great Harm according to the good or bad use is made thereof 'T is one of the great means by which God exercises in the world his Mercy and Justice It hinders on the one part that the Just exalt not themselves nor loose themselves by the sight and knowledge of their proper excellence and it delivers them on the other part from the tentation which might be caused in them by the esteem and admiration of men who should know them It conserves them in the way of Faith in depriving them of the sight of onething which would draw them from it by motives too human For if St. Austin say Aug. de Civir l. 15. c. 4. that God hath not been willing that the renewing which Grace produceth in our Souls should extend it self even to the Body by conferring immortality to it lest the hope we ought to have in him should be too interressed If this same Saint ascertain that it is by the same reason that he permits the just to be afflicted in this world as well as the wicked for fear we should aim in the services which we render to God to exempt our selves from temporal evils We may likewise say That he permits us not to see the excellence of a just Souls beauty and the horrible deformity of a Soul in sin lest it should be through these interessed motives that we should desire justice and have an horror for sin 11. But if this obscurity produce some good in respect of some it may be said that it produces very great evils in respect of others and that 't is the principal cause of wicked mens blindess For 't is that makes worldly people believe that there is nothing in men worthy of esteem but what flatters their senses and contemn most part of honest and good men not seeing in them what they love What is told them of the good of the soul they look upon it as a meer imagination because they neither perceive nor see it Thus they distinguish men only by the outward qualities and by the relation they have to their passions and as virtuous men participate always of the Spirit of the World they participate also a little of this Illusion The too great tyes they have of outward qualities take from them the sentiment of the spiritual misery of many Souls and often also they have not the esteem they ought to have of the real Goods others possesse because they are covered with outward faults of which they are too sensible This is one of the most ordinary means whereby Jesus Chist is scandalized in his members For as the Jews would that their Messias should be environed with rayes of Glory we would also that honest men should have no defect neither inwardly nor outwardly and unless they have this agreeableness which strikes our senses we have a propensity to condemn them as seeing their faults and their miseries but not their Riches and their Goods 12. This scandal increases infinitely when these faults which we observe in them are not simple natural faults but faults of manners and true and absolute faults For if we only need to beg of God to preserve us from the tentation which springs from thence there is danger that these faults which we see in those who pass for pious men do humble and debase them so in our sight that we deprive our selves of the edification which we might draw from all the other virtues which we observe in them Oftentimes these virtues are suspected by us we begin to apprehend that we have been deceived We know not what to stick to and we enter into a certain despair of finding in the world solid virtues 13. This tentation is at the same time very dangerous and very ordinary For it is a hard thing to live long with pious people but we shall find in them many faults not only imaginary but true and real ones Human Wit never hides it self absolutely They suffer themselves to be cheated and beguiled They are carried away by unjust prejudices they are sometimes precipitate in their judgments We see some who are resolved in their thoughts others who are curious and delicate in what concerns them nearly Others who are tender and nice in small inconveniences There are some that their zeal carries to excesses Lastly There are almost none in whom nature shews not her self by many ways But if men thereupon are inclined to condemn them they come to condemn all the world and to pass from aversion for faults to aversion for men according to this saying of an antient person Qui vitia odit homines odit 14. 'T is good therefore to fortify our selves against this tentation by considerations which may be found in Faith Now Faith furnishes us with what may be able to dissipate this tentation if we apply our selves seriously to it For Faith shews us that the faults of the just are profitable to them in divers manners as hath already been said and likewise that oftentimes God permits them more for others than for themselves He darkens their splendor that those who deserve not to enjoy it may be deprived of it He takes from before our eyes their good examples to punish us for not having profited by them he holds back the odor of their Piety because the world hath not received it as it ought 15. We are scandalized then often at certain faults in just men which are not so much for them as for us They hurt them not but they hurt us they are Thorns which are good for them because they warrant their Piety from the danger it would be in of being withered by mens praises but these Thorns wounding us hinder us from approaching and from perceiving the good smell of them And thus there are none but we who loose thereby 16. Just mens faults enter into the order of Providence and often God makes use of them to execute his greatest designs against the wicked Possibly St. Chrysistome might have dealt better with Aroadia and Eudoxia and that if he had done so they had not abandoned him to the fury of Theophilus But because Theophilus and the wicked Bishops of that time deserved to be abandoned to their passions and blinded by a success conform to their designs God did permit this Saint to follow the heat of his zeal 17. There are virtuous men who examining the Life of St. Thomas of Canterbury were perswaded to believe that he might without violating the Laws of the Church have yielded to many things which King Henry the Second desired of him yet the heart of this Holy Bishop being right and the heart of King Henry corrupted the proceedings of this Saint being Humble and Just the Kings proceedings violent and unjust God rather judged of this difference by the purity of the Saints Heart and the wickedness of his adversary than by the bottom of the cause and did not omit to justify him by many miracles when the whole Church was divided
