Re: ON UNBALANCED CLASSIFICATION WITH NEURAL NETWORK
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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 w
Greg Heath
do not say: What doctrine do you preach?)"
196John 3:2. "No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be
with him."
[197]"The Lord, making manifest his presence, upholdeth them that are his
own portion."
198"And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven."
199Matt. 12:39. "An evil generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no
sign be given to it."
200"And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, why doth this generation
seek after a sign?"
201"Mark 6:5. "And he could there do no mighty work."
202John 4:48. "Except ye see... ye will not believe."
2039. "In signs and lying wonders."
204II Thess. 2:9-11 "After the working of Satan... and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God
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 fat
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thinks it honourable to succumb under stress of pain, and disgraceful to
yield to the attack of pleasure? It is because pain does not tempt and
attract us. It is we ourselves who choose it voluntarily, and will it to
prevail over us. So that we are masters of the situation; and in this man
yields to himself. But in pleasure it is man who yields to pleasure. Now
only mastery and sovereignty bring glory, and only slavery brings shame.
161. Vanity.--How wonderful it is that a thing so evident as the vanity of
the world is so little known, that it is a strange and surprising thing to
say that it is foolish to seek greatness?
162. He who will know fully the vanity of man has only to consider the
causes and effects of love. The cause is a je ne sais quoi (Corneille), and
the effects are dreadful. This je ne sais quoi, so small an object that we
cannot recognise it, agitates a whole country, princes, armies, the entire
world.
Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world would
have been altered.
163. Vanity.--The cause and the effects of love: Cleopatra.
164. He who does not see the vanity of the world is himself very vain.
Indeed who do not see it but youths who are absorbed in fame, diversion, and
the thought of the future? But take away divers
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such great circumspection that there were hardly any who were worthy; and it
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 th
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for relaxation, and that when it is necessary and the time suitable, and not
otherwise. For he that relaxes out of season wearies, and he who wearies us
out of season makes us languid, since we turn quite away. So much does our
perverse lust like to do the contrary of what those wish to obtain from us
without giving us pleasure, the coin for which we will do whatever is
wanted.
25. Eloquence.--It requires the pleasant and the real; but the pleasant must
itself be drawn from the true.
26. Eloquence is a painting of thought; and thus those who, after having
painted it, add something more, make a picture instead of a portrait.
27. Miscellaneous. Language.--Those who make antitheses by forcing words are
like those who make false windows for symmetry. Their rule is not to speak
accurately, but to make apt figures of speech.
28. Symmetry is what we see at a glance; based on the fact that there is no
reason for any difference, and based also on the face of man; whence it
happens that symmetry is only wanted in breadth, not in height or depth.
29. When we see a natural style, we are astonished and delighted; for we
expected to see an author, and we find a man. Whereas those who have good
taste, and who, seeing a book, expect to find a man, are quite surprised to
find an author. Plus poetice quam humane locutus es.2 Those honour Nature
well who teach that she can speak on everything, even on theology.
30. We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting. The rule is
uprightness.
Beauty of omission, of judgement.
31. All the false beauties which we blame in Cicero have their admirers, and
in great number.
32. There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a
certain relation between our nature, such as it is, weak or strong, and the
thing which
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sloth, God has revealed to us two of His attributes to cure them, mercy and
justice. The property of justice is to humble pride, however holy may be our
works, et non intres injudicium, etc.; and the property of mercy is to
combat sloth by exhorting to good works, according to that passage: "The
goodness of God leadeth to repentance, and that other of the Ninevites: "Let
us do penance to see if peradventure He will pity us." And thus mercy is so
far from authorising slackness that it is on the contrary the quality which
formally attacks it; so that instead of saying, "If there were no mercy in
God we should have to make every kind of effort after virtue," we must say,
on the contrary, that it is because there is mercy in God that we must make
every kind of effort.
498. It is true there is difficulty in entering into godliness. But this
difficulty does not arise from the religion which begins in us, but from the
irreligion which is still there. If our senses were not opposed to
penitence, and if our corruption were not opposed to the purity of God,
there would be nothing in this painful to us. We suffer only in proportion
as the vice which is natural to us resists supernatural grace. Our heart
feels torn asunder between these opposed efforts. But it would be very
unfair to impute this violence to God, wh
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in the face, that they are in exceeding terror for fear that God will
instantly do it; but more commonly their distresses under legal
awakenings have not been to such a degree. In some, these terrors do not
seem to be so sharp, when near comfort, as before; their convictions
have not seemed to work so much that way, but to be led further down
into their own hearts, to a further sense of their own universal
depravity and deadness in sin.
