Re: Well, the world is certainly looking grim, isn't it? 45088
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if it had rejected it and separated it from itself, as it kept itself apart
from the body! What prayers for its preservation in it! And with what
submission would it allow itself to be governed by the will which rules the
body, even to consenting, if necessary, to be cut off, or it would lose its
character as member! For every member must be quite willing to perish for
the body, for which alone the whole is.
477. It is false that we are worthy of the love of others; it is unfair that
we should desire it. If we were born reasonable and impartial, knowing
ourselves and others, we should not give this bias to our will. However, we
are born with it; therefore born unjust, for all tends to self. This is
contrary to all order. We must consider the general good; and the propensity
to self is the beginning of all disorder, in war, in politics, in economy,
and in the particular body of man. The will is therefore depraved.
If the members of natural and civil communities tend towards the weal of the
body, the communities themselves ought to look to another more general body
of which they are members. We ought, therefore, to look to the whole. We
are, therefore, born unjust and depraved.
478. When we want to think of God, is there nothing which turns us away, and
tempts us to think of something else? All this is bad, and is born in us.
479. If there is a God, we must love Him only and not the creatures of a
day. The reasoning of the ungodly in the Book of Wisdom is only based upon
the nonexistence of God. "On that supposition," say they, "let us take
delight in the creatures." That is the worst that can happen. But if there
were a God to love, they would not have come to this conclusion, but to
quite the contrary. And this is the conclusion of the wise: "There is a God;
let us therefore not take delight in the creatures."
Therefore all that incites us to attach ourselves to the creatures is bad;
since it p
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he cannot conceive what the body is, still less what the mind is, and least
of all how a body should be united to a mind. This is the consummation of
his difficulties, and yet it is his very being. Modus quo corporibus
adhaerent spiritus comprehendi ab hominibus non potest, et hoc tamen homo
est.7 Finally, to complete the proof of our weakness, I shall conclude with
these two considerations...
73. But perhaps this subject goes beyond the capacity of reason. Let us
therefore examine her solutions to problems within her powers. If there be
anything to which her own interest must have made her apply herself most
seriously, it is the inquiry into her own sovereign good. Let us see, then,
wherein these strong and clear-sighted souls have placed it and whether they
agree.
One says that the sovereign good consists in virtue, another in pleasure,
another in the knowledge of nature, another in truth, Felix qui potuit rerum
cognoscere causas,[8] another in total ignorance, another in indolence,
others in disregarding appearances, another in wondering at nothing, nihil
admirari prope res una quae possit facere et servare beatum,[9
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ceremonies, their prophets, their doctors, their saints, their monks, like
us," etc. (Is this contrary to Scripture? Does it not say all this?)
If you care but little to know the truth, here is enough of it to leave you
in repose. But if you desire with all your heart to know it, it is not
enough; look at it in detail. This would be sufficient for a question in
philosophy; but not here, where it concerns your all. And yet, after a
trifling reflection of this kind, we go to amuse ourselves, etc. Let us
inquire of this same religion whether it does not give a reason for this
obscurity; perhaps it will teach it to us.
227. Order by dialogues.--What ought I to do? I see only darkness
everywhere. Shall I believe I am nothing? Shall I believe I am God?
"All things change and succeed each other." You are mistaken; there is...
228. Objection of atheists: "But we have no light."
229. This is what I see and what troubles me. I look on all sides, and I see
only darkness everywhere. Nature presents to me nothing which is not matter
of doubt and concern. If I saw nothing there which revealed a Divinity, I
would come to a negative conclusion; if I saw everywhere the signs of a
Creator, I would remain peacefully in faith. But, seeing too much to deny
and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied; wherefore I have a
hundred times wished that if a God maintains Nature, she should testify to
Him unequivocally, and that, if the signs she gives are deceptive, she
should suppress them altogether; that she should say everything or nothing,
that I might see which cause I ought to follow. Whereas in my present state,
ignorant of what I am or of what I ought to do, I know neither my condition
nor my duty. My heart inclines wholly to know where is the true good, in
order to follow it; nothing would be too dear to me for eternity.
I envy those whom I see living in the faith with such carelessness
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down all idols and bring men into the worship of the true God.
That the temples of the idols would be cast down, and that among all nations
and in all places of the earth. He would be offered a pure sacrifice, not of
beasts.
That He would be king of the Jews and Gentiles. And we see this king of the
Jews and Gentiles oppressed by both, who conspire His death; and ruler of
both, destroying the worship of Moses in Jerusalem, which was its centre,
where He made His first Church; and also the worship of idols in Rome, the
centre of it, where He made His chief Church.
731. Prophecies.--That Jesus Christ will sit on the right hand, till God has
subdued His enemies.
Therefore He will not subdue them Himself.
732. "... Then they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, saying,
Here is the Lord, for God shall make Himself known to all."
"... Your sons shall prophesy." "I will put my spirit and my fear in your
heart."
All that is the same thing. To prophesy is to speak of God, not from outward
proofs, but from an inward and immediate feeling.
733. That He would teach men the perfect way.
And there has never come, before Him nor after Him, any man who has taught
anything divine approaching to this.
734.... That Jesus Christ would be small in His beginning, and would then
increase. The little stone of Daniel.
If I
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the very knowledge of the greatest men, the belief of men is thereby
induced; and, this being known to be possible, it has been therefore
concluded that it was. For people commonly reason thus: "A thing is
possible, therefore it is"; because the thing cannot be denied generally,
since there are particular effects which are true, the people, who cannot
distinguish which among these particular effects are true, believe them all.
In the same way, the reason why so many false effects are credited to the
moon is that there are some true, as the tide.
It is the same with prophecies, miracles, divination by dreams, sorceries,
etc.
For if there had been nothing true in all this, men would have believed
nothing of them; and thus, instead of concluding that there are no true
miracles because there are so many false, we must, on the contrary, say that
there certainly are true miracles, since there are false, and that there are
false miracles only because some are true. We must reason in the same way
about religion; for it would not be possible that men should have imagined
so many false religions, if there had not been a true one. The objection to
this is that savages have a religion; but the answer is that they have heard
the true spoken of, as appears by the Deluge, circumcision, the cross of
Saint Andrew, etc.
818. Having considered how it comes that there are so many false miracles,
false revelations, sorceries, etc., it has seemed to me that the true cause
is that there are some true; for it would not be possible that there should
be so many false miracles, if there were none true, nor so many false
revelations, if there were none true, nor so many false religions, if there
were not one true. For if there had never been all this, it is almost
impossible that men should have imagined it, and still more impossible that
so many others should have be
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be very like the Messiah to typify Him, and very contrary not to be
suspected witnesses.
664. Typical.--God made use of the lust of the Jews to make them minister to
Jesus Christ, who brought the remedy for their lust.
665. Charity is not a figurative precept. It is dreadful to say that Jesus
Christ, who came to take away types in order to establish the truth, came
only to establish the type of charity, in order to take away the existing
reality which was there before.
"If the light be darkness, how great is that darkness!"
666. Fascination. Somnum suum.118 Figura hujus mundi.119
The Eucharist. Comedes panem tuum.120 Panem nostrum.121
Inimici Dei terram lingent.122 Sinners lick the dust, that is to say, love
earthly pleasures.
The Old Testament contains the types of future joy, and the New contains the
means of arriving at it. The types were of joy; the means of penitence; and
nevertheless the Paschal Lamb was eaten with bitter herbs, cum
amaritudinibus.123
Singularis sum ego donec transeam.124 Jesus Christ before His death was
almost the only martyr.
667. Typical.--The expressions sword, shield. Potentissime.[125]
668. We are estranged only by departing from charity. Our prayers and our
virtues are abominable before God, if they are not the prayers and the
virtues of Jesus Christ. And our sins will never be the object of mercy, but
of the justice of God, if they are not Jesus Christ. He has adopted our
sins, and has us into union, for virtues are His own, and sins are foreign
to Him; while
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when tradition is no longer minded; when the Pope alone is offered to us;
when he has been imposed upon; and when the true source of truth, which is
tradition, is thus excluded; and the Pope, who is its guardian, is biased;
the truth is no longer free to appear. Then, as men speak no longer of
truth, truth itself must speak to men. This is what happened in the time of
Arius. (Miracles under Diocletian and under Arius.)
833. Miracle.--The people concluded this of themselves; but if the reason of
it must be given to you...
It is unfortunate to be in exception to the rule. The same must be strict,
and opposed to exception. But yet, as it is certain that there are
exceptions to a rule, our judgment must though strict, be just.
834. John 6:26: Non quia vidisti signum, sed quia saturati estis.188
Those who follow Jesus Christ because of His miracles honour His power in
all the miracles which it produces. But those who, making profession to
follow Him because of His miracles, follow Him in fact only because He
comforts them and satisfies them with worldly blessings, discredit His
miracles, when they are opposed to their own comforts.
John 9: Non est hic homo a Deo, quia sabbatum non custodit. Alii: Quomodo
potest homo peccator haec signa facere?189
Which is the most clear?
This house is not of God; for they do not there believe that the five
propositions are in Jansenius. Others: This house is of God; for in it there
are wrought strange miracles.
Which is the most clear?
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and some with the sufficiency and preciousness of His blood, as offered
to make an atonement for sin; and others with the value and glory of His
obedience and righteousness. In some the excellency and loveliness of
Christ, chiefly engages their thoughts; in some His divinity, that He is
indeed the Son of the living God; and in others, the excellency of the
way of salvation by Christ, and the suitableness of it to their
necessities.
Some have an apprehension of these things so given, that it seems more
natural to them to express it by sight or discovery, others think what
they experience is better expressed by the realizing conviction, or a
lively or feeling sense of heart; meaning, as I suppose, no other
difference but what is merely circumstantial or gradual.
There is, often, in the mind, some particular text of Scripture, holding
forth some evangelical ground of consolation; sometimes a multitude of
texts, gracious invitations and promises flowing in one after another,
filling the soul more and more with comfort and satisfaction. Comfort is
first given to some, while reading some portion of Scripture; but in
some it is attended with no particular Scripture at all, either in
reading or meditation. In some, many divine things seem to be discovered
to the soul as it were at once; others have their minds especially
fixing on some one thing at first, and afterwards a sense is given of
o
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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. 13:8. "The Lambs slain from the foundation of the world."
136Ps. 109:1. " Sit then at my right hand."
13
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occupies in the expanse of nature.
Limited as we are in every way, this state which holds the mean between two
extremes is present in all our impotence. Our senses perceive no extreme.
Too much sound deafens us; too much light dazzles us; too great distance or
proximity hinders our view. Too great length and too great brevity of
discourse tend to obscurity; too much truth is paralysing (I know some who
cannot understand that to take four from nothing leaves nothing). First
principles are too self-evident for us; too much pleasure disagrees with us.
Too many concords are annoying in music; too many benefits irritate us; we
wish to have the wherewithal to overpay our debts. Beneficia eo usque laeta
sunt dum videntur exsolvi posse; ubi multum antevenere, pro gratia odium
redditur.[6] We feel neither extreme heat nor extreme cold. Excessive
qualities are prejudicial to us and not perceptible by the senses; we do not
feel but suffer them. Extreme youth and extreme age hinder the mind, as also
too much and too little education. In short, extremes are for us as though
they were not, and we are not within their notice. They escape us, or we
them.
This is our true state; this is what makes us incapable of certain knowledge
and of abso
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of doubt and concern. If I saw nothing there which revealed a Divinity, I
would come to a negative conclusion; if I saw everywhere the signs of a
Creator, I would remain peacefully in faith. But, seeing too much to deny
and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied; wherefore I have a
hundred times wished that if a God maintains Nature, she should testify to
Him unequivocally, and that, if the signs she gives are deceptive, she
should suppress them altogether; that she should say everything or nothing,
that I might see which cause I ought to follow. Whereas in my present state,
ignorant of what I am or of what I ought to do, I know neither my condition
nor my duty. My heart inclines wholly to know where is the true good, in
order to follow it; nothing would be too dear to me for eternity.
I envy those whom I see living in the faith with such carelessness and who
make such a bad use of a gift of which it seems to me I would make such a
different use.
