physical science will not console me for
the ignorance of morality in the time of affliction. But the science of
ethics will always console me for the ignorance of the physical sciences.
68. Men are never taught to be gentlemen and are taught everything else; and
they never plume themselves so much on the rest of their knowledge as on
knowing how to be gentlemen. They only plume themselves on knowing the one
thing they do not know.
69. The infinites, the mean.--When we read too fast or too slowly, we
understand nothing.
70. Nature... --Nature has set us so well in the centre, that if we change
one side of the balance, we change the other also. This makes me believe
that the springs in our brain are so adjusted that he who touches one
touches also its contrary.
71. Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give
him too much, the same.
72. Man's disproportion.--This is where our inn
Ramón
manners are so pure as to confound the manners of the heathen. If there are
hypocrites among them, but so well disguised that she does not discover
their venom, she tolerates them; for, though they are not accepted of God,
whom they cannot deceive, they are of men, whom they do deceive. And thus
she is not dishonoured by their conduct, which appears holy. But you want
the Church to judge neither of the inward, because that belongs to God
alone, nor of the outward, because God dwells only upon the inward; and
thus, taking away from her all choice of men, you retain in the Church the
most dissolute and those who dishonour her so greatly that the synagogues of
the Jews and sects of philosophers would have banished them as unworthy and
have abhorred them as impious.
906. The easiest conditions to live in according to the world are the most
difficult to live in according to God, and vice versa. Nothing is so
difficult according to the world as the religious life; nothing is easier
than to live it according to God. Nothing is easier, according to the world,
t
Ramón
even if the king have pardoned a man, it must be ratified; but if parliament
ratifies without the king, or refuses to ratify on the order of the king, it
is no longer the parliament of the king, but a rebellious assembly.
871. The Church, the Pope. Unity, plurality.--Considering the Church as a
unity, the Pope, who is its head, is as the whole. Considering it as a
plurality, the Pope is only a part of it. The Fathers have considered the
Church now in the one way, now in the other. And thus they have spoken
differently of the Pope. (Saint Cyprian: Sacerdos Dei.)[216] But in
establishing one of these truths, they have not excluded the other.
Plurality which is not reduced to unity is confusion; unity which does not
depend on plurality is tyranny. There is scarcely any other country than
France in which it is permissible to say that the Council is above the Pope.
872. The Pope is head. Who else is known of all? Who else is recognised by
all, having power to insinuate himself i
Ramón
confessor.)
918. Take away probability, and you can no longer please the world; give
probability, and you can no longer displease it.
919. These are the effects of the sins of the peoples and of the Jesuits.
The great have wished to be flattered. The Jesuits have wished to be loved
by the great. They have all been worthy to be abandoned to the spirit of
lying, the one party to deceive, the others to be deceived. They have been
avaricious, ambitious, voluptuous. Coacervabunt tibi magistros.228 Worthy
disciples of such masters, they have sought flatterers, and have found them.
920. If they do not renounce their doctrine of probability, their good
maxims are as little holy as the bad, for they are founded on human
authority; and thus, if they are more just, they will be more reasonable,
but not more holy. They take after the wild stem on which they are grafted.
If what I say does not serve to enlighten you, it will be of use to the
people.
If these are silent, the stones will speak.
Silence is the greatest persecution; the saints were never silent. It is
true that a call is necessary; but it is not from the decrees of the Council
that we must learn whether we are called, it is from the necessity of
speaking. Now, after Rome has spoken, and we think that she has condemned
the truth, and that they have written it, and after the books which have
said the contrary are censured; we must cry out so much the louder, the more
unjustly we are censured, and the more violently they would stifle speech,
until there come a Pope who hears both parties, and who consults antiquity
to do justice. So the good Popes will find the Church still in outcry.
The Inquisition and the Society are the two scourges of the truth.
Why do you not accuse them of Arianism? For, though they have said that
Jesus Christ is God, perhaps they mean by it not the natural inter
Ramón
Although great fault was found with meddling with the controversy in the
pulpit, by such a person, and at that time-and though it was ridiculed
by many elsewhere-yet it proved a word spoken in season here; and was
most evidently attended with a very remarkable blessing of heaven to the
souls of the people in this town. They received thence a general
satisfaction, with respect to the main thing in question, which they had
been in trembling doubts and concern about; and their minds were engaged
the more earnestly to seek that they might come to be accepted of God,
and saved in the way of the gospel, which had been made evident to them
to be the true and only way. And then it was, in the latter part of
December, that the Spirit of God began extraordinarily to set in, and
wonderfully to work amongst us; and there were very suddenly, one after
another, five or six persons, who were to all appearances savingly
converted, and some of them wrought upon in a very remarkable manner.
