would only have render'd them squallid and would have depriv'd them of their greatest Ornament which is to say much in a few Words An Instance may be seen hereof in one of the Fragments of the Chapter of the Proofs of Jesus Christ by Prophecies pag. 85. conceiv'd in these Words The Prophets spake of particular things and of the Messias to the end that the Prophecies of the Messias should not be without Proofs and that particular Prophecies should not be without Fruit. In this Fragment he shews the Reason wherefore the Prophets that only look at the Messias and that should chiefly have Prophesy'd of him and of his Reign nevertheless often foretold particular things which seem'd but little to concern their Design He says it was to the end that these particular Events being Daily accomplish'd in the sight of all Men just as they were foretold they were undoubtedly own'd for true Prophets and by that means the certainty of what they Prophesy'd of the Messias was not in the least to be question'd So that by this means the Prophecies of the Messias did in some sort inferr their Certainty and Authority from these particular Prophecies which were verifyed and accomplished and these particular Prophecies thus serving to prove and Authorize those of the Messias they were not unfruitful and useless this is the Sense of this Fragment being explain'd It appears also necessary to undeceive some Persons that happily may expect herein to find Proofs and Geometrical Demonstrations of the Existence of God of the Immortality of the Soul and several other Articles of the Christian Faith this was not Monsieur Pascall's Aiâ—â— He design'd not to discover these Truths of Christian Religion by such kind of Demonstrations grounded on evident Principles able to convince the most obdurate Persons nor by Metaphysical Disputations which for the most part rather divert than perswade the Mind Nor by common places drawn from the divers Effects of Nature but by Moral Proofs which more touch the Heart than the Understanding that is he endeavour'd more to affect the Heart than to convince or perswade the Judgment knowing very well that Passions and Evil habits which corrupt the Heart and the Will are the greatest hindrances that obstruct our Faith and that if those Lets can be remov'd it would be no hard matter to convey into the Understanding those Reasons which may effectually convince it One shall be easily convinc'd of the Truth hereof in Reading this Treatise But Monsieur Pascall has explain'd himself in one of his Fragments found amongst his Papers not Inserted in this Collection Thus he speaks in this Fragment I will not here undertake to prove by Natural Reasons the Existence of God or the Trinity or the Immortality of the Soul nor other things of this Nature not only because I should not think my self able to find in Nature sufficient to convince obstinate Atheists but also because this Knowledge without Jesus Christ is useless and barren Though a Man should be perswaded that the proportion of Numbers are Truths Immaterial Eternal and depending of a former Truth wherein they subsist and which is called God yet I should not think such a one much advanc'd in his Salvation It may be some will think strange to find such a great Variety of Thoughts in this Collection some of which seem so little to relate to the Subject Monsieur Pascall undertook to Write of to this may be reply'd that his Design was far greater than many do imagin and that he did not just Limit himself within the Bounds of Confuting the Arguments of Atheists and of such as deny some Articles of the Christian Religion The great Love and singular Esteem he had for Religion so wrought with him that he could not only admit that it should be wholly destroy'd but also endeavour'd it should not be injur'd nor corrupted in any part of it so that he bid open defiance to all those that oppos'd either the Truth or Holiness of it that is as well Atheists and Infidels as Hereticks who refuse to submit the false Lights of their Reason unto Faith and that do refuse to believe the Truths which it teacheth us also he doth the like to Christians and Catholicks who being within the Pale of the Church do not however Live according to the Purity of the Gospel Precepts which is the Rule and Pattern by which we ought to direct and govern all our Actions This was his main Design and it was vast and large enough to comprehend most of the things contain'd in this Collection Nevertheless some few may be found that have but little relation thereunto and which indeed were not intended for it as for Example most of those that are in the Chapter of Divers Thoughts which indeed were found amongst Monsieur Pascall's Papers and were thought fit to be added to the others for this Book is not Publish'd barely as a Work made against Atheists or touching Religion but as a Collection of Thoughts touching Religion and some other things There remains no more to end this Preface but to say something of the Author having spoke of his Work I not only think this to be necessary but also believe that what I intend