You Don't Have To Pay Income Tax!
ge...@mail2libertarian.com
'return of income' , which you find on Eldon Warman's
website:
All the details are posted, and it is totally free of cost.
Equally applicable to Canada and the USA
Check it out.
PS/ You will notice how much the income tax
EXTORTION RACKETEERS hate this information
by the hucksters and damage control goons defending
the income tax EXTORTION RACKET that will now
follow up on this post, with all their ad hominum
(lying character) attacks against Eldon Warman.
And, like Ron Paul, the liers and damage control goons
have no 'skeletons" they can find in Eldon's closet,
so they try to villify Eldon because he was a 'victim'
of the the Internal Revenue Extortion Racketeers
back in the mid 1980s, and the BC Government
hywaymen robbers in the late 1990s. I guess, to be
a 'victim' of the unlawful government, or their agencies,
in depriving a man of his God Given unalienable rights
is somehow supposed to be 'evil' (in the mind of
'collectivists') boggles the mind.
And, since most of these hucksters are American,
and Eldon Warman is Canadian, the obvious
conclusion is that Eldon's program of $0.00
TAX OWING tax returns program is very
effective in the USA.
Vicegerent
slotrot
Of course you have to pay income tax. Don't be ridiculous.
http://www.quatloos.com/taxscams/taxprot.htm (US site)
Abbot
> 'return of income' , which you find on Eldon Warman's
> website:
>
> http://www.detaxcanada.org
>
> All the details are posted, and it is totally free of cost.
> Equally applicable to Canada and the USA
>
> Check it out.
>
> PS/ You will notice how much the income tax
> EXTORTION RACKETEERS hate this information
> by the hucksters and damage control goons defending
> the income tax EXTORTION RACKET that will now
> follow up on this post, with all their ad hominum
> (lying character) attacks against Eldon Warman.
>
> And, like Ron Paul, the liers and damage control goons
> have no 'skeletons" they can find in Eldon's closet,
> so they try to villify Eldon because he was a 'victim'
> of the the Internal Revenue Extortion Racketeers
> back in the mid 1980s, and the BC Government
> hywaymen robbers in the late 1990s. I guess, to be
> a 'victim' of the unlawful government, or their agencies,
> in depriving a man of his God Given unalienable rights
> is somehow supposed to be 'evil' (in the mind of
> 'collectivists') boggles the mind.
Abbot) Here's the truth about Eldon Warman's skeletons:
Eldon Warman is a self-styled detax guru living in Calgary Canada.
In 1984 while, living in Benica California, he was convicted of tax
evasion. For decades Eldon has claimed that he made no threats against
the IRS and that the US government targeted him because he had
developed a highly successful detaxing strategy. The truth, discovered
in the archives of the Sacramento Bee, is that Eldon publicly admitted
to threatening the IRS and its agents. http://groups.google.com/group/can.taxes/msg/29e91666ef56cac2
Later that same year Eldon was dismissed from his position as an
American Airlines pilot for insubordination. On December 12th of that
year Warman's wife, Chavala, committed suicide by hanging herself with
an electrical extension cord, leaving Mr. Warman with two teen-aged
children, Brent and Marla, both predictably, from whom he is
estranged.
Based on an Geraldo Rivera expose he claims to have seen Warman
insanely asserts that the IRS killed his wife because they feared his
detax strategy. Warman has since fantasized that Washington, DC would
be bombed "off the face of this Earth" by the Russians. It seems Eldon
forgot the interviews he gave to the Sacramento Bee in 1985!
In 2000 Mr. Warman was convicted of assaulting a British Columbia
Provincial Transport Inspector who had pulled over the tour bus Warman
was operating in 1999. When summonsed to appear in court Warman sent
the court an affidavit denying its jurisdiction and didn't show up for
his trial.
A few days later the police came to Eldon's house, arrested him and
held him until trial. Despite Eldon's arguments in court and a March
3, 2000 bomb scare, widely believed to have been called in by Warman's
sympathizers: http://groups.google.com/group/can.taxes/msg/>
06085c0e4518c537?hl=en& the court convicted him of assault:
http://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcpc/doc/2000/2000bcpc22/2000bcpc22.html.
Warman's 2001 appeal of his assault conviction was also unsuccessful:
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/ca/01/05/2001BCCA0510.htm.
In March of 2001 Mr. Warman embarrassed his detax colleagues when his
fervent anti-Semitic sentiments were made public by Kim Bolan of the
Vancouver Sun causing him to be removed from the speakers list at
Vancouver's "Freedom Fest", a gathering of like minded detaxers.
Over the years Mr. Warman has developed a number of detax "methods"
claiming each removed the user from the jurisdiction of the courts.
Each method failed resulting their user's tax reassessments and tax
evasion conviction. Most notable, was the 2002 conviction of Jean
Proteau, a dedicated user of Warman's Constructive Notice Method:
http://www.canlii.org/> en sk/skpc/doc/
2002/2002skpc119/2002skpc119.html.
Another notable failure of the Warman method was marked by the
conviction of Eldon's friend, Fred Kyburz, for driving without
insurance. It seems the judge was well aware of the Warman method when
Fred tried to spout it in court.
After several years of posting anti-Semetic screeds across various
internet news groups Eldon's postings were brought to the attention of
the Canadian Human Rights Commission who, in 2004, charged him with
hate speech crimes under Canadian law.
True to form, Mr. Warman refused to answer his summons, this time
denying the court's jurisdiction by citing his newly borrowed straw
men theory and declaring himself a "free willed men". In March 2005
Warman went so far as to threaten to kill a process server who had
served him with court documents.
In September 2005 Mr. Warman, tried in absentia, was found guilty of
hate speech crimes. Google removed his offending messages and he was
ordered to "to cease the discriminatory practice of posting messages
or other material on the internet that is likely to expose Jews or any
other member of an identifiable racial, religious or ethnic group to
hatred or contempt."
Since that time Eldon Warman has posted across the internet as
"Vicegerent" and has dutifully ceased his anti-Semtic rhetoric.
In 2005 Warman's straw man theory was tested again when he counseled
Cameron Hardy and Clifford Hanna http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2006/02/03/taxes-name-03022006.html
to use it as a defense during their tax evasion trials. Mr. Hanna
unsuccessfully used materials copied directly from detaxcanada.com
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/North/clips/tax7.pdf.
