Newsgroup: it.scienza.ambiente
Titolo: Re: Well, the world is certainly looking grim, isn't it? 45088

Turks like Christians? They have their
ceremonies, their prophets, their doctors, their saints, their monks, like
us," etc. (Is this contrary to Scripture? Does it not say all this?)
If you care but little to know the truth, here is enough of it to leave you
in repose. But if you desire with all your heart to know it, it is not
enough; look at it in detail. This would be sufficient for a question in
philosophy; but not here, where it concerns your all. And yet, after a
trifling reflection of this kind, we go to amuse ourselves, etc. Let us
inquire of this same religion whether it does not give a reason for this
obscurity; perhaps it will teach it to us.
227. Order by dialogues.--What ought I to do? I see only darkness
everywhere. Shall I believe I am nothing? Shall I believe I am God?
"All things change and succeed each other." You are mistaken; there is...
228. Objection of atheists: "But we have no light."
229. This is what I see and what troubles me. I look on all sides, and I see
only darkness everywhere. Nature presents to me nothing which is not matter
of doubt and concern. If I saw nothing there which revealed a Divinity, I
would come to a negative conclusion; if I saw everywhere the signs of a
Creator, I would remain peacefully in faith. But, seeing too much to deny
and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied; wherefore I have a
hundred times wished that if a God maintains Nature, she should testify to
Him unequivocally, and that, if the signs she gives are deceptive, she
should suppress them altogether; that she should say everything or nothing,
that I might see which cause I ought to follow. Whereas in my present state,
ignorant of what I am or of what I ought to do, I know neither my condition
nor my duty. My heart inclines wholly to know where is the true good, in
order to follow it; nothing would be too dear to me for eternity.
I envy those whom I see living in the faith with such carelessness

found to be true by
the very knowledge of the greatest men, the belief of men is thereby
induced; and, this being known to be possible, it has been therefore
concluded that it was. For people commonly reason thus: "A thing is
possible, therefore it is"; because the thing cannot be denied generally,
since there are particular effects which are true, the people, who cannot
distinguish which among these particular effects are true, believe them all.
In the same way, the reason why so many false effects are credited to the
moon is that there are some true, as the tide.
It is the same with prophecies, miracles, divination by dreams, sorceries,
etc.
For if there had been nothing true in all this, men would have believed
nothing of them; and thus, instead of concluding that there are no true
miracles because there are so many false, we must, on the contrary, say that
there certainly are true miracles, since there are false, and that there are
false miracles only because some are true. We must reason in the same way
about religion; for it would not be possible that men should have imagined
so many false religions, if there had not been a true one. The objection to
this is that savages have a religion; but the answer is that they have heard
the true spoken of, as appears by the Deluge, circumcision, the cross of
Saint Andrew, etc.
818. Having considered how it comes that there are so many false miracles,
false revelations, sorceries, etc., it has seemed to me that the true cause
is that there are some true; for it would not be possible that there should
be so many false miracles, if there were none true, nor so many false
revelations, if there were none true, nor so many false religions, if there
were not one true. For if there had never been all this, it is almost
impossible that men should have imagined it, and still more impossible that
so many others should have be

to the wisdom of the
world, but by expelling both according to the simplicity of the Gospel. For
it teaches the righteous that it raises them even to a participation in
divinity itself; that in this lofty state they still carry the source of all
corruption, which renders them during all their life subject to error,
misery, death, and sin; and it proclaims to the most ungodly that they are
capable of the grace of their Redeemer. So making those tremble whom it
justifies, and consoling those whom it condemns, religion so justly tempers
fear with hope through that double capacity of grace and of sin, common to
all, that it humbles infinitely more than reason alone can do, but without
despair; and it exalts infinitely more than natural pride, but without
inflating; thus making it evident that alone being exempt from error and
vice, it alone fulfils the duty of instructing and correcting men.
Who, then, can refuse to believe and adore this heavenly light? For is it
not clearer than day that we perceive within ourselves ineffaceable marks of
excellence? And is it not equally true that we experience every hour the
results of our deplorable condition? What does this chaos and monstrous
confusion proclaim to us but the truth of these two states, with a voice so
powerful that it is impossible to resist it?
436. Weakness.--Every pursuit of men is to get wealth; and they cannot have
a title to show that they possess it justly, for they have only that of
human caprice; nor have they strength to hold it securely. It is the same
with knowledge, for disease takes it away. We are incapable both of truth
and goodness.
437. We desire truth, and find within ourselves only uncertainty.
We seek happiness, and find only misery and death.
We cannot but desire truth and happiness, and are incapable of certainty or
happiness. This desire is left to us, partly to punish us, partly to make us
perceive wherefrom we are fallen.
438. If man is not made for God, why is he only happy in Go