to say will be useful to shew how it was Monsieur Pascall came to have so high an Esteem and Love for Religion as to undertake the Design of this Work. It has already been shewn briefly in the Preface of the Treatises of the Weight of Liquors and of the Weight of Air how it was that he passed his Youth and the great Progress he made in a short time in all human and prophane Sciences that he set about and especially in Geometry and the Mathematicks the strange and surprising way that he learn'd them at Eleven or Twelve years old the little Works he sometimes perform'd which always surpass'd the strength of a Person of his Age the Wonderful and Prodigious Effect of his Understanding and Wit which appear'd in his Machine of Arithmetick invented by him when he was but Nineteen years of Age And to conclude the Learn'd Experiments of Vacuity which he perform'd in Presence of several Persons of Learning and Quality of the City of Roüan where he Resided whilst his Father Monsieur Le President Pascall was Employ'd there in the Kings Business as Intendent of Justice so that I 'll omit relating any of that in this place and shall only repeat in few Words how he slighted all these Honours and how it was that he passed the latter Years of his Life wherein he shew'd no less the Greatness and Solidity of his Vertue and Piety than before he had shewn the Vastness and Admirable depth of his Wisdom In his Youth by Gods particular Care and Goodness he had been preserv'd from all those Vices whereunto most young People are Subject and what is not very usual to so great a Wit as his he was never inclin'd to Novelty in what related to Religion having ever
amongst the Sons of Men to say God was bound to do something more than what he has done and to think he has any Privilege above others to seek a Miracle to strengthen him about the least doubt his Heart will suggest to him Or if one has no more right hereto than another must he become visible to all Men and every Day come present himself to their sight as the Sun does and should he do so what can they tell but they would yet doubt every Night because if they have not sensible Marks they have as great and as certain ones which they resist as the accomplishment of Prophecies which is a standing Miracle and which all Men may plainly see with their Eyes to the End of the World and that too as often as they list But the Truth is it is not want of Proofs that hinder Men it is nothing but their neglect in duly informing themselves and their hardness of Heart and it is that that will cause that though there has nothing hitherto appear'd fitter to rouse Men out of this insensibleness than the Writings of Monsieur Pascall nevertheless 't is most certain there will be but very few that do reap benefit by them and to judge by the success it will be only for good Christians that he labour'd in striving to prove the Truth of their Religion I say this without having any regard to the necessity of the Inspiration of Faith to believe effectually Men can contribute nothing herein I speak only of the Belief which Reason can and ought to give And it is whereto there appears little less difficulty when one considers how Men are made and how they are taken up in the World. Some apply themselves to study Sciences in finding out Secrets of Art and Nature others think of nothing at all and spend their whole Life in Business in Pleasures and in Vanity As for those which doubtless are the greatest Number and also the most considerable it is very easie to see how few there will be that will spend some Moments in Reading this Treatise and amongst those how few there will be that will be able to understand it or be touched with it how hard 't will be to make Men enter into these deep Reflections that have as it were cast off the use of thinking and have scarce ever looked into themselves It is not enough that they are Truths separate from the Senses not to make any impression on Minds that have been fed only with Fancy and Chimeras that have added a second Corruption to the Corruption of Nature and are not so much as sensible of the Miserable remainders of it will it of a sudden bring them back to a point from whence they have gone astray ever since they were born or to reduce them by little and little can one expect that taking Pleasure only in that which flatters their Senses or their Interest they can like to say continually that Weariness is their greatest Happiness that their greatest Evil is to think themselves Happy that they shall never draw near to be so but as they ruminate on the Sense of their Miseries and that 't is only Fools or true Christians that can expect Death without dispair These Truths how comfortable soever they appear to some will appear sad and terrible to them how little place will they find in the noise of contrary things wherewith their Heart is perpetually tortur'd or what little stay will they make there It will be but just like those imaginary Apparitions that are scatter'd by rubbing our Eyes with the Hand and they would rather never more look in the Book than that it