230. It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is
incomprehensible that He should not exist; that the soul should be joined to
the body, and that we should have no soul; that the world should be created,
and that it should not be created, etc.; that original sin should be, and
that it should not be.
231. Do you believe it to be impossible that God is infinite, without parts?
Yes. I wish therefore to show you an infinite and indivisible thing. It is a
point moving everywhere with an infinite velocity; for it is o
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world, but by expelling both according to the simplicity of the Gospel. For
it teaches the righteous that it raises them even to a participation in
divinity itself; that in this lofty state they still carry the source of all
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
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 Go
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Jesus being in agony and in the greatest affliction, let us pray longer.
We implore the mercy of God, not that He may leave us at peace in our vices,
that He may deliver us from them.
If God gave us masters by His own hand, oh! how necessary for us to obey
them with a good heart! Necessity and events follow infallibly.
"Console thyself, thou wouldst not seek Me, if thou hadst not found Me.
"I thought of thee in Mine agony, I have sweated such drops of blood for
thee.
"It is tempting Me rather than proving thyself, to think if thou wouldst do
such and such a thing on an occasion which has not happened; I shall act in
thee if it occur.
"Let thyself be guided by My rules; see how well I have led the Virgin and
the saints who have let Me act in them.
"The Father loves all that I do.
"Dost thou wish that it always cost Me the blood of My humanity, without thy
shedding tears?
"Thy conversion is My affair; fear not, and pray with confidence as for Me.
"I am present with thee by My Word in Scripture, by My Spirit in the Church
and by inspiration, by My power in the priests, by My prayer in the
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
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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 looked upon Peter."
[148]Is. 6:10. "Shut their eyes."
149"The man who exists makes you God."
150"It is written: 'You are Gods' (Ps. 80:6), and the Scripture cannot be
made naught of."
151"This weakness is not for life; it is for death."
152"John 11:11 and 14. "'Lazarus sleeps,' and later it says: 'Lazarus is
dead.'"
[153]Ps. 44:4. Gladio tuo- "Thy sword, O most mighty."
[154]Heb. 10:5. "When he cometh into the world."
[155]Joel. 2:28. "I will pour out my spirit."
156Ps. 21:28. "All peoples shall come and worship him."
157Is. 49:6. "It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant," etc.
158Ps. 2:8. "Ask of me."
159Ps. 71:11. "All kings shall fall down before him."
160Ps. 34:11. "Witnesses rise up."
161Lam. 3:30. "He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him."
162Ps. 68:22. Dederunt in escam meam fel. "They gave me also gall for my
meat."
163Is. 49:6. "It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant," etc.
164Luke 2:32. "A light to lighten the Gentiles."
165Ps. 167:20. "He hath not dealt so with any nation."
166Matt. 26:27. "Drink ye all of it."
167Rom. 5:12. "for that all have sinned."
168Luke 12:32. "Fear not little flock."
169Phil. 2:12. "
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shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."
205Deut. 13:3. "for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love
the Lord."
206Matt. 24:25-26. "Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall
say unto you, Behold."
207Is. 5:4. Quis est quod debui ultra facere vineae meae, et non faci ei?
"What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?"
[208]Gal. 1:8. "But though an angel."
209Ps. 41:4. "Where is thy God?"
[210]Ps. 111:4. "Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness."
211"The yes and the no."
212Is. 10:1. "Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees."
213John 15:24. "If he had not done."
214John 15:24. "If he had not done among them the works which none other man
did."
215Prov. 26. 4-5. "Answer... Answer not."
[216]Epistle 63. "Priest of the Lord."
[217]Luke 22:26. "But ye shall not be so."
[218]John 10:30. "I and my father are one."
219John 5:7. "And these three agree in one."
220"The strictest law is the greatest injustice." Terrence, Heauton
Timorumenus, iv. 5. 47; and Cicero, De officiis, i. 10.
221John 21:17. "Feed my sheep." Not "yours."
222"The Church will never be reformed."
223Jas. 4:6. "God giveth grace unto the humble."
224"But did he not give them humility?"
225John 1:11-12. "The world knew him not; and his own received him not."
226"And were they not his?"
227Rom. 12:2 "But overcome evil with good."
2282 Tim. 4:3. "Shall they heap to themselves teachers."
229Ps. 81:6. "Ye are gods."
[230]"To your tribunal, Lord Jesus, I call."
231Wisd. of Sol. 19:4. "Doom which they deserved."
232"
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them with a good heart! Necessity and events follow infallibly.
"Console thyself, thou wouldst not seek Me, if thou hadst not found Me.
"I thought of thee in Mine agony, I have sweated such drops of blood for
thee.
"It is tempting Me rather than proving thyself, to think if thou wouldst do
such and such a thing on an occasion which has not happened; I shall act in
thee if it occur.
"Let thyself be guided by My rules; see how well I have led the Virgin and
the saints who have let Me act in them.
"The Father loves all that I do.
"Dost thou wish that it always cost Me the blood of My humanity, without thy
shedding tears?
"Thy conversion is My affair; fear not, and pray with confidence as for Me.
"I am present with thee by My Word in Scripture, by My Spirit in the Church
and by inspiration, by My power in the priests, by My prayer in the
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, th
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make its possessor happy by the mere contemplation of what he is? Must he be
diverted from this thought like ordinary folk? I see well that a man is made
happy by diverting him from the view of his domestic sorrows so as to occupy
all his thoughts with the care of dancing well. But will it be the same with
a king, and will he be happier in the pursuit of these idle amusements than
in the contemplation of his greatness? And what more satisfactory object
could be presented to his mind? Would it not be a deprivation of his delight
for him to occupy his soul with the thought of how to adjust his steps to
the cadence of an air, or of how to throw a ball skilfully, instead of
leaving it to enjoy quietly the contemplation of the majestic glory which
encompasses him? Let us make the trial; let us leave a king all alone to
reflect on himself quite at leisure, without any gratification of the
senses, without any care in his mind, without society; and we will see that
a king without diversion is a man full of wretchedness. So this is care
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greatest occasion to be affected; and when they feel worldly
dispositions working in them-pride, envy, stirrings of revenge, or some
ill spirit towards some person that has injured them, as well as other
workings of indwelling sin-their hearts are almost sunk with the
disappointment; and they are ready presently to think that they are mere
hypocrites.
They are ready to argue that, if God had indeed done such great things
for them, as they hoped, such ingratitude would be inconsistent with it.
They complain of the hardness and wickedness of their hearts; and say
there is so much corruption, that it seems to them impossible there
should be any goodness there. Many of them seem to be much more sensible
how corrupt their hearts are, than before they were converted; and some
have been too ready to be impressed with fear, that instead of becoming
better, they are grown much worse, and make it an argument against the
goodness of their state. But the truth, the case seems plainly to be,
that now they feel the pain of their own wound; they have a watchful eye
upon their hearts, that they did not use to have. They take more notice
of what sin is there, which is now more burdensome to them; they strive
more against it, and feel more of its strength.
They are somewhat surprised that they should in this respect find
themselves so different from the idea they generally had entertained of
godly persons. For, though grace be indeed of a far more excellent
nature than they imagined, y
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their researches. For who doubts that geometry, for instance, has an
infinite infinity of problems to solve? They are also infinite in the
multitude and fineness of their premises; for it is clear that those which
are put forward as ultimate are not self-supporting, but are based on others
which, again having others for their support, do not permit of finality. But
we represent some as ultimate for reason, in the same way as in regard to
material objects we call that an indivisible point beyond which our senses
can no longer perceive anything, although by its nature it is infinitely
divisible.
Of these two Infinites of science, that of greatness is the most palpable,
and hence a few persons have pretended to know all things. "I will speak of
the whole," said Democritus.
But the infinitely little is the least obvious. Philosophers have much
oftener claimed to have reached it, and it is here they have all stumbled.
This has given rise to such common titles as First Principles, Principles of
Philosophy, and the like, as ostentatious in fact, though not in appearance,
as that one which blinds us, De omni scibili.5
We naturally believe ourselves far more capable of reaching the centre of
things than
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which formed in his ureter. Rome herself was trembling under him; but this
small piece of gravel having formed there, he is dead, his family cast down,
all is peaceful, and the king is restored.
177. Three hosts. Would he who had possessed the friendship of the King of
England, the King of Poland, and the Queen of Sweden, have believed he would
lack a refuge and shelter in the world?
178. Macrobius: on the innocents slain by Herod.
179. When Augustus learnt that Herod's own son was amongst the infants under
two years of age, whom he had caused to be slain, he said that it was better
to be Herod's pig than his son. Macrobius, Saturnalia, ii. 4.
180. The great and the humble have the same misfortunes, the same griefs,
the same passions; but the one is at the top of the wheel, and the other
near the centre, and so less disturbed by the same revolutions.
181. We are so unfortunate that we can only take pleasure in a thing on
condition of being annoyed if it turn out ill, as a thousand things can do,
and do every hour. He who should find the secret of rejoicing in the good,
without troubling himself with its contrary evil, would have hit the mark.
It is perpetual motion.
182. Those w
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he blessed them in this manner. And, upon Joseph's representing to him that
he was preferring the younger, he replied to him with admirable resolution:
"I know it well, my son; but Ephraim will increase more than Manasseh." This
has been indeed so true in the result that, being alone almost as fruitful
as the two entire lines which composed a whole kingdom, they have been
usually called by the name of Ephraim alone.
This same Joseph, when dying, bade his children carry his bones with them
when they should go into that land to which they only came two hundred years
afterwards.
Moses, who wrote all these things so long before they happened, himself
assigned to each family portions of that land before they entered it, as
though he had been its ruler. In fact he declared that God was to raise up
from their nation and their race a prophet, of whom he was the type; and he
foretold them exactly all that was to happen to them in the land which they
were to enter after his death, the victories which God would give them,
their ingratitude towards God, the punishments which they would receive for
it, and the rest of their adventures. He gave them judges who should make
the division. He prescribed the entire form of political government which
they should observe, the cities of refuge which they should build, and...
712. The prophecies about particular things are
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O holy Zion, where all is firm and nothing falls!
We must sit upon the waters, not under them or in them, but on them; and not
standing but seated; being seated to be humble, and being above them to be
secure. But we shall stand in the porches of Jerusalem.
Let us see if this pleasure is stable or transitory; if it pass away, it is
a river of Babylon.
460. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, pride, etc.--There are
three orders of things: the flesh, the spirit, and the will. The carnal are
the rich and kings; they have the body as their object. Inquirers and
scientists; they have the mind as their object. The wise; they have
righteousness as their object.
God must reign over all, and all men must be brought back to Him. In things
of the flesh lust reigns specially; in intellectual matters, inquiry
specially; in wisdom, pride specially. Not that a man cannot boast of wealth
or knowledge, but it is not the place for pride; for in granting to a man
that he is learned, it is easy to convince him that he is wrong to be proud.
The proper place for pride is in wisdom, for it cannot be granted to a man
that he has made himself wise, and that he is wrong to be proud; for that is
right. Now God alone gives wisdom, and that is why Qui gloriatur, in Domino
glorietur.74
461. The three lusts have made three sects; and the philosophers have done
no other thing than follow one of the three lusts.
462. Search for the true good.--Ordinary men place the good in fortune and
external goods, or at least in amusement. Philosophers have shown the vanity
of all this and have placed it where they could.
463. Philosophers.--They believe that God alone is worthy to be loved and
admired; and they have desired to be loved and admired of men and do not
know their own corruption. If they feel full of feelings of love and
admiration and find therein their chief delight, very well, let t
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against the Prince of princes, but he shall perish miserably, and
nevertheless by a violent hand."
Daniel 9:20. "Whilst I was praying with all my heart, and confessing my sin
and the sin of all my people, and prostrating myself before my God, even
Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, came to me and
touched me about the time of the evening oblation, and he informed me and
said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee the knowledge of things. At
the beginning of thy supplications I came to shew that which thou didst
desire, for thou are greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and
consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon
thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and
to abolish iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness; to
accomplish the vision and the prophecies, and to anoint the Most Holy.
(After which this people shall be no more thy peop
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state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth
and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and
fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will
fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa. 66:23,24. "And it
shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one
sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the
Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men
that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither
shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all
flesh."