The corruption of the heart has discovered itself in various exercises,
in the time of legal convictions; sometimes it appears in a great
struggle, like something roused by an enemy, and Satan, the old
inhabitant, seems to exert himself, like a serpent disturbed and
enraged. Many in such circumstances, have felt a great spirit of envy
towards the godly, especially towards those who are thought to have been
lately converted, and most of all towards acquaintances and companions,
when they are thought to be converted. Indeed, some have felt many
heart-risings against God, and murmurings at His way of dealing with
mankind, and His dealings with themselves in particular. It has been
much insisted on, both in public and private, that persons should have
the utmost dread of such envious thoughts; which if allowed tend
exceedingly to quench the Spirit of God, if not to provoke Him finally
to forsake them. And when such a spirit has much prevailed, and persons
have not so earnestly strove against it as they ought to have done, it
has seemed to be exceedingly to the hindrance of the good of their
souls. But
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and of absolute ignorance. We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in
uncertainty, driven from end to end. When we think to attach ourselves to
any point and to fasten to it, it wavers and leaves us; and if we follow it,
it eludes our grasp, slips past us, and vanishes for ever. Nothing stays for
us. This is our natural condition and yet most contrary to our inclination;
we burn with desire to find solid ground and an ultimate sure foundation
whereon to build a tower reaching to the Infinite. But our whole groundwork
cracks, and the earth opens to abysses.
Let us, therefore, not look for certainty and stability. Our reason is
always deceived by fickle shadows; nothing can fix the finite between the
two Infinites, which both enclose and fly from it.
If this be well understood, I think that we shall remain at rest, each in
the state wherein nature has placed him. As this sphere which has fallen to
us as our lot is always distant from either extreme, what matters it that
man should have a little more knowledge of the universe? If he has it, he
but gets a little higher. Is he not always infinitely removed from the end,
and is not the duration of our life equally removed from eternity, even if
it lasts ten years longer?
In comparison with these Infinites, all finites are equal, and I see no
reason for fixing our imagination on one more than on another. The only
comparison which we make of ourselves to the finite is painful to us.
If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he
is of going further. How can a part know the whole? But he may perhaps
aspire to know at least the parts to which he bears some proportion. But the
parts of the world are all so related and linked to one another that I
believe it impossible to know o
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wife and his only son, or who has some great lawsuit which annoys him, is
not at this moment sad, and that he seems so free from all painful and
disquieting thoughts? We need not wonder; for a ball has been served him,
and he must return it to his companion. He is occupied in catching it in its
fall from the roof, to win a game. How can he think of his own affairs,
pray, when he has this other matter in hand? Here is a care worthy of
occupying this great soul and taking away from him every other thought of
the mind. This man, born to know the universe, to judge all causes, to
govern a whole state, is altogether occupied and taken up with the business
of catching a hare. And if he does not lower himself to this and wants
always to be on the strain, he will be more foolish still, because he would
raise himself above humanity; and after all, he is only a man, that is to
say capable of little and of much, of all and of nothing; he is neither
angel nor brute, but man.
141. Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is the pleasure
even of kings.
142. Diversion--Is not the royal dignity sufficiently great in itself to
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 danc
baldrick
let him not therefore despise this natural capacity. Let him hate himself,
let him love himself; he has within him the capacity of knowing the truth
and of being happy, but he possesses no truth, either constant or
satisfactory.
I would then lead man to the desire of finding truth; to be free from
passions, and ready to follow it where he may find it, knowing how much his
knowledge is obscured by the passions. I would, indeed, that he should hate
in himself the lust which determined his will by itself so that it may not
blind him in making his choice, and may not hinder him when he has chosen.
424. All these contradictions, which seem most to keep me from the knowledge
of religion, have led me most quickly to the true one.
SECTION VII: MORALITY AND DOCTRINE
425. Second part.--That man without faith cannot know the true good, nor
justice.
All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means
they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and
of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different
views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This
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esteemed persons of learning and discretion where they are best
known-declared, that they found these impressions on persons'
imaginations quite different things from what fame had before
represented to them, and that they were what none need to wonder at-or
to that purpose.
