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SECTION VIII: THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
556. ... Men blaspheme what they do not know. The Christian religion
consists in two points. It is of equal concern to men to know them, and
it is equally dangerous to be ignorant of them. And it is equally of God's
mercy that He has given indications of both.
And yet they take occasion to conclude that one of these points does
not exist, from that which should have caused them to infer the other.
The sages who have said there is only one God have been persecuted, the
Jews were hated, and still more the Christians. They have seen by the light
of nature that if there be a true religion on earth, the course of all
things must tend to it as to a centre.
The whole course of things must have for its object the establishment
and the greatness of religion. Men must have within them feelings suited
to what religion teaches us. And, finally, religion must so be the object
and the centre to which all things tend that whoever knows the principles
of religion can give an explanation both of the whole nature of man in
particular and of the whole course of the world in general.
And on this ground they take occasion to revile the Christian religion,
because they misunderstand it. They imagine that it consists simply in
the worship of a God considered as great, powerful, and eternal; which
is strictly deism, almost as far removed from the Christian religion as
atheism, which is its exact opposite. And thence they conclude that this
religion is not true, because they do not see that all things concur to
the establishment of this point, that God does not manifest Himself to
men with all the evidence which He could show.
But let them conclude what they will against deism, they will conclude
nothing against the Christian religion, which properly consists in the
mystery of the Redeemer, who, uniting in Himself the two natures, human
and divine, has redeemed men from the corruption of sin in order to reconcile
them in His divine person to God.
The Christian religion, then, teaches men these two truths; that there
is a God whom men can know, and that there is a corruption in their nature
which renders them unworthy of Him. It is equally important to men to know
both these points; and it is equally dangerous for man to know God without
knowing his own wretchedness, and to know his own wretchedness without
knowing the Redeemer who can free him from it. The knowledge of only one
of these points gives rise either to the pride of philosophers, who have
known God, and not their own wretchedness, or to the despair of atheists,
who know their own wretchedness, but not the Redeemer.
And, as it is alike necessary to man to know these two points, so is
it alike merciful of God to have made us know them. The Christian religion
does this; it is in this that it consists.
Let us herein examine the order of the world and see if all things
do not tend to establish these two chief points of this religion: Jesus
Christ is end of all, and the centre to which all tends. Whoever knows
Him knows the reason of everything.
Those who fall into error err only through failure to see one of these
two things. We can, then, have an excellent knowledge of God without that
of our own wretchedness and of our own wretchedness without that of God.
But we cannot know Jesus Christ without knowing at the same time both God
and our own wretchedness.
Therefore I shall not undertake here to prove by natural reasons either
the existence of God, or the Trinity, or the immortality of the soul, or
anything of that nature; not only because I should not feel myself sufficiently
able to find in nature arguments to convince hardened atheists, but also
because such knowledge without Jesus Christ is useless and barren. Though
a man should be convinced that numerical proportions are immaterial truths,
eternal and dependent on a first truth, in which they subsist and which
is called God, I should not think him far advanced towards his own salvation.
The God of Christians is not a God who is simply the author of mathematical
truths, or of the order of the elements; that is the view of heathens and
Epicureans. He is not merely a God who exercises His providence over the
life and fortunes of men, to bestow on those who worship Him a long and
happy life. That was the portion of the Jews. But the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Christians, is a God of love
and of comfort, a God who fills the soul and heart of those whom He possesses,
a God who makes them conscious of their inward wretchedness, and His infinite
mercy, who unites Himself to their inmost soul, who fills it with humility
and joy, with confidence and love, who renders them incapable of any other
end than Himself.
All who seek God without Jesus Christ, and who rest in nature, either
find no light to satisfy them, or come to form for themselves a means of
knowing God and serving Him without a mediator. Thereby they fall either
into atheism, or into deism, two things which the Christian religion abhors
almost equally.
Without Jesus Christ the world would not exist; for it should needs
be either that it would be destroyed or be a hell.
If the world existed to instruct man of God, His divinity would shine
through every part in it in an indisputable manner; but as it exists only
by Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ, and to teach men both their corruption
and their redemption, all displays the proofs of these two truths.
All appearance indicates neither a total exclusion nor a manifest presence
of divinity, but the presence of a God who hides himself. Everything bears
this character.
... Shall he alone who knows his nature know it only to be miserable?
Shall he alone who knows it be alone unhappy?
... He must not see nothing at all, nor must he see sufficient for
him to believe he possesses it; but he must see enough to know that he
has lost it. For to know of his loss, he must see and not see; and that
is exactly the state in which he naturally is.
... Whatever part he takes, I shall not leave him at rest.