you shall be in this
state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth
and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and
fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will
fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa. 66:23,24. "And it
shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one
sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the
Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men
that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither
shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all
flesh." 
It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all
eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When
you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration
before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul;
and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end,
any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must
wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and
conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you
have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this
manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that
your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the
state of a soul in such circums

feared; hence confessors stay with lords.
217. An heir finds the title-deeds of his house. Will he say, "Perhaps they
are forged" and neglect to examine them?
218. Dungeon.--I approve of not examining the opinion of Copernicus; but
this...! It concerns all our life to know whether the soul be mortal or
immortal.
219. It is certain that the mortality or immortality of the soul must make
an entire difference to morality. And yet philosophers have constructed
their ethics independently of this: they discuss to pass an hour.
Plato, to incline to Christianity.
220. The fallacy of philosophers who have not discussed the immortality of
the soul. The fallacy of their dilemma in Montaigne.
221. Atheists ought to say what is perfectly evident; now it is not
perfectly evident that the soul is material.
222. Atheists.--What reason have they for saying that we cannot rise from
the dead? What is more difficult, to be born or to rise again; that what has
never been should be, or that what has been should be again? Is it more
difficult to come into existence than to return to it? Habit makes the one
appear easy to us; want of habit makes the other impossible. A popular way
of thinking!
Why cannot a virgin bear a child? Does a hen not lay eggs without a cock?
What distinguishes these outwardly from others? And who has told us that the
hen may not form the germ as well as the cock?
223. What have they to say against the resurrection, and against the
child-bearing of the Virgin? Which is the more difficult, to produce a man
or an animal, or to reproduce it? And if they had never seen any species of
animals, could they have conjectured whether they were produced without
connection with each other?
224. How I hate these follies of not believing in the Eucharist, etc.! If
the Gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is 

that it has never been more apparent
than at the present time that God visibly protects her from corruption.
For if some of these men, who, by an extraordinary vocation, have made
profession of withdrawing from the world and adopting the monks' dress, in
order to live in a more perfect state than ordinary Christians, have fallen
into excesses which horrify ordinary Christians, and have become to us what
the false prophets were among the Jews; this is a private and personal
misfortune, which must indeed be deplored, but from which nothing can be
inferred against the care which God takes of His Church; since all these
things are so clearly foretold, and it has been so long since announced that
these temptations would arise from people of this kind; so that when we are
well instructed, we see in this rather evidence of the care of God than of
His forgetfulness in regard to us.
890. Tertullian: Nunquam Ecclesia reformabitur.222
891. Heretics, who take advantage of the doctrine of the Jesuits, must be
made to know that it is not that of the Church, and that our divisions do
not separate us from the altar.
892. If in differing we condemned, you would be right. Uniformity without
diversity is useless to others; diversity without uniformity is ruinous for
us. The one is harmful outwardly; the other inwardly.
893. By showing the truth, we cause it to be believed; but by showing the
injustice of ministers, we do not correct it. Our mind is assured by a proof
of falsehood; our purse is not made secure by proof of injustice.
894. Those who love the Church lament to see the corruption of morals; but
laws at least exist. But these corrupt the laws. The model is damaged.
895. Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from
religious conviction.
896. It is in vain th