There have indeed been some few instances of impressions on persons
imaginations, which have been somewhat mysterious to me, and I have been
at a loss about them. For, though it has been exceeding evident to me,
by many things that appeared both then and afterwards, that they indeed
had a greater sense of the spiritual excellency of divine things
accompanying them, yet I have not been able well to satisfy myself
whether their imaginary ideas have been more than could naturally arise
from their spiritual sense of things. However, I have used the utmost
caution in such cases; great care has been taken both in public and in
private to teach persons the difference between what is spiritual and
what is merely imaginary. I have often warned persons not to lay the
stress of their hope on any ideas of any outward glory, or any external
thing whatsoever, and have
Harris
charm of woman than the charm of verse. But those who are ignorant would
admire her in this dress, and there are many villages in which she would be
taken for the queen; hence we call sonnets made after this model "Village
Queens."
34. No one passes in the world as skilled in verse unless he has put up the
sign of a poet, a mathematician, etc. But educated people do not want a sign
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
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to an end.
295. Mine, thine.--"This dog is mine," said those poor children; "that is my
place in the sun." Here is the beginning and the image of the usurpation of
all the earth.
296. When the question for consideration is whether we ought to make war and
kill so many men--condemn so many Spaniards to death--only one man is judge,
and he is an interested party. There should be a third, who is
disinterested.
297. Veri juris.[44] --We have it no more; if we had it, we should take
conformity to the customs of a country as the rule of justice. It is here
that, not finding justice, we have found force, etc.
298. Justice, might.--It is right that what is just should be obeyed; it is
necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed. Justice without might is
helpless; might without justice is tyrannical. Justice without might is
gainsaid, because there are always offenders; might without justice is
condemned. We must then combine justice and might and, for this end, make
what is just strong, or what is strong just.
Justice is subject to dispute; might is easily recognised and is not
disputed. So we cannot give might to justice, because might has gainsaid
justice and has declared that it is she herself who is just. And thus, being
unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just.
299. The only universal rules are the laws of the country in ordinary
affairs and of the majority in others. Whence comes this? From the might
which is in them. Hence it comes that kings, who have power of a different
kind, do not follow the majority of their ministers.
No doubt equality of goods is just; but, being unable to cause might to obey
justice, men have made it just to obey might. Unable to strengthen justice,
they have justified might; so that the just and the strong should unite, and
there should be peace
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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, others with joy and
love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors.
Our public praises were then greatly enlivened; God was then served in
our psalmody, in some measure, in the beauty of holiness. It has been
observable, that there has been scarce any part of divine worship,
wherein good men amongst us have had grace so drawn forth, and their
hearts so lifted up in the ways of God, as in singing His praises. Our
congregation excelled all that ever I knew in the external part of the
duty before, the men generally carrying regularly, and well, three parts
of music, and the women a part by themselves; but now they were
evidently wont to sing with unusual elevation of heart and voice, which
made the duty pleasant indeed.
In all
Greg Heath
After this, her illness increased upon her: and once after she had
before spent the greater part of the night in extreme pain, she waked
out of a little sleep with these words in her heart and mouth; "I am
willing to suffer for Christ's sake, I am willing to spend and be spent
for Christ's sake; I am willing to spend my life, even my very life, for
Christ's sake!" And though she had an extraordinary resignation with
respect to life or death, yet the thoughts of dying were exceeding sweet
to her. At a time when her brother was reading in Job, concerning worms
feeding on the dead body, she appeared with a pleasant smile; and being
asked about it, she said, It was sweet to her to think of her being in
such circumstances. At another time, when her brother mentioned the
danger there seemed to be, that the illness she labored under might be
an occasion of her death, it filled her with joy that almost overcame
her. At another time, when she met a company following a corpse to the
grave, she said, it was sweet to her to think that they would in a
little time follow her in like manner.
Her illness, in the latter part of it, was seated much in her throat;
and an inward swelling filled up the pipe, so that she could swallow
nothing but what was perfectly liquid and but very little of that, with
great and long strugglings. That which she took in fled out at her
nostrils, till at last she could swallow nothing at all. She had a
raging appetite for food; so that she told her sister, when talking with
her about her circumstances, that the worst bit would be sweet to her;
but yet, when she saw that she could not swallow it, she seemed to be as
perfectly contented without it, as if she had no appetite. Oth
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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 quid nesciam.61
Melius non incipient.62
365. Thought.--All the dignity of man consists in thought. Thought is,
therefore, by its nature a wonderful and incomparable thing. It must have
strange defects to be contemptible. But it has such, so that nothing is more
ridiculous. How great it is in its nature! How vile it is in its defects!