Particularly, I was surprised with relation of a young woman, who had
been one of the greatest company-keepers in the whole town. When she
came to me, I had never heard that s
Ramón
It is said, on the contrary, that the law shall abide for ever; that this
covenant shall be for ever; that sacrifice shall be eternal; that the
sceptre shall never depart from among them, because it shall not depart from
them till the eternal King comes.
Do all these passages indicate what is real? No. Do they then indicate what
is typical? No, but what is either real or typical. But the first passages,
excluding as they do reality, indicate that all this is only typical.
All these passages together cannot be applied to reality; all can be said to
be typical; therefore they are not spoken of reality, but of the type.
Agnus occisus est ab origine mundi.135 A sacrificing judge.
686. Contradictions.--The sceptre till the Messiah--without king or prince.
The eternal law--changed.
The eternal covenant--a new covenant.
Good laws--bad precepts. Ezekiel.
687. Types.--When the word of God, which is really true, is false literally,
it is true spiritually. Sede a dextris meis:136 this is false literally,
therefore it is true spiritually.
In these expressions, God is spoken of after the manner of men; and this
means nothing else but that the intention which men have in giving a seat at
their right hand, God will have also. It is then an indication of the
intention of God, not of His manner of carrying it out.
Thus when it is said, "God has received the odour of your incense, and will
in recompense
Ramón
Jew and the other a Gentile. Both of them look upon Jesus Christ as their
common centre and object: Moses in relating the promises of God to Abraham,
Jacob, etc., and his prophecies; and Job, Quis mihi det ut, etc. Scio enim
quod redemptor meus vivit, etc.146
742. The Gospel only speaks of the virginity of the Virgin up to the time of
the birth of Jesus Christ. All with reference to Jesus Christ.
743. Proofs Of Jesus Christ.
Why was the book of Ruth preserved?
Why the story of Tamar?
744. "Pray that ye enter not into temptation." It is dangerous to be
tempted; and people are tempted because they do not pray.
Et tu conversus confirma fratres tuos. But before, conversus Jesus respexit
Petrum.147
Saint Peter asks permission to strike Malchus and strikes before hearing the
answer. Jesus Christ replies afterwards.
The word, Galilee, which the mob pronounced as if by chance, in accusing
Jesus Christ before Pilate, afforded Pilate a reason for sending Jesus
Christ to Herod. And thereby the mystery was accomplished, that He should be
judged by Jews and Gentiles. Chance was appare
Ramón
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 people; that Abraham came
afterwards, saying that he had had revelation that the Messiah was to spring
from him by a son, whom he should have; that Jacob declared that, of his
twelve sons, the Messiah would spring from Judah; that Moses and the
prophets then came to declare the time and the manner of His coming; that
they said their law was only temporary till that of the Messiah, that it
should endure till then, but that the other should last for ever; that thus
either their law, or that of the Messiah, of which it was the promise, would
be always upon the earth; that, in fact, it has always endured; that at last
Ramón
faithful.
"Physicians will not heal thee, for thou wilt die at last. But it is I who
heal thee and make the body immortal.
"Suffer bodily chains and servitude, I deliver thee at present only from
spiritual servitude.
"I am more a friend to thee than such and such an one, for I have done for
thee more then they; they would not have suffered what I have suffered from
thee, and they would not have died for thee as I have done in the time of
thine infidelities and cruelties, and as I am ready to do, and do, among My
elect and at the Holy Sacrament."
"If thou knewest thy sins, thou wouldst lose heart."
I shall lose it then, Lord, for on Thy assurance I believe their malice.
"No, for I, by whom thou learnest, can heal thee of them, and what I say to
thee is a sign that I will heal thee. In proportion to thy expiation of
them, thou wilt know them, and it will be said to thee: 'Behold thy sins are
forgiven thee.' Repent, then, for thy hidden sins, and for the secret malice
of those which thou knowest."
Lord, I give Thee all.
"I love thee more ardently than thou hast loved thine abominations, ut
immundus pro luto.
"To Me be the glory, not to thee, worm of the earth.
"Ask thy confessor, when My own words are to thee occasion of evil, vanity,
or curiosity."
