Newsgroup: it.scienza.ambiente
Titolo: Re: Mis fotos Nuevas

speak a word in season to him that is weary. He hath opened mine ear, and I
have listened to Him as a master.
"The Lord hath revealed His will, and I was not rebellious.
"I gave my body to the smiters, and my cheeks to outrage; I hid not my face
from shame and spitting. But the Lord hath helped me; therefore I have not
been confounded.
"He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? who will be mine
adversary, and accuse me of sin, God himself being my protector?
"All men shall pass away, and be consumed by time; let those that fear God
hearken to the voice of His servant; let him that languisheth in darkness
put his trust in the Lord. But as for you, ye do but kindle the wrath of God
upon you; ye walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have
kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.
"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord:
look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye
are digged. Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah that bare you:
for I called him alone, when childless, and increased him. Behold, I have
comforted Zion, and heaped upon her blessings and consolations.
"Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me; for a law shall proceed
from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the Gentiles."
Amos viii. The prophet, having enumerated the sins of Israel, said that God
had sworn to take vengeance on them.
He says this: "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I
will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the
clear day; and I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs
into lamentation.
"You all shall have sorrow and suffering, and I will make this nation mourn
as for an only son, and the end therefore as a bitter day. Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the

understood by temporal blessings other blessings, this is the
proof:
First, that this would be unworthy of God.
Secondly, that their discourses express very clearly the promise of temporal
blessings, and that they say nevertheless that their discourses are obscure,
and that their meaning will not be understood. Whence it appears that this
secret meaning was not that which they openly expressed, and that
consequently they meant to speak of other sacrifices, of another deliverer,
etc. They say that they will be understood only in the fullness of time
(Jer. 30:24).
The third proof is that their discourses are contradictory, and neutralise
each other; so that, if we think that they did not mean by the words law and
sacrifice anything else than that of Moses, there is a plain and gross
contradiction. Therefore they meant something else, sometimes contradicting
themselves in the same chapter. Now, to understand the meaning of an
author...
660. Lust has become natural to us and has made our second nature. Thus
there are two natures in us--the one good, the other bad. Where is God?
Where you are not, and the kingdom of God is within you.The Rabbis.
661. Penitence, alone of all these mysteries, has been manifestly declared
to the Jews, and by Saint John, the Forerunner; and then the other
mysteries; to indicate that in each man, as in the entire world, this order
must be observed.
662. The carnal Jews understood neither the greatness nor the humiliation of
the Messiah foretold in their prophecies. They misunderstood Him in His
foretold greatness, as when He said that the Messiah should be lord of
David, though his son, and that He was before Abraham, who had seen Him.
They did not believe Him so great as to be eternal, and they likewise
misunderstood Him in His humiliation and in His death. "The Messiah," said
they, "abideth for ever, and this man says that he shall die." Therefore
they believed Him neither

must put the papers on the table.
594. Against the history of China.--The historians of Mexico, the five suns,
of which the last is only eight hundred years old.
The difference between a book accepted by a nation and one which makes a
nation.
595. Mahomet was without authority. His reasons, then, should have been very
strong, having only their own force. What does he say, then, that we must
believe him?
596. The Psalms are chanted throughout the whole world.
Who renders testimony to Mahomet? Himself. Jesus Christ desires His own
testimony to be as nothing.
The quality of witnesses necessitates their existence always and everywhere;
and he, miserable creature, is alone.
597. Against Mahomet.--The Koran is not more of Mahomet than the Gospel is
of Saint Matthew, for it is cited by many authors from age to age. Even its
very enemies, Celsus and Porphyry, never denied it.
The Koran says Saint Matthew was an honest man. Therefore Mahomet was a
false prophet for calling honest men wicked, or for not agreeing with what
they have said of Jesus Christ.
598. It is not by that which is obscure in Mahomet, and which may be
interpreted in a mysterious sense, that I would have him judged, but by what
is clear, as his paradise and the rest. In that he is ridiculous. And since
what is clear is ridiculous, it is not right to take his obscurities for
mysteries.
It is not the same with the Scripture. I agree that there are in it
obscurities as strange as those of Mahomet; but there are admirably clear
passages, and the prophecies are manifestly fulfilled. The cases are,
therefore, not on a par. We must not confound and put on one level things
which only resemble each other in their obscurity, and not in the clearness,
which requires us to reverence the obscurities.
599. The difference between Jesus Christ and Mahomet.--Mahomet was not
foretold; Jesus Christ was foretold.
Mahomet slew; Jesus Christ cause