It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all
eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When
you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration
before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul;
and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end,
any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must
wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and
conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you
have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this
manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that
your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the
state of a soul in such circums
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idea of it! And these sensations seem so removed from those others which we
say are the same as those with which we compare them! The sensation from the
fire, that warmth which affects us in a manner wholly different from touch,
the reception of sound and light, all this appears to us mysterious, and yet
it is material like the blow of a stone. It is true that the smallness of
the spirits which enter into the pores touches other nerves, but there are
always some nerves touched.
369. Memory is necessary for all the operations of reason.
370. Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep
or acquire them.
A thought has escaped me. I wanted to write it down. I write instead that it
has escaped me.
371. When I was small, I hugged my book; and because it sometimes happened
to me to... in believing I hugged it, I doubted....
372. In writing down my thought, it sometimes escapes me; but this makes me
remember my weakness, that I constantly forget. This is as instructive to me
as my forgotten thought; for I strive only to know my nothingness.
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oftentimes, in bringing texts of Scripture to the mind. Not that I
suppose it is done in a way of immediate revelation, without any use of
the memory; but yet there seems plainly to be an immediate and
extraordinary influence, in leading their thoughts to such and such
passages of Scripture, and exciting them in the memory. Indeed in some,
God seems to bring texts of Scripture to their minds no otherwise than
by leading them into such frames and meditations as harmonize with those
Scriptures; but in many persons there seems to be something more than
this.
Those who, while under legal convictions, have had the greatest terrors,
have not always obtained the greatest light and comfort; nor have they
always light most suddenly communicated; but yet, I think, the time of
conversion has generally been most sensible in such persons. Oftentimes,
the first sensible change after the extremity of terrors, is a calmness,
and then the light gradually comes in; small glimpses at first, after
their midnight darkness, and a word or two of comfort, as it were softly
spoken to them. They have a little taste of the sweetness of divine
grace, and the love of a Savior, when terror and distress of conscience
begin to be turned into an humble, meek sense of their own unworthiness
before God. There is felt, inwardly, sometimes a disposition to praise
God; and after a little while the light comes in more clearly and
powerfully. But yet, I think, more frequently, great terrors have been
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no other thing than follow one of the three lusts.
462. Search for the true good.--Ordinary men place the good in fortune and
external goods, or at least in amusement. Philosophers have shown the vanity
of all this and have placed it where they could.
463. Philosophers.--They believe that God alone is worthy to be loved and
admired; and they have desired to be loved and admired of men and do not
know their own corruption. If they feel full of feelings of love and
admiration and find therein their chief delight, very well, let them think
themselves good. But if they find themselves averse to Him, if they have no
inclination but the desire to establish themselves in the esteem of men, and
if their whole perfection consists only in making men--but without
constraint--find their happiness in loving them, I declare that this
perfection is horrible. What! they have known God and have not desired
solely that men should love Him, but that men should stop short at them!
They have wanted to be the object of the voluntary delight of men.
464. Philosophers.--We are full of things which take us out of ourselves.
Our instinct makes us feel that we must seek our happiness outside
ourselves. Our passions impel us outside, even when no objects present
themselves to excite them. External objects tempt us of themselves, and call
to us, even when we are not thinking of them. And thus philosophers have
said in vain: "Retire within yourselves, you will find your good there." We
do not believe them, and those who believe them are the most empty and the
most foolish.
465.
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357. When we would pursue virtues to their extremes on either side, vices
present themselves, which insinuate themselves insensibly there, in their
insensible journey towards the infinitely little; and vices present
themselves in a crowd towards the infinitely great, so that we lose
ourselves in them and no longer see virtues. We find fault with perfection
itself.
358. Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing is that he
who would act the angel acts the brute.
359. We do not sustain ourselves in virtue by our own strength, but by the
balancing of two opposed vices, just as we remain upright amidst two
contrary gales. Remove one of the vices, and we fall into the other.
360. What the Stoics propose is so difficult and foolish!
The Stoics lay down that all those who are not at the high degree of wisdom
are equally foolish and vicious, as those who are two inches under water.
361. The sovereign good. Dispute about the sovereign good.--Ut sis contentus
temetipso et ex te nascentibus bonis.48 There is a contradiction, for in the
end they advise suicide. Oh! What a happy life, from which we are to free
ourselves as from the plague!
362. Ex senatus-consultis et plebiscitis...
To ask like passages.
363. Ex senatus-consultis et plebiscitis scelera exercentur. Seneca.
588.[49]
Nihil tam absurde dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosophorum.50
Quibusdam destinatis sententiis consecrati quae non probant coguntur
defendere.51
Ut omnium rerum sic litterarum quoque intemperantia laboramus.52
Id maxime quemque decet, quod est cujusque suum maxime.53
Hos natura modos primum dedit.54
Paucis opus est litteris ad bonam mentem.55
Si quando turpe non sit, tamen non est non turp
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let nature have given him a hoarse voice or a comical cast of countenance,
or let his barber have given him a bad shave, or let by chance his dress be
more dirtied than usual, then, however great the truths he announces, I
wager our senator loses his gravity.
If the greatest philosopher in the world find himself upon a plank wider
than actually necessary, but hanging over a precipice, his imagination will
prevail, though his reason convince him of his safety. Many cannot bear the
thought without a cold sweat. I will not state all its effects.
Every one knows that the sight of cats or rats, the crushing of a coal,
etc., may unhinge the reason. The tone of voice affects the wisest, and
changes the force of a discourse or a poem.
Love or hate alters the aspect of justice. How much greater confidence has
an advocate, retained with a large fee, in the justice of his cause! How
much better does his bold manner make his case appear to the judges,
deceived as they are by appearances! How ludicrous is reason, blown with a
breath in every direction!
I should have to enumerate almost every action of men who scarce waver save
under her assaults. For reason has been obliged to yield, and the wisest
reason takes as her own principles those which the imagination of man has
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 sou
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"The Father loves all that I do.
"Dost thou wish that it always cost Me the blood of My humanity, without thy
shedding tears?
"Thy conversion is My affair; fear not, and pray with confidence as for Me.
"I am present with thee by My Word in Scripture, by My Spirit in the Church
and by inspiration, by My power in the priests, by My prayer in the
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 ar
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217. An heir finds the title-deeds of his house. Will he say, "Perhaps they
are forged" and neglect to examine them?
218. Dungeon.--I approve of not examining the opinion of Copernicus; but
this...! It concerns all our life to know whether the soul be mortal or
immortal.
219. It is certain that the mortality or immortality of the soul must make
an entire difference to morality. And yet philosophers have constructed
their ethics independently of this: they discuss to pass an hour.
Plato, to incline to Christianity.
220. The fallacy of philosophers who have not discussed the immortality of
the soul. The fallacy of their dilemma in Montaigne.
221. Atheists ought to say what is perfectly evident; now it is not
perfectly evident that the soul is material.
222. Atheists.--What reason have they for saying that we cannot rise from
the dead? What is more difficult, to be born or to rise again; that what has
never been should be, or that what has been should be again? Is it more
difficult to come into existence than to return to it? Habit makes the one
appear easy to us; want of habit makes the other impossible. A popular way
of thinking!
Why cannot a virgin bear a child? Does a hen not lay eggs without a cock?
What distinguishes these outwardly from others? And who has told us that the
hen may not form the germ as well as the cock?
223. What have they to say against the resurrection, and against the
child-bearing of the Virgin? Which is the more difficult, to produce a man
or an animal, or to reproduce it? And if they had never seen any species of
animals, could they have conjectured whether they were produced without
connection with each other?
224. How I hate these follies of not believing in the Eucharist, etc.! If
the Gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is
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partaker in His divinity, and that without grace he is like unto the brute
beasts.
435. Without this divine knowledge what could men do but either become
elated by the inner feeling of their past greatness which still remains to
them, or become despondent at the sight of their present weakness? For, not
seeing the whole truth, they could not attain to perfect virtue. Some
considering nature as incorrupt, others as incurable, they could not escape
either pride or sloth, the two sources of all vice; since they cannot but
either abandon themselves to it through cowardice, or escape it by pride.
For if they knew the excellence of man, they were ignorant of his
corruption; so that they easily avoided sloth, but fell into pride. And if
they recognized the infirmity of nature, they were ignorant of its dignity;
so that they could easily avoid vanity, but it was to fall into despair.
Thence arise the different schools of the Stoics and Epicureans, the
Dogmatists, Academicians, etc.
The Christian religion alone has been able to cure these two vices, not by
expelling the one through means of the other according to the wisdom of the
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thronged far more than ever the tavern had been wont to be.
There is a very great variety, as to the degree of fear and trouble that
persons are exercised with, before they attain any comfortable evidences
of pardon and acceptance with God. Some are from the beginning carried
on with abundantly more encouragement and hope than others. Some have
had ten times less trouble of mind than others, in whom yet the issue
seems to be the same. Some have had such a sense of the displeasure of
God, and the great danger they were in of damnation, that they could not
sleep at nights; and many have said that when they have laid down, the
thoughts of sleeping in such a condition have been frightful to them;
they have scarcely been free from terror while asleep, and they have
awakened with fear, heaviness, and distress still abiding on their
spirits. It has been very common, that the deep and fixed concern on
persons minds, has had a painful influence on their bodies, and given
disturbance to animal nature. The awful apprehensions persons have had
of their misery, have for the most part been increasing, the nearer they
have approached to deliverance; though they often pass through many
chang
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do not believe them, and those who believe them are the most empty and the
most foolish.
465. The Stoics say, "Retire within yourselves; it is there you will find
your rest."
And that is not true.
Others say, "Go out of yourselves; seek happiness in amusement." And this is
not true. Illness comes.
Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God, both without us
and within us.
466. Had Epictetus seen the way perfectly, he would have said to men, "You
follow a wrong road"; he shows that there is another, but he does not lead
to it. It is the way of willing what God wills. Jesus Christ alone leads to
it: Via, veritas.75 The vices of Zeno himself.
467. The reason of effects.--Epictetus. Those who say, "You have a
headache"; this is not the same thing. We are assured of health, and not of
justice; and in fact his own was nonsense.
And yet he believed it demonstrable, when he said, "It is either in our
power or it is not." But he did not perceive that it is not in our power to
regulate the heart, and he was wrong to infer from this the fact that there
were some Christians.
468. No other religion has proposed to men to hate themselves. No other
religion, then, can please those who hate themselves, and who seek a Being
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than I am. They tell me that they are not. And thereupon these wretched and
lost beings, having looked around them and seen some pleasing objects, have
given and attached themselves to them. For my own part, I have not been able
to attach myself to them, and, considering how strongly it appears that
there is something else than what I see, I have examined whether this God
has not left some sign of Himself.
I see many contradictory religions, and consequently all false save one.
Each wants to be believed on its own authority, and threatens unbelievers. I
do not therefore believe them. Every one can say this; every one can call
himself a prophet. But I see that Christian religion wherein prophecies are
fulfilled; and that is what every one cannot do.
694. And what crowns all this is prediction, so that it should not be said
that it is chance which has done it?
Whosoever, having only a week to live, will not find out that it is
expedient to believe that all this is not a stroke of chance...
Now, if the passions had no hold on us, a week and a hundred years would
amount to the same thing.
695. Prophecies.--Great Pan is dead.
696. Susceperunt verbum cum omni aviditate, scrutantes Scripturas, si ita se
haberent.[138]
697. Prodita lege. Impleta cerne. Implenda collige.[139]
698. We understand the prophecies only when we see the events happen. Thus
the proofs of retreat, discretion, silence, etc., are proofs only to those
who know and believe them.
Joseph so internal in a law so external
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than at the present time that God visibly protects her from corruption.
For if some of these men, who, by an extraordinary vocation, have made
profession of withdrawing from the world and adopting the monks' dress, in
order to live in a more perfect state than ordinary Christians, have fallen
into excesses which horrify ordinary Christians, and have become to us what
the false prophets were among the Jews; this is a private and personal
misfortune, which must indeed be deplored, but from which nothing can be
inferred against the care which God takes of His Church; since all these
things are so clearly foretold, and it has been so long since announced that
these temptations would arise from people of this kind; so that when we are
well instructed, we see in this rather evidence of the care of God than of
His forgetfulness in regard to us.