I see in me depths of pride, curiosity, and lust. There is no relation
between me and God, nor Jesus Christ the Righteous. But He has been made sin
for me; all Thy scourges are fallen upon Him. He is more abominable than I,
and, far from abhorring me, He holds Himself honoured that I go to Him and
succour Him.
But
Ramón
other in glory to exalt the humble; that Jesus Christ would be both God and
man.
679. Types.--Jesus Christ opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.
Two great revelations are these. (1) All things happened to them in types:
vere Israelitae, vere liberi, true bread from Heaven. (2) A God humbled to
the Cross. It was necessary that Christ should suffer in order to enter into
glory, "that He should destroy death through death." Two advents.
680. Types.--When once this secret is disclosed, it is impossible not to see
it. Let us read the Old Testament in this light, and let us see if the
sacrifices were real; if the fatherhood of Abraham was the true cause of the
friendship of God; and if the promised land was the true place of rest. No.
They are therefore types. Let us in the same way examine all those ordained
ceremonies, all those commandments which are not of charity, and we shall
see that they are types.
All these sacrifices and ceremonies were then either types or nonsense. Now
these are things too clear and too lofty to be thought nonsense.
To know if the prophets confined their view in the Old Testament, or saw
therein other things.
681. Typical.--The key of the cipher. Veri adoratores.[128] Ecce agnus Dei
qui tollit peccata mundi.[129]
682. Is. 1:21. Change of good into evil, and the vengeance of God. Is. 10:1;
26:20; 28:1. Miracles: Is. 33:9; 40:17; 41:26; 43:13.
Jer. 11:21; 15:12; 17:9. Pravum est cor omnium et incrustabile; quis
cognoscet illud?130 that is to say, Who can know all its evil? For it is
already known to be wicked. Ego dominus,131 etc.--vii. 14, Faciam domui
huic,132 etc. Trust in external sacrifices--7:22, Quia non sum locutus,133
etc. Outward sacrifice is not the essential point--11:13, Secundum
numerum,134 etc. A multitude of doctrines.
Is. 44:20-24; 54:8; 63:12-17; 66:17. Jer. 2:35; 4:22-24; 5:4, 29-31; 6:16;
22:15-17.
683. Types.--The letter kills. All happened in ty
Ramón
that their law has a double signification; that during sixteen hundred years
they have had people, whom they believed prophets, foretelling both the time
and the manner; that four hundred years after they were scattered
everywhere, because Jesus Christ was to be everywhere announced; that Jesus
Christ came in the manner, and at the time foretold; that the Jews have
since been scattered abroad under a curse and, nevertheless, still exist.
619. I see the Christian religion founded upon a preceding religion, and
this is what I find as a fact.
I do not here speak of the miracles of Moses, of Jesus Christ, and of the
Apostles, because they do not at first seem convincing, and because I only
wish here to put in evidence all those foundations of the Christian religion
which are beyond doubt and which cannot be called in question by any person
whatsoever. It is certain that we see in many places of the world a peculiar
people, separated from all other peoples of the world and called the Jewish
people.
I see then a crowd of religions in many parts of the world 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
wo
Ramón
this that man has gone astray, that he has fallen from his place, that he
anxiously seeks it, that he cannot find it again? And who shall then direct
him to it? The greatest men have failed.
432. Scepticism is true; for, after all, men before Jesus Christ did not
know where they were, nor whether they were great or small. And those who
have said the one or the other knew nothing about it and guessed without
reason and by chance. They also erred always in excluding the one or the
other.
Quod ergo ignorantes, quaeritis, religio annuntiat vobis.64
433. After having understood the whole nature of man.--That a religion may
be true, it must have knowledge of our nature. It ought to know its
greatness and littleness, and the reason of both. What religion but the
Christian has known this?
434. The chief arguments of the sceptics--I pass over the lesser ones--are
that we have no certainty of the truth of these principles apart from faith
and revelation, except in so far as we naturally perceive them in ourselves.
Now this natural intuition is not a convincing proof of their truth; since,
having no certainty, apart from faith, whether man was created by a good
God, or by a wicked demon, or by chance, it is doubtful whether these
principles given to us are true, or false, or uncertain, according to our
origin. Again, no person is certain, apart from faith, whether he is awake
or sleeps, seeing that during sleep we believe that we are awake as firmly
as we do when we are awake; we believe that we see space, figure, and
motion; we are aware of the passage of time, we measure it; and in fact we
act as if we were awake. So that half of our life being passed in sleep, we
have on our own admission no idea of truth, whatever we may imagine. As all
our intuitions are, then, illusions, who knows whether the other half of our
life, in which we think we are awake, is not another sleep a little
different from
Ramón
Nec me pudet, ut istos, fateri nescire quid nesciam.61
Melius non incipient.62
365. Thought.--All the dignity of man consists in thought. Thought is,
therefore, by its nature a wonderful and incomparable thing. It must have
strange defects to be contemptible. But it has such, so that nothing is more
ridiculous. How great it is in its nature! How vile it is in its defects!