I should much like to see an Italian work, of which I only know
the title, which alone is worth many books, Della opinione regina del mondo.
I approve of the book without knowing it, save the evil in it, if any. These
are pretty much the effects of that deceptive faculty, which seems to have
been expressly given us to lead us into necessary error. We have, however,
many other sources of error.
Not only are old impressions capable of misleading us; the charms of novelty
have the same power. Hence arise all the disputes of men, who taunt each
other either with following the false impressions of childhood or with
running rashly after the new. Who keeps the due mean? Let him appear and
prove it. There is no principle, however natural to us from infancy, which
may not be made to pass for a false impression either of education or of
sense.
"Because," say some, "you have believed from childhood that a box was empty
when you saw nothing in it, you have believed in the possibility of a
vacuum. This is an illusion of your senses, strengthened by custom, which
science must correct." "Because," say others, "you have been taught at
school that there is no vacuum, you have perverted your common sense which
clearly comprehended it, and you must correct this by returning to your
first state." Which has deceived you, your senses or your education?
We have another source of error in diseases. They spoil the judgement and
the senses; and if the more serious produce a sensible change, I do not
doubt that slighter ills produce a proportionate impression.
Our own interest is again a marvellous instrument f

3:15, 16
That the temple should be rejected. Jer 7:12, 13, 14.
That the sacrifices should be rejected, and other pure sacrifices
established. Malachi 1:11.
That the order of Aaron's priesthood should be rejected, and that of
Melchizedek introduced by the Messiah. Ps. Dixit Dominus.
That this priesthood should be eternal. Ibid.
That Jerusalem should be rejected, and Rome admitted, Ibid.
That the name of the Jews should be rejected, and a new name given. Isaiah
65:15.
That this last name should be more excellent than that of the Jews, and
eternal. Isaiah 56:5.
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. 31:36
611. Republic.--The Christian republic--and even the Jewish--has only had
God for ruler, as Philo the Jew notices, On Monarchy.
When they fought, it was for God only; their chief hope was in God only;
they considered their towns as belonging to God only, and kept them for God.
I Chron. 19:13.
612. Gen. 17:7. Statuam pactum meum inter me et te foedere sempiterno... us
sim Deus tuus...[108]
Et tu ergo custodies pactum meum.109
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 should have come. All
things have passed away, and this has endured, for which all things are.
Men have in the first age of the world been carried away into every kind of
debauchery, 

4:6. "God giveth grace unto the humble."
224"But did he not give them humility?"
225John 1:11-12. "The world knew him not; and his own received him not."
226"And were they not his?"
227Rom. 12:2 "But overcome evil with good."
2282 Tim. 4:3. "Shall they heap to themselves teachers."
229Ps. 81:6. "Ye are gods."
[230]"To your tribunal, Lord Jesus, I call."
231Wisd. of Sol. 19:4. "Doom which they deserved."
232"Most impudent Liars." See Provincial Letter xvi.
[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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 ho

The heathen sages erected a structure equally fine outside, but upon a bad
foundation; and the devil deceived men by this apparent resemblance based
upon the most different foundation.
Man never had so good a cause as I; and others have never furnished so good
a capture as you...
The more they point out weakness in my person, the more they authorise my
cause.
You say that I am a heretic. Is that lawful? And if you do not fear that men
do justice, do you not fear that God does justice?
You will feel the force of the truth, and you will yield to it...
There is something supernatural in such a blindness. Digna necessitas.231
Mentiris impudentissime.232
Doctrina sua noscetur vir...[233]
False piety, a double sin.
I am alone against thirty thousand. No. Protect you, the court; protect,
you, deception; let me protect the truth. It is all my strength. If I lose
it, I am undone. I shall not lack accusations, and persecutions. But I
possess the truth, and we shall see who will take it away.
I do not need to defend religion, but you do not need to defend error and
injustice. Let God, out of His compassion, having no regard to the evil
which is in me, and having regard to the good which is in you, grant us all
grace that truth may not be overcome in my hands, and that falsehood...
922. Probable.--Let us see if we seek God sincerely, by comparison of the
things which we love. It is probable that this food will not poison me. It
is probable that I shall not lose my action by not prosecuting it...
923. It is not absolution only which remits sins by the sacrament of
penance, but contrition