had never obtained any comfortable evidence of a good state. Several
such persons, in this extraordinary time, have received light; but many
of them were some of the last. They first saw multitudes of others
rejoicing, with songs of deliverance in their mouths, who before had
seemed wholly careless and at ease, and in pursuit of vanity; while they
had been bowed down with solicitude about their souls. Yea, some had
lived licentiously, and so continued till a little before they were
converted; and yet soon grew up to a holy rejoicing in the infinite
blessings God had bestowed upon them.
Whatever minister has a like occasion to deal with souls, in a flock
under such circumstances, as this was in the last year, I cannot but
think he will soon find himself under a necessity, greatly to insist
upon it with them, that God is under no manner of obligation to show
mercy to any natural man, whose heart is not turned to God: and that a
man can challenge nothing either in absolute justice, or by free
promise, from any thing he does before he has believed on Jesus Christ,
or has true repentance begun in him. It appears to me, that if I had
taught those who came to me under trouble any other doctrine, I should
have taken a most direct course utterly to undo them. I should have
directly crossed what was plainly the dri

The Old Testament is a cipher.
692. There are some that see clearly that man has no other enemy than lust,
which turns him from God, and not God; and that he has no other good than
God, and not a rich land. Let those who believe that the good of man is in
the flesh, and evil in what turns him away from sensual pleasures, satiate
themselves with them, and die in them. But let those who seek God with all
their heart, who are only troubled at not seeing Him, who desire only to
possess Him and have as enemies only those who turn them away from Him, who
are grieved at seeing themselves surrounded and overwhelmed with such
enemies, take comfort. I proclaim to them happy news. There exists a
Redeemer for them. I shall show Him to them. I shall show that there is a
God for them. I shall not show Him to others. I shall make them see that a
Messiah has been promised, who should deliver them from their enemies, and
that One has come to free them from their iniquities, but not from their
enemies.
When David foretold that th

before it. Sin is the
ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God
should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make
the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is
immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it
is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas if it were let loose,
it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a
sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the
soul into fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone. 
It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no
visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that
he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now
immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no
visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and
continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no
evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the
next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways
and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and
inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten
covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that
they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The
arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot
discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking
wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is
nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a
miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy
any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners
going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and
absolutely subject to his power and

they misuse in order to revile
miracles.
Jesus Christ cured the man born blind and performed a number of miracles on
the Sabbath day. In this way He blinded the Pharisees, who said that
miracles must be judged by doctrine.
"We have Moses: but, as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." It
is wonderful that you know not whence He is, and yet He does such miracles.
Jesus Christ spoke neither against God, nor against Moses.
Antichrist and the false prophets, foretold by both Testaments, will speak
openly against God and against Jesus Christ. Who is not hidden... God would
not allow him, who would be a secret enemy, to do miracles openly.
In a public dispute where the two parties profess to be for God, for Jesus
Christ, for the Church, miracles have never been on the side of the false
Christians, and the other side has never been without a miracle.
"He hath a devil." John 10:21. And others said, "Can a devil open the eyes
of the blind?"
The proofs which Jesus Christ and the apostles draw from Scripture are not
conclusive; for they say only that Moses foretold that a prophet should
come. But they do not thereby prove that this is He; and that is the whole
question. These passages, therefore, serve only to show that they are not
contrary to Scripture and that there appears no inconsistency, but not that
there is agreement. Now this is enough, namely, exclusion of inconsistency,
along with miracles.
There is a mutual duty between God and men. We must pardon Him this saying:
Quid debui?207 "Accuse me, " said God in Isaiah.
"God must fulfil His promises," etc.
Men owe it to God to accept the religion which He sends. God owes it to men
not to lead them into erro

