her defects to show that she is no more than his image.
Men being unaccustomed to form merit, but only to recompense it when
they find it formed, judge of God by themselves.
When we wish to think of God, there is a something which turns us
aside, and tempts us to think on other subjects; all this is evil and
born with us.
Lust has become natural to us, and has made our second nature. Thus
there are two natures in us, one good, the other evil.--Where is
God? Where you are not, and the kingdom of God is within you.--_The
Rabbis._
It is then true that everything instructs man concerning his
condition, but the statement must be clearly understood, for it is
not true that all reveals God, and it is not true that all hides
him. But it is true both 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.
We cannot conceive the glorious state of Adam, nor the nature of his
sin, nor the transmission of it to us. These things took place under
the conditions of a nature quite different to our own, transcending
our present capacity.
The knowledge of all this would be of no use in helping us to escape
from it, and all we need know is that we are miserable, corrupt,
separate from God, but ransomed by Jesus Christ, and of this we have
on earth wonderful proofs.
Thus the two proofs of corruption and redemption are drawn from the
wicked, who live indifferent to religion, and from the Jews who are
its irreconcilable enemies.
All faith consists in Jesus Christ and in Adam, and all morality in
lust and in grace.
Shall he only who knows his nature know it only to his misery? Shall
he alone who knows it be alone miserable?
He must not see nothing whatever, nor must he see so much as to
believe he possesses it, but he must see enough to know that he has
lost it; for to be aware of loss he must see and not see, and that is
precisely the state in which he is by nature.
We wish for truth, and find in ourselves only uncertainty.
We seek after happiness, and find only misery and death.
We cannot but wish for truth and happiness, and we are incapable
neither of certainty nor of happiness. This desire is left to us, as
much to punish us as to make us feel whence we are drawn.
Will it be asserted that because men have spoken of righteousness
as having fled from the earth, therefore they knew of original
sin?--_Nemo ante obitum beatus est._--That therefore they knew death
to be the beginning of eternal and essential happiness?
The dignity of man while innocent consisted in using and having
dominion over the creatures, but now in separating himself from them,
and subjecting himself to them.
_Source of contradictions._--A God humbled, even to the death of the
cross, a Messiah by his death triumphing over death. Two natures in
Jesus Christ, two advents, two states of human nature.
_Of original sin.--Ample tradition of original sin according to the
Jews._
On the word in Genesis, viii. 21. The imagination of man's heart is
evil from his youth.
R. Moses Haddarschan: This evil leaven is placed in man from the time
that he is formed.
_Massechet Succa_: This evil leaven has seven names in Scripture.
It is called evil, an unclean prepuce, an enemy, a scandal, a heart
of stone, the north wind; all this signifies the malignity which is
concealed and ingrained in the heart of man.
_Midrasch Tillim_ says the same thing, and that God will free the
good nature of man from the evil.
This malignity is renewed every day against man, as it is written,
Psalm xxxvii. The wicked watcheth the just, and striveth to kill him,
but God will not abandon him.
This malignity tries the heart of man in this life, and will accuse
him in the other.
All this is found in the _Talmud_.
_Midrasch Tillim_ on Ps. iv.: "Stand in awe and sin not." Stand in
awe and be afraid of your lust, and it will not lead you into sin.
And on Ps. xxxvi. "The wicked has said in his heart: Let not the fear
of God be before me." That is to say that the malignity natural to
man has said that to the wicked.
_Misdrasch el Kohelet_: "Better is a poor and a wise child than an
old and foolish king who cannot foresee the future." The child is
virtue, and the king is the malignity of man. It is called king
because all the members obey it, and old because it is in the heart
of man from infancy to old age, and foolish because it leads man in
the way of perdition which he does not foresee.
The same thing is in _Misdrasch Tillim_.
_Bereschist Rabba_ on Ps. xxxv.: "Lord, all my bones shall bless
thee, who deliverest the poor from the tyrant." And is there a
greater tyrant than the evil leaven? And on Proverbs xxv., "If thine
enemy be hungry, feed him." That is to say, if the evil leaven
hunger, give him the bread of wisdom of which speaks Prov. ix., and
if he be thirsty, give him the water of which speaks Isaiah lv.