Eldon reports that Hanna has fled to Peru.
Mr. Hardy followed Mr. Warman's instructions by pleading guilt "for
the straw man". Hardy has since appealed claiming that the court never
proved he was Cameron Hardy. The court ordered a retrial citing that
Hardy did not understand the import of the guilty plea:
http://www.canlii.org/>eliisa/highlight.do
language=en&searchTitle=British+Columbia&path=/ en/ bc/bcsc/doc/
2007/2007bcsc125/2007bcsc125.html.
Despite these three recent failures Eldon Warman continues to maintain
the effectiveness of his straw man/detax theory.
Finally, during the summer of 2007 investigations proved that, despite
claiming to have rejected the name on his birth certificate, Eldon has
used this so-called "slave name" to run for parliament, get a
realtor's license and even pay his property taxes!
slotrot
> to use it as a defense during their tax evasion trials. Mr. Hanna
>
> Eldon reports that Hanna has fled to Peru.
>
> Mr. Hardy followed Mr. Warman's instructions by pleading guilt "for
> the straw man". Hardy has since appealed claiming that the court never
> proved he was Cameron Hardy. The court ordered a retrial citing that
> Hardy did not understand the import of the guilty plea:http://www.canlii.org/>eliisa/highlight.do
> language=en&searchTitle=British+Columbia&path=/ en/ bc/bcsc/doc/
> 2007/2007bcsc125/2007bcsc125.html.
>
> Despite these three recent failures Eldon Warman continues to maintain
> the effectiveness of his straw man/detax theory.
>
> Finally, during the summer of 2007 investigations proved that, despite
> claiming to have rejected the name on his birth certificate, Eldon has
> used this so-called "slave name" to run for parliament, get a
> realtor's license and even pay his property taxes!
>
>
>
> > And, since most of these hucksters are American,
> > and Eldon Warman is Canadian, the obvious
> > conclusion is that Eldon's program of $0.00
> > TAX OWING tax returns program is very
> > effective in the USA.
>
>
> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Funny isn't it, when you ask these tax-evaders how many people have
successfully challenged federal governments, and have been cleared
from paying taxes, they don't tell you the numbers. BECAUSE THERE
AREN'T ANY!!! Just like this "natural person" b.s.. Doesn't happen
folks. It's all a scam to get you to buy their "methodology" that
they don't guarantee results for. Buyer beware. Of course you can
study the course material while sitting in your cell, convicted for
tax evasion.
Doubting Thomas.
Paul Thomas, CPA
<ge...@mail2libertarian.com> wrote
> Learn the easy method of .......
What's the matter Eldon, you have an itching to get the trial headlines that
Snipes has?
He's in a CRIMINAL trial for following the advice of one of your fellow
moron tax protestors.
How many others do you think want to follow him.
--
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
----------------
Paul A. Thomas, CPA
Athens, Georgia
ge...@mail2libertarian.com
Abbot
> Learn the easy method of filing a $0.00 tax owing
> 'return of income' , which you find on Eldon Warman's
> website:
>
> http://www.detaxcanada.org
>
> All the details are posted, and it is totally free of cost.
> Equally applicable to Canada and the USA
>
> Check it out.
Abbot) Eldon your sole claim to a true and effective detax method is
that there are several people on this NG who steadfastly reject it.
Simply put, a persecution complex is not proof
You have no documented cases of your method's success.
You can't produce the paperwork you say you submitted when you
allegedly used the method with the IRS.
You have no explanation for the three times the legal underpinnings of
your theory were rejected by Canadian courts.
And worst of all you can't explain why it is you can't use your method
regarding your property taxes and instead use your given name to
dutifully pay the taxman!
Considering your 24-year record of failure and deceit, dating back to
your denial of your threats against the IRS and its agents in 1984,
one can't help but conclude that your are lying.
The helplessly gullible may be swayed by your persecution complex, but
anyone with sense enough to check the record, can see you are an
insane, pathological liar who doesn't care who his lies ruin.
Paul Thomas, CPA
<ge...@mail2libertarian.com> wrote
> Learn the easy method of
Eldon, your "methods" have failed you and all that have tried them.
You have a trail of bloodshed and misery, death and lost jobs since your
first troubles with the tax laws back in California.
You lost your job(s), your wife hung herself, your kids hate your guts, you
can't hold a job cleaning poopy cages at the dog kennel, so you hunker down
in your momma's basement mooching off of her, all the while proclaiming to
be some de-tax guru. But the truth is you don't follow your own advice, and
what probably gets your rocks off - and what validates your whole failed
life - is that you think you are enticing others to follow your failures
with their own failures.
I suspect you hope the CCRA has enough to do chasing the few followers of
yours that they don't bother you. But that too is about to come to an end.
Your days are numbered old man. Stock up on KY jelly because you might need
it in the penn.
I hope they stick you in a cell with a black jew - just so you're happy.
--
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992), Salvor Hardin in "Foundation"
Abbot
wrote:
Abbot) Eldon's one traffic stop away from a real problem.
This poor loser is so oppositional to any authority figure, no matter
how minor, that an exchange with a meter reader, a stop by a cop at a
traffic checkpoint, or even an encounter with the local property
assessor who walks by his house might set off the crazy old fart.
Most folks as nutty as Eldon, left completely to their own devices,
end up in trouble and/or on medication. I suspect Eldon has some sort
of informal support network of friends, (who could be that foolish?)
neighbors and family who see to it the old boy isn't put in some semi-
challenging situation that requires a sane response.
Likewise the local authorities are well aware of Eldon's insanity and,
to their credit, it seems, they don't want to press the issue of
Eldon's unstable nature. The irony here is that the cops and the
government, who Eldon views as his oppressors, are bending over
backwards to let him live out his years in relative peace. All they'd
need to do to push him over the edge is ask him for his driver's
license or follow up his death threats to that process server with a
"trip downtown".
Maybe one day Eldon will stray off his leash and run into the new cop
who didn't read the memo about the nut case over on 54th
Avenue. . .and we'll be reading about the old boy in the newspapers
one more time.
ge...@mail2libertarian.com
Abbot
> Learn the easy method of filing a $0.00 tax owing
> 'return of income' , which you find on Eldon Warman's
> website:
Abbot) Eldon, all you can do is repeat the same thing over and
over. . .your definition of insanity, by the way.