But what is this thought? How foolish it is!
366. The mind of this sovereign judge of the world is not so independent
that it is not liable to be disturbed by the first din about it. The noise
of a cannon is not necessary to hinder its thoughts; it needs only the
creaking of a weathercock or pulley. Do not wonder if at present it does not
reason well; a fly is buzzing in its ears; that is enough to render it
incapable of good judgement. If you wish it to be able to reach the truth,
chase away that animal which holds its reason in check and disturbs that
powerful intellect which rules towns and kingdoms. Here is a comical god! O
ridicolosissimo eroe!
367. The power of flies; they win battles, hinder our soul from acting, eat
our body.
368. When it is said that heat is only the motions of certain molecules, and
light the conatus recedendi which we feel, it astonishes us. What! Is
pleasure only the ballet of our spir
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454. Injustice.--They have not found any other means of satisfying lust
without doing injury to others.
455. Self is hateful. You, Milton, conceal it; you do not for that reason
destroy it; you are, then, always hateful.
No; for in acting as we do to oblige everybody, we give no more occasion for
hatred of us. That is true, if we only hated in Self the vexation which
comes to us from it. But if I hate it because it is unjust and because it
makes itself the centre of everything, I shall always hate it.
In a word, the Self has two qualities: it is unjust in itself since it makes
itself the centre of everything; it is inconvenient to others since it would
enslave them; for each Self is the enemy, and would like to be the tyrant of
all others. You take away its inconvenience, but not its injustice, and so
you do not render it lovable to those who hate injustice; you render it
lovable only to the unjust, who do not any longer find in it an enemy. And
thus you remain unjust and can please only the unjust.
456. It is a perverted judgement that makes every one place himself above
the rest of the world, and prefer his own good, and the continuance of his
own good fortune and life, to that of the rest of the world!
457. Each one is all in all to himself; for he being dead, all is dead to
him. Hence it comes that each believes himself to be all in all to
everybody. We must not judge of nature by ourselves, but by it.
458. "All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, or the lust of the
eyes, or the pride of life; libido sentiendi, libido sciendi, libido
dominandi."[73] Wretched is the cursed land which these three rivers of fire
enflame rather than wa
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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 themselves righteou
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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 in them affects us much less than what we see when awake, because of
its continuity, which is not, however, so continuous and level as not to
change too; but it changes less abruptly, except rarely, as when we travel,
and then we say, "It seems to me I am dreaming." For life is a dream a
little less inconstant.
387. It may be that there are true demonstrations; but this is not certain.
Thus, this proves nothing else but that it is not certain that all is
uncertain, to the glory of scepticism.
388. Good sense.--They are compelled to say, "You are not acting in good
faith; we are not asleep," etc. How I love to see this proud reason
humiliated and suppliant! For this is not the language of a man whose right
is disputed, and who defends it with the power of armed hands. He is not
foolish enough to declare that men are not acting in good faith, but he
punishes this bad faith with force.
389. Ecclesiastes shows that man without God is in total ignorance and
inevitable misery. For it is wretched to have the wish, but not the power.
Now he would be happy and assured of some truth, and yet he can neither
know, nor desire not to know. He cannot even doubt.
390. My God! How foolish this talk is! "Would God have made the world to
damn it? Would He ask so much from persons so weak"? etc. Scepticism is the
cure for this evil, and will tak
Candida Ferreira
against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John 3:18.
"He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted
man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is, John
8:23. "Ye are from beneath:" And thither he is bound; it is the place
that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law
assign to him.
They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that
is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go
down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they
are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable
creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness
of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers
that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this
congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those
who are now in the flames of hell. So that it is not because God is
unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not
let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such an one
as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God
burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is
prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to
receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is
whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.
The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at
what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls
in his possession, and under his dominion. The
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without our help. Such is not the Christian religion, nor the Jewish. True
Jews and true Christians have always expected a Messiah who should make them
love God and by that love triumph over their enemies.