_Misdrasch Tillim_ says the same thing, and that the Scripture in
that passage speaking of our enemy, means the evil leaven, and that
in giving it that bread and that water, we heap coals of fire on his
head.
_Misdrasch Kohelet_ on Ecclesiastes ix. "A great king besieged a
little city." This great king is the evil leaven, the great engines
with which he surrounds it are temptations, and there has been found
a poor wise man who has delivered it, that is to say virtue.
And on Ps. xli. "Blessed is he that considereth the poor."
And on Ps. lxxviii. The spirit goeth and returneth not again, whereof
some have taken occasion of error concerning the immortality of the
soul; but the sense is that this spirit is the evil leaven, which
accompanies man till death, and will not return at the resurrection.
And on Ps. ciii. the same thing.
And on Ps. xvi.
_Chronology of Rabbinism._
The citations of pages are from the book _Pugio_.
Page 27, R. Hakadosch, _anno_ 200, author of the Mischna or vocal
law, or 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 agreeable discourses,
historical and theological. The same author wrote the books called
Rabot.
A hundred years after the _Talmud Hierosol. anno_ 440, was made the
_Babylonian Talmud_, by R. Ase, 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_ as a whole comprises the _Mischna_ and the _Gemara_.
_THE PERPETUITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION._
_Perpetuity._--That religion has always existed on earth, which
consists in believing that man has fallen from a state of glory
and of communion with God into a state of sorrow, penitence, and
estrangement from God, but that after this life we shall be restored
by a Messiah who was to come. All things have passed away, and this
has subsisted for which are all things.
Men in the first age of the world were carried away into every
kind of misconduct, and yet there were holy men, as Enoch, Lamech
and others, who awaited with patience the Christ promised from the
beginning of the world. Noah saw the evil of men at its height; and
he was found worthy to save the world in his person, by the hope of
the Messiah of whom he was the type. Abraham was compassed round
about by idolaters, when God revealed to him the mystery of the
Messiah, whom he greeted from afar. In the days of Isaac and Jacob
abomination was spread over the whole earth, but these holy men
lived in faith, and Jacob dying and blessing his children, cried in
a transport which made him break off his discourse, "I await, O my
God, the Saviour whom thou hast promised. _Salutare tuum expectabo,
Domine_." The Egyptians were infected both with idolatry and magic,
even the people of God were led astray by their example. Yet Moses
and others saw him whom they saw not, and adored him, looking to
the eternal gifts which he was preparing for them. The Greeks and
Latins then enthroned false deities, the poets made a hundred divers
theologies, the philosophers separated into a thousand different
sects, and yet in the heart of Judæa were always chosen men who
foretold the advent of this Messiah, known to them alone. He came
at length in the fulness of time, and since then, notwithstanding
the birth of so many schisms and heresies, so many revolutions in
government, such great changes in all things, this Church, adoring
him who has ever been adored, has subsisted without a break. It is a
wonderful, incomparable and wholly divine fact, that this Religion
which has ever endured, has ever been assailed. A thousand times has
it been on the eve of an universal ruin, and whenever it has been in
that state God has restored it by extraordinary manifestations of
his power. This is marvellous, so also that it has survived without
yielding to the will of tyrants. For it is not strange that a State
subsists when its laws sometimes give way to necessity, but that....
States would perish if they did not often make their laws bend to
necessity, but Religion has never suffered this or practised it. And
indeed there must be either compromise or miracles. There is nothing
unusual in being saved by yielding, and strictly speaking this is
not endurance, besides in the end they perish utterly: there is none
which has endured a thousand years. But that this Religion, although
inflexible, should always have been maintained, shows that it is
divine.
The religion which alone is contrary to our nature, to common sense,
and to our pleasures, is that alone which has always existed.
The science which alone is contrary to common sense and human nature,
is that alone which has always subsisted among men.
