THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
555
... 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 to 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 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 the 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 ...
556
... 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.
557
What shall we conclude from all our darkness, but our unworthiness?
558
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.
559
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.
560
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.
561
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.
562
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.
563
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._[207]
564
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.
565
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.
566
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.
567
_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.
568
_Canonical._--The heretical books in the beginning of the Church serve
to prove the canonical.
569
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.
570
_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
prophecies, 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 has 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_,[208] and that Jesus Christ shall be a stone of stumbling. But,
"Blessed are they who shall not be offended in him." Hosea,[209] _ult._,
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."
571
Hypothesis that the apostles were impostors.--The time clearly, the
manner obscurely.--Five typical proofs.
{1600 prophets.
2000 {
{ 400 scattered.
572
_Blindness of Scripture._--"The Scripture," said the Jews, "says that we
shall not know whence Christ will come (John vii, 27, and xii, 34). The
Scripture says that Christ abideth for ever, and He said that He should
die." Therefore, says Saint John,[210] they believed not, though He had
done so many miracles, that the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled: "He
hath blinded them," etc.
573
_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?
574
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.
575
_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.
576
God has made the blindness of this people subservient to the good of the
elect.
577
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,[211]
Ruth,[212] 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 had 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?
578
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.
579
Nature has some perfections to show that she is the image of God, and
some defects to show that she is only His image.
580
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.
581
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.
582
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.
583
The world exists for the exercise of mercy and judgment, 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.
584
_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._
585
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.
586
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.
587
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_. 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.