557. ... It is, then, true that everything teaches man his condition,
but he must understand this well. For it is not true that all reveals God,
and it is not true that all conceals God. But it is at the same time true
that He hides Himself from those who tempt Him, and that He reveals Himself
to those who seek Him, because men are both unworthy and capable of God;
unworthy by their corruption, capable by their original nature.
558. What shall we conclude from all our darkness, but our unworthiness?
559. If there never had been any appearance of God, this eternal deprivation
would have been equivocal, and might have as well corresponded with the
absence of all divinity, as with the unworthiness of men to know Him; but
His occasional, though not continual, appearances remove the ambiguity.
If He appeared once, He exists always; and thus we cannot but conclude
both that there is a God and that men are unworthy of Him.
560. We do not understand the glorious state of Adam, nor the nature
of his 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 not reason
which can determine men not to follow it, and thus it can only be lust
or malice of heart. And by this means there is sufficient evidence to condemn,
and insufficient to convince; so that it appears in those who follow it
that it is grace, and not reason, which makes them follow it; and in those
who shun it, that it is lust, not reason, which makes them shun it.
Vere discipuli, vere Israelita, vere liberi, vere cibus.100
565. Recognise, then, the truth of religion in the very obscurity of
religion, in the little light we have of it, and in the indifference which
we have to knowing it.
566. We understand nothing of the works of God, if we do not take as
a principle that He has willed to blind some and enlighten others.
567. The two contrary reasons. We must begin with that; without that
we understand nothing, and all is heretical; and we must even add at the
end of each truth that the opposite truth is to be remembered.
568. Objection. The Scripture is plainly full of matters not dictated
by the Holy Spirit. Answer. Then they do not harm faith. Objection. But
the Church has decided that all is of the Holy Spirit. Answer. I answer
two things: first, the Church has not so decided; secondly, if she should
so decide, it could be maintained.
Do you think that the prophecies cited in the Gospel are related to
make you believe? No, it is to keep you from believing.
569. Canonical.--The heretical books in the beginning of the Church
serve to prove the canonical.
570. To the chapter on the Fundamentals must be added that on Typology
touching the reason of types: why Jesus Christ was prophesied as to His
first coming; why prophesied obscurely as to the manner.
571. The reason why. Types.--They had to deal with a carnal people
and to render them the depositary of the spiritual covenant. To give faith
to the Messiah, it was necessary there should have been precedent prophesies,
and that these should be conveyed by persons above suspicion, diligent,
faithful, unusually zealous, and known to all the world.
To accomplish all this, God chose this carnal people, to whom He entrusted
the prophecies which foretell the Messiah as a deliverer and as a dispenser
of those carnal goods which this people loved. And thus they have had an
extraordinary passion for their prophets and, in sight of the whole world,
have had charge of these books which foretell their Messiah, assuring all
nations that He should come and in the way foretold in the books, which
they held open to the whole world. Yet this people, deceived by the poor
and ignominious advent of the Messiah, have been His most cruel enemies.
So that they, the people least open to suspicion in the world of favouring
us, the most strict and most zealous that can be named for their law and
their prophets, have kept the books incorrupt. Hence those who have rejected
and crucified Jesus Christ, who has been to them an offence, are those
who have charge of the books which testify of Him, and state that He will
be an offence and rejected. Therefore they have shown it was He by rejecting
Him, and He has been alike proved both by the righteous Jews who received
Him and by the unrighteous who rejected Him, both facts having been foretold.
Wherefore the prophecies have a hidden and spiritual meaning to which
this people were hostile, under the carnal meaning which they loved. If
the spiritual meaning had been revealed, they would not have loved it,
and, unable to bear it, they would not have been zealous of the preservation
of their books and their ceremonies; and if they had loved these spiritual
promises, and had preserved them incorrupt till the time of the Messiah,
their testimony would have had no force, because they had been his friends.
Therefore it was well that the spiritual meaning should be concealed;
but, on the other hand, if this meaning had been so hidden as not to appear
at all, it could not have served as a proof of the Messiah. What then was
done? In a crowd of passages it has been hidden under the temporal meaning,
and in a few been clearly revealed; besides that, the time and the state
of the world have been so clearly foretold that it is clearer than the
sun. And in some places this spiritual meaning is so clearly expressed
that it would require a blindness, like that which the flesh imposes on
the spirit when it is subdued by it, not to recognise it.
See, then, what has been the prudence of God. This meaning is concealed
under another in an infinite number of passages, and in some, though rarely,
it is revealed; but yet so that the passages in which it is concealed are
equivocal and can suit both meanings; whereas the passages where it is
disclosed are unequivocal and can only suit the spiritual meaning.
So that this cannot lead us into error and could only be misunderstood
by so carnal a people.
