Re: ""drugs ain't working for Eaton anymore" poor bastard's losing it
Steady Eddy
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 believed it. But as there have been very great
things true, and as they have been believed by great men, this impression
has been the cause that nearly everybody is rendered capable of believing
also the false. And thus, instead of concluding that there are no true
miracles, since there are so many false, it must be said, on the contrary,
that there are true miracles, since there are so many false; and that there
are false ones only because there are true; and that in the same way there
are false religions because there is one true.--Objection to this: savages
have a religion. But this is because they have heard the true spoken of, as
appears by the cross of Saint Andrew, the Deluge, circumcision, etc. This
arises from the fact that the human mind, finding itself inclined
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slanderers, between the two crosses.
But miracles would be useless to heretics; for the Church, authorised by
miracles which have already obtained belief, tells us that they have not the
true faith. There is no doubt that they are not in it, since the first
miracles of the Church exclude belief of theirs. Thus there is miracle
against miracle, both the first and greatest being on the side of the
Church.
These nuns, astonished at what is said--that they are in the way of
perdition; that their confessors are leading them to Geneva; that they
suggest to them that Jesus Christ is not in the Eucharist, nor on the right
hand of the Father--know that all this is false and, therefore, offer
themselves to God in this state. Vide si via iniquitatis in me est.192 What
happens thereupon? This place, which is said to be the temple of the devil,
God makes His own temple. It is said that the children must be taken away
from it. God heals them there. It is said that it is the arsenal of hell.
God makes of it the sanctuary of His grace. Lastly, they are threatened with
all the fury and vengeance of heaven; and God ove
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of painting. But who shall determine it in truth and morality?
382. When all is equally agitated, nothing appears to be agitated, as in a
ship. When all tend to debauchery, none appears to do so. He who stops draws
attention to the excess of others, like a fixed point.
383. The licentious tell men of orderly lives that they stray from nature's
path, while they themselves follow it; as people in a ship think those move
who are on the shore. On all sides the language is similar. We must have a
fixed point in order to judge. The harbour decides for those who are in a
ship; but where shall we find a harbour in morality?
384. Contradiction is a bad sign of truth; several things which are certain
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 enem
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sin, nor the transmission of it to us. These are matters which took place
under conditions of a nature altogether different from our own and which
transcend our present understanding.
The knowledge of all this is useless to us as a means of escape from it; and
all that we are concerned to know is that we are miserable, corrupt,
separated from God, but ransomed by Jesus Christ, whereof we have wonderful
proofs on earth.
So the two proofs of corruption and redemption are drawn from the ungodly,
who live in indifference to religion, and from the Jews who are
irreconcilable enemies.
561. There are two ways of proving the truths of our religion; one by the
power of reason, the other by the authority of him who speaks.
We do not make use of the latter, but of the former. We do not say, "This
must be believed, for Scripture, which says it, is divine." But we say that
it must be believed for such and such a reason, which are feeble arguments,
as reason may be bent to everything.
562. There is nothing on earth that does not show either the wretchedness of
man, or the mercy of God; either the weakness of man without God, or the
strength of man with God.
563. It will be one of the confusions of the damned to see that they are
condemned by their own reason, by which they claimed to condemn the
Christian religion.
564. The prophecies, the very miracles and proofs of our religion, are not
of such a nature that they can be said to be absolutely convincing. But they
are also of such a kind that it cannot be said that it is unreasonable to
believe them. Thus there is both evidence and obscurity to enlighten some
and confuse others. But the evidence is such that it surpasses, or at least
equals, the evidence to the contrary; so that it is n