For years readers here have watched you hawk one inadequately
researched and poorly reasoned "method" after another. When each
"method" blew up you just invented a new one and walked away from the
poor fools who where gullible enough to believe you.
Detaxers like Tommy Kennedy, Brian Lockheart, Fred Kyburz, Jean
Portueau, Clifford Hanna and Cameron Hardy have all fallen victims to
your deceit!
However, it is only in the past several months that we have discovered
the true depths of your foul deception. While telling others not to
use their birth names, lest they become slaves, you have blithely used
the name Eldon Warman to run for parliament, get a realtor's license,
pay you property taxes and do whatever meager business you can
muster.
Worst of all the very genesis of your detax career has proven to be
the subject of your deceitful lies. You claim that you never
threatened the IRS or its agents in 1984 and that you were arrested
because the IRS feared your detax method. You came up with this story
just to make yourself seem like a big man in the detax cult.
The truth is you were arrested for making violent threats (some in
writing) against the IRS. A charge to which you admitted during an
interview with Sacramento Bee.
That was 1984 and you've been lying ever since!
Abbot
He proves by a miracle that He remits sins.
Rejoice not in your miracles, said Jesus Christ, but because your names are
written in heaven.
If they believe not Moses, neither will they believe one risen from the
dead.
Nicodemus recognises by His miracles that His teaching is of God. Scimus
quia venisti a Deo magister; nemo enim potest haec signa facere quae tu
facis nisi Deus fuerit cum eo.178 He does not judge of the miracles by the
teaching, but of the teaching by the miracles.
The Jews had a doctrine of God as we have one of Jesus Christ, and confirmed
by miracles. They were forbidden to believe every worker of miracles; and
they were further commanded to have recourse to the chief priests and to
rely on them.
And thus, in regard to their prophets, they had all those reasons which we
have for refusing to believe the workers of miracles.
And yet they were very sinful in rejecting the prophets and Jesus Christ
because of their miracles; and they would not have been culpable, if they
had not seen the miracles. Nisi fecissem... peccatum non haberent.[179]
Therefore all belief rests upon miracles.
Prophecy is not called miracle; as Saint John speaks of the first miracle in
Cana and then of what Jesus Christ says to the woman of Samaria, when He
reveals to her all her hidden life. Then He heals the centurion's son; and
Saint John calls this "the second miracle."
809. The combinations of miracles.
810. The second miracle can suppose the first, but the first cannot suppose
the second.
811. Had it not been for the miracles, there would have been no sin in not
believing in Jesus Christ.
812. "I should not be a Christian, but for the miracles," said Saint
Augustine.
813. Miracles.--How I hate those who make men doubt of miracles! Montaigne
speaks of them as he should in two places. In one, we see how careful
ge...@mail2libertarian.com
seek within yourselves the remedy for your ills. All your light can only
reach the knowledge that not in yourselves will you find truth or good. The
philosophers have promised you that, and you have been unable to do it. They
neither know what is your true good, nor what is your true state. How could
they have given remedies for your ills, when they did not even know them?
Your chief maladies are pride, which takes you away from God, and lust,
which binds you to earth; and they have done nothing else but cherish one or
other of these diseases. If they gave you God as an end, it was only to
administer to your pride; they made you think that you are by nature like
Him and conformed to Him. And those who saw the absurdity of this claim put
you on another precipice, by making you understand that your nature was like
that of the brutes, and led you to seek your good in the lusts which are
shared by the animals. This is not the way to cure you of your
unrighteousness, which these wise men never knew. I alone can make you
understand who you are...."
Adam, Jesus Christ.
If you are united to God, it is by grace, not by nature. If you are humbled,
it is by penitence, not by nature.
Thus this double capacity...
You are not in the state of your creation.
As these two states are open, it is impossible for you not to recognise
them. Follow your own feelings, observe yourselves, and see if you do not
find the lively characteristics of these two natures. Could so many
contradictions be found in a simple subject?
Inco
Paul Thomas, CPA
let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge
into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own
care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness,
would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell,
than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for
the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment;
for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature
is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the
sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and
Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your
lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon;
the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of
life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's
enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God
with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when
they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and
end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign
hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of
God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful
storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of
God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure
of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come
with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you
would be like the chaff on the summer threshing floor.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present;
they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet
is g
Abbot
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
Abbot
commenced the study of man, I saw that these abstract sciences are not
suited to man and that I was wandering farther from my own state in
examining them than others in not knowing them. I pardoned their little
knowledge; but I thought at least to find many companions in the study of
man and that it was the true study which is suited to him. I have been
deceived; still fewer study it than geometry. It is only from the want of
knowing how to study this that we seek the other studies. But is it not that
even here is not the knowledge which man should have and that for the
purpose of happiness it is better for him not to know himself.?
145. One thought alone occupies us; we cannot think of two things at the
same time. This is lucky for us according to the world, not according to
God.
146. Man is obviously made to think. It is his whole dignity and his whole
merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. Now, the order of thought
is to begin with self, and with its Author and its end.
Now, of what does
ge...@mail2libertarian.com
which they have at seeing the failure of the matter.
183. We run carelessly to the precipice, after we have put something before
us to prevent us seeing it.
SECTION III: OF THE NECESSITY OF THE WAGER
184. A letter to incite to the search after God.
And then to make people seek Him among the philosophers, sceptics, and
dogmatists, who disquiet him who inquires of them.
185. The conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, is to put religion
into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace. But to will to put it
into the mind and heart by force and threats is not to put religion there,
but terror; terorrem potius quam religionem.22
186. Nisi terrerentur et non docerentur, improba quasi dominatio videretur
(St. Augustine, Epistle 48 or 49),[23] Contra Mendacium ad Consentium.
187. Order.--Men despise religion; they hate it and fear it is true. To
remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to
reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make
it lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is
true.
Venerable, because it has perfect knowledge of man; lovable because it
promises the true good.
