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. We do not prove that we
ought to be loved by enumerating in order the causes of love; that would be
ridiculous.
Jesus Christ and Saint Paul employ the rule of love, not of intellect; for
they would warm, not instruct. It is the same with Saint Augustine. This
order consists chiefly in digressions on each point to indicate the end, and
keep it always in sight.
284. Do not wonder to see simple people believe without reasoning. God
imparts to them love of Him and hatred of self. He inclines their heart to
believe. Men will never believe with a saving and real faith, unless God
inclines their heart; and they will believe as soon as He inclines it. And
this is what David knew well, when he said: Inclina cor meum, Deus, in...
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285. Religion is suited to all kinds of minds. Some pay attention only to
its establishment, and this religion is such that its
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 sustain so great glory
without falling