should work any change and that they should therein perceive at a distance the Ruin of the false Happiness which takes up all the Business and sweetness of Life It would be no hard matter to apply part hereof to others that think themselves much above and beyond those and yet nevertheless resemble them in what is most essential They think indeed they have a desire to know they sometimes meet and thereby they look one on another like a kind of Men different from all others and they are sorry for others but what would they do to themselves if they once clearly see the little worth of what costs them so much Labour and that amuses them the which even puts them farther off from seeing although they are Truths they seek after and that all Truth has its value by the Relation it has with the essential Truth nevertheless they are empty and useless unless they tend thereunto and yet this is so far from being the right way in imploying ones self in things that disturb most Men that God is pleas'd it should be hid from them and that those the most able have discover'd is that one cannot attain unto and that may be well spar'd Nevertheless as if these Persons knew very well that there was nothing else wanting to be known in the World they thereunto apply themselves with a strange industry and this little success incourages rather than discourages them there they stick as Miserable Creatures unworthy of their own care and neglecting the study of what they are and of what they must be to dive into what is most vain and hidden in the Sciences never considering that 't is a long while ago that enough is known to direct us in our Course of living and that if any thing be wanting 't is not worth while to seek after it And to say Truth it is not the conveniencies of Life they seek after nor the love of Truth which they seldom care for to be seen or found by others It is Curiosity alone that pushes them forwards and the Glory of out-doing those that have gone before them and the greatest part follow the ways so contrary to Truth that they go astray even as they go forwards But the worst of all is that it renders them incapable of seeing it when one shews it them and filling their Head with what has been falsely invented since Men talked in the World this strange kind of Tradition doth to such a degree deprive them of the savour of Truth that it is an unknown Language to them and all that is not conformable to the Impressions they have receiv'd can work nothing on them There are indeed some amongst them that are in the right and walk in the way of Truth These satisfie not themselves with Words of Course only as others do and because they seek rather to know than to speak and that not submitting to believe but what they see Ground for they seldom are deceiv'd It is also what incloses their Knowledge within narrow Limits there being but very few things capable sufficiently to evidence what they desire what is not demonstrative signifies nothing to them and never considering there are several kinds of Demonstrations they erect themselves absolute Judges upon a few Principles which they have and will believe nothing but
other ground but his own Humour and presume to determine from the dark Dungeon where Nature has exil'd them Miserable Light of his weak Reason that there is no other Being in the whole Universe can Effect such great Wonders and that they are nothing else but a Parcel of Tales and empty Visions But the Reason some Persons are not convinc'd with Proofs that are so plain to others is because their Intrest and Passions so take them up that they see all things else only at halves This is the true cause of all those Doubts that are form'd against Religion because indeed there is nothing so contrary to our Passions as the Life it commands us to lead And so it is no hard matter to understand that it opposes a thing that directly attacks them and that cannot be setled but by their Ruin. This may very well happen in this regard seeing it is observ'd even in Natural things and if sometimes the meer Imagination of an Event one does not like though it be impossible it should come to pass makes one fansy as if one really doubted when indeed one has no Cause to fear how much rather when we are absolutely forc'd to quit what is most dear to us in the World will it be more capable to dazle and make one doubt of a thing to the belief whereof the Heart should be as much concern'd as the Mind One knows for Example a Person of great Sense and Wisdom but so struck with the horror of Death that one asking him if he would not lay his Life there is a City call'd Rome if there was any thing to be got by it the party freely answer'd No. This Doubt certainly had never befallen him and he could never have scrupl'd in the least at any thing else could have been said to him on this Matter But at the Instant the Idea of Death offer'd it self to his Mind it wholly took up his fansy All the Evidence that Rome subsisted vanish'd away and if there came not some real Doubt that all one said was false there past at least something in his Head or rather in