188. In every dialogue and discourse, we must be able to say to those who
take offence, "Of what do y
Paul Thomas, CPA
demonstrates only the weakness of our reason, but not, as they affirm, the
uncertainty of all our knowledge. For the knowledge of first principles, as
space, time, motion, number, is as sure as any of those which we get from
reasoning. And reason must trust these intuitions of the heart, and must
base them on every argument. (We have intuitive knowledge of the
tri-dimensional nature of space and of the infinity of number, and reason
then shows that there are no two square numbers one of which is double of
the other. Principles are intuited, propositions are inferred, all with
certainty, though in different ways.) And it is as useless and absurd for
reason to demand from the heart proofs of her first principles, before
admitting them, as it would be for the heart to demand from reason an
intuition of all demonstrated propositions before accepting them.
This inability ought, then, to serve only to humble reason, which would
judge all, but not to impugn our certainty, as if only reason were capable
of instructing us. Would to God, on the contrary, that we had never need of
it, and that we knew everything by instinct and intuition! But nature has
refused us this boon. On the contrary, she has given us but very little
knowledge of this kind; and all the rest can be acquired only by reasoning.
Therefore, those to whom God has imparted religion by intuition are very
fortunate and justly convinced. But to those who do not have it, we can give
it only by reasoning, waiting for God to give them spiritual insight,
without which faith is only human and useless for salvation.
283. Order.--Against the objection that Scripture has no order.
The heart has its own order; the intellect has its own, which is by
principle and demonstration. The heart has another. W
slotrot
is not in our power, since the obtaining of (the grace) to pray to Him is
not in our power. For since salvation is not in us, and the obtaining of
such grace is from Him, prayer is not in our power.
The righteous man should then hope no more in God, for he ought not to hope,
but to strive to obtain what he wants.
Let us conclude then that, since man is now unrighteous since the first sin,
and God is unwilling that he should thereby not be estranged from Him, it is
only by a first effect that he is not estranged.
Therefore, those who depart from God have not this first effect without
which they are not estranged from God, and those who do not depart from God
have this first effect. Therefore, those whom we have seen possessed for
some time of grace by this first effect, cease to pray, for want of this
first effect.
Then God abandons the first in this sense.
515. The elect will be ignorant of their virtues, and the outcast of the
greatness of their sins: "Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, thirsty"? etc.
516. Romans 3:27. Boasting is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by
faith. Then faith is not within our power like the dee
Abbot
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.
Outward penances dispose to inward, as humiliations to humility. Thus the...
699. The synagogue has preceded the church; the Jews, the Christians. The
prophets have foretold the Christians; Saint John, Jesus Christ.
700. It is glorious to see with the eyes of faith the history of Herod and
of Caesar.
701. The zeal of the Jews for their law and their temple (Josephus, and
Philo the Jew, Ad Caium). What other people had such a zeal? It was
necessary they should have it.
Jesus Christ foretold as to the time and the sta
slotrot
them all one Holy Church; that He comes to bring back into this Church the
heathen and Jews; that He comes to destroy the idols of the former and the
superstition of the latter. To this all men are opposed, not only from the
natural opposition of lust; but, above all, the kings of the earth, as had
been foretold, join together to destroy this religion at its birth. (Proph.:
Quare fremuerunt gentes... reges terrae... adversus Christum.)[176]
All that is great on earth is united together; the learned, the wise, the
kings. The first write; the second condemn; the last kill. And
notwithstanding all these oppositions, these men, simple and weak, resist
all these powers, subdue even these kings, these learned men and these
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
a
ge...@mail2libertarian.com
immortal.
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 there?
225. Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.
226. Infidels, who profess to follow reason, ought to be exceedingly strong
in reason. What say they then? "Do we not see," say they, "that the brutes
live and die like men, and Turks like Christians? They have their
ceremonies, their prophets, their doc
Paul Thomas, CPA
"Paul Thomas, CPA" <paultho...@bellsouth.net> wrote
Not what that guy posted:
NNTP-Posting-Host: 80.192.11.216
X-Complaints-To: http://netreport.virginmedia.com
X-Trace: fe3.news.blueyonder.co.uk 1201210194 80.192.11.216 (Thu, 24 Jan
2008 21:29:54 GMT)
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:29:54 GMT
I imagine fraud complaints are in order.
Paul Thomas, CPA
Paul Thomas, CPA
should endure till then, but that the other should last for ever; that thus
either their law, or that of the Messiah, of which it was the promise, would
be always upon the earth; that, in fact, it has always endured; that at last
Jesus Christ came with all the circumstances foretold. This is wonderful.
618. This is positive fact. While all philosophers separate into different
sects, there is found in one corner of the world the most ancient people in
it, declaring that all the world is in error, that God has revealed to them
the truth, that they will always exist on the earth. In fact, all other seas
come to an end, this one still endures, and has done so for four thousand
years.
They declare that they hold from their ancestors that man has fallen from
communion with God, and is entirely estranged from God, but that He has
promised to redeem them; that this doctrine shall always exist on the earth;
that their law has a double signification; that during sixteen hundred years
they have had people, whom they believed prophets, foretelling both the time
and the
Paul Thomas, CPA
the beginning. We lift our eyes on high, but lean upon the sand; and the
earth will dissolve, and we shall fall whilst looking at the heavens.
489. If there is one sole source of everything, there is one sole end of
everything; everything through Him, everything for Him. The true religion,
then, must teach us to worship Him only, and to love Him only. But as we
find ourselves unable to worship what we know not, and to love any other
object but ourselves, the religion which instructs us in these duties must
instruct us also of this inability, and teach us also the remedies for it.
It teaches us that by one man all was lost, and the bond broken between God
and us, and that by one man the bond is renewed.
We are born so averse to this love of God, and it is so necessary, that we
must be born guilty, or God would be unjust.
490. Men, not being accustomed to form merit, but only to recompense it
where they find it formed, judge of God by themselves.
491. The true religion must have as a characteristic the obligation to love
God. This is very just, and yet no other religion has commanded this; ours
has done so. It must also be aware of human lust and weakness; ours is so.
It must have adduced remedies for this; one is prayer. No other religion has
asked of God to love and follow Him.
492. He who hates not in himself his self-love, and that instinct which
leads him to make himself God, is indeed blinded. Who does not see that
there is nothing so opposed to justice and truth? For it is false that we
deserve this, and it is unfair and impossible to attain it, since all demand
the same thing. It is, then, a manifest injustice which is inn
slotrot
He has of giving invisible blessings, by that which He has shown Himself to
have over things visible.