_To show that the true Jews and the true Christians have one and
the same Religion._--The religion of the Jews seemed to consist
essentially in the fatherhood of Abraham, in circumcision, sacrifices
and ceremonies, in the ark, in the temple at Jerusalem, and lastly,
in the Law, and the Covenant with Moses.
I say that it consisted in none of these, but solely in the love of
God, and that all else was rejected by him;
That God did not accept the posterity of Abraham;
That the Jews if they transgressed were to be punished like
strangers. Deut. viii. 19. "If thou at all forget the Lord thy God,
and walk after other gods, I testify against you this day that ye
shall surely perish as the nations which God has destroyed before
you."
That strangers if they loved God were to be received by him as the
Jews. Isaiah lvi. 3. "Let not the stranger say, The Lord will not
receive me.--The strangers that join themselves unto the Lord God
to serve him and love him, will I bring unto my holy mountain, and
accept their sacrifices, for mine house is an house of prayer."
That the true Jews ascribed all their merit to God, and not to
Abraham. Isaiah lxiii. 16. "Doubtless thou art our Father, though
Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. Thou art
our Father and our Redeemer."
Moses himself said that God would not accept the person of any.
Deut. x. 17. "God," said he, "accepteth neither persons nor
sacrifices."
That the circumcision commanded was that of the heart. Deut. x.
16; Jeremiah iv. 4. "Be ye circumcised in heart. Cut off the
superfluities of your heart, harden not your hearts, for your God is
a great God, strong and terrible, who accepteth not the person of
any."
That God said he would one day do it. Deut. xxx. 6. "God will
circumcise thine heart, and thy children's heart, that thou mayest
love him with all thine heart."
That the uncircumcised in heart should be judged.
Jer. ix. 26. For God will judge the uncircumcised peoples, and all
the people of Israel, because he is uncircumcised in heart.
That the exterior is nothing in comparison of the interior. Joel. ii.
13. _Scindite corda vestra_, etc. Isaiah lviii. 3,4, etc.
The love of God is commanded in the whole of Deuteronomy, Deut. xxx.
19: "I call heaven and earth to witness that I have set before you
death and life, that you may choose life, and that you may love God,
and obey him, for God is your life."
That the Jews, for lack of their love, should be rejected for their
crimes, and the Gentiles chosen in their stead.
Hosea i. 10.
Deut. xxxii. 20. "I will hide myself from them in view of their
latter sins, for they are a froward generation. They have provoked
me to anger by things which are no gods, and I will provoke them
to jealousy by a people which is not my people, by an ignorant and
foolish nation."
Isaiah lxv. 1. That temporal goods are false, and that the true good
is to be united to God.
Psalm cxliii. 15. That their feasts were displeasing to God.
Amos v. 21. That the sacrifices of the Jews were displeasing to God.
Isa. lxvi. 1-3; l. 11; Jerem. vi. 20.
David, _Miserere_. Even on the part of the good, _Expectavi_.
Psalm xlix. 8-14. That he has established them only for their
hardness. Micah, admirably, vi. 6-8.
I. Kings xv. 22; Hosea vi. 6.
That the sacrifices of the Gentiles should be accepted of God, and
that God would none of the sacrifices of the Jews. Malachi i. 11.
That God would make a new covenant with the Messiah, and that the Old
should be disannulled. Jer. xxxi. 31.
_Mandata non bona._ Ezek. xx. 25.
That the old things should be forgotten. Isa. xliii. 18, 19; lxv. 17,
18.
That the ark should come no more to mind. Jer. iii. 15, 16.
That the temple should be rejected. Jer. vii. 12-14.
That the sacrifices should be rejected, and purer sacrifices
established. Malachi i. 11.
That the order of Aaron's priesthood should be rejected and that of
Melchizedek introduced by the Messiah. _Dixit Dominus._
That this sacrifice should be eternal. _Ib._
That Jerusalem should be rejected, and Rome admitted.
That the name of the Jews should be rejected and a new name given.
Isa. lxv. 15.