But what is this thought? How foolish it is!
366. The mind of this sovereign judge of the world is not so independent
that it is not liable to be disturbed by the first din about it. The noise
of a cannon is not necessary to hinder its thoughts; it needs only the
creaking of a weathercock or pulley. Do not wonder if at present it does not
reason well; a fly is buzzing in its ears; that is enough to render it
incapable of good judgement. If you wish it to be able to reach the truth,
chase away that animal which holds its reason in check and disturbs that
powerful intellect which rules towns and kingdoms. Here is a comical god! O
ridicolosissimo eroe!
367. The power of flies; they win battles, hinder our soul from acting, eat
our body.
368. When it is said that heat is only the mo
Ramón
the... or suspension of the Spirit of God in him; and he repents in his
affliction.
505. All things can be deadly to us, even the things made to serve us; as in
nature walls can kill us, and stairs can kill us, if we do not walk
circumspectly.
The least movement affects all nature; the entire sea changes because of a
rock. Thus, in grace, the least action affects everything by its
consequences; therefore everything is important.
In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and
future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all
those things. And then we shall be very cautious.
506. Let God not impute to us our sins, that is to say, all the consequences
and results of our sins, which are dreadful, even those of the smallest
faults, if we wish to follow them out mercilessly!
507. The spirit of grace; the hardness of the heart; external circumstances.
508. Grace is indeed needed to turn a man into a saint; and he who doubts it
does not know what a saint or a man is.
509. Philosophers.--A fine thing to cry to a man who does not know himself,
that he should come of himself
Ramón
earth, wretched worm that you are, and consider the brutes whose companion
you are."
What, then, will man become? Will he be equal to God or the brutes? What a
frightful difference! What, then, shall we be? Who does not see from all
Ramón
is not allowed to complain of the custom which makes so many who are
unworthy!
886. Heretics.--Ezekiel. All the heathen, and also the Prophet, spoke evil
of Israel. But the Israelites were so far from having the right to say to
him, "You speak like the heathen," that he is most forcible upon this, that
the heathen say the same as he.
887. The Jansenists are like the heretics in the reformation of morality;
but you are like them in evil.
888. You are ignorant of the prophecies, if you do not know that all this
must happen; princes, prophets, Pope, and even the priests. And yet the
Church is to abide. By the grace of God we have not come to that. Woe to
these priests! But we hope that God will bestow His mercy upon us that we
shall not be of them.
Saint Peter, Epistle ii: false prophets in the past, the image of future
ones.
889.... So that if it is true, on the one hand, that some lax monks and some
corrupt casuists, who are not members of the hierarchy, are steeped in these
corruptions, it is, on the other hand, certain that the true pastors of the
Church, who are the true guardians of the Divine Word, have preserved it
unchangeably against the efforts of those who have attempted to destroy it.
And thus true believers have no pretext to follow that laxity, which is only
offered
Ramón
Saturn into the Lion marks to us the origin of such and such a crime. A
strange justice that is bounded by a river! Truth on this side of the
Pyrenees, error on the other side.
Men admit that justice does not consist in these customs, but that it
resides in natural laws, common to every country. They would certainly
maintain it obstinately, if reckless chance which has distributed human laws
had encountered even one which was universal; but the farce is that the
caprice of men has so many vagaries that there is no such law.
Theft, incest, infanticide, parricide, have all had a place among virtuous
actions. Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the
right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and
because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?
Doubtless there are natural laws; but good reason once corrupted has
corrupted all. Nihil amplius nostrum est; quod nostrum dicimus, artis est.40
Ex senatus--consultis et plebiscitis crimina exercentur.[41] Ut olim vitiis,
sic nunc legibus laboramus.[42]
The result of this confusion is that one affirms the essence of justice to
be the authority of the legislator; another, the interest of the sovereign;
another, present custom, and this is the most sure. Nothing, according to
reason alone, is just itself; all changes with time. Custom creates the
whole of equity, for the simple reason that it is accepted. It is the
mystical foundation of its authority; whoever carries it back to first
principles destroys it. Nothing is so faulty as those laws which correct
faults. He who obeys them because they are just obeys a justice which is
imaginary and not the essence of law; it is quite self-contained, it is law
and nothing more. He who will examine its motive will find it so feeble and
so
Ramón
them," etc.