and the other an extraordinary way whereof he seldom makes use and which hath no certain rules 'T is in the first that the order of Providence which he permits men to know consists and the second includes only certain effects and causes which of our selves we can never foresee because the counsels according to which God produceth them at one time and does not produce them at another are too sublime for the wit of man 7. His Wisdom being therefore debased to hide ordinarily his divine Operation by human means it is just that men should humble themselves by these means and it is a great pride in them to neglect them and to pretend to constrain God to act in an extraordinary manner of which he hath not made us capable of penetrating to the bottom 'T is this which is properly called tempting God as Jesus Christ teacheth us in the Gospel For the Devil urging him to cast himself from the top of the Temple to the bottom in alledging to him that 't is written that God hath commanded his Angels to uphold the Just and to hinder them from hurting themselves against the stones Jesus Christ resisted him telling him that 't is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God supposing that it would be tempting God to pretend that he ought to cause his Angels to uphold a Just Man who should expose himself rashly to this danger in leaving the common way which consists in avoiding it 8. St. Austin grounded this Maxim of Christian Morality upon the Example of Jesus Christ and St. Paul Aug. l. 22. contr Faust c. 36 Holy Doctrine teacheth us saith he that when we are able to employ these human means 't is to tempt God to neglect them the Redeemer wanted not power to secure his Disciples by miracles and yet he ordered them that if they were persecuted in one City to flie to another and he hath been willing also to shew them the example of this Conduct in his own Person For altho he was Master absolutely of his life and that no man could take it away without his consent he hath not omitted in his Infancy to flie death by flight in causing his Parents to carry him into Egypt The Gospel also observes that once he would not go publickly to the Feast of Easter altho at other times he had spoken to the Jews without hiding himself even when they were the most in wrath against him and heard what he said to them with more hatred because they were not able to lay hands upon him his time not being come 'T is not that that time could force him to die but 't is because he had chosen it willingly to suffer the Jews to take away his life Thus he hath shewn the power of a God when instructing and reproving his enemies publickly he did not permit their rage to have any power over him but in flying and hiding himself he hath instructed the weakness of Man not to tempt God in neglecting to do what he was able to guard himself from the mischiefs which he ought to avoid The Apostle St. Paul did not despair of Gods Help nor had not lost Faith when he caused himself to be let down in a Basket from the top of the walls of Damascus to free himself from falling into the hands of his enemies and his flight did not denote that his Faith was void but only that he would not tempt God as he should have done in omitting this means of saving himself 9. 'T is yet by the same Principles and by the same examples that this Holy Doctor doth confute in the Book he writ of the Labour of Religions the vain imaginations of certain Affrican Monks who would not labour because it is said in the Gospel that God doth nourish the fowls of the air altho they neither sow nor reap in establishing against them this admirable Rule which forbids men to tempt God and at the same time teaches them not to be less unmindfull of him when he nourishes them by their labour then if he procured them their food without contributing to it at all on their part If there happen saith he to us infirmities and troubles which hinder us from labouring we ought to hope that God will feed us as he doth the fowls in the air and clothe us as he clothes the Lillies neither the fowls nor lillies contributing any any thing thereunto But being in a condition to labour we ought not to tempt God by neglecting to do it being the power of doing it is a gift of God so that in procuring by this means what is necessary to keep us alive 't is alwas from God we receive it because 't is from him we receive the power of labouring for our living 10. Thus it would be to tempt God to refuse what is necessary to keep us alive under pretence that God can keep us alive without the help of food A Governour would tempt God if he should not make preparation to defend the place he hath Command of against the enemy under pretence that it is written If God defend not the City the Guard watcheth in vain For altho he can conserve it in effect as he did Jerusalem again the Army of Sennacherib yet the ordinary way whereby he saved the Cities was to inspire the Captains with vigilance and the Souldiers with courage And generally it may be said that all dull and lazy People in some sort tempt God because they neglect the means by which Gods Grace and Assistance is obtained 11. Nor is there any but God who knows all the reasons why he conceals his operations under certain causes which appear all Natural We know only some of them By this means he withdraws men from idleness he obliges them to vigilance and labour he employs and exercises them he punishes them by these painfull and laborious employments he makes them set a great value on those things which cost them most pains But it may be said that one of his principal designs is to hide himself and to make his conduct unknown to those who are unworthy to know it 12. If he did always act after a miraculous manner we should be as it were forced to acknowledge him in every thing and this evidence would not be conform neither to his Justice nor Mercy He is by his Justice to suffer the wicked to continue in the dark which inclines and makes them doubt of his Providence and of his Being and he is by his Mercy to keep his Chosen privately from vanity by this wholsome obscurity The life of Faith which is the life of the Just in this world consisting then in serving God without seeing him in a sensible manner it is evident that continual miracles would destroy this state absolutely Thus it is necessary that God act on one part and on the other that we do not know his action sensibly he must hide himself under a certain means which would appear as it