That this new name should be more excellent than that of the Jews,
and eternal. Isa. lvii. 5.
That the Jews should be without prophets, Amos, without a king,
without princes, without sacrifice, without an idol.
That the Jews should nevertheless always remain a people. Jer. xxxi.
36.
_Perpetuity._--Men have always believed in a Messiah. The tradition
from Adam was still fresh in Noah and in Moses. After these the
prophets bore witness, at the same time foretelling other things
which being from time to time fulfilled in the eyes of all,
demonstrated the truth of their mission, and consequently that of
their promises touching the Messiah. Jesus Christ worked miracles,
and the Apostles also, who converted all the Gentiles; and the
prophecies being thus once accomplished, the Messiah is for ever
proved.
... On that account I reject all other religions.
In that I find an answer to all objections.
It is just that a God so pure should only disclose himself to those
whose hearts are purified.
Therefore that religion is lovable to me, and I find it sufficiently
authorized by so divine a morality, but I find yet more....
I find it a convincing fact that since the memory of man has lasted,
it was constantly declared to men that they were universally corrupt,
and that a Redeemer should come;
That it was not one man who said it, but an infinity of men, and
a whole nation lasting for four thousand years, prophesying, and
created for that very purpose.... So I stretch out my arms to my
Redeemer, who having been foretold for four thousand years, has come
to suffer and to die for me on earth at the time and under all the
circumstances which had been foretold, and by his grace I await death
in peace, in the hope of being eternally united to him; yet I live
with joy, whether in the good which it pleases him to bestow on me,
or in the ill which he sends for my good, and which he has taught me
to bear by his example.
The Synagogue preceded the Church, the Jews preceded the Christians,
the prophets foretold the Christians, Saint John foretold Jesus
Christ.
No religion but our own has taught that man is born in sin; no sect
of philosophers ever said this, therefore none has said the truth.
No sect or religion has always existed on earth, except the Christian
religion.
The Christian religion is that alone which renders man lovable and
happy at once. Living in the world he cannot be lovable and happy at
the same time.
In all times either men have spoken of the true God, or the true God
has spoken to men.
There are two foundations, one interior and the other exterior, grace
and miracles, and both are supernatural.
_PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION._
_Proofs of Religion._
Morals--Doctrine--Miracles--Prophecies--Figures.
_Proof_--1. The Christian religion having established itself so
strongly, yet so quietly, whilst contrary to nature.--2. The
sanctity, the dignity, and the humility of a Christian soul.--3. The
wonders of holy Scripture.--4. Jesus Christ in particular.--5. The
apostles in particular.--6. Moses and the prophets in particular.--7.
The Jewish people.--8. The Prophecies.--9. Perpetuity. No religion
has perpetuity.--10. The Doctrine, which explains all.--11. The
sanctity of this law.--12. By the course of the world.
It is beyond doubt that after considering what is life and what is
religion we cannot refuse to act on the inclination to follow it, if
it comes into our heart, and it is certain there is no ground for
jeering at those who follow it.
_The general conduct of the world towards the Church._--God willing
both to blind and enlighten.--The event having proved that these
prophecies were divine, the remainder ought to be believed, and hence
we see that the order of the world is on this manner.
The miracles of the creation and the deluge being forgotten, God
sent the law and the miracles of Moses, the prophets who prophesied
particular things, and to prepare an abiding miracle he prepares
prophecies and their fulfilment. But as the prophecies might be
suspected he wishes to make them beyond suspicion, etc.
... But even those who seem most opposed to the glory of religion are
not in that respect useless for others. We draw from them the first
argument, that here is something supernatural, for a blindness of
that kind is not natural, and if their folly renders them so opposed
to their own good, it will serve to guarantee others against it, by
the horror of an example so deplorable, and a folly so worthy of
compassion.
... Men revile what they do not understand. The Christian religion
consists in two points. It is of equal moment to men to know them
both, and equally dangerous to ignore either. And it is equally of
God's mercy that he has given marks of both.
Yet they take occasion to conclude that one of these points does not
exist from that which is intended to make them certain of the other.