574. Greatness.--Religion is so great a thing that it is right that those
who will not take the trouble to seek it, if it be obscure, should be
deprived of it. Why, then, do any complain, if it be such as can be found by
seeking?
575. All things work together for good to the elect, even the obscurities of
Scripture; for they honour them because of what is divinely clear. And all
things work together for evil to the rest of the world, even what is clear;
for they revile such, because of the obscurities which they do not
understand.
576. The general conduct of the world towards the Church: God willing to
blind and to enlighten.--The event having proved the divinity of these
prophecies, the rest ought to be believed. And thereby we see the order of
the world to be of this kind. The miracles of the Creation and the Deluge
being forgotten, God sends the law and the miracles of Moses, the prophets
who prophesied particular things; and to prepare a lasting miracle, He
prepares prophecies and their fulfilment; but, as the prophecies could be
suspected, He desires to make them above suspicion, etc.
577. God has made the blindness of this people subservient to the good of
the elect.
578. There is sufficient clearness to enlighten the elect, and sufficient
obscurity to humble them. There is sufficient obscurity to blind the
reprobate, and sufficient clearness to condemn them and make them
inexcusable. Saint Augustine, Montaigne, Sebond.
The genealogy of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is intermingled with so
many others that are useless that it cannot be distinguished. If Moses had
kept only the record of the ancestors of Christ, that might have been too
plain. If he had not noted that of Jesus Christ, it might not have been
sufficiently plain. But, after all, whoever looks closely sees that of Jesus
Christ expressly traced through Tamar, Ruth, etc.
Those who ordained these sacrifices knew their usele
Ramón
21. Nature has made all her truths independent of one another. Our art makes
one dependent on the other. But this is not natural. Each keeps its own
place.
22. Let no one say that I have said nothing new; the arrangement of the
subject is new. When we play tennis, we both play with the same ball, but
one of us places it better.
I had as soon it said that I used words employed before. And in the same way
if the same thoughts in a different arrangement do not form a different
discourse, no more do the same words in their different arrangement form
different thoughts!
23. Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings
differently arranged have different effects.
24. Language.--We should not turn the mind from one thing to another, except
for relaxation, and that when it is necessary and the time suitable, and not
otherwise. For he that relaxes out of season wearies, and he who wearies us
out of season makes us languid, since we turn quite away. So much does our
perverse lust like to do the contrary of what those wish to obtain from us
without giving us pleasure, the coin for which we will do whatever is
wanted.
25. Eloquence.--It requires the pleasant and the real; but the pleasant must
itself be drawn from the true.
26. Eloquence is a paint
Ramón
her, who said, to this purpose, that the picture fell much short of the
life; and particularly that it much failed of duly representing her
humility, and that admirable lowliness of heart, that all times appeared
in her. But there are, blessed be God! many living instances, of much
the like nature, and in some things no less extraordinary.
But I now proceed to the other instance, that of the little child before
mentioned. Her name is Phebe Bartlet, [She was living in March, 1789,
and maintained the character of a true convert.] daughter of William
Bartlet. I shall give the account as I took it from the mouth of her
parents, whose veracity none who know them doubt of.
She was born in March, 1731. About the latter end of April, or beginning
of May, 1735, she was greatly affected by the talk of her brother, who
had been hopefully converted a little before, at about eleven years of
age, and then seriously talked to her about the great things of
religion. Her parents did not know of it at that time, and were not
wont, in the counsels they gave to their children, particularly to
direct themselves to her, being so young, and, as they supposed, not
capable of understanding. But after her brother had talked to her, they
observed her very earnestly listen to the advice they gave to the other
children; and she was observed very constantly to retire, several times
in a day, as was concluded, for secret prayer. She grew more and more
engaged in religion, and was more frequent in her closet; till at last
she was wont to visit it five or six times a day: and was so engaged in
it, that nothing would at any time divert her from her stated closet
exercises. Her mother often observed and watched her, when such things
occurred as she thought most likely to divert her, either by putting it
out of her thoughts,
Ramón
be cast out. Jerusalem shall be soon destroyed. And the heathen shall enter
into the knowledge of God. My apostles shall do this after you have slain
the heir of the vineyard."
Then the apostles said to the Jews: "You shall be accursed," (Celsus laughed
at it); and to the heathen, "You shall enter into the knowledge of God." And
this then came to pass.