For when blessings are promised in abundance, what was to prevent them
from understanding the true blessings, but their covetousness, which limited
the meaning to worldly goods? But those whose only good was in God referred
them to God alone. For there are two principles, which divide the wills
of men, covetousness and charity. Not that covetousness cannot exist along
with faith in God, nor charity with worldly riches; but covetousness uses
God and enjoys the world, and charity is the opposite.
Now the ultimate end gives names to things. All which prevents us from
attaining it is called an enemy to us. Thus the creatures, however good,
are the enemies of the righteous, when they turn them away from God, and
God Himself is the enemy of those whose covetousness He confounds.
Thus as the significance of the word enemy is dependent on the ultimate
end, the righteous understood by it their passions, and the carnal the
Babylonians; and so these terms were obscure only for the unrighteous.
And this is what Isaiah says: Signa legem in electis meis,101
and that Jesus Christ shall be a stone of stumbling. But, "Blessed
are they who shall not be offended in him." Hosea 14:9, says excellently,
"Where is the wise? and he shall understand what I say. The righteous
shall know them, for the ways of God are right; but the transgressors shall
fall therein."
572. Hypothesis that the apostles were impostors. The time clearly,
the manner obscurely. Five typical proofs.
1600 prophets.
400 scattered.
-----
2000
573. Blindness of Scripture.--"The Scripture," said the Jews,
"says that we shall not know whence Christ will come (John 7:27, and
12:34)--The Scripture says that Christ abideth for ever, and He said that
He should die." Therefore, says Saint John, they believed not, though
He had done so many miracles, that the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled:
"He hath blinded them," etc.
574. Greatness.--Religion is so great a thing that it is right that
those who will not take the trouble to seek it, if it be obscure, should
be deprived of it. Why, then, do any complain, if it be such as can be
found by seeking?
575. All things work together for good to the elect, even the obscurities
of Scripture; for they honour them because of what is divinely clear. And
all things work together for evil to the rest of the world, even what is
clear; for they revile such, because of the obscurities which they do not
understand.
576. The general conduct of the world towards the Church: God willing
to blind and to enlighten.--The event having proved the divinity of these
prophecies, the rest ought to be believed. And thereby we see the order
of the world to be of this kind. The miracles of the Creation and the Deluge
being forgotten, God sends the law and the miracles of Moses, the prophets
who prophesied particular things; and to prepare a lasting miracle, He
prepares prophecies and their fulfilment; but, as the prophecies could
be suspected, He desires to make them above suspicion, etc.
577. God has made the blindness of this people subservient to the good
of the elect.
578. There is sufficient clearness to enlighten the elect, and sufficient
obscurity to humble them. There is sufficient obscurity to blind the reprobate,
and sufficient clearness to condemn them and make them inexcusable. Saint
Augustine, Montaigne, Sebond.
The genealogy of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is intermingled
with so many others that are useless that it cannot be distinguished. If
Moses had kept only the record of the ancestors of Christ, that might have
been too plain. If he had not noted that of Jesus Christ, it might not
have been sufficiently plain. But, after all, whoever looks closely sees
that of Jesus Christ expressly traced through Tamar, Ruth, etc.
Those who ordained these sacrifices knew their uselessness; those who
have declared their uselessness, have not ceased to practise them.
If God had permitted only one religion, it has been too easily known;
but when we look at it closely, we clearly discern the truth amidst this
confusion.
The premiss.--Moses was a clever man. If, then, he ruled himself by
his reason, he would say nothing clearly which was directly against reason.
Thus all the very apparent weaknesses are strength. Example; the two
genealogies in Saint Matthew and Saint Luke. What can be clearer than that
this was not concerted?
579. God (and the Apostles), foreseeing that the seeds of pride would
make heresies spring up, and being unwilling to give them occasion to arise
from correct expressions, has put in Scripture and the prayers of the Church
contrary words and sentences to produce their fruit in time.
So in morals He gives charity, which produces fruits contrary to lust.
580. Nature has some perfections to show that she is the image of God,
and some defects to show that she is only His image.
581. God prefers rather to incline the will than the intellect. Perfect
clearness would be of use to the intellect and would harm the will. To
humble pride.
582. We make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity
is not 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, 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 power. Thus our religion is foolish
in respect to the effective cause and wise in respect to the wisdom which
prepares it.
588. Our religion is wise and foolish. Wise, because it is the most
learned and the most founded on miracles, prophecies, etc. Foolish, because
it is not all this which makes us belong to it. This makes us, indeed,
condemn those who do not belong to it; but it does not cause belief in
those who do belong to it. It is the cross that makes them believe, ne
evacuata sit crux.103 And so Saint Paul, who came with wisdom
and signs, says that he has come neither with wisdom nor with signs; for
he came to convert. But those who come only to convince can say that they
come with wisdom and with signs.
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."
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