608. The carnal Jews hold a midway place between Christians and heathens.
The heathens know not God, and love the world only. The Jews know the true
God, and love the world only. The Christians know the true God, and love not
the world. Jews and heathens love the same good. Jews and Christians know
the same God.
The Jews were of two kinds; the first had only heathen affections, the other
had Christian affections.
609. There are two kinds of men in each religion: among the heathen,
worshippers of beasts and the worshippers of the one only God of natural
religion; among the Jews, the carnal, and the spiritual, who were the
Christians of the old law; among Christians, the coarser-minded, who are the
Jews of the new law. The carnal Jews looked for a carnal Messiah; the
coarser Christians believe that the Messiah has dispensed them from the love
of God; true Jews and true Christians worship a Messiah who makes them love
God.
610. To show that the true Jews and the true Christians have but the same
religion.--The religion of the Jews seemed to consist essentially in the
fatherhood of Abraham, in circumcision, in sacrifices, in ceremonies, in the
Ark, in the temple, in Jerusalem, and, finally, in the law, and in the
covenant with Moses.
I say that it consisted in none of those things, but only in the love of
God, and that God disregarded all the other things.
That God di
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of being in that state in which it seems incredible that a single individual
should be. However, experience has shown me so great a number of such
persons that the fact would be surprising, if we did not know that the
greater part of those who trouble themselves about the matter are
disingenuous and not, in fact, what they say. They are people who have heard
it said that it is the fashion to be thus daring. It is what they call
"shaking off the yoke," and they try to imitate this. But it would not be
difficult to make them understand how greatly they deceive themselves in
thus seeking esteem. This is not the way to gain it, even I say among those
men of the world who take a healthy view of things and who know that the
only way to succeed in this life is to make ourselves appear honourable,
faithful, judicious, and capable of useful service to a friend; because
naturally men love only what may be useful to them. Now, what do we gain by
hearing it said of a man that he has now thrown off the yoke, that he does
not believe there is a God who watches our actions, that he considers
himself the sole master of his conduct, and that he thinks he is accountable
for it only to himself.? Does he think that he has thus brought us to have
henceforth complete confidence in him and to look to him for consolation,
advice, and help in every need of life? Do they profess to have delighted us
by telling us that they hold our soul to be only a little wind and smoke,
especially by telling us this in a haughty and self-satisfied tone of voice?
Is this a thing to say gaily? Is it not, on the contrary, a thing to say
sadly, as the sad
Candida Ferreira
prophecies? No, but of his own miracle. What says Jesus Christ? Does He
speak of the evidence of the prophecies? No; His death had not fulfilled
them. But he says, Si non fecissem.213 Believe the works.
Two supernatural foundations of our wholly supernatural religion; one
visible, the other invisible; miracles with grace, miracles without grace.
The synagogue, which had been treated with love as a type of the Church, and
with hatred, because it was only the type, has been restored, being on the
point of falling when it was well with God, and thus a type.
Miracles prove the power which God has over hearts, by that which He
exercises over bodies.
The Church has never approved a miracle among heretics.
Miracles a support of religion: they have been the test of Jews; they have
been the test of Christians, saints, innocents, and true believers.
A miracle among schismatics is not so much to be feared; for schism, which
is more obvious than a miracle, visibly indicates their error. But, when
there is no schism and error is in question, miracle decides.
Si non fecissem quae alius non fecit.214 The wretches who have obliged us to
speak of miracles.
Abraham and Gideon confirm faith by miracles.
Judith. God speaks at last in their greatest oppression.
If the cooling of love leaves the Church almost without believers, miracles
will rouse them. This is one of the last effects of grace.
If one miracle were wrought among the Jesuits!
When a miracle disappoints the expectation of those in whose presence it
happens, and there is a disproportion between the state of their faith and
the instrument of the
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it.
The Messiah, according to the carnal Jews, was to be a great temporal
prince. Jesus Christ, according to carnal Christians, has come to dispense
us from the love of God and to give us sacraments which shall do everything
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We know that there is an infinite, and are ignorant of its nature. As we
know it to be false that numbers are finite, it is therefore true that there
is an infinity in number. But we do not know what it is. It is false that it
is even, it is false that it is odd; for the addition of a unit can make no
change in its nature. Yet it is a number, and every number is odd or even
(this is certainly true of every finite number). So we may well know that
there is a God without knowing what He is. Is there not one substantial
truth, seeing there are so many things which are not the truth itself?