890. Tertullian: Nunquam Ecclesia reformabitur.222
891. Heretics, who take advantage of the doctrine of the Jesuits, must be
made to know that it is not that of the Church, and that our divisions do
not separate us from the altar.
892. If in differing we condemned, you would be right. Uniformity without
diversity is useless to others; diversity without uniformity is ruinous for
us. The one is harmful outwardly; the other inwardly.
893. By showing the truth, we cause it to be believed; but by showing the
injustice of ministers, we do not correct it. Our mind is assured by a proof
of falsehood; our purse is not made secure by proof of injustice.
894. Those who love the Church lament to see the corruption of morals; but
laws at least exist. But these corrupt the laws. The model is damaged.
895. Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from
religious conviction.
896. It is in vain th
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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 miracles had
not already wamed men not to believe them.
Thus, if there were divisions in the Church, and the Arians, for example,
who declared themselves founded on Scripture just as the Catholics, had done
miracles, and not the Catholics, men should have been led into error.
For, as a man, who announces to us the secrets of God, is not worthy to be
believed on his private authority, and that is why the ungodly doubt him; so
when a man, as a token of the communion which he has with God, raises the
dead, foretells the future, removes the seas, heals the sick, there is none
so wicked as not to bow to him, and the incredulity of Pharaoh and the
Pharisees is the effect of a supernatural obduracy.
When, therefore, we see miracles and a doctrine not suspicious, both on one
side, there
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admit it to be without reason. But this foolishness is wiser than all the
wisdom of men, sapientius est hominibus.[71] For without this, what can we
say that man is? His whole state depends on this imperceptible point. And
how should it be perceived by his reason, since it is a thing against
reason, and since reason, far from finding it out by her own ways, is averse
to it when it is presented to her?
446. Of original sin. Ample tradition of original sin according to the Jews.
On the saying in Genesis 8:21: "The imagination of man's heart is evil from
his youth."
R. Moses Haddarschan: This evil leaven is placed in man from the time that
he is formed.
Massechet Succa: This evil leaven has seven names in Scripture. It is called
evil, the foreskin, uncleanness, an enemy, a scandal, a heart of stone, the
north wind; all this signifies the malignity which is concealed and
impressed in the heart of man.
Midrasch Tillim says the same thing and that God will deliver the good
nature of man from the evil.
This malignity is renewed every day against man, as it is written, Psalm
37:32: "The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him"; but God
will not abandon him. This malignity tries the heart of man in this life and
will accuse him in the other. All this is found in the Talmud.
Midrasch Tillim on Psalm 4:4: "Stand in awe and sin not." Stand in awe and
be afraid of your lust, and it will not lead you into sin. And on Psalm
36:1: "The wicked has said within his own heart:
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people cannot distinguish. And they ask, "What have you to make you believed
rather than others? What sign do you give? You have only words, and so have
we. If you had miracles, good and well." That doctrine ought to be supported
by miracles is a truth, which they misuse in order to revile doctrine. And
if miracles happen, it is said that miracles are not enough without
doctrine; and this is another truth, which they misuse in order to revile
miracles.
Jesus Christ cured the man born blind and performed a number of miracles on
the Sabbath day. In this way He blinded the Pharisees, who said that
miracles must be judged by doctrine.
"We have Moses: but, as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." It
is wonderful that you know not whence He is, and yet He does such miracles.
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
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God, and not their own wretchedness, or to the despair of atheists, who know
their own wretchedness, but not the Redeemer.
And, as it is alike necessary to man to know these two points, so is it
alike merciful of God to have made us know them. The Christian religion does
this; it is in this that it consists.
Let us herein examine the order of the world and see if all things do not
tend to establish these two chief points of this religion: Jesus Christ is
end of all, and the centre to which all tends. Whoever knows Him knows the
reason of everything.
Those who fall into error err only through failure to see one of these two
things. We can, then, have an excellent knowledge of God without that of our
own wretchedness and of our own wretchedness without that of God. But we
cannot know Jesus Christ without knowing at the same time both God and our
own wretchedness.
Therefore I shall not undertake here to prove by natural reasons either the
existence of God, or the Trinity, or the immortality of the soul, or
anything of that nature; not only because I should not feel myself
sufficiently able to find in nature arguments to convince hardened atheists,
but also because such knowledge without Jesus Christ is useless and barren.
Though a man should be convinced that numerical proportions are immaterial
truths, eternal and dependent on a first truth, in which they subsist and
which is called God, I should not think him far advanced towards his own
salvation.
The God of Christians is not a God who is simply the author of mathematical
truths, or of the order of the elements; that is the view of heathens and
Epicureans. He is not merely a God who exercises His providence over the
life and fortunes of men, to bestow on those who worship Him a long and
happy life.
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them with a good heart! Necessity and events follow infallibly.
"Console thyself, thou wouldst not seek Me, if thou hadst not found Me.
"I thought of thee in Mine agony, I have sweated such drops of blood for
thee.
"It is tempting Me rather than proving thyself, to think if thou wouldst do
such and such a thing on an occasion which has not happened; I shall act in
thee if it occur.
"Let thyself be guided by My rules; see how well I have led the Virgin and
the saints who have let Me act in them.
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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 follo
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is wonderful that you know not whence He is, and yet He does such miracles.
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.
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such persons, in this extraordinary time, have received light; but many
of them were some of the last. They first saw multitudes of others
rejoicing, with songs of deliverance in their mouths, who before had
seemed wholly careless and at ease, and in pursuit of vanity; while they
had been bowed down with solicitude about their souls. Yea, some had
lived licentiously, and so continued till a little before they were
converted; and yet soon grew up to a holy rejoicing in the infinite
blessings God had bestowed upon them.
Whatever minister has a like occasion to deal with souls, in a flock
under such circumstances, as this was in the last year, I cannot but
think he will soon find himself under a necessity, greatly to insist
upon it with them, that God is under no manner of obligation to show
mercy to any natural man, whose heart is not turned to God: and that a
man can challenge nothing either in absolute justice, or by free
promise, from any thing he does before he has believed on Jesus Christ,
or has true repentance begun in him. It appears to me, that if I had
taught those who came to me under trouble any other doctrine, I should
have taken a most direct course utterly to undo them. I should have
directly crossed what was plainly the dri
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there is in them usually more of other people's than their own.
44. Do you wish people to believe good of you? Don't speak.
45. Languages are ciphers, wherein letters are not changed into letters, but
words into words, so that an unknown language is decipherable.
46. A maker of witticisms, a bad character.
47. There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the
audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of
without that warmth.
48. When we find words repeated in a discourse and, in trying to correct
them, discover that they are so appropriate that we would spoil the
discourse, we must leave them alone. This is the test; and our attempt is
the work of envy, which is blind, and does not see that repetition is not in
this place a fault; for there is no general rule.
49. To mask nature and disguise her. No more king, pope, bishop--but august
monarch, etc.; not Paris--the capital of the kingdom. There are places in
which we
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Himself entirely to His Father.
Jesus does not regard in Judas his enmity, but the order of God, which He
loves and admits, since He calls him friend.
Jesus tears Himself away from His disciples to enter into His agony; we must
tear ourselves away from our nearest and dearest to imitate Him.
Jesus being in agony and in the greatest affliction, let us pray longer.
We implore the mercy of God, not that He may leave us at peace in our vices,
that He may deliver us from them.
If God gave us masters by His own hand, oh! how necessary for us to obey
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creature. Some, which have quite recognised the reality of his excellence,
have considered as mean and ungrateful the low opinions which men naturally
have of themselves; and others, which have thoroughly recognised how real is
this vileness, have treated with proud ridicule those feelings of greatness,
which are equally natural to man.
"Lift your eyes to God," say the first; "see Him whom you resemble and who
has created you to worship Him. You can make yourselves like unto Him;
wisdom will make you equal to Him, if you will follow it." "Raise your
heads, free men," says Epictetus. And others say, "Bend your eyes to the
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
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
th
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of the same at Durham, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Chauncey; and
to appearance no small ingathering of souls there. Likewise amongst many
of the young people in the first precinct in Stratford, under the
ministry of the Rev. Mr. Gould; where the work was much promoted by the
remarkable conversion of a young woman who had been a great
company-keeper, as it was here.
Something of this work appeared in several others towns in those parts,
as I was informed when I was there, the last fall. And we have since
been acquainted with something very remarkable of this nature at another
parish in Stratford, called Ripton, under the pastoral care of the Rev.
Mr. Mills. There was a considerable revival of religion last summer at
Newhaven old town, as I was once and again informed by the Rev. Mr.
Noyes, the minister there, and by others: and by a letter which I very
lately received from Mr. Noyes, and also by information we have had
other ways. This flourishing of religion still continues, and has lately
much increased. Mr. Noyes writes, that many this summer have been added
to the church, and particularly mentions several young persons that
belong to the principal families of that town.
There has been a degree of the same work at a part of Guildford; and
very considerable at Mansfield, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr.
Eleazar Williams; and an unusual religious concern at Tolland; and
something of it at Hebr
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692. There are some that see clearly that man has no other enemy than lust,
which turns him from God, and not God; and that he has no other good than
God, and not a rich land. Let those who believe that the good of man is in
the flesh, and evil in what turns him away from sensual pleasures, satiate
themselves with them, and die in them. But let those who seek God with all
their heart, who are only troubled at not seeing Him, who desire only to
possess Him and have as enemies only those who turn them away from Him, who
are grieved at seeing themselves surrounded and overwhelmed with such
enemies, take comfort. I proclaim to them happy news. There exists a
Redeemer for them. I shall show Him to them. I shall show that there is a
God for them. I shall not show Him to others. I shall make them see that a
Messiah has been promised, who should deliver them from their enemies, and
that One has come to free them from their iniquities, but not from their
enemies.
When David foretold that th
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so few?
Because it is not the length of years, but the multitude of generations,
which renders things obscure. For truth is perverted only by the change of
men. And yet he puts two things, the most memorable that were ever imagined,
namely, the creation and the deluge, so near that we reach from one to the
other.
625. Shem, who saw Lamech, who saw Adam, saw also Jacob, who saw those who
saw Moses; therefore the deluge and the creation are true. This is
conclusive among certain people who understand it rightly.
626. The longevity of the patriarchs, instead of causing the loss of past
history, conduced, on the contrary, to its preservation. For the reason why
we are sometimes insufficiently instructed in the history of our ancestors
is that we have never lived long with them, and that they are often dead
before we have attained the age of reason. Now, when men lived so long,
children lived long with their parents. They conversed long with them. But
what else could be the subject of their talk save the history of their
ancestors, since to that all history was reduced, and men did not study
science or art, which now form a large part of daily conversation? We see
also that in these days tribes took particular care to preserve their
genealogies.
627. I believe that Joshua was the first of God's people to have this name,
as Jesus Christ was the last of God's people.
628. Antiquity of the Jews.--What
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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 types. Here is the cipher
which Saint Paul gives us. Christ must suffer. An humiliated God.
Circumcision of the heart, true fasting, true sacrifice, a true temple. The
prophets have shown that all these must be spiritual.
Not the meat which perish
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perishable? For it is impossible and would be unjust to love the soul of a
person in the abstract and whatever qualities might be therein. We never,
then, love a person, but only qualities.
Let us, then, jeer no more at those who are honoured on account of rank and
office; for we love a person only on account of borrowed qualities.
324. The people have very sound opinions, for example:
1. In having preferred diversion and hunting to poetry. The half-learned
laugh at it, and glory in being above the folly of the world; but the people
are right for a reason which these do not fathom.
2. In having distinguished men by external marks, as birth or wealth. The
world again exults in showing how unreasonable this is; but it is very
reasonable. Savages laugh at an infant king.
3. In being offended at a blow, or in desiring glory so much. But it is very
desirable on account of the other essential goods which are joined to it;
and a man who has received a blow, without resenting it, is overwhelmed with
taunts and indignities.
4.
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ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to
think of them at all.
169. Despite these miseries, man wishes to be happy, and only wishes to be
happy, and cannot wish not to be so. But how will he set about it? To be
happy he would have to make himself immortal; but, not being able to do so,
it has occurred to him to prevent himself from thinking of death.