644. Types.--God, wishing to form for Himself an holy people, whom He should
separate from all other nations, whom He should deliver from their enemies
and should put into a place of rest, has promised to do so and has foretold
by His prophets the time and the manner of His coming. And yet, to confirm
the hope of His elect, He has made them see in it an image through all time,
without leaving them devoid of assurances of His power and of His will to
save them. For, at the creation of man, Adam was the witness, and guardian
of the promise of a Saviour, who should be born of woman, when men were
still so near the creation that they could not have forgotten their creation
and their fall. When those who had seen Adam were no longer in the world,
God sent Noah whom He saved, and drowned the whole earth by a miracle which
sufficiently indicated the power which He had to save the world, and the
will which He had to do so, and to raise up from the seed of woman Him whom
He had promised. This miracle was enough to confirm the hope of men.
The memory of the Deluge being so fresh among men, while Noah was still
alive, God made promises to Abraham, and, while Shem was still living, sent
Moses, etc....
645. Types.--God, willing to deprive His own of perishable blessings,
created the Jewish people in order to show that this was not owing to lack
of power.
646. The Synagogue did not perish, because it was a type. But, because it
was only a type, it fell into servitude. The type existed till the truth
came, in order that the Church should be always visible, either in the sign
which promised it, or in substance.
647. That the law was figurative.
648. Two errors: 1. To take everything literally. 2. To take everything
spiritually.
649. To speak against too greatly figurative language.
650. There are some types clear and demonstrative
Abbot
nothing in the world which shows it with this clearness. But since, on the
contrary, it says that men are in darkness and estranged from God, that He
has hidden Himself from their knowledge, that this is in fact the name which
He gives Himself in the Scriptures, Deus absconditus;25 and finally, if it
endeavours equally to establish these two things: that God has set up in the
Church visible signs to make Himself known to those who should seek Him
sincerely, and that He has nevertheless so disguised them that He will only
be perceived by those who seek Him with all their heart; what advantage can
they obtain, when, in the negligence with which they make profession of
being in search of the truth, they cry out that nothing reveals it to them;
and since that darkness in which they are, and with which they upbraid the
Church, establishes only one of the things which she affirms, without
touching the other, and, very far from destroying, proves her doctrine?
In order to attack it, they should have protested that they had made every
effort to seek Him everywhere, and even in that which the Church proposes
for their instruction, but without satisfaction. If they talked in this
manner, they would in truth be attacking one of her pretensions. But I hope
here to show that no reasonable person can speak thus, a
Paul Thomas, CPA
not been said by some philosopher."
51Cicero, Disputationes Tusculanae, ii. 2. "Devoted to certain fixed
opinions, they are forced to defend what they hardly approve."
52Seneca, Epistles, cvi. "We suffer from an excess of literature as from an
excess of anything."
53Cicero, De officiis, i. 31. "What suits each one best is what is to him
the most natural."
54Virgil, The Georgics, ii. "Nature gave them first these limits."
55Seneca, Epistles, cvi. "Wisdom does not demand much teaching."
56Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum. "What is not shameful begins to
become so when it is approved by the multitude."
57Terence, Heauton Timorumenos, I. i. 21. "That is how I use it; you must do
as you wish."
58Quintillian, x. 7. "It is rare that one sufficiently respects one's self."
59Seneca the Elder, Suasoriae, i. 4. "So many gods are busy around a single
head."
60Cicero, Academica, i. 45. "Nothing is more shameful than to affirm before
knowing."
61Cicero, Disputationes Tusculanae, i. 25. "I have not shame, as they do, to
admit that I know not what I do not know."
62Seneca, Epistles, lxxii. "It is easier not to begin....
63L
Abbot
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 very prophets.
789. As Jesus Christ remained unknown among men, so His truth remains among
common opinions without external difference. Thus the Eucharist among
ordinary bread.
790. Jesus would not be slain without the forms of justice; for it is far
more ignominious to die by justice than by an unjust sedition.
791. The false justice of Pilate only serves to make Jesus Christ suffer;
for he causes Him to be scourged by his false justice, and afterwards puts
Him to death. It would have been better to have put Him to death at once.
Thus it is with the falsely just. They do good and evil works to please the
world, and to show that they are not altogether of Jesus Christ; for they
are ashamed of Him. And at last, under great temptation and on great
occasions, they kill Him.
792. What man ever had more renown? The whole Jewish people foretell Him
before His coming. The Gentile people worship Him after His coming. The two
peoples, Gentile and Jewish, regard Him as their centre.
And y
Paul Thomas, CPA
he required.
527. The knowledge of God without that of man's misery causes pride. The
knowledge of man's misery without that of God causes despair. The knowledge
of Jesus Christ constitutes the middle course, because in Him we find both
God and our misery.
528. Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride and before whom we
humble ourselves without despair.
529.... Not a degradation which renders us incapable of good, nor a holiness
exempt from evil.
530. A person told me one day that on coming from confession he felt great
joy and confidence. Another told me that he remained in fear. Whereupon I
thought that these two together would make one good man, and that each was
wanting in that he had not the feeling of the other. The same often happens
in other things.
531. He who knows the will of his master will be beaten with more blows,
because of the power he has by his knowledge. Qui justus est, justificetur
adhuc,88 because of the power he has by justice. From him who has received
most, will the greatest reckoning be demanded, because of the power he has
by this help.
532. Scripture has provided passages of consolation and of warning for all
conditions.
Nature seems to have done the same thing by her two infinities, natural and
moral; for we shall always have the higher and the lower, the more clever
and the less clever, the most exalted and the meanest, in order to humble
our pride and exalt our humility.
533. Comminutum cor (Saint Paul).[89] This is the Christian character. Alba
has named you, I know you no more (Corneille). That is the inhuman
character. The human character is the opposite.
534. There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe themselves
sinners; the rest, sinners, who believe themselv
Abbot
growing better. They are ready to be discouraged by it, and oftentimes
never think themselves so far off from good as when they are nearest.
Under the sense which the Spirit of God gives them of their sinfulness,
they often think that they differ from all others; their hearts are
ready to sink with the thought that they are the worst of all, and that
none ever obtained mercy who were so wicked as they.