Essays, ii.
[16]Pliny, ii. "As though there were anyone more unhappy than a man
dominated by his imagination."
17Cicero, De Divinatione ii. 22. "A common happening does not astonish, even
though the cause is unknown; an event such as one has never seen before
passes for a prodigy."
[18]Allusion to Gen. 7. 14. Ipsi et omne animal secundus genus suum. "And
every beast after his kind."
19Homer, Odyssey, xviii.
20Livy, xxxiv. 17. "A brutal people, for whom, when they have not armour,
there is not life."
21Ecclus. 24:11. "With all these I have sought rest."
22"Terror which is more powerful than religion."
[23]"From fear that they are being led by terror, without guidance,
domination appears tyrannical."
[24]"What will become of men who mistake small things and do not believe in
greater?"
25Is. 45:15. "Thou art a God that hidest thyself."
[26]Wisd. of Sol. 4:12. "Bewitching of naughtiness."
[27]Wisd. of Sol. 5:15. "The remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a
day."
281 Cor. 1:21.
29"They have seen the thing; they have not seen the cause." St. Augustine,
Contra Pelagium, iv.
30Matt. 11:27 "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal him."
31Is. 45:15. "Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself."
321 Cor. 1:17. "Lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect."
33Rom. 1:17. "The just shall live by faith."

recall the idea and inward sense
they had, perfectly to mind; things appear very dim to what they did
before. And though there still remains an habitual strong persuasion;
yet not so as to exclude temptations to unbelief, and all possibility of
doubting. But then, at particular times, by God's help, the same sense
of things revives again, like fire that lay hid in ashes. I suppose the
grounds of such a conviction of the truth of divine things to be just
and rational; but yet, in some, God makes use of their own reason much
more sensibly than in others. Oftentimes persons have (so far as could
be judged) received the first saving conviction from reasoning which
they have heard from the pulpit; and often in the course of reasoning
they are led into in their own meditations.
The arguments are the same that they have heard hundreds of times; but
the force of the arguments, and their conviction by them, is altogether
new; they come with a new and before unexperienced power. Before, they
heard it

imagination. Judges, physicians, etc., appeal only to the imagination.
308. The habit of seeing kings accompanied by guards, drums, officers, and
all the paraphernalia which mechanically inspire respect and awe, makes
their countenance, when sometimes seen alone without these accompaniments,
impress respect and awe on their subjects; because we cannot separate in
thought their persons from the surroundings with which we see them usually
joined. And the world, which knows not that this effect is the result of
habit, believes that it arises by a natural force, whence come these words,
"The character of Divinity is stamped on his countenance," etc.
309. Justice.--As custom determines what is agreeable, so also does it
determine justice.
310. King and tyrant.--I, too, will keep my thoughts secret.
I will take care on every journey.
Greatness of establishment, respect for establishment.
The pleasure of the great is the power to make people happy.
The property of riches is to be given liberally.
The property of each thing must be sought. The property of power is to
protect.
When force attacks humbug, when a private soldier takes the square cap off a
first president, and throws it out of the window.
311. The government founded on opinion and imagination reigns for some time,
and this government is pleasant and voluntary; that founded on might lasts
for ever. Thus opinion is the queen of the world, but might is its tyrant.
312. Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will
necessarily be regarded as just without examination, since they are
established.
313. Sound opinions of the people.--Civil wars are the greatest of evils.
They are inevitable, if we wish to re

us far more imperiously than a master; for in
disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are
fools.
346. Thought constitutes the greatness of man.
347. Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a
thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A
vapour, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to
crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because
he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him; the
universe knows nothing of this.
All our dignity consists, then, in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves,
and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endeavour, then, to
think well; this is the principle of morality.
348. A thinking reed.--It is not from space that I must seek my dignity, but
from the government of my thought. I shall have no more if I possess worlds.
By space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; by
thought I comprehend the world.
349. Immateriality of the soul--Philosophers who have mastered their
passions. What matter could do that?
350. The Stoics.--They conclude that what has been done once can be done
always, and that, since the desire of glory imparts some power to those whom
it possesses, others can do likewise. There are feverish movements which
health cannot imitate.
Epictetus concludes that, since there are consistent Christians, every man
can easily be so.
351. Those gr