We know then the existence and nature of the finite, because we also are
finite and have extension. We know the existence of the infinite and are
ignorant of its nature, because it has extension like us, but not limits
like us. But we know neither the existence nor the nature of God, because He
has neither extension nor limits.
But by faith we know His existence; in glory we shall know His nature. Now,
I have already shown that we may well know the existence of a thing, without
knowing its nature.
Let us now speak according to natural lights.
If there is a God
akshay bhat
goes mainly to establish these two facts: the corruption of nature, and
redemption by Jesus Christ. Now I contend that, if these men do not serve to
prove the truth of the redemption by the holiness of their behaviour, they
at least serve admirably to show the corruption of nature by sentiments so
unnatural.
Nothing is so important to man as his own state, nothing is so formidable to
him as eternity; and thus it is not natural that there should be men
indifferent to the loss of their existence, and to the perils of everlasting
suffering. They are quite different with regard to all other things. They
are afraid of mere trifles; they foresee them; they feel them. And this same
man who spends so many days and nights in rage and despair for the loss of
office, or for some imaginary insult to his honour, is the very one who
knows without anxiety and without emotion that he will lose all by death. It
is a monstrous thing to see in the same heart and at the same time this
sensibility to trifles and
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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 are multiplied, so
are their disappointments. All fails, they see no token of having
inclined God's heart to them, they do not see that He hears their
prayers at all, as they expected He would; and sometimes there have been
great temptations arising hence to leave off seeking, and to yield up
the case. But as they are still more terrified with fears of perishing,
and their former hopes of prevailing on God to be merciful to them in a
great measure fail, sometimes their religious affections have turned
into heart risings against God, because He will not pity them, and seems
to have little regard to their distress, and piteous cries, and to all
the pains they take. They think of the mercy God has shown to others;
how soon and how easily others have obtained comfort, and those too who
were worse than they, and have not labored so much as they have done;
and sometimes they have had even dreadful blasphemous thoughts, in these
circumstances.
But when they reflect on these wicked workings of heart against God-if
their convictions are continued, and the
baldrick
possessing it open and unveiled, it would be attacking it to say that we see
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, and I venture even to
say that no one has ever done so. We know well enough how those who are of
this mind behave. They believe they have made great efforts for their
instruction when they have spent a few hours in reading some book of
Scripture and have questioned some priests on the truths of the faith. After
that, they boast of having made vain search in books and among men. But,
verily, I will tell them what I have often said, that this negligence is
insuffer
akshay bhat
38Matt. 18:3. "Except ye become as little children."
[39]Ps. 119:36. "Incline my heart, O Lord, unto thy testimonies."
40Cicero, De finibus, V. 21. "There is no longer anything which is ours;
what I call ours is conventional."
[41]Seneca, Epistles, xcv. "It is by virtue of senatus-consultes and
plebiscites that one commits crimes."
[42]Tacitus, Annals, iii. 25. "Once we suffered from our vices; today we
suffer from our laws."
43Saint Augustine, City of God, iv. 27. "As he has ignored the truth which
frees, it is right he is mistaken."
[44]Cicero, De officiis, iii, 17. "Concerning true law."
45Eccles. 3:19. "for all is vanity."
46Rom. 8:20-21. "It shall be delivered."
[47]Horace, Odes, III. xxix. 13. "Changes nearly always please the great."
48Seneca, Epistles, xx. 8. "In order that you are satisfied with yourself
and the good that is born from you."
[49]Montaigne, Essays, ii. 12.
50Cicero, De Divinatione, ii. 58. "There is nothing so absurd that it has
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 multi
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[233]Prov. 12:8. "A man shall be commended according to his wisdom."
==========================================================================
A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God
by Jonathan Edwards
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A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God is Jonathan Edwards'
own account of the mighty way in which God moved among the people of
Northampton, Massachusetts and other nearby communities in the early
stages of what has become known as The Great Awakening. There is much to
be learned from Edwards regarding the nature of true conversion and how
God's Spirit works in awakening and converting sinners. A Faithful
Narrative is reproduced here in its entirety with the hopes that many
will profit greatly from the observations of the greatest evangelist
ever to grace the American continent.
