Re: KEY | Digital+ | HISPASAT 1C/1D @ 30ºW | NAGRAVISION - ID 4101 - 27/05/07
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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 unworthy, yet so hath it pleased God to work! And we are
evidently a people blessed of the Lord! For here, in this corner of the
world, God dwells, and manifests His glory.
Thus, Reverend Sir, 1 have given a large and particular account of this
remarkable affair; and yet, considering how manifold God's works have
been amongst us, it is but a very brief one. I should have sent it much
sooner, had I not been greatly hindered by illness in my family, and
also in my own person. It is probably much larger than you expected,
and, it may be, than you w
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soul.
659. Types.--To show that the Old Testament is only figurative and that the
prophets understood by temporal blessings other blessings, this is the
proof:
First, that this would be unworthy of God.
Secondly, that their discourses express very clearly the promise of temporal
blessings, and that they say nevertheless that their discourses are obscure,
and that their meaning will not be understood. Whence it appears that this
secret meaning was not that which they openly expressed, and that
consequently they meant to speak of other sacrifices, of another deliverer,
etc. They say that they will be understood only in the fullness of time
(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 pro
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and draw little distinction between the trade of a poet and that of an
embroiderer.
People of education are not called poets or mathematicians, etc.; but they
are all these and judges of all these. No one guesses what they are. When
they come into society, they talk on matters about which the rest are
talking. We do not observe in them one quality rather than another, save
when they have to make use of it. But then we remember it, for it is
characteristic of such persons that we do not say of them that they are fine
speakers, when it is not a question of oratory, and that we say of them that
they are fine speakers, when it is such a question.
It is therefore false praise to give a man when we say of him, on his entry,
that he is a very clever poet; and it is a bad sign when a man is not asked
to give his judgement on some verses.
35. We should not be able to say of a man, "He is a mathematician," or "a
preacher," or "eloquent"; but that he is "a gentleman." That universal
quality alone pleases me. It is a bad sign when, on seeing a person, you
remember his book. I would prefer you to see no quality till you meet it and
have occasion to use it (Ne quid minis),[3] for fear some one quality
prevail and designate the man. Let none think him a fine speaker, unless
oratory be in question, and then let them think it.
36. Man is full of wants: he loves only those who can satisfy them all.
"This one is a good mathematician," one will say. But I have nothing to do
with mathematics; he would take me for a proposition. "That one is a good
soldier." He would take me for a besieged town. I need, then, an upright man
who can accommodate himself generally to all my wants.
37. Since we cannot be universal and know all t
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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 a difference there is between one book and
another! I am not astonished that the Greeks made the Iliad, nor the
Egyptians and the Chinese their histories.
We have only to see how this originates. These fabulous historians are not
contemporaneous with the fa
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false reports, concerning that matter. It is not, that I know of, the
profession or opinion of any one person in the town, that any weight is
to be laid on any thing seen with the bodily eyes. I know the contrary
to be a received and established principle amongst us. I cannot say that
there have been no instances of persons who have been ready to give too
much heed to vain and useless imaginations; but they have been easily
corrected, and I conclude it will not be wondered at, that a
congregation should need a guide in such cases, to assist them in
distinguishing wheat from chaff. But such impressions on the
imaginations as have been more usual seem to me to be plainly no other
than what is to be expected in human nature in such circumstances, and
what is the natural result of the strong exercise of the mind, and
impressions on the heart.
I do not suppose, that they themselves imagine they saw any thing with
their bodily eyes; but only have had within them ideas strongly
impressed, and as it were lively pictures in their minds. For instance,
some when in great terrors, through fear of hell, have had lively ideas
of a dreadful furnace. Some, when their hearts have been strongly
impresse
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To meet with this people is astonishing to me, and seems to me worthy of
attention. I look at the law which they boast of having obtained from God,
and I find it admirable. It is the first law of all and is of such a kind
that, even before the term law was in currency among the Greeks, it had, for
nearly a thousand years earlier, been uninterruptedly accepted and observed
by the Jews. I likewise think it strange that the first law of the world
happens to be the most perfect; so that the greatest legislators have
borrowed their laws from it, as is apparent from the law of the Twelve
Tables at Athens, afterwards taken by the Romans, and as it would be easy to
prove, if Josephus and others had not sufficiently dealt with this subject.
620. Advantages of the Jewish people.--In this search the Jewish people at
once attracts my attention by the number of wonderful and singular facts
which appear about them.
I first see that they are a people wholly composed of brethren, and whereas
all others are formed by the assemblage of an infinity of families, this,
though so wonderfully fruitful, has all sprung from one man alone, and,
being thus all one flesh, and members one of another, they constitute a
powerful state of one family. This is unique.
This family, or people, is the most ancient within human knowledge, a fact
which seems to me to inspire a peculiar veneration for it, especially in
view of our present inquiry; since if God had from all time revealed himself
to men, it is to these we must turn for knowledge of the tradition.
This people are not eminent solely by their antiquity, but are also singular
by their duration, which has alw
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full of unrighteousness. It must give us an explanation of our opposition to
God and to our own good. It must teach us the remedies for these infirmities
and the means of obtaining these remedies. Let us, therefore, examine all
the religions of the world and see if there be any other than the Christian
which is sufficient for this purpose.
Shall it be that of the philosophers, who put forward, as the chief good,
the good which is in ourselves? Is this the true good? Have they found the
remedy for our ills? Is man's pride cured by placing him on an equality with
God? Have those who have made us equal to the brutes, or the Mohammedans who
have offered us earthly pleasures as the chief good even in eternity,
produced the remedy for our lusts? What religion, then, will teach us to
cure pride and lust? What religion will, in fact, teach us our good, our
duties, the weakness which turns us from them, the cause of this weakness,
the remedies which can cure it, and the means of obtaining these remedies?
All other religions have not been able to do so. Let us see what the wisdom
of God will do.
"Expect neither truth," she says, "nor consolation from men. I am she who
formed you, and who alone can teach you what you are. But you are now no
longer in the state in which I formed you. I created man holy, innocent,
perfect. I filled him with light and intelligence. I communicated to him my
glory and my wonders. The eye of man saw then the majesty of God. He was not
then in the darkness which blinds him, nor subject to mortality and the woes
which afflict him. But he has not been able to