Those sages who have said there is a God have been persecuted, the
Jews were hated, and still more the Christians. They saw 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. And on this ground they
venture to revile the Christian religion because they misunderstand
it. They imagine that it consists simply in the adoration of a God
conceived as great, powerful and eternal; which is in fact deism,
almost as far removed from the Christian religion as atheism, its
exact opposite. And hence they infer the falsehood of our religion,
because they do not see that all things concur to the establishment
of this point, that God does not manifest himself to man with all the
evidence which is possible.
But let them conclude what they will against deism, they can conclude
nothing on that account against the Christian religion, which
properly consists in the mystery of the Redeemer, who, uniting in
himself the two natures human and divine, has withdrawn men from the
corruption of sin that he might in his divine person reconcile them
to God.
True religion then teaches these two truths to men, that there is
a God whom they are capable of knowing, and that there is such
corruption in their nature as to render them unworthy of him. It is
of equal importance to men that they should apprehend the one and the
other of these points, and it is alike dangerous for man to know God
without the knowledge of his own worthlessness, and to know his own
worthlessness without the knowledge of the Redeemer who may deliver
him from it. To apprehend the one without the other begets either the
pride of philosophers, who knew God, but not their own wretchedness;
or the despair of atheists, who know their own wretchedness, but not
the Redeemer. And as it is alike necessary for man to know these
two points, so it is alike of the mercy of God to have given us the
knowledge. 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 main points of our
Religion.
It is a remarkable fact that no canonical writer has ever employed
nature to prove God. All tend to make him be believed. David, Solomon
and others have never said: "There is no vacuum, therefore there is a
God." They must have been cleverer than the cleverest in after days
who have all used this argument.
This is well worth considering.
If it be a mark of weakness to prove God by nature, despise not the
Scripture for not doing so: if it be a mark of power to know these
contradictions, value the Scriptures on that account.
What! Do you not say yourself that the sky and the birds prove
God?--No.--And does not your religion say so?--No. For however it may
be true in a sense for some souls to whom God has given this light,
it is nevertheless false in regard to the majority.
Think you it is impossible that God is infinite, without
parts?--Yes.--I will then make you see something which is infinite
and indivisible. A point moving everywhere with infinite swiftness,
for it is in all places, and is whole and entire in each situation.
Perhaps this effect of nature, which seems to you impossible
beforehand, may teach you to know that there may be others also which
you know not as yet. Do not then draw this conclusion from your
apprenticeship, that nothing remains for you to know, but rather that
an infinity remains for you to know.
It is incomprehensible that there should be a God, and
incomprehensible that there should not be; that there should be a
soul in the body, and that we should have no soul; that the world
should have been created, and that it should not, etc.; that original
sin should be, and that it should not be.
If we choose to say that man is too little to merit communion with
God, we must be indeed great to form a judgment on the subject.
The Eternal is for ever, if he is at all.
But it is impossible that God should ever be the end, if he is not
the beginning. We look above, but lean upon the sand, and the earth
will melt, and we shall fall whilst looking towards heaven.
_Objection._ The Scripture is plainly full of matters which were not
dictated by the Holy Spirit.
_Answer._ Then they do no harm to faith.
_Objection._ But the Church has decided that all is of the Holy
Spirit.
_Answer._ I answer two things: 1. That the Church has never so
decided; 2. That if she should so decide it might be maintained.
My God! what trash is all this talk: "Has God made the world but
to condemn it? will he ask so much of creatures so weak?" etc.
Scepticism is the remedy for this evil, and will lower this vanity.
God has willed to redeem mankind and to open salvation to those who
seek him. But men render themselves so unworthy of it, that it is
just that God should refuse to some because of their hardness of
heart what he grants to others out of a mercy not their due. Had it
been his will to overcome the stubbornness of the most hardened, he
could have rendered them unable to doubt the truth of his essence, in
revealing himself manifestly to them as he will appear at the last
day, amid thunderings and lightnings, and so great a convulsion of
nature, that the dead will rise again, and the blindest shall see
him.