The Narrative is divided into three sections:
I. A General Introductory Statement,
II. The Manner of Conversions Various, Yet Bearing a Great Analogy,
III. This Work Further Illustrated in Particular Instances.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Rev. and Honored Sir,
Having seen your letter to my honored Uncle Williams of Hatfield, of
July 20, wherein you inform him of the notice that has been taken of the
late wonderful work of God, in this and some other towns in this
country, by the Rev. Dr. Watts, and Dr. Guyse, of London, and the
congregation to which the last of these preached on a monthly day of
solemn prayer; also, of your desire to be more perfectly acquainted with
it, by some of us on the spot: and having been since informed by my
Uncle Williams that you desire me to undertake it, I would now do it,
Greg Heath
God, but His image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship; and
still less must we love or worship its opposite, namely, falsehood.
I can easily love total darkness; but if God keeps me in a state of
semi-darkness, such partial darkness displeases me, and, because I do not
see therein the advantage of total darkness, it is unpleasant to me. This is
a fault and a sign that I make for myself an idol of darkness, apart from
the order of God. Now only His order must be worshipped.
583. The feeble-minded are people who know the truth, but only affirm it so
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, blam
Gavin Cawley
country, chance gives them to us.
It is a pitiable thing to see so many Turks, heretics, and infidels follow
the way of their fathers for the sole reason that each has been imbued with
the prejudice that it is the best. And that fixes for each man his condition
of locksmith, soldier, etc.
Hence savages care nothing for Providence.
99. There is an universal and essential difference between the actions of
the will and all other actions.
The will is one of the chief factors in belief, not that it creates belief,
but because things are true or false according to the aspect in which we
look at them. The will, which prefers one aspect to another, turns away the
mind from considering the qualities of all that it does not like to see; and
thus the mind, moving in accord with the will, stops to consider the aspect
which it likes and so judges by what it sees.
100. Self-love. The nature of self-love and of this human Ego is to love
self only and consider self only. But what will man do? He cannot prevent
this object that he loves from being full of faults and wants. He wants to
be great, and he sees himself small. He wants to be happy, and he sees
himself miserable. He wants to be perfect, and he sees himself full of
imperfections. He wants to be the object of love and esteem among men, and
he sees that his faults merit only their hatred and contempt. This
embarrassment in which he finds himself produces in him the most unrighteous
and criminal passion that can be imagined; for he conce
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charms him, or if he enjoys himself in play for five or six days, he is
miserable if he returns to his former way of living. Nothing is more common
than that.
129. Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.
130. Restlessness.--If a soldier, or labourer, complain of the hardship of
his lot, set him to do nothing.
131. Weariness.--Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at
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
Tomasso
of a precept, not the other. Hezekiah.
The synagogue was only a type, and thus it did not perish; and it was only a
type, and so it is decayed. It was a type which contained the truth, and
thus it has lasted until it no longer contained the truth.
My reverend father, all this happened in types. Other religions perish; this
one perishes not.
Miracles are more important than you think. They have served for the
foundation, and will serve for the continuation of the Church till
Antichrist, till the end.
The two witnesses.
In the Old Testament and the New, miracles are performed in connection with
types. Salvation, or a useless thing, if not to show that we must submit to
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 o
akshay bhat
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 to that
side by the truth, becomes thereby susceptible of all the falsehoods of
this...
819. Jeremiah 23:32. The miracles of the false prophets. In the Hebrew and
Vatable they are the tricks.
Miracle does not always signify mira
akshay bhat
Pyrenees, error on the other side.
Men admit that justice does not consist in these customs, but that it
resides in natural laws, common to every country. They would certainly
maintain it obstinately, if reckless chance which has distributed human laws
had encountered even one which was universal; but the farce is that the
caprice of men has so many vagaries that there is no such law.
Theft, incest, infanticide, parricide, have all had a place among virtuous
actions. Can anything be more ridiculous than that a man should have the
right to kill me because he lives on the other side of the water, and
because his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have none with him?
Doubtless there are natural laws; but good reason once corrupted has
corrupted all. Nihil amplius nostrum est; quod nostrum dicimus, artis est.40
Ex senatus--consultis et plebiscitis crimina exercentur.[41] Ut olim vitiis,
sic nunc legibus laboramus.[42]
The result of this confusion is that one affirms the essence of justice to
be the authority of the legislator; another, the interest of the sovereign;
another, present custom, and this is the most sure. Nothing, according to
reason alone, is just itself; all changes with time. Custom creates the