his Heart that made him act as if he had effectively doubted I know no body will own that the Love of Pleasures and of this present Life will blind Men to this degree and that every one pretends their Doubts are very Sincere and that the unwillingness Men have in not believing Matters of Religion proceeds only from their Understanding But it is not necessary to press Persons upon this Point because one cannot well make them see that in their Heart which they cannot see there themselves for the Motions of the Heart are not like those of the Understanding these latter are done either by Progress or by a quick and clear Light which makes us take up Resolutions and that set us on Action and it is impossible we should feel them and not know them But as for what we do by the Inclination of the Heart it is quite different these are certain hidden Springs born with us which incline us to things without any Progress of Reason and almost without Knowledge and thence it is that without due consideration and timely care it is almost impossible not to be deceiv'd the Heart if it may be so said so mingling it self with Reason or rather becoming so much Master of it that it is the Principle of all Actions yet so that one scarce perceives that it is any way concern'd But let those that doubt at least own That they do not do their utmost to be enlightn'd which can proceed from nothing but the Will. They will easily own this if they are in the least Ingenious because they cannot deny but the whole Life ought to be imploy'd in seeking out so important a Truth whereas they have scarce ever minded it and that of all things it is probably what they have least thought of When one shall have obtain'd of them this sincere desire of seriously applying themselves to inquire after the Proofs of Religion it will be no hard matter to carry on the Evidence of it farther in taking the Course we have laid down For beside the Matter of Fact whereof we have given a Specimen in this Discourse there are an infinite Number which depend on the Judgment and which present themselves in heaps when one diligently Reads the Scriptures It is to those one ought chiefly to give heed because they have this advantage that in perswading the Truth they also make it to be belov'd without which all signifies nothing It 's true there are but very few so qualifi'd as they should be that is to have a kind of relish of Truth and a sincerity of Heart which very seldom meet together But we must at least endeavour to have it our selves and impart it to others and awaken in them the Thoughts they must have soon or late if they intend to believe so as may be to their advantage The End. Approbation of Doctors WE whose Names are here under-written Doctors in Divinity of the Faculty of Paris Confess we have Read a Small Treatise call'd A Discourse upon the Proofs of the Books of Moses All those who Read it will find much advantage and satisfaction thereby for although Faith be sufficient to Enlighten a Christians Mind and to perswade him of the Truths God has been pleas'd to shew him Nevertheless when Reasons to believe are join'd to this Faith and that one is inclin'd by clear Testimonies allowable by their own Authority to admit of these revealed Truths this Creates in the Soul a Light which fills it with Joy and Peace Deus autem solatii repleat vos omni gaudio pace in credendo This doubtless will arrive unto those that will Read this small Treatise with a desire of being instructed seeing therein is shewn the History of Moses his Government his Miracles his Books c all grounded with so much Evidence and bearing a Relation to Jesus Christ our Divine Mediator that these Proofs alone were sufficient to convince them if Divine Faith did not determine the Matter It is what is our Judgment of this little Treatise which contains nothing â—ontrary to the Catholick Faith nor to good Life Dated at Paris the 1st of May 1672. Le Vaillant Curate of St. Christophers Grenet Curate of St. Bennet Marlin Curate of St. Eustach Labbe Petit Pied T. Roullard ADVERTISEMENT THis little Discourse which follows though very imperfect was not Esteem'd unworthy to be added to Monsieur Pascall 's Thoughts as well because 't is agreeable to his Notions as also for the greatness of those it insinuates for whatever Truth it contains it is nought else to be plain but an Idea and wish the Execution whereof is difficult and a great distance off But it is not impossible and that in a matter of this Nature sufficeth to incline and it may be oblige some or other that think themselves capable to ingage farther in the