When awakenings first begin, their consciences are commonly most
exercised about their outward vicious course, or other acts of sin; but
afterwards are much more burdened with a sense of heart-sins, the
dreadful corruption of their nature, their enmity against God, the pride
of their hearts, their unbelief, their rejection of Christ, the
stubbornness and obstinacy of their wills; and the like. In many, God
makes much use of their own experience, in the course of their
awakenings and endeavors after saving good, to convince them of their
own vile emptiness
ge...@mail2libertarian.com
speaking, so low, that we are quite incapable of reaching it; so that it is
not by the proud exertions of our reason, but by the simple submissions of
reason, that we can truly know ourselves.
These foundations, solidly established on the inviolable authority of
religion, make us know that there are two truths of faith equally certain:
the one, that man, in the state of creation, or in that of grace, is raised
above all nature, made like unto God and sharing in His divinity; the other,
that in the state of corruption and sin, he is fallen from this state and
made like unto the beasts.
These two propositions are equally sound and certain. Scripture manifestly
declares this to us, when it says in some places: Deliciae meae esse cum
filiis hominum.65 Effundam spiritum meum super omnem carnem.66 Dii estis,67
etc.; and in other places, Omnis caro faenum.68 Homo assimilatus est
jumentis insipientibus, et similis factus est illis.69 Dixi in corde meo de
filiis hominum.70
Whence it clearly seems that man by grace is made like unto God, and a
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
ge...@mail2libertarian.com
Jesus Christ, we prove God, and teach morality and doctrine. Jesus Christ
is, then, the true God of men.
But we know at the same time our wretchedness; for this God is none other
than the Saviour of our wretchedness. So we can only know God well by
knowing our iniquities. Therefore those who have known God, without knowing
their wretchedness, have not glorified Him, but have glorified themselves.
Quia... non cognovit per sapientiam... placuit Deo per stultitiam
praedicationis salvos facere.92
548. Not only do we know God by Jesus Christ alone, but we know ourselves
only by Jesus Christ. We know life and death only through Jesus Christ.
Apart from Jesus Christ, we do not know what is our life, nor our death, nor
God, nor ourselves.
Thus without the Scripture, which has Jesus Christ alone for its object, we
know nothing, and see only darkness and confusion in the nature of God and
in our own nature.
549. It is not only impossible but useless to know God without Jesus Christ.
They have not departed from Him, but approached; they have not humbled
themselves, but...
Quo quisque optimus est, pessimus, si hoc ipsum, quod optimus est, adscribat
sibi.93
550. I love poverty because He loved it. I love riches because they afford
me the means of helping the very poor. I keep faith with everybody; I do not
render evil to those who wrong me, but I wish them a lot like mine, in which
I receive neither evil nor good from men. I try to be just, true, sincere,
and faithful to all men; I have a tender heart for those to whom God has
more closely united me; and whether I am alone, or seen of men, I do all my
actions in the sight of God, who must judge of them, and to whom I have
consecrated them all.
These are my sentiments; and every day of my life I bless my Redeemer, who
has implanted them in me, and who, of a man full of weakness, of miseries,
of lust, of pride, and of ambition, has made a man free f
Abbot
still continues very constant in secret prayer, so far as can be
observed, for she seems to have no desire that others should observe her
when she retires, being a child of a reserved temper. Every night,
before she goes to bed, she will say her catechism, and will by no means
miss. She never forgot it but once, and then, after she was a-bed,
thought of it, and cried out in tears, I han't said my catechism! and
would not be quieted till her mother asked her the catechism as she lay
in bed. She sometimes appears to be in doubt about the condition of her
soul; and when asked, whether she thinks that she is prepared for death,
speaks something doubtfully about it. At other times she seems to have
no doubt, but when asked, replies, Yes, without hesitation. In the
former part of this great work of God amongst us, till it got to His
height, we seemed to be wonderfully smiled upon and blessed in all
respects. Satan seemed to be unusually restrained; persons who before
had been
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517. Comfort yourselves. It is not from yourselves that you should expect
grace; but, on the contrary, it is in expecting nothing from yourselves that
you must hope for it.
518. Every condition, and even the martyrs, have to fear, according to
Scripture. The greatest pain of purgatory is the uncertainty of the
judgement. Deus absconditus.86
519. John 8. Multi crediderunt in eum. Dicebat ergo Jesus: "Si manseritis...
VERE mei discipuli eritis, et VERITAS LIBERABIT VOS." Responderunt: "Semen
Abrahae sumus, et nemini servimus unquam."[87]
There is a great difference between disciples and true disciples. We
recognise them by telling them that the truth will make them free; for if
they answer that they are free and that it is in their power to come out of
slavery to the devil, they are indeed disciples, but not true disciples.
520. The law has not destroyed nature, but has instructed it; grace has not
destroyed the law, but has made it act. Faith received at baptism is the
source of the whole life of Christians and of the converted.
521. Grace will always be in the world, and nature also; so that the former
is in some sort natural. And thus there will always be Pelagians, and always
Catholics, and always strife; because the first birth makes the one, and the
grace of the second birth the other.
522. The law imposed what it did not give. Grace gives what it imposes.
523. All faith consists in Jesus Christ and in Adam, and all morality in
lust and in grace.
524. There is no doctrine more appropriate to man than this, which teaches
him his double capacity of receiving and of losing grace, because of the
Paul Thomas, CPA
second law.
Commentaries on the Mischna (anno 340): The one Siphra.
Barajetot.
Talmud Hierosol.
Tosiphtot.
Bereschit Rabah, by R. Osaiah Rabah, commentary on the Mischna.
Bereschit Rabah, Bar Naconi, are subtle and pleasant discourses, historical
and theological. This same author wrote the books called Rabot.
A hundred years after the Talmud Hierosol was composed the Babylonian
Talmud, by R. Ase, A.D. 440, by the universal consent of all the Jews, who
are necessarily obliged to observe all that is contained therein.
The addition of R. Ase is called the Gemara, that is to say, the commentary
on the Mischna.
And the Talmud includes together the Mischna and the Gemara.
636. If does not indicate indifference: Malachi, Isaiah.
Isaiah, Si volumus, etc.
In quacumque die.[115]
637. Prophecies.--The sceptre was not interrupted by the captivity in
Babylon, because the return was promised and foretold.