771. Jesus Christ came to blind those who saw clearly, and to give sight to
the blind; to heal the sick, and leave the healthy to die; to call to
repentance, and to justify sinners, and to leave the righteous in their
sins; to fill the needy, and leave the rich empty.
772. Holiness.--Effundam spiritum meum.[155] All nations were in unbelief
and lust. The whole world now became fervent with love. Princes abandoned
their pomp; maidens suffered martyrdom. Whence came this influence? The
Messiah was come. These were the effect and sign of His coming.
773. Destruction of the Jews and heathen by Jesus Christ: Omnes gentes
venient et adorabunt eum.156 Parum est ut,15
Ramón
would not be quieted till her mother asked her the catechism as she lay
in bed. She sometimes appears to be in doubt about the condition of her
soul; and when asked, whether she thinks that she is prepared for death,
speaks something doubtfully about it. At other times she seems to have
no doubt, but when asked, replies, Yes, without hesitation. In the
former part of this great work of God amongst us, till it got to His
height, we seemed to be wonderfully smiled upon and blessed in all
respects. Satan seemed to be unusually restrained; persons who before
had been involved in melancholy, seemed to be as it were waked up out of
it; and those who had been entangled with extraordinary temptations,
seemed wonderfully freed. And not only so, but it was the most
remarkable time of health that ever I knew since I have been in the
town. We ordinarily have several bills put up, every Sabbath, for sick
persons; but now we had not so much as one for many sabbaths together.
But after this it seemed to be otherwise.
When this work of God appeared to be at its greatest height, a poor weak
man who belongs to the town, being in great spiritual trouble, was
hurried with violent temptations to cut his own throat, and made an
attempt, but did not do it effectually. He, after this, continued a
considerable time exceedingly overwhelmed with melancholy; but has not
for a long time been very greatly delivered, by the light of God's
countenance lifted up upon him, and has expressed a great sense of his
sin in so far yielding to temptation; and there are in him all hopeful
evidences of his having been made a subject of saving mercy.
In the latter part of May, it began to be very sensible that the Spirit
of God was gradually withdrawing from us, and after this time Satan
seemed to be more let loose, and raged in a dreadful manner. The first
instance
Ramón
the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall
not be ashamed that wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty?
But even if the captives be taken away from the strong, nothing shall hinder
me from saving thy children, and from destroying thy enemies; and all flesh
shall know that I am the Lord, thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One
of Jacob.
"Thus saith the Lord: What is the bill of this divorcement, wherewith I have
put away the synagogue? and why have I delivered it into the hand of your
enemies? Is it not for your iniquities and for your transgressions that I
have put it away?
"For I came, and no man received me; I called and there was none to hear. Is
my arm shortened, that I cannot redeem?
"Therefore I will show the tokens of mine anger; I will clothe the heavens
with darkness, and make sackcloth their covering.
"The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to
speak a word in season to him that is weary. He hath opened mine ear, and I
have listened to Him as a master.
"The Lord hath revealed His will, and I was not rebellious.
"I gave my body to the smiters, and my cheeks to outrage; I hid not my face
from shame and spitting. But the Lord hath helped me; therefore I have not
been confounded.
"He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? who will be mine
adversary, and accuse me of sin, God himself being my protector?
"All men shall pass away, and be consumed by time; let those that fear God
hearken to the voice of His servant; let him that languisheth in darkness
put his trust in the Lord. But as for you, ye do but kindle the wrath of God
upon you; ye walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have
kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.
"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord:
Ramón
condemned by their own reason, by which they claimed to condemn the
Christian religion.
564. The prophecies, the very miracles and proofs of our religion, are not
of such a nature that they can be said to be absolutely convincing. But they
are also of such a kind that it cannot be said that it is unreasonable to
believe them. Thus there is both evidence and obscurity to enlighten some
and confuse others. But the evidence is such that it surpasses, or at least
equals, the evidence to the contrary; so that it is not reason which can
determine men not to follow it, and thus it can only be lust or malice of
heart. And by this means there is sufficient evidence to condemn, and
insufficient to convince; so that it appears in those who follow it that it
is grace, and not reason, which makes them follow it; and in those who shun
it, that it is lust, not reason, which makes them shun it.
Vere discipuli, vere Israelita, vere liberi, vere cibus.100
565. Recognise, then, the truth of religion in the very obscurity of
religion, in the little light we have of it, and in the indifference which
we have to knowing it.
566. We