170. Diversion.--If man were happy, he would be the more so, the less he was
diverted, like the Saints and God. Yes; but is it not to be happy to have a
faculty of being amused by diversion? No; for that comes from elsewhere and
from without, and thus is dependent, and therefore subject to be disturbed
by a thousand accidents, which bring inevitable griefs.
171. Misery.--The only thing which consoles us for our miseries is
diversion, and yet this is the greatest of our miseries. For it is this
which principally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves and which makes
us insensibly ruin ourselves. Wit
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ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God
should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make
the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is
immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it
is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas if it were let loose,
it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a
sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the
soul into fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.
It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no
visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that
he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now
immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no
visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and
continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no
evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the
next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways
and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and
inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten
covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that
they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The
arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot
discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking
wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is
nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a
miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy
any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners
going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and
absolutely subject to his power and
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thorn from the crown of the Saviour of the world, over whom the prince of
this world has no power, which works miracles by the peculiar power of the
blood shed for us. Now God Himself chooses this house in order to display
conspicuously therein His power.
These are not men who do miracles by an unknown and doubtful virtue, which
makes a decision difficult for us. It is God Himself. It is the instrument
of the Passion of His only Son, who, being in many places, chooses this, and
makes men come from all quarters there to receive these miraculous
alleviations in their weaknesses.
840. The Church has three kinds of enemies: the Jews, who have never been of
her body; the heretics, who have withdrawn from it; and the evil Christians,
who rend her from within.
These three kinds of different adversaries usually attack her in different
ways. But here they attack her in one and the same way. As they are all
without miracles, and as the Church has always had miracles against them,
they have all had the same interest in evading them; and they all make use
of this excuse, that doctrine must not be judged by miracles, but miracles
by doctrine. There were two parties among those who heard Jesus Christ:
those who followed His teaching on account of His miracles; others who said.
There were two parties in the time of Calvin... There are now the Jesuits,
etc.
841. Miracles furnish the test in matters of doubt, between Jews and
heathens, Jews and Christians, Catholics and heretics, the slandered and
slanderers, betwee
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elevation of voice; and afterwards she went into another room, where her
mother overheard her talking very earnestly to the children about it;
and particularly heard her say to them, three or four times over, with
an air of exceeding joy and admiration, Why, it is to sup with God. Some
time about the middle of winter, very late in the night, when all were
a-bed, her mother perceived that she was awake, and heard her, as though
she was weeping. She called to her, and asked her what was the matter.
She answered with a low voice, so that her mother could not hear what
she said; but thinking that it might be occasioned by some spiritual
affection, said no more to her: but perceived her to lie awake, and to
continue in the same frame, for a considerable time. The next morning
she asked her, whether she did not cry the last night. The child
answered, Yes, I did cry a little, for I was thinking about God and
Christ, and they loved me. Her mother asked her, whether to think of God
and Christ loving her made her cry? She answered, Yes, it does
sometimes.
She has often manifested a great concern for the good of others' souls:
and has been wont many times affectionately to counsel the other
children. Once, about the latter end of September, the last year, when
she and some others of the children were in a room by themselves,
hus
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of lightning, upon the hearts of young people, all over the town, and
upon many others. Those persons amongst us, who used to be farthest from
seriousness, and that I most feared would make an ill improvement of it,
seemed to be awakened with it. Many went to talk with her, concerning
what she had met with; and what appeared in her seemed to be to the
satisfaction of all that did so.
Presently upon this, a great and earnest concern about the great things
of religion and the eternal world, became universal in all parts of the
town, and among persons of all degrees, and all ages. The noise amongst
the dry bones waxed louder and louder; all other talk but about
spiritual and eternal things, was soon thrown by; all the conversation,
in all companies and upon all occasions, was upon these things only,
unless so much as was necessary for people carrying on their ordinary
secular business. Other discourse than of the things of religion would
scarcely be tolerated in any company. The minds of people were
wonderfully taken off from the world, it was treated amongst us as a
thing of very little consequence. They seemed to follow their worldly
business, more as a part of their duty, than from any disposition they
had to it; the temptation now seemed to lie on that hand, to neglect
worldly affairs too much, and to spend too much time in the immediate
exercise of religion. This was exceedingly misrepresented by reports
that were spread in distant parts of the land, as though the people here
had wholly thrown by all worldly business, and betook themselves
entirely to reading and praying, and such like religious exercises.
But although people did not ordinarily neglect their worldly business,
yet religion was with all sorts the great concern, and the world was a
thing only by the bye. The only thing in their view was to get
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and leaves them in repose.
Jesus prays, uncertain of the will of His Father, and fears death; but, when
He knows it, He goes forward to offer Himself to death. Eamus.96 Processit
(John).[97]
Jesus asked of men and was not heard.
Jesus, while His disciples slept, wrought their salvation. He has wrought
that of each of the righteous while they slept, both in their nothingness
before their birth, and in their sins after their birth.
He prays only once that the cup pass away, and then with submission; and
twice that it come if necessary.
Jesus is weary.
Jesus, seeing all His friends asleep and all His enemies wakeful, commits
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miracles.
Jesus Christ cured the man born blind and performed a number of miracles on
the Sabbath day. In this way He blinded the Pharisees, who said that
miracles must be judged by doctrine.
"We have Moses: but, as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." It
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congregation of what he had seen, and that they were greatly affected
with it; and that it proved the beginning of the same work amongst them,
which prevailed till there was a general awakening, and many instances
of persons, who seemed to be remarkably converted. I also have lately
heard that there has been something of the work at Woodbury.
But this shower of divine blessing has been yet more extensive: there
was no small degree of it in some part of the Jerseys; as I was informed
when I was at New York (in a long journey I took at that time of the
year for my health), by some people of the Jerseys, whom I saw.
Especially the Rev. William Tennent, a minister who seemed to have such
things at heart, told me of a very great awakening of many in a place
called the Mountains, under the ministry of one Mr. Cross; and of a very
considerable revival of religion in another place under the ministry of
his brother the Rev. Gilbert Tennent; and also at another place, under
the ministry of a very pious young gentleman, a Dutch minister, whose
name as I remember was Freelinghousa.
This seems to have been a very extraordinary dispensation of providence;
God has in many respects gone out of, and much beyond, His usual and
ordinary way. The work in this town, and others about us, has been
extraordinary on account of the universality of it, affecting all sorts,
sober and vicious, high and low, rich and poor, wise and unwise. I
reached the most considerable families and persons, to all appearance,
as much as others. In former stirrings of this nature, the bulk of the
young people have been greatly affected; but old men and little children
have been so now. Many of the last have, of their own accord,
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(Jer. 30:24).
The third proof is that their discourses are contradictory, and neutralise
each other; so that, if we think that they did not mean by the words law and
sacrifice anything else than that of Moses, there is a plain and gross
contradiction. Therefore they meant something else, sometimes contradicting
themselves in the same chapter. Now, to understand the meaning of an
author...
660. Lust has become natural to us and has made our second nature. Thus
there are two natures in us--the one good, the other bad. Where is God?
Where you are not, and the kingdom of God is within you.The Rabbis.
661. Penitence, alone of all these mysteries, has been manifestly declared
to the Jews, and by Saint John, the Forerunner; and then the other
mysteries; to indicate that in each man, as in the entire world, this order
must be observed.
662. The carnal Jews understood neither the greatness nor the humiliation of
the Messiah foretold in their prophecies. They misunderstood Him in His
foretold greatness, as when He said that the Messiah should be lord of
David, though his son, and that He was before Abraham, who had seen Him.
They did not believe Him so great as to be eternal, and they likewise
misunderstood Him in His humiliation and in His death. "The Messiah," said
they, "abideth for ever, and this man says that he shall die." Therefore
they believed Him neither mortal nor eternal; they only sought in Him for a
carnal greatness.
663. Typical.--Nothing is so like charity as covetousness, and nothing is so
opposed to it. Thus the Jews, full of possessions which flattered their
covet
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light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We
grope for the wall like the blind; we stumble at noonday as in the night: we
are in desolate places as dead men.
"We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for judgment,
but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us."
Is. 66:18: "But I know their works and their thoughts; it shall come that I
will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall see my glory.
"And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them
unto the nations, to Africa, to Lydia, to Italy, to Greece, and to the
people that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory. And they
shall bring your brethren.
Jer. 7. Reprobation of the Temple: "Go ye unto Shiloth, where I set my name
at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people. And
now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, I will do unto
this house, wherein my name is called upon, wherein ye trust, and unto the
place which I gave to your priests, as I have done to Shiloth." (For I have
rejected it, and made myself a temple elsewhere.)
"And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren,
even the seed of Ephraim." (Re
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herself, that she had never heard of it before; but then immediately
recollected herself, and thought she had often heard of it, and read it,
but never till now saw it as real. She then cast in her mind how
wonderful this was, that the Son of God should undergo such things for
sinners, and how she had spent her time in ungratefully sinning against
so good a God, and such a Savior; though she was a person, apparently,
of a very blameless and inoffensive life. And she was so overcome by
those considerations that her nature was ready to fail under them: those
who were about her, and knew not what was the matter, were surprised,
and thought she was dying.
Many have spoken much of their hearts being drawn out in love to God and
Christ; and of their minds being wrapt up in delightful contemplation of
the glory and wonderful grace of God, the excellency and dying love of
Jesus Christ; and of their souls going forth in longing desires after
God and Christ. Several of our young children have expressed much of
this; and have manifested a willingness to leave father and mother and
all things in the world, to go and be with Christ; some persons having
had such longing desires after Christ, or which have risen to such
degree, as to take away their natural strength. Some have been so
overcome with a sense of the dying love of Christ to such poor,
wretched, and unworthy creatures, as to weaken the body. Several persons
have had so great a sense of the glory of God, and excellency of Christ,
that nature and life seemed almost to sink under it; and in all
probability, if God had showed them a little more of Himself, it would
have dissolved their frame. I have seen some, and conversed with them in
such frames, who have certainly been perfectly sober, and very remote
from any thing like enthusiastic wildness. And they have talked, when
able to spe
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rest, without passions, without business, without diversion, without study.
He then feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his
dependence, his weakness, his emptiness. There will immediately arise from
the depth of his heart weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation,
despair.
132. Methinks Caesar was too old to set about amusing himself with
conquering the world. Such sport was good for Augustus or Alexander. They
were still young men and thus difficult to restrain. But Caesar should have
been more mature.
133. Two faces which resemble each other make us laugh, when together, by
their resemblance, though neither of them by itself makes us laugh.
134. How useless is painting, which attracts admiration by the resemblance
of things, the originals of which we do not admire!
135. The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory. We love to see animals
fighting, not the victor infuriated over the vanquished. We would only see
the victorious end; and, as soon as it comes, we are satiated. It is the
same in play, and the same in the search for truth. In disputes we like to
see the clash of opinions, but not at all to contemplate truth when found.
To observe it with pleasure, we have to see it emerge out of strife. So in
the passions, there is pleasure in seeing the collision of two contraries;
but when one acquires the mastery, it becomes only brutality. We never seek
things for themselves, but for the search. Likewise in plays, scenes which
do not rouse the emotion of fear are worthless, so are extreme and hopeless
misery, brutal lust, and extreme cruelty.
136. A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.
137. Without examining every particular pursuit, it is enough to comprehend
them under diversion.
138. Men naturally slaters and of all callings, save in their own rooms.
139. Diversion.--When I have occasionally set myself to consider th
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destroyed by the Deluge, as Esdras could have restored the Scriptures lost
during the Captivity.
(Theos) en te epi Nabouchodonosor aichmalosia tou laou, diaphthareison ton
Graphon... enepneuse 'Esdra to ierei, ek tes phules Leui tous ton
progegonoton propheton pantas anataxasthai logous, kai apokatastesai to lae
ten dia Mouseos nomothesian. He alleges this to prove that it is not
incredible that the Seventy may have explained the Holy Scriptures with that
uniformity which we admire in them. And he took that from Saint Irenaeus.
Saint Hilary, in his preface to the Psalms, says that Esdras arranged the
Psalms in order.