the strongest proof.
It had been told to the Jews, as well as to Christians, that they should not
always believe the prophets; but yet the Pharisees and Scribes are greatly
concerned about His miracles and try to show that they are false, or wrought
by the devil. For they must needs be convinced, if they acknowledge that
they are of God.
At the present day we are not troubled to make this distinction. Still it is
very easy to do: those who deny neither God nor Jesus Christ do no miracles
which are not certain. Nemo facit virtutem in nomine meo, et cito possit de
me male loqui.191
But we have not to draw this distinction. Here is a sacred relic. Here is a
thorn from the crown of the Saviour of the world, over whom the prince of
this world has no power, which works miracles by the peculiar power of the
blood shed for us. Now God Himself chooses this house in order to display
conspicuously therein His power.
These are not men who do miracles by an unknown and doubtful virtue, which
makes a decision difficult for us. It is God Himself. It is the instrument
of the Passion of His only Son, who, being in many places, chooses this, and
makes men come from all quarters there to receive these miraculous
alleviations in their weaknesses.
840. The Church has three kinds of enemies: the Jews, who have never been of
her body; the heretics, who have withdrawn from it; and the evil Christians,
who rend her from within.
These three kinds of different adversaries usually attack her in different
ways. But here they attack her in one and the same way. As they are all
without miracles, and as the Church has always had miracles against them,
they have all had the same interest in evading them; and they all make use
of this excuse, that doctrine must not be judged by miracles, but miracles
by doctrine. There were two parti

it to men
not to lead them into error. Now, they would be led into error, if the
workers of miracles announced a doctrine which should not appear evidently
false to the light of common sense, and if a greater worker of miracles had
not already wamed men not to believe them.
Thus, if there were divisions in the Church, and the Arians, for example,
who declared themselves founded on Scripture just as the Catholics, had done
miracles, and not the Catholics, men should have been led into error.
For, as a man, who announces to us the secrets of God, is not worthy to be
believed on his private authority, and that is why the ungodly doubt him; so
when a man, as a token of the communion which he has with God, raises the
dead, foretells the future, removes the seas, heals the sick, there is none
so wicked as not to bow to him, and the incredulity of Pharaoh and the
Pharisees is the effect of a supernatural obduracy.
When, therefore, we see miracles and a doctrine not suspicious, both on one
side, there is no difficulty. But when we see miracles and suspicious
doctrine on the same side, we must then see which is the clearest. Jesus
Christ was suspected.
Bar-jesus blinded. The power of God surpasses that of His enemies.
The Jewish exorcists beaten by the devils, saying, "Jesus I know, and Paul I
know; but who are ye"?
Miracles are for doctrine, and not doctrine for miracles.
If the miracles are true, shall we be able to persuade men

of reason in this doctrine, since I
admit it to be without reason. But this foolishness is wiser than all the
wisdom of men, sapientius est hominibus.[71] For without this, what can we
say that man is? His whole state depends on this imperceptible point. And
how should it be perceived by his reason, since it is a thing against
reason, and since reason, far from finding it out by her own ways, is averse
to it when it is presented to her?
446. Of original sin. Ample tradition of original sin according to the Jews.
On the saying in Genesis 8:21: "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, the foreskin, uncleanness, an enemy, a scandal, a heart of stone, the
north wind; all this signifies the malignity which is concealed and
impressed in the heart of man.
Midrasch Tillim says the same thing and that God will deliver the good
nature of man from the evil.
This malignity is renewed every day against man, as it is written, Psalm
37:32: "The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay 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 Psalm 4:4: "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 Psalm
36:1: "The wicked has said within his own 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.
Midrasch el Kohelet: "Better is a poor and 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 

be made intelligible and it be understood what is the proper
definition of justice.
327. The world is a good judge of things, for it is in natural ignorance,
which is man's true state. The sciences have two extremes which meet. The
first is the pure natural ignorance in which all men find themselves at
birth. The other extreme is that reached by great intellects, who, having
run through all that men can know, find they know nothing, and come back
again to that same ignorance from which they set out; but this is a learned
ignorance which is conscious of itself. Those between the two, who have
departed from natural ignorance and not been able to reach the other, have
some smattering of this vain knowledge and pretend to be wise. These trouble
the world and are bad judges of everything. The people and the wise
constitute the world; these despise it, and are despised. They judge badly
of everything, and the world judges rightly of them.
328. The reason of effects.--Continual alternation of pro and con.
We have, then, shown that man is foolish, by the estimation he makes of
things which are not essential; and all these opinions are destroyed. We
have next shown that all these opinions are very sound and that thus, since
all these vanities are well founded, the people are not so foolish as is
said. And so we have destroyed the opinion which destroyed that of the
people.
But we must now destroy this last proposition and show that it remains
always true that the people are foolish, though their opinions are sound
because they do not perceive the truth where it is, and, as they place it
where it is not, their opinions are always very false and very unsound.
329. The reason of effects.--The weakness of man is the reason why so many
things are considered fine, as to be good at playing the lute. It is only an
evil because of our weakness.
3