638. Proofs of Jesus Christ.--Captivity, with the assurance of deliverance
within seventy years, was not real captivity. But now they are captives
without any hope.
God has promised them that, even though He should scatter them to the ends
of the earth, nevertheless, if they were faithful to His law, He would
assemble them together again. They are very faithful to it and remain
oppressed.
639. When Nebuchadnezzar carried away the people, for fear they should
believe that the sceptre had departed from Judah, they were told beforehand
that they would be there for a short time, and that they would be restored.
They were always consoled by the prophets; and their kings continued. But
the second destruction is without promise of restoration, without prophets,
without kings, without consolation, without hope, because the sceptre is
taken away for ever.
64
Paul Thomas, CPA
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 turpe quum id a multitudine
laudetur.56
Mihi sic usus est, tibi ut opus est facto, fac.57
364. Rarum est enim ut satis se quisque vereatur.58
Tot circa unum caput tumultuantes deos.59
Nihil turpius quam cognitioni assertionem praecurrere.60
Nec me pudet, ut istos, fateri nescire qui
slotrot
of inferring and following out what is untrue.
822. Abraham and Gideon are above revelation. The Jews blinded themselves in
judging of miracles by the Scripture. God has never abandoned His true
worshippers.
I prefer to follow Jesus Christ than any other, because He has miracle,
prophecy, doctrine, perpetuity, etc.
The Donatists. No miracle which obliges them to say it is the devil.
The more we particularise God, Jesus Christ, the Church.
823. If there were no false miracles, there would be certainty. If there
were no rule to judge of them, miracles would be useless and there would be
no reason for believing.
Now there is, humanly speaking, no human certainty, but we have reason.
824. Either God has confounded the false miracles, or He has foretold them;
and in both ways He has raised Himself above what is supernatural with
respect to us, and has raised us to it.
825. Miracles serve not to convert, but to condemn. Part I-II (Q. 113, A.
10, Ad. 2.)[182]
826. Reasons why we do not believe.
John 12:37. Cum autem tanta signa fecisset, non credebant in eum, ut sermo
Isayae impleretur... Excaecavit,183 etc.
Haec dixit Isaias, quando vidit gloriam ejus et locutus est de eo.184
Judaei signa petunt et Graeci sapientiam quaerunt, nos autem Jesum
crucifixum.185 (Sed plenum signis, sed plenum sapientia; vos autem Christ
slotrot
created the Jewish people in order to show that this was not owing to lack
of power.
646. The Synagogue did not perish, because it was a type. But, because it
was only a type, it fell into servitude. The type existed till the truth
came, in order that the Church should be always visible, either in the sign
which promised it, or in substance.
647. That the law was figurative.
648. Two errors: 1. To take everything literally. 2. To take everything
spiritually.
649. To speak against too greatly figurative language.
650. There are some types clear and demonstrative, but others which seem
somewhat far-fetched, and which convince only those who are already
persuaded. These are like the Apocalyptics. But the difference is that they
have none which are certain, so that nothing is so unjust as to claim that
theirs are as well founded as some of ours; for they have none so
demonstrative as some of ours. The comparison is unfair. We must not put on
the same level and confound things, because they seem to agree in one point,
while they are so different in another. The clearness in divine things
requires us to revere the obscurities in them.
It is like men, who employ a certain obscure language among themselves.
Those who should not understand it would understand only a foolish meaning.
651. Extravagances of the Apocalyptics, Preadamites, who would base
extravagant opinions on Scripture will, for example, base them on this. It
is said that "this generation shall not pass till all these things be
fulfilled." Upon that I will say that after that generation will come
another generation, and so on ever in succession.
Solomon and the King are spoke
Abbot
upon the earth.
No heathen, since Moses until Jesus Christ, believed according to the very
Rabbis. A great number of the heathen, after Jesus Christ, believed in the
books of Moses, kept them in substance and spirit, and only rejected what
was useless.
725. Prophecies.--The conversion of the Egyptians (Isaiah 19:19); an altar
in Egypt to the true God.
726. Prophecies.--In Egypt. Pugio Fidei, p. 659. Talmud. "It is a tradition
among us, that, when the Messiah shall come, the house of God, destined for
the dispensation of His Word, shall be full of filth and impurity; and that
the wisdom of the scribes shall be corrupt and rotten. Those who shall be
afraid to sin, shall be rejected by the people, and treated as senseless
fools."
Is. xlix: "Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken, ye people, from afar: The
Lord hath called me by my name from the womb of my mother; in the shadow of
His hand hath He hid me, and hath made my words like a sharp sword, and said
unto me, Thou art my servant in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, Lord,
have I laboured in vain? have I spent my strength for nought? yet surely my
judgment is with Thee, O Lord, and my work with Thee. And now, saith the
Lord, that formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob and
Israel again to Him, Thou shalt be glorious in my sight, and I will be thy
strength. It is a light thing that thou shouldst convert the tribes of
Jacob; I have raised thee up for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest
be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. Thus saith the Lord to him whom
man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers,
Princes and kings shall worship thee, because the Lord is faithful that hath
chosen thee.
"Again saith the Lord unto me, I have heard thee in the days of salvation
and of mercy, and I will preserve thee for a covenant of the people, to
cause
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that He does not need to wait to have men convinced by long and often
repeated fruitless trials; for in multitudes of instances He has made a
shorter work of it. He has so awakened and convinced persons'
consciences, and made them so sensible of their exceeding great
vileness, and given them such a sense of His wrath against sin, as has
quickly overcome all their vain self-confidence, and borne them down
into the dust before a holy and righteous God.
There have been some who have not had great terrors, but have had a very
quick work. Some of those who have not had so deep a conviction of these
things before their conversion, have much more of it afterwards. God has
appeared far from limiting Himself to any certain method in His
proceedings with sinners under legal convictions. In some instances, it
seems easy for our reasoning powers to discern the methods of divine
wisdom, in His dealings with the soul under awakenings; in others, His
footsteps cannot be traced, and His ways are past finding out. Some who
are less distinctly wrought upon, in what is preparatory
Paul Thomas, CPA
far as consistent with their own interest. But, apart from that, they
renounce it.