The origin of this tradition comes from the 14th chapter of the fourth book
of Esdras. Deus glorificatus est, et Scripturae vere divinae creditae sunt,
omnibus eandem et eisdem verbis et eisdem nominibus recitantibus ab initio
usque ad finem, uti et praesentes gentes cognoscerent quoniam per
inspirationem Dei interpretatae sunt Scripturae, et non esset mirabile Deum
hoc in eis operatum: quando in ea captivitate populi quae facta est a
Nabuchodonosor, corruptis scripturis et post 70 annos Judaeis descendentibus
in regionem suam, et post deinde temporibus Artaxerxis Persarum regis,
inspiravit Esdrae sacerdoti tribus Levi praeteritorum prophetarum omnes
rememorare sermones, et restituere populo eam legem quae data est per
Moysen.[114]
633. Against the story in Esdras, 2 Maccab. 2.; Josephus, Antiquities, II,
i.--Cyrus took occasion from the prophecy of Isaiah to releas
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the young people), I suppose, than ever before. Mr. Stoddard, indeed,
had the comfort, before he died, of seeing a time where there were no
small appearances of a divine work among some, and a considerable
ingathering of souls, even after I was settled with him in the ministry,
which was about two years before his death; and I have reason to bless
God for the great advantage I had by it. In these two years there were
nearly twenty that Mr. Stoddard hoped to be savingly converted; but
there was nothing of any general awakening. The greater part seemed to
be at that time very insensible of the things of religion, and engaged
in other cares and pursuits. Just after my grandfather's death, it
seemed to be a time of extraordinary dullness in religion.
Licentiousness for some years prevailed among the youth of the town;
there were many of them very much addicted to night-walking, and
frequenting the tavern, and lewd practices, wherein some, by their
example, exceedingly corrupted others. It was their manner very
frequently to get together, in conventions of both sexes for mirth and
jollity, which they called frolics; and they would often spend the
greater part of the night in them, without regard to any order in the
families they belonged to: and indeed family government did too much
fail in the town. It was become very customary with many of our young
people to be indecent in their carriage at meeting, which doubtless
would not have prevailed in such a degree, had it not been that my
grandfather, through his great age (though he retained his powers
surprisingly to t
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It had been told to the Jews, as well as to Christians, that they should not
always believe the prophets; but yet the Pharisees and Scribes are greatly
concerned about His miracles and try to show that they are false, or wrought
by the devil. For they must needs be convinced, if they acknowledge that
they are of God.
At the present day we are not troubled to make this distinction. Still it is
very easy to do: those who deny neither God nor Jesus Christ do no miracles
which are not certain. Nemo facit virtutem in nomine meo, et cito possit de
me male loqui.191
But we have not to draw this distinction. Here is a sacred relic. Here is a
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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, the more greatness
and the more baseness we discover in man. Ordinary men--those who are more
educated: philosophers, they astonish ordinary men--Christians, they
astonish philosophers.
Who will then be surprised to see that religion only makes us know
profoundly what we already know in proportion to our light?
444. This religion taught to her children what men h
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against justice!
917. Probability.--The earnestness of the saints in seeking the truth was
useless, if the probable is trustworthy. The fear of the saints who have
always followed the surest way. (Saint Theresa having always followed her
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 necessa
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that they have found so much corruption remaining in their hearts. At
first, their souls seem to be all alive, their hearts are fixed, and
their affections flowing; they seem to live quite above the world, and
meet with but little difficulty in religious exercises; and they are
ready to think it will always be so. Though they are truly abased under
a sense of their vileness, by reason of former acts of sin, yet they are
not then sufficiently sensible what corruption still remains in their
hearts; and therefore are surprised when they find that they begin to be
in dull and dead frames, troubled with wandering thoughts at the time of
public and private worship, and utterly unable to keep themselves from
them. When they find themselves unaffected, while yet there is the
greatest occasion to be affected; and when they feel worldly
dispositions working in them-pride, envy, stirrings of revenge, or some
ill spirit towards some person that has injured them, as well as other
workings of indwelling sin-their hearts are almost sunk with the
disappointment; and they are ready presently to think that they are mere
hypocrites.
They are ready to argue that, if God had indeed done such great things
for them, as they hoped, such ingratitude would be inconsistent with it.
They complain of the hardness and wickedness of their hearts; and say
there is so much corruption, that it seems to them impossible there
should be any goodness there. Many of them seem to be much more sensible
how corrupt their hearts are, than before they were converted; and some
have been too ready to be impressed with fear, that instead of becoming
better, they are grown muc
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implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds
the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so
vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is
crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will
have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his
wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or
mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no
regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too
much in any other sense, than only that you shall not suffer beyond what
strict justice requires. Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so
hard for you to bear. Ezek. 8:18. "Therefore will I also deal in fury:
mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry
in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now God
stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with
some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is
past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in
vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard
to your welfare. God will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer
misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be
a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use
of this vessel, but to be filled full of wrath. God will be so far from
pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only "laugh and
mock," Prov. 1:25,26,&c.
How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3, which are the words of the great
God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury,
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain
all my raiment." It is perh
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Prophecy of Isaiah, and the New Testament. Some, by reason of their love
to God's word, at times have been wonderfully delighted and affected at
the sight of a Bible; and then, also, there was no time so prized as the
Lord's day, and no place in this world so desired as God's house. Our
converts then remarkably appeared united in dear affection to one
another, and many have expressed much of that spirit of love which they
felt toward all mankind; and particularly to those who had been least
friendly to them. Never, I believe, was so much done in confessing
injuries, and making up differences, as the last year. Persons, after
their own conversion, have commonly expressed an exceeding great desire
for the conversion of others. Some have thought that they should be
willing to die for the conversion of any soul, though of one of the
meanest of their fellow-creatures, or of their worst enemies; and many
have, indeed, been in great distress with desires and longings for it.
This work of God had also a good effect to unite the people's affections
much to their minister.
There are some persons whom I have been acquainted with, but more
especially two, that belong to other towns, who have been swallowed up
exceedingly with a sense of the awful greatness and majesty of God; and
both of them told me to this purpose, that if, at the time, they had
entertained the least fear that they were not at peace with this so
great a God, they should certainly have died.
It is worthy to be remarked, that some persons, by their conversion,
seem to be greatly helped as to their doctrinal notions of religion. It
was particularly remarkable in one, who, having been taken captive in
his childhood, was trained up m Canada in the popish religion. Some
years since he returned to this his native place, and was in a measure
brought off from popery; but seemed
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are contradicted; several things which are false pass without contradiction.
Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the want of contradiction a sign
of truth.
385. Scepticism.--Each thing here is partly true and partly false. Essential
truth is not so; it is altogether pure and altogether true. This mixture
dishonours and annihilates it. Nothing is purely true, and thus nothing is
true, meaning by that pure truth. You will say it is true that homicide is
wrong. Yes; for we know well the wrong and the false. But what will you say
is good? Chastity? I say no; for the world would come to an end. Marriage?
No; continence is better. Not to kill? No; for lawlessness would be
horrible, and the wicked would kill all the good. To kill? No; for that
destroys nature. We possess truth and goodness only in part, and mingled
with falsehood and evil.
386. If we dreamt the same thing every night, it would affect us as much as
the objects we see every day. And if an artisan were sure to dream every
night for twelve hours' duration that he was a king, I believe he would be
almost as happy as a king, who should dream every night for twelve hours on
end that he was an artisan.
If we were to dream every night that we were pursued by enemies and harassed
by these painful phantoms, or that we passed every day in different
occupations, as in making a voyage, we should suffer almost as much as if it
were real, and should fear to sleep, as we fear to wake when we dread in
fact to enter on such mishaps. And, indeed, it would cause pretty nearly the
same discomforts as the reality.
But since dreams are all different, and each single one is diversified, what
is seen
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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 miracles had
not already wamed men not to believe them.
Thus, if there were divisions in the Church, and the Arians, for example,
who declared themselves founded on Scripture just as the Catholics, had done
miracles, and not the Catholics, men should have been led into error.
For, as a man, who announces to us the secrets of God, is not worthy to be
believed on his private authority, and that is why the ungodly doubt him; so
when a man, as a token of the communion which he has with God, raises the
dead, foretells the future, removes the seas, heals the sick, there is none
so wicked as not to bow to him, and the incredulity of Pharaoh and the
Pharisees is the effect of a supernatural obduracy.
When, therefore, we see miracles and a doctrine not suspicious, both on one
side, there is no difficulty. But when we see miracles and suspicious
doctrine on the same side, we must then see which is the clearest. Jesus
Christ was suspected.
Bar-jesus blinded. The power of God surpasses that of His enemies.
The Jewish exorcists beaten by the devils, saying, "Jesus I know, and Paul I
know; but who are ye"?
Miracles are for doctrine, and not doctrine for miracles.
If the miracles are true, shall we be able to persuade men
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and attribute to them movement from one place to another; and these are
qualities which belong only to bodies.
Instead of receiving the ideas of these things in their purity, we colour
them with our own qualities, and stamp with our composite being all the
simple things which we contemplate.
Who would not think, seeing us compose all things of mind and body, but that
this mixture would be quite intelligible to us? Yet it is the very thing we
least understand. Man is to himself the most wonderful object in nature; for
he cannot conceive what the body is, still less what the mind is, and least
of all how a body should be united to a mind. This is the consummation of
his difficulties, and yet it is his very being. Modus quo corporibus
adhaerent spiritus comprehendi ab hominibus non potest, et hoc tamen homo
est.7 Finally, to complete the proof of our weakness, I shall conclude with
these two considerations...
73. But perhaps this subject goes beyond the capacity of reason. Let us
therefore examine her solutions to problems within her powers. If there be
anything to which her own interest must
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happy. In this respect it is right to call their quest a vain one. Hence in
all this both the censurers and the censured do not understand man's true
nature.
And thus, when we take the exception against them, that what they seek with
such fervour cannot satisfy them, if they replied--as they should do if they
considered the matter thoroughly--that they sought in it only a violent and
impetuous occupation which turned their thoughts from self, and that they
therefore chose an attractive object to charm and ardently attract them,
they would leave their opponents without a reply. But they do not make this
reply, because they do not know themselves. They do not know that it is the
chase, and not the quarry, which they seek.
Dancing: We must consider rightly where to place our feet.--A gentleman
sincerely believes that hunting is great and royal sport; but a beater is
not of this opinion.
They imagine that, if they obtained such a post, they would then rest with
pleasure and are insensible of the insatiable nature of the if desire. They
think they are truly seeking quiet, and they are only seeking excitement.
They have a secret instinct which impels them to seek amusement and
occupation abroad, and which arises from the sense of their constant
unhappiness. They have another secret instinct, a remnant of the greatness
of our original nature, which teaches them that happiness in reality
consists only in rest and not in stir. And of these two contrary instincts
they form within themselves a confused idea, which hides itself from their
view in the depths of their soul, inciting them to aim at rest through
excitement, and always to fancy that the satisfaction which they have not
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meetings among themselves. I know of no one young person in the town who
has returned to former ways of looseness and extravagance in any
respect; but we still remain a reformed people, and God has evidently
made us a new people.
I cannot say that there has been no instance of any one person who has
conducted himself unworthily; nor am I so vain as to imagine that we
have not been mistaken in our good opinion concerning any; or that there
are none who pass amongst us for sheep, that are indeed wolves in
sheep's clothing; and who probably may, some time or other, discover
themselves by their fruits. We are not so pure, but that we have great
cause to be humbled and ashamed that we are so impure; nor so religious,
but that those who watch for our halting, may see things in us, whence
they may take occasion to reproach us and religion. But in the main,
there has been a great and marvellous work of conversion and
sanctification among the people here; and they have paid all due respect
to those who have been blest of God to be the instruments of it. Both
old and young have shown a forwardness to hearken not only to my
counsels, but even to my reproofs, from the pulpit.
A great part of the country have not received the most favorable
thoughts of this affair; and to this day many retain a jealousy
concerning it, and prejudice against it. I have reason to think that the
meanness and weakness of the instrument, that has been made use of in
this town, has prejudiced many against it; nor does it appear to me
strange that it should be so. But yet the circumstances of this great
work of God is analogous to other circumstances of it. God has so
ordered the manner of the work in many respects, as very signally and
remarkably to show it to be His own peculiar and immediate work; and to
secure the glory of it wholly to His almighty power, and sovereign
grace. And whatever the circumstances and means have been, and though we
are so unwort
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renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially
have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will
soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days
of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness
and hardness. -- And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know
that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God,
who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content
to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land
are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of
kings?