these prophecies, this fact would have infinite weight.
But there is much more here. Here is a succession of men during four
thousand years, who, consequently and without variation, come, one after
another, to foretell this same event. Here is a whole people who announce it
and who have existed for four thousand years, in order to give corporate
testimony of the assurances which they have and from which they cannot be
diverted by whatever threats and persecutions people may make against them.
This is far more important.
711. Predictions of particular things.--They were strangers in Egypt,
without any private property, either in that country or elsewhere. There was
not the least appearance, either of the royalty which had previously existed
so long, or of that supreme council of seventy judges which they called the
Sanhedrin and which, having been instituted by Moses, lasted to the time of
Jesus Christ. All these things were as far removed from their state at that
time as they could be, when Jacob, dying, and blessing his twelve children,
declared to them, that they would be proprietors of a great land, and
foretold in particular to the family of Judah, that the kings, who would one
day rule them, should be of his race; and that all his brethren should 

"regardeth neither persons nor sacrifices."
The Sabbath was only a sign, Exod. 31:13; and in memory of the escape from
Egypt, Deut. 5:19. Therefore it is no longer necessary, since Egypt must be
forgotten.
Circumcision was only a sign, Gen. 17:11. And thence it came to pass that,
being in the desert, they were not circumcised, because they could not be
confounded with other peoples; and after Jesus Christ came, it was no longer
necessary.
That the circumcision of the heart is commanded. Deut. 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4:
"Be ye circumcised in heart; take away the superfluities of your heart, and
harden yourselves not. For your God is a mighty God, strong and terrible,
who accepteth not persons."
That God said He would one day do it. Deut. 30:6: "God will circumcise thine
heart, and the heart of thy seed, that thou mayest love Him with all thine
heart."
That the uncircumcised in heart shall be judged. Jeremiah 9:26: For God will
judge the uncircumcised peoples, and all the people of Israel, because he is
"uncircumcised in heart."
That the external is of no avail apart from the internal. Joel 2:13:
Scindite corda vestra,104 etc.; Isaiah 58:3, 4, etc.
The love of God is enjoined in the whole of Deuteronomy. Deut. 30:19: "I
call heaven and earth to record that I have set before you life and death,
that you should choose life, and love God, and obey Him, for God is your
life."
That the Jews, for lack of that love, should be rejected for their offences,
and the heathen chosen in their stead. Hosea 1:10; Deut. 32:20. "I will hide
my face from them, I will see what their end shall be, for they are a very
froward generation, children in whom

"j
[125]Ps. 44:4 "O most mighty."
126Exod. 25:40. "Make them after their pattern, which was showed thee on the
mount."
127Mark 2:10, 11. "That ye may know... I say unto thee: Arise."
[128]John 4:23. "True worshippers."
[129]John 1:29. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world."
130"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can
know it?"
131Is. 44:24. "I am the Lord."
132"I will do unto this house."
133"For I spoke not unto your fathers."
134"According to the number."
135Rev. 13:8. "The Lambs slain from the foundation of the world."
136Ps. 109:1. " Sit then at my right hand."
137Ps. 147:13. Quoniam not quia. "For he hath strengthened the bars."
[138]Acts 17:11. "They received the word with all readiness of mind, and
searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
[139]"Read what has been announced. See what has been accomplished. Meditate
on what is to be done."
[140]John 19:15. "We have no king but Caesar."
141Is. 65:2. "Arebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good."
[142]"They have pierced."
[143]Ps. 130:8. "from all his iniquities."
144Deut. 28:29. Et palpes in meridie. "And thou shalt grope at noonday."
145Is. 29:11. Quem (librum) cum dederint scienti litteras et respondebit:
Non possum. "Which men deliver to one that is learned... and he saith, I
cannot."
146Job 19:23-25. "for I know that my redeemer liveth."
147Luke 22:32, 61. "And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brother."
"And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter."
[148]Is. 6:10. "Shut their eyes."
149"The man who exists makes you God."
150"It is written: 'You are Gods' (Ps. 80:6), and the Scripture cannot be
made naught of."
151"This weakness is not for life; it is for death."
152"John 11:11 and 14. "'Lazarus sleeps,' and later it says: 'Lazarus is
dead.'"
[153]Ps. 44:4. Gladio tu