be, if he meditate on self.
In all this I am not talking of Christian kings as Christians, but only as
kings.
143. Diversion.--Men are entrusted from infancy with the care of their
honour, their property, their friends, and even with the property and the
honour of their friends. They are overwhelmed with business, with the study
of languages, and with physical exercise; and they are made to understand
that they cannot be happy unless their health, their honour, their fortune
and that of their friends be in good condition, and that a single thing
wanting will make them unhappy. Thus they are given cares and business which
make them bustle about from break of day. It is, you will exclaim, a strange
way to make them happy! What more could be done to make them
miserable?--Indeed! what could be done? We should only have to relieve them
from all these cares; for then they would see themselves: they would reflect
on what they are, whence they came, whither they go, and thus we cannot
employ and divert them too much. And this is why, after having given them so
much business, we advise them, if they have some time for relaxation, to
employ it in amusement, in play, and to be always fully occupied.
How hollow and full of ribaldry is the heart of man!
144. I spent a long time in the study of the abstract sciences, and was
disheartened by the small number of fellow-students in them. When I
commenced the

absolve without the Church. As she has part in
the offence, He desires her to have part in the pardon. He associates her
with this power, as kings their parliaments. But if she absolves or binds
without God, she is no longer the Church. For, as in the case of parliament,
even if the king have pardoned a man, it must be ratified; but if parliament
ratifies without the king, or refuses to ratify on the order of the king, it
is no longer the parliament of the king, but a rebellious assembly.
871. The Church, the Pope. Unity, plurality.--Considering the Church as a
unity, the Pope, who is its head, is as the whole. Considering it as a
plurality, the Pope is only a part of it. The Fathers have considered the
Church now in the one way, now in the other. And thus they have spoken
differently of the Pope. (Saint Cyprian: Sacerdos Dei.)[216] But in
establishing one of these truths, they have not excluded the other.
Plurality which is not reduced to unity is confusion; unity which does not
depend on plurality is tyranny. There is scarcely any other country than
France in which it is permissible to say that the Council is above the Pope.
872. The Pope is head. Who else is known of all? Who else is recognised by
all, having power to insinuate himself into all the body, because he holds
the principal shoot, which insinuates itself everywhere? How easy it was to
make this degenerate into tyranny! That is why Christ has lai

ready to hope that all was going to be renewed again; yet, in the main,
there was a gradual decline of that general, engaged, lively spirit in
religion, which had been. Several things have happened since, which have
diverted people's minds, and turned their conversation more to other
affairs; particularly his Excellency the Governor's coming up, and the
Committee of general court, on the treaty with the Indians. -Afterwards,
the Springfield controversy; and since that, our people in this town
have been engaged in the building of a new meeting-house. Some other
occurrences might be mentioned, that have seemed to have this effect.
But as to those who have been thought converted at this time, they
generally seem to have had an abiding change wrought on them. I have had
particular acquaintance with many of them since; and they generally
appear to be persons who have a new sense of things, new apprehensions
and views of God, of the divine attributes of Jesus Christ, and the
great things of the gospel. They have a new sense of their truth, and
they affect them in a new manner; though it is very far from being
always alike with them, neither can they revive a sense of things when
they please. Their hearts are often touched, and sometimes filled, with
new sweetnesses and delights; there seems to express an inward ardor and
burning of heart, like to which they never experienced before;
sometimes, perhaps, occasioned only by the mention of Christ's name, or
some one of the divine perfections. There are new appetites, and a new
kind of breathings and pantings of heart, and groanings that cannot be
uttered. There is a new kind of inward labo