And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of
hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young
people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word
and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great
favour to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to
others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a
day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great
danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness
of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts
of the land; and pro
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his lot, set him to do nothing.
131. Weariness.--Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at
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In these promises each one finds what he has most at heart, temporal
benefits or spiritual, God or the creatures; but with this difference, that
those who therein seek the creatures find them, but with many
contradictions, with a prohibition against loving them, with the command to
worship God only, and to love Him only, which is the same thing, and,
finally, that the Messiah came not for them; whereas those who therein seek
God find Him, without any contradiction, with the command to love Him only,
and that the Messiah came in the time foretold, to give them the blessings
which they ask.
Thus the Jews had miracles and prophecies, which they saw fulfilled, and the
teaching of their law was to worship and love God only; it was also
perpetual. Thus it had all the marks of the true religion; and so it was.
But the Jewish teaching must be distinguished from the teaching of the
Jewish law. Now the Jewish teaching was not true, although it had miracles
and prophecy and perpetuity, because it had not this other point of
worshipping and loving God only.
676. The veil, which is upon these books for the Jews, is there also for
evil Christians and for all who do not hate themselves.
But how well disposed men are to understand them and to know Jesus Christ,
when they truly hate themselves!
677. A type conveys absence and presence, pleasure and p
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the Scriptures: type of the sacrament.
853. We must judge soberly of divine ordinances, my father. Saint Paul in
the isle of Malta.
854. The hardness of the Jesuits, then, surpasses that of the Jews, since
those refused to believe Jesus Christ innocent only because they doubted if
His miracles were of God. Whereas the Jesuits, though unable to doubt that
the miracles of Port-Royal are of God, do not cease to doubt still the
innocence of that house.
855. I suppose that men believe miracles. You corrupt religion either in
favour of your friends or against your enemies. You arrange it at your will.
856. On the miracle.--As God has made no family more happy, let it also be
the case that He find none more thankful.
SECTION XIV: APPENDIX: POLEMICAL FRAGMENTS
857. Clearness, obscurity.--There would be too great darkness, if truth had
not visible signs. This is a wonderful one, that it has always been
preserved in one Church and one visible assembly of men. There would be too
great clearness, if there were only one opinion in this Church. But in order
to recognise what is true, one has only to look at what has always existed;
for it is certain that truth has always existed, and that nothing false has
always existed.
858. The history of the Church ought properly to be called the history of
truth.
859. There is a pleasure in being in a ship beaten about by a storm, when we
are sure that it will not founder. The persecutions which harass the Church
are of this nature.
860. In addition to so many other signs of piety, they are also persecuted,
which is the best sign of piet
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still, and from a more distant time.
286. Those who believe without having read the Testaments, do so because
they have an inward disposition entirely holy, and all that they hear of our
religion conforms to it. They feel that a God has made them; they desire
only to love God; they desire to hate themselves only. They feel that they
have no strength in themselves; that they are incapable of coming to God;
and that if God does not come to them, they can have no communion with Him.
And they hear our religion say that men must love God only, and hate self
only; but that, all being corrupt and unworthy of God, God made Himself man
to unite Himself to us. No more is required to persuade men who have this
disposition in their heart, and who have this knowledge of their duty and of
their inefficiency.
287. Those whom we see to be Christians without the knowledge of the
prophets and evidences, nevertheless judge of their religion as well as
those who have that knowledge. They judge of it by the heart, as others
judge of it by the intellect. God himself inclines them to believe, and thus
they are most effectively convinced.
I confess indeed that one of those Christians who believe without proofs
will not, perhaps, be capable of convincing an infidel who will say the same
of himself. But those who know the proofs of religion will prove without
difficulty that such a believer is truly inspired by God, though he cannot
prove it himself.
For God having said in His prophecies (which are undoubtedly prophecies)
that in the reign of Jesus Christ He would spread His spirit abroad among
nations, and that the youths and maidens and children of the Church would
prophe
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souls did as it were come by flocks to Jesus Christ. From day to day for
many months together, might be seen evident instances of sinners brought
out of darkness into marvellous light, and delivered out of an horrible
pit, and from the miry clay, and set upon a rock, with a new song of
praise to God in their mouths.
This work of God, as it was carried on, and the number of true saints
multiplied, soon made a glorious alteration in the town: so that in the
spring and summer following, anno 1735, the town seemed to be full of
the presence of God: it never was so full of love, nor of joy, and yet
so full of distress, as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of
God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families
on account of salvation being brought to them; parents rejoicing over
their children as new born, and husbands over their wives, and wives
over their husbands. The doings of God were then seen in His sanctuary,
God's day was a delight, and His tabernacles were amiable. Our public
assemblies were then beautiful: the congregation was alive in God's
service, every one earnestly intent on the public worship, every hearer
eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth;
the assembly in general were, from time to time, in tears while the word
was preached; some weeping with sorrow and distress,
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admit it to be without reason. But this foolishness is wiser than all the
wisdom of men, sapientius est hominibus.[71] For without this, what can we
say that man is? His whole state depends on this imperceptible point. And
how should it be perceived by his reason, since it is a thing against
reason, and since reason, far from finding it out by her own ways, is averse
to it when it is presented to her?
446. Of original sin. Ample tradition of original sin according to the Jews.
On the saying in Genesis 8:21: "The imagination of man's heart is evil from
his youth."
R. Moses Haddarschan: This evil leaven is placed in man from the time that
he is formed.
Massechet Succa: This evil leaven has seven names in Scripture. It is called
evil, the foreskin, uncleanness, an enemy, a scandal, a heart of stone, the
north wind; all this signifies the malignity which is concealed and
impressed in the heart of man.
Midrasch Tillim says the same thing and that God will deliver the good
nature of man from the evil.
This malignity is renewed every day against man, as it is written, Psalm
37:32: "The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him"; but God
will not abandon him. This malignity tries the heart of man in this life and
will accuse him in the other. All this is found in the Talmud.
Midrasch Tillim on Psalm 4:4: "Stand in awe and sin not." Stand in awe and
be afraid of your lust, and it will not lead you into sin. And on Psalm
36:1: "The wicked has said within his own heart: Let not the fear of God be
before me." That is to say that the malignity natural to man has said that
to the wicked.
Midrasch el Kohelet: "Better is a poor and wise child than an old and
foolish king who cannot foresee the future." The child is virtue, and the
king is the malignity of man. It
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such remarks to their advantage. But as they acted thus without pretence and
from wholly disinterested motives, they did not point it out to any one; and
I believe that many such facts have not been noticed till now, which is
evidence of the natural disinterestedness with which the thing has been
done.
799. An artisan who speaks of wealth, a lawyer who speaks of war, of
royalty, etc.; but the rich man rightly speaks of wealth, a king speaks
indifferently of a great gift he has just made, and God rightly speaks of
God.
800. Who has taught the evangelists the qualities of a perfectly heroic
soul, that they paint it so perfectly in Jesus Christ? Why do they make Him
weak in His agony? Do they not know how to paint a resolute death? Yes, for
the same Saint Luke paints the death of Saint Stephen as braver than that of
Jesus Christ.
They make Him, therefore, capable of fear, before the necessity of dying has
come, and then altogether brave.
But when they make Him so troubled, it is when He afflicts Himself; and when
men afflict Him, He is altogether strong.
801. Proof of Jesus Christ.--The supposition that the apostles were
impostors is very absurd. Let us think it out. Let us imagine those twelve
men, assembled after the death of Jesus Christ, plotting to say that He was
risen. By this they attack all the powers. The heart of man is strangely
inclined to fickleness, to change, to promises, to gain. However little any
of them might have been led astray by all these attractions, nay more, by
the fear of prisons, tortures, and death, they were lost. Let us follow up
this thought.
802. The apostles were either deceived or dec
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alone is our end. So we never live, but we hope to live; and, as we are
always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so.
173. They say that eclipses foretoken misfortune, because misfortunes are
common, so that, as evil happens so often, they often foretell it; whereas
if they said that they predict good fortune, they would often be wrong. They
attribute good fortune only to rare conjunctions of the heavens; so they
seldom fail in prediction.
174. Misery.--Solomon and Job have best known and best spoken of the misery
of man; the former the most fortunate, and the latter the most unfortunate
of men; the former knowing the vanity of pleasures from experience, the
latter the reality of evils.
175. We know ourselves so little that many think they are about to die when
they are well, and many think they are well when they are near death,
unconscious of approaching fever, or of the abscess ready to form itself.
176. Cromwell was about to ravage all Christendom; the royal family was
undone, and his own for ever established, save for a little grain of sand
which formed in his ureter. Rome herself was trembling under him; but this
small piece of gravel
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even proved by his wretchedness. For what in animals is nature, we call in
man wretchedness, by which we recognise that, his nature being now like that
of animals, he has fallen from a better nature which once was his.
For who is unhappy at not being a king, except a deposed king? Was Paulus
Aemilius unhappy at being no longer consul? On the contrary, everybody
thought him happy in having been consul, because the office could only be
held for a time. But men thought Perseus so unhappy in being no longer king,
because the condition of kingship implied his being always king, that they
thought it strange that he endured life. Who is unhappy at only having one
mouth? And who is not unhappy at having only one eye? Probably no man ever
ventured to mourn at not having three eyes. But any one is inconsolable at
having none.
410. Perseus, King of Macedon.--Paulus Aemilius reproached Perseus for not
killing himself.
411. Notwithstanding the sight of all our miseries, which press upon us and
take us by the throat, we have an instinct which we cannot repress and which
lifts us up.
412. There is internal war in man between reason and the passions.
If he had only reason without passions...
If he had only passions without reason...
But having both, he cannot be without strife, being unable to be at peace
with the one without being at war with the other. Thus he is always divided
against and opposed to himself.
413. This internal war of reason against the passions has made a division of
those who would have peace into two sects. The first would renounce their
passions and become gods; the others would renounce reason and become brute
beasts. (Des Barreaux.) But neither c
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sages, and remove idolatry from all the earth. And all this is done by the
power which had foretold it.
784. Jesus Christ would not have the testimony of devils, nor of those who
were not called, but of God and John the Baptist.
785. I consider Jesus Christ in all persons and in ourselves: Jesus Christ
as a Father in His Father, Jesus Christ as a Brother in His Brethren, Jesus
Christ as poor in the poor, Jesus Christ as rich in the rich, Jesus Christ
as Doctor and Priest in priests, Jesus Christ as Sovereign in princes, etc.
For by His glory He is all that is great, being God; and by His mortal life
He is all that is poor and abject. Therefore He has taken this unhappy
condition, so that He could be in all persons and the model of all
conditions.
786. Jesus Christ is an obscurity (according to what the world calls
obscurity), such that historians, writing only of important matters of
states, have hardly noticed Him.
787. On the fact that neither Josephus, nor Tacitus, nor other historians
have spoken of Jesus Christ.--So far is this from telling against
Christianity that, on the contrary, it tells for it. For it is certain that
Jesus Christ has existed; that His religion has made a great talk; and that
these persons were not ignorant of it. Thus it is plain that they purposely
concealed it, or that, if they did speak of it, their account has been
suppressed or changed.
788. "I have reserved me seven thousand." I love the worshippers unknown to
the world and to the
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definition of justice.
327. The world is a good judge of things, for it is in natural ignorance,
which is man's true state. The sciences have two extremes which meet. The
first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at
birth. The other extreme is that reached by great intellects, who, having
run through all that men can know, find they know nothing, and come back
again to that same ignorance from which they set out; but this is a learned
ignorance which is conscious of itself. Those between the two, who have
departed from natural ignorance and not been able to reach the other, have
some smattering of this vain knowledge and pretend to be wise. These trouble
the world and are bad judges of everything. The people and the wise
constitute the world; these despise it, and are despised. They judge badly
of everything, and the world judges rightly of them.