that, and you have been unable to do it. They
neither know what is your true good, nor what is your true state. How could
they have given remedies for your ills, when they did not even know them?
Your chief maladies are pride, which takes you away from God, and lust,
which binds you to earth; and they have done nothing else but cherish one or
other of these diseases. If they gave you God as an end, it was only to
administer to your pride; they made you think that you are by nature like
Him and conformed to Him. And those who saw the absurdity of this claim put
you on another precipice, by making you understand that your nature was like
that of the brutes, and led you to seek your good in the lusts which are
shared by the animals. This is not the way to cure you of your
unrighteousness, which these wise men never knew. I alone can make you
understand who you are...."
Adam, Jesus Christ.
If you are united to God, it is by grace, not by nature. If you are humbled,
it is by penitence, not by nature.
Thus this double capacity...
You are not in the state of your creation.
As these two states are open, it is impossible for you not to recognise
them. Follow your own feelings, observe yourselves, and see if you do not
find the lively characteristics of these two natures. Could so many
contradictions be found in a simple subject?
Incomprehensible. Not all that is incomprehensible ceases to exist. Infinite
number. An infinite space equal to a finite.
Incredible that God should unite Himself to us. This consideration is drawn
only from the sight of our vileness. But if you are quite sincere over it,
follow it as far as I have done and recognise that we are indeed so vile
that we are incapable in ourselves of knowing if His mercy cannot make us
capable of Him. For I would know how this animal, who knows himself to be so
weak, has t

is possible to seek pain, and yield to it
purposely, without this kind of baseness. Whence comes it, then, that reason
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 diversion, and you will see them
dried up with weariness. They feel then their nothingness without knowing
it; for it is indeed to be unhappy to be in insufferable sadness as soon as
we are reduced to thinking of self and have no diversion.
165. Thoughts.--In omnibus requiem quaesivi.21 If our condition were truly
happy, we not need diversion from thinking of it in order to make ourselves
happy.
166

He suffers the torments which He
inflicts on himself; turbare semetipsum.95 This is a suffering from no
human, but an almighty hand, for He must be almighty to bear it.
Jesus seeks some comfort at least in His three dearest friends, and they are
asleep. He prays them to bear with Him for a little, and they leave Him with
entire indifference, having so little compassion that it could not prevent
their sleeping even for a moment. And thus Jesus was left alone to the wrath
of God.
Jesus is alone on the earth, without any one not only to feel and share His
suffering, but even to know of it; He and Heaven were alone in that
knowledge.
Jesus is in a garden, not of delight as the first Adam, where he lost
himself and the whole human race, but in one of agony, where He saved
himself and the whole human race.
He suffers this affliction and this desertion in the horror of night.
I believe that Jesus never complained but on this single occasion; but then
He complained as if he could no longer bear His extreme suffe

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 scripture represents them
as his goods, Luke 11:12. The devils watch them; they are ever by them
at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry
lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the
present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are
restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old
serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them;
and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and
lost. 
There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning,
that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not
for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a
foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles,
in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are
seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding
violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of
God upon them, they would soon break out

foreign
to Him; while virtues are foreign to us, and our sins are our own.
Let us change the rule which we have hitherto chosen for judging what is
good. We had our own will as our rule. Let us now take the will of God; all
that He wills is good and right to us, all that He does not will is bad.
All that God does not permit is forbidden. Sins are forbidden by the general
declaration that God has made, that He did not allow them. Other things
which He has left without general prohibition, and which for that reason are
said to be permitted, are nevertheless not always permitted. For when God
removed some one of them from us, and when, by the event, which is a
manifestation of the will of God, it appears that God does not will that we
should have a thing, that is then forbidden to us as sin; since the will of
God is that we should not have one more than another. There is this sole
difference between these two things, that it is certain that God will never
allow sin, while it is not certain that He will never allow the other. But
so long as God does not permit it, we ought to regard it as sin; so long as
the absence of God's will, which alone is all goodness and all justice,
renders it unjust and wrong.
669. To change the type, because of our weakness.
670. Types.--The Jews had grown old in these earthly thoughts, that God
loved their father Abraham, his flesh and what sprung from it; that on
account of this He had multiplied them and distinguished them from all other
nations, withou