upon his score 18. The Cardinal of Arles was Author of an enterprize which caused great troubles which was the deposing of Eugenius IV. This action was not followed in the Church It is no where observed that he repented the act and yet he hath done miracles after his death God having not laid to his charge what he did through zeal of Justice though in some circumstances which rendred his action imprudent St. Peter of Luxemburg St. Vincent Ferrier St. Catheriue of Siena were in divers and different times of Schisme and by consequence some of them for the Anti-Pope yet nevertheless this blemish hath not hindred their Sanctity 19. They who write the Lives of Saints think that 't is their Duty to set forth all their virtues and to hide all their faults But I do not know if they should not do as well to take notice of all their faults as of their virtues to hinder thereby that men be not scandalized at such as appear in some pious men which we know Whosoevor for example shall make reflections on the manner how Three Saints to wit St. Epiphanius St. Jerome and St. Cyril of Alexandria acted upon account of St. John Chrysostome will wonder no more that virtuous men be sometimes prevented and fall sometimes into excess and they will conceive that there is very great limitation in this passage Charitas operit multitudinem peceatorum 20. We see often in Saints some faults which God sees no more there whereas we see not in our selves those which are truly there If they commit faults through ignorance the heat of their charity purifies them even without their acknowledging them and thus they subsist no more If they commit some thro weakness or thro some passion they humble themselves and they rise again more strong than they were before their fall and by this means again they subsist no more But the faults of Souls grown cold altho more inconsiderable in appearance subsist always in the eyes of God because they want this fire of Charity to consume them and because they are not restor'd again absolutely 27. We must distinguish faults of passion from faults of darkness and faults of light the faults of understanding from faults of the heart Nor is there properly any but God who can judge of faults which spring from ignorance wherein Cupidity appears not to have any share at all Nor is it permitted for men to determine of the degree 22. All Saints have in their hearts a sincere disposition to love and follow every known Truth But they know not equally all Truths nether are they equally appropriated to all those they know God enlightens and touches them differently according to the several designs he hath upon them and by giving them an ardent Love for certain Truths by which he will sanctify them he suffers sometimes that in respect of others they remain in some kind of obscurity or in a want of judgment which comes not from the corruption of their hearts but from this that God applys them to other things 'T is this that makes these who love these Truths to be oftentimes troubled to see them so little concerned for them because they consider not that they themselves are in this deprivation of Light and Judgment in regard of many others and that the heart of man being limited and narrow in the condition it is in as to this life God doth not exact that it should love Truth Truth in all its extent but only that it be the love of Truth and not Cupidity which should be the principal of its actions 23. When God leaves the Saints thus in Ignorance as to many Truths or diverts and stops the occasions which might engage them to commit some faults thro ignorance or hides by the purity of their hearts and by the ardency of their Charity those which they commit it happens nevertheless from hence that we may easily make ill use of their examples whether it be in imagining that we ought to follow blindly all they have done or in behaving our selves so as to condemn these Saints because of these wants of Light But both the one and the other of these scandals must be remedied by the consideration of this various dispensation which God makes of the knowledge of this Truth For we see by this on the one side that there may remain darkness in the Saints in respect of certain points in which by consequence they ought not to be taken for guides and we have reason to conclude on the other that it follows not that those in whom we perceive the wants of Light in respect of certain Truths cannot be Saints by the application they have to others 24. We may add to this that perchance those who hurt in appearance certain Truths thro ignorance and lack of Light have before God more love and zeal for them than these who shew a great heat for those same Truths For God hath particularly regard to the bottom of the heart and when he sees there a sincere love for Truth and Justice a disposition to follow them at the cost of all things he hath less regard to the darkness which hinders this Love to spread it over certain particular points Whereas it happens sometimes that this Zeal so apparent for certain Truths is nothing but the effect of Self-love and a tye to its proper sense We maintain Truth as we should maintain what is false if we had the same engagements to do it and oftentimes God fees nothing that 's sincere at the bottom of the heart which leads directly to Truth 25. Those who by a more exact study of antiquity should have acquired knowledge and some light which very Holy persons should not have had should yet have occasion to humble themselves by this thought that those Truths tho great and important are not ordinarily those the practice whereof is most frequent and which are the principal of the common actions which compose our lives Thus as the occasion of practising them are not very ordinary they become often barren in these who know them and we may easily believe that men love them without any real or effective love for them It is altogether contrary with common Truths as with those which teach to converse with our neighbour in an edifying manner to have God present in all our actions and to do nothing but by his Motive and his Spirit to mortify all the inordinate excesses of Self-love to lop off all things useless to this life to correct the senses in all that we can to moderate our passions to govern all the motions of Mind and Body not to complain of little evils to receive favourably those who mind us of some defect not to be tyed to our own Sense and Light to be reserved in our judgments Those Truths which prescribe these actions are not less Truths than the others whereof we have spoken but they have this advantage that the practice is ordinary and that