584. The world exists for the exercise of mercy and judgement, not as if men
were placed in it out of the hands of God, but as hostile to God; and to
them He grants by grace sufficient light, that they may return to Him, if
they desire to seek and follow Him; and also that they may be punished, if
they refuse to seek or follow Him.
585. That God has willed to hide Himself.--If there were only one religion,
God would indeed be manifest. The same would be the case if there were no
martyrs but in our religion.
God being thus hidden, every religion which does not affirm that God is
hidden is not true; and every religion which does not give the reason of it
is not instructive. Our religion does all this: Vere tu es Deus
absconditus.[102]
586. If there were no obscurity, man would not be sensible of his
corruption; if there were no light, man would not hope for a remedy. Thus,
it is not only fair, but advantageous to us, that God be partly hidden and
partly revealed; since it is equally dangerous to man to know God without
knowing his own wretchedness, and to know his own wretchedness without
knowing God.
587. This religion, so great in miracles, saints, blameless Fathers, learned
and great witnesses, martyrs, established kings as David, and Isaiah, a
prince of the blood, and so great in science, after having displayed all her
miracles and all her wisdom, rejects all this, and declares that she has
neither wisdom nor signs, but only the cross and foolishness.
For those, who, by these signs and that wisdom, have deserved your belief,
and who have proved to you their character, declare to you that nothing of
all this can change you, and render you capable of knowing and loving God,
but the power of the foolishness of the cross without wisdom and signs, and
not the signs without this
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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. 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
Paul Thomas, CPA
their sins, and perform many religious duties, with a secret hope of
appeasing God's anger, and making up for the sins they have committed.
And oftentimes, at first setting out, their affections are so moved,
that they are full of tears, in their confessions and prayers; which
they are ready to make very much of, as though they were some atonement,
and had power to move correspondent affections in God too. Hence they
are for a while big with expectation of what God will do for them; and
conceive they grow better apace, and shall soon be thoroughly converted.
But these affections are but short-lived; they quickly find that they
fail, and then they think themselves to be grown worse again. They do
not find such a prospect of being soon converted, as they thought:
instead of being nearer, they seem to be further off; their hearts they
think are grown harder, and by this means their fears of perishing
greatly increase. But though they are disappointed, they renew their
attempts again and again; and still as their attempts
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that we can ask.
514. "Work out your own salvation with fear."
Proofs of prayer. Petenti dabitur.[85]
Therefore it is in our power to ask. On the other hand, there is God. So it
is not in our power, since the obtaining of (the grace) to pray to Him is
not in our power. For since salvation is not in us, and the obtaining of
such grace is from Him, prayer is not in our power.
The righteous man should then hope no more in God, for he ought not to hope,
but to strive to obtain what he wants.
Let us conclude then that, since man is now unrighteous since the first sin,
and God is unwilling that he should thereby not be estranged from Him, it is
only by a first effect that he is not estranged.
Therefore, those who depart from God have not this first effect without
which they are not estranged from God, and those who do not depart from God
have this first effect. Therefore, those whom we have seen possessed for
some time of grace by this first effect, cease to pray, for want of this
first effect.
Then God abandons the first in this sense.
515. The elect will be ignorant of their virtues, and the outcast of the
greatness of their sins: "Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, thirsty"? etc.
516. Romans 3:27. Boasting is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by
faith. Then faith is not within our power like the deeds of the law, and it
is given to us in another way.
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sinners. Sometimes at the discovery of it, they can scarcely forbear
crying out, It is just! It is just! Some express themselves, that they
could see the glory of God would shine bright in their own condemnation;
and they are ready to think that if they are damned, they could take
part with God against themselves, and would glorify His justice therein.
And when it is thus, they commonly have some evident sense of free and
all-sufficient grace, though they give no distinct account of it; but it
is manifest, by that great degree of hope and encouragement they then
conceive, though they were never so sensible of their own vileness and
ill-deservings as they are at that time.
Some, when in such circumstances, have felt that sense of the excellency
of God's justice, appearing in the vindictive exercises of it, against
such sinfulness as theirs was; and have had such a submission of mind in
their idea of this attribute, and of those exercises of it-together with
an exceeding loathing of their own unworthiness, and a kind of
indignation against themselves-that they have sometimes almost called it
a willingness to be damned; though it must be owned they had not clear
and distinct ideas of damnation, nor does any word in the Bible require
such self-denial as this. But the truth is, as some have more clearly
expressed it, that salvation has a
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foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."
93St. Bernard, Sermones in Cantica Canticorum, lxxxiv. "The better one is,
the worse one becomes, if one attributes the cause of this goodness to one's
self."
[94]Ibid. "Meriting blows more than kisses, I fear not, because I love."
95John 11:33. Et turbarit seipsum. "And he troubled himself."
96Matt. 26:46. "Let us be going."
[97]Matt. 18:2. "Jesus went forth."
98Gen. 3:5. "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
[99]John 20:17. "Touch me not."
100Allusion to John 6:56; 1:47; 8:36; 6:32. "True disciple; an Israelite
indeed; free indeed; true bread."
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 Babyloni
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contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They
hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of
men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines
that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have
done. He does not intend to come to that place of torment; he says
within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order
matters so for himself as not to fail. But the foolish children of men
miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in
their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The
greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of
grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not
because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not
because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure
their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one
by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear
about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear
one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid
out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for
myself -- I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care;
but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and
in that manner; it came as a thief -- Death outwitted me: God's wrath
was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering
myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do
hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden
destruction came upon me."
God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any
natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises
either of eternal life,
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exceedingly prone to the disease of melancholy, and his mother was
killed with it. He had, from the beginning of this extraordinary time,
been exceedingly concerned about the state of his soul, and there were
some things in his experience that appeared very hopeful; but he durst
entertain no hope concerning his own good estate. Towards the latter
part of his time, he grew much discouraged, and melancholy grew again
upon him, till he was wholly overpowered by it, and was in a great
measure past a capacity of receiving advice, or being reasoned with to
any purpose. The devil took the advantage, and drove him into despairing
thoughts. He was kept awake at nights, meditating terror, so that he had
scarce any sleep at all for a long time together; and it was observed at
last, that he was scarcely well capable of managing his ordinary
business, and was judged delirious by the coroner's inquest. The news of
this extraordinarily affected the minds of people here, and struck them
as it were with ast