328. The reason of effects.--Continual alternation of pro and con.
We have, then, shown that man is foolish, by the estimation he makes of
things which are not essential; and all these opinions are destroyed. We
have next shown that all these opinions are very sound and that thus, since
all these vanities are well founded, the people are not so foolish as is
said. And so we have destroyed the opinion which destroyed that of the
people.
But we must now destroy this last proposition and show that it remains
always true that the people are foolish, though their opinions are sound
because they do not perceive the truth where it is, and, as they place it
where it is not, their opinions are always very false and very unsound.
329. The reason of effects.--The weakness of man is the reason why so many
things are considered fine, as to be good at playing the lute. It is only an
evil because of our weakness.
3
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101In discipulis meis. Isaiah 8:16. "Seal the law among my disciples."
[102]Is. 45:15.
1031 Cor. 1:17. "Lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect."
104"Rend your heart."
105Ps. 9:14. "Have mercy."
106Is. 5:7. "He has looked for."
107Ezek. 20:25. Praecepta non bona. "Statutes that were not good."
[108]"I will establish my covenant between me and Thee for an everlasting
covenant, to be a God unto Thee."
109Gen. 17:9. "Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore."
[110]Gen. 49:18. "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord."
[111]Essays, 1. 22.
112Num. 11:29. Quis tribuat ut omnis populus prophetet. "Would God that all
the Lord's people were prophets."
[113]De cultu feminarum, i-3. "He could equally have renewed it, under the
Spirit's inspiration, after it had been destroyed by the violence of the
deluge, as, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian storming of
it, every document of the Jewish literature is generally agreed to have been
restored through Ezra."
[114]Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, V. viii. 14. "God was glorified, and
the Scriptures were recognized as truly divine, for they all rendered the
same things in the same words and the same names, from beginning to end, so
that even the heathen who were present knew that the Scriptures had been
translated by the inspiration of God. And it is no marvel that God did this,
for when the Scriptures had been destroyed in the captivity of the people in
the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews had gone back to their country
after seventy years, then in the times of Artaxerxes, the king of the
Persians, he inspired Ezra, the priest of the tribe of Levi, to restore all
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
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Christ, is a true receiving of this mercy, or a plain evidence of their
receiving it. They expected I know not what kind of act of soul, and
perhaps they had no distinct idea of it themselves.
And indeed it appears very plainly in some of them, that before their
own conversion they had very imperfect ideas what conversion was. It is
all new and strange, and what there was no clear conception of before.
It is most evident, as they themselves acknowledge, that the expressions
used to describe conversion, and the graces of God's Holy Spirit-such as
a spiritual sight of Christ, faith in Christ, poverty of spirit, trust
in God, etc.-did not convey those distinct ideas to their minds which
they were intended to signify. Perhaps to some of them it was but little
more than the names of colors are to convey the ideas to one that is
blind from his birth.
In this town there has always been a great deal of talk about conversion
and spiritual experiences; and therefore people in general had formed a
notion in their own minds what these things were. But when they come t
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doctrine. All this is true, but contains no contradiction.
For we must distinguish the times.
How glad you are to know the general rules, thinking thereby to set up
dissension and render all useless! We shall prevent you, my father; truth is
one and constant.
It is impossible, from the duty of God to men, that a man, hiding his evil
teaching, and only showing the good, saying that he conforms to God and the
Church, should do miracles so as to instil insensibly a false and subtle
doctrine. This cannot happen.
And still less that God, who knows the heart should perform miracles in
favour of such a one.
844. The three marks of religion: perpetuity, a good life, miracles. They
destroy perpetuity by their doctrine of probability; a good life by their
morals, miracles by destroying either their truth or the conclusions to be
drawn from them.
If we believe them, the Church will have nothing to do with perpetuity,
holiness, and miracles. The heretics deny them, or deny the conclusions to
be drawn from them; they do the same. But one would need to have no
sincerity in order
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and Jacob, dying and blessing his children, cried in a transport which made
him break off his discourse, "I await, O my God, the Saviour whom Thou hast
promised. Salutare tuum expectabo, Domine."[110] The Egyptians were infected
both with idolatry and magic; the very people of God were led astray by
their example. Yet Moses and others believed Him whom they saw not, and
worshipped Him, looking to the eternal gifts which He was preparing for
them.
The Greeks and Latins then set up false deities; the poets made a hundred
different theologies, while the philosophers separated into a thousand
different sects; and yet in the heart of Judaea there were always chosen men
who foretold the coming of this Messiah, which was known to them alone.
He came at length in the fullness of time, and time has since witnessed the
birth of so many schisms and heresies, so many political revolutions, so
many changes in all things; yet this Church, which worships Him who has
always been worshipped, has endured uninterruptedly. It is a wonderful,
incomparable, and altogether divine fact that this religion, which has
always endured, has always been attacked. It has been a thousand times on
the 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 st
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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 to them by the strange hands of these casuists, instead of the sound
doctrine which is presented to them by the fatherly hands of their own
pastors. And the ungodly and heretics have no ground for publishing these
abuses as evidence of imperfection in the providence of God over His Church;
since, the Church consisting properly in the body of the hierarchy, we are
so far from being able to conclude from the present state of matters that
God has abandoned her to corruption, that it has never been more apparent
than at the present time that God visibly protects her from corruption.
For if some of these men, who, by an extraordinary vocation, have made
profession of withdrawing from the world and adopting the monks' dress, in
order to live in a more perfect state than ordinary Christians, have fallen
into excesses which horrify ordinary Christians, and have become to us what
the false prophets were among the Jews; this is a private and personal
misfortune, which must indeed be deplored, but from which nothing can be
inferred against the care which God takes of His Church; since all these
things are so clearly foretold, and it has been so long since announced that
these temptations would arise from people of this kind; so that when we are
well instructed, we see in this rather evidence of the care of God than of
His forgetfulness in regard
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Quis mihi det ut omnes prophetent?112
He was weary of the multitude.
630. The sincerity of the Jews.--Maccabees, after they had no more prophets;
the Masorah, since Jesus Christ.
This book will be a testimony for you.
Defective and final letters.
Sincere against their honour, and dying for it; this has no example in the
world, and no root in nature.
631. Sincerity of the Jews.--They preserve lovingly and carefully the book
in which Moses declares that they have been all their life ungrateful to
God, and that he knows they will be still more so after his death; but that
he calls heaven and earth to witness against them and that he has taught
them enough.
He declares that God, being angry with them, shall at last scatter them
among all the nations of the earth; that as they have offended Him by
worshipping gods who were not their God, so He will provoke them by calling
a people who are not His people; that He desires that all His words be
preserved for ever, and that His book be placed in the Ark of the Covenant
to serve for ever as a witness against them.
Isaiah says the same thing, 30.
632. On Esdras.--The story that the books were burnt with the temple proved
false by Maccabees: "Jeremiah gave them the law."
The story that he recited the whole by heart. Josephus and Esdras point out
that he read the book. Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici a Christo Nato ad
Annum 1198, 180: Nullus penitus Hebraeorum antiquorum reperitur qui
tradiderit libros periisse et per Esdram esse restitutos, nisi in IV Esdrae.
The story that he changed the letters.
Philo, in Vita Mosis: Illa lingua ac character quo antiquitus scripta est
lex sic permansit usque ad LXX.
Josephus says that the Law was in Hebrew when it was transl
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In all this I am not talking of Christian kings as Christians, but only as
kings.
143. Diversion.--Men are entrusted from infancy with the care of their
honour, their property, their friends, and even with the property and the
honour of their friends. They are overwhelmed with business, with the study
of languages, and with physical exercise; and they are made to understand
that they cannot be happy unless their health, their honour, their fortune
and that of their friends be in good condition, and that a single thing
wanting will make them unhappy. Thus they are given cares and business which
make them bustle about from break of day. It is, you will exclaim, a strange
way to make them happy! What more could be done to make them
miserable?--Indeed! what could be done? We should only have to relieve them
from all these cares; for then they would see themselves: they would reflect
on what they are, whence they came, whither they go, and thus we cannot
employ and divert them too much. And this is why, after having given them so
much business, we advise them, if they have some time for relaxation, to
employ it in amusement, in play, and to be always fully occupied.
How hollow and full of ribaldry is the heart of man!
144. I spent a long time in the study of the abstract sciences, and was
disheartened by the small number of fellow-students in them. When I
commenced the
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Phebe. And her sister Abigail standing by, her mother took occasion to
counsel her, now to improve her time, to prepare for another world. On
which Phebe burst out in tears, and cried out, Poor Nabby! Her mother
told her, she would not have to cry; she hoped that God would give Nabby
salvation; but that did not quiet her, she continued earnestly crying
for some time. When she had in a measure ceased, her sister Eunice being
by her, she burst out again, and cried, Poor Eunice! and cried
exceedingly; and when she had almost done, she went into another room,
and there looked upon her sister Naomi: and burst out again, crying,
Poor Amy! Her mother was greatly affected at such a behavior in a child,
and knew not what to say to her. One of the neighbors coming in a little
after, asked her what she had cried for. She seemed at first backward to
tell the reason: her mother told her she might tell that person, for he
had given her an apple: upon which she said, she cried because she was
afraid they would go to hell.
At night, a certain minister, who was occasionally in the town, was at
the house, and talked with her of religious things. After he was gone,
she sat leaning on the table, with tears running from her eyes; and
being asked what made her cry, she said, I was thinking about God. The
next day, being Saturday, she seemed a great part of the day to be in a
very affectionate frame, had four turns of crying and seemed to endeavor
to curb herself, and hide her tears, and was very backward to talk of
the occasion. On the Sabbath-day she was asked, whether she believed in
God; she answered, Yes. And being told that Christ was the Son of God,
she made ready answer, and said, I know it.
From this time there appeared a very remarkable abiding change in the
child. She has been very strict upon the Sabbath; and seems to long for
the Sabbath-day before it comes, and will often in the we
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space of years, they have nevertheless been preserved (and this preservation
has been foretold); and extending from the earliest times to the latest,
their history comprehends in its duration all our histories which it
preceded by a long time.
The law by which this people is governed is at once the most ancient law in
the world, the most perfect, and the only one which has been always observed
without a break in a state. This is what Josephus admirably proves, Against
Apion, and also Philo the Jew, in different places, where they point out
that it is so ancient that the very name of law was only known by the oldest
nation more than a thousand years afterwards; so that Homer, who has written
the history of so many states, has never used the term. And it is easy to
judge of its perfection by simply reading it; for we see that it has
provided for all things with so great wisdom, equity, and judgement, that
the most ancient legislators, Greek and Roman, having had some knowledge of
it, have borrowed from it their principal laws; this is evident from what
are called the Twelve Tables, and from the other proofs which Josephus
gives.
But this law is at the same time the severest and strictest of all in
respect to their religious worship, imposing on this people, in order to
keep them to their duty, a thousand peculi
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had opportunity to converse with some Coventry people, who gave me a
very remarkable account of the surprising change that appeared in the
most rude and vicious persons there. The like was also very great at the
same time in a part of Lebanon, called the Crank, where the Rev. Mr.
Wheelock, a young gentleman, is lately settled: and there has been much
of the same at Durham, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Chauncey; and
to appearance no small ingathering of souls there. Likewise amongst many
of the young people in the first precinct in Stratford, under the
ministry of the Rev. Mr. Gould; where the work was much promoted by the
remarkable conversion of a young woman who had been a great
company-keeper, as it was here.
Something of this work appeared in several others towns in those parts,
as I was informed when I was there, the last fall. And we have since
been acquainted with something very remarkable of this nature at another
parish in Stratford, called Ripton, under the pastoral care of the Rev.
Mr. Mills. There was a considerable revival of religion last summer at
Newhaven old town, as I was once and again informed by the Rev. Mr.
Noyes, the minister there, and by others: and by a letter which I very
lately received from Mr. Noyes, and also by information we have had
other ways. This flourishing of religion still continues, and has lately
much increased. Mr. Noyes writes, that many this summer have been added
to the church, and particularly mentions several young persons that
belong to the principal families of that town.
There has been a degree of the same work at a part of Guildford; and
very considerable at Mansfield, under the ministry of the Rev. Mr.
Eleazar Williams; and an unusual religious concern at Tolland; and
something of it at Hebron, and Bolton. There was also no small effusion
of the Spirit of God in the north parish in Preston, in