Indifferency if he has the least Spark of Reason and how stupid soever he has been coming to know himself he ought to consider whence he came and what shall become of him Monsieur Pascall having reduc'd him to this Condition of desiring to be inform'd of so weighty a Doubt in the first place he directs him to Philosophers and having there discover'd to him all that the greatest Philosophers of all manner of Sects have said of the State of Man he shews so many Defects so many Weaknesses Contradictions and Absurdities in what they have alledg'd that it is no hard matter for Men to judge that they cannot there find any safety Then he makes him reflect on the whole Universe and on all Ages and shews the many Religions that is Profess'd but at the same time he shews him by undeniable Arguments that all those Religions are compos'd but of Vanity and Folly of Errours and Extravagancies and that he cannot yet therein find any thing may satisfie him At length he makes him look on the Jews and in them he shews such extraordinary Circumstances that they easily Attract his Attention having shew'd what this People had that was Peculiar he particularly insists in mentioning an only Book whereby they are Govern'd and which contains both their History their Law and Religion One no sooner opens this Book but that one finds the World is the Work of God and that it is the same God who did make Man after his own Image and that he invested him with all Benefits of Body and Mind suitable to that State. Although there has been nothing yet that convinc'd him of this Truth yet it is very grateful to him and Reason alone suffices to shew that he finds more likelihood that God made Man and all things in the World than in all that Men have fansy'd by their own Imaginations What most puzzles him is That by the Description made of Man he is very uncapable of Possessing the Privileges that belonged to him when he first came out of the Hands of his Creator but he does not long continue in this Doubt for persisting to Read this same Book he therein finds that Man being Created by God in the State of Innocence and enjoying all manner of Perfection the first thing he did was to Rebel against his Maker and to employ all the Benefits he received to displease him Monsieur Pascall makes him understand this was the greatest Crime that could be in all its Circumstances it was punish'd not only in the First Man who thereby falling from his first State was plung'd in Misery in Weakness Errour and Ignorance but also all his Posterity are thereby Polluted and Corrupted to all ensuing Generations Then he shews him several places in this Book wherein he has discover'd this Truth he lets him see that there is scarce any more mention made of Man but in reference to this State of Weakness and Corruption that it is often repeated that all Flesh is Polluted that Men have given up themselves to their Lusts and that they are prone to Evil from their Birth He shews also that this first Fall is the Spring not only of what is most incomprehensible in the Nature of Man but also of a great many Effects that are without him and whereof the Cause is unknown to him To conclude he represents Man in such Lively Colours in this Book that he does not appear to differ from the first Original that he found out 'T is not enough to have shewn to this Man his State of Misery Monsieur Pascall shews him farther That in this same Book he shall find matter of Comfort and in Effect he shews him that 't is said that the Remedy is in the Hands of God that it is to him we must have Recourse to have the Helps we stand in need of that he will be intreated of us and that he will send a Saviour to Men that will pay a Ransom for them and that will restore them to Life and Happiness Having explain'd unto him a great many particular Remarks touching this Book and People he farther makes him consider that it is that alone that makes due mention of the Soveraign Being and that gives a Right Notion of a True Religion he represents the most sensible Marks which he referrs to those contain'd in this Book and he inclines him particularly to consider that it makes the Essence of true Worship consist in Loving and Adoring God which is a peculiar Character and that does visibly distinguish it from all other Religions whose falseness appears by want of this Essential Mark. Though Monsieur Pascall had led this Man on so far whom he intended insensibly to convince having not yet said any thing to him that might confirm him in the Truths that he discover'd to him nevertheless he put him in a State of receiving them with satisfaction provided he may be assur'd that he ought so to do and wished with all his Heart that they may be certain and well grounded seeing he therein found such great Benefit for his Repose and for satisfying his Doubts This is the State every Reasonable Man should be in if he duely consider'd the Consequences of the things Monsieur Pascall Treated of and it might justly be hoped that then he would soon submit to the Proofs that he after alledged to confirm the certainty of the weighty Truths which he asserted and which make up the ground of the Christian Religion which he design'd to teach To speak something briefly to those Proofs having shew'd in General that the Truths in Agitation were contain'd in a Book the certainty whereof no Man of Sense ever question'd he insisted particularly on the Books of Moses wherein these Truths are more especially to be found and he shew'd by a great many undeniable Circumstances that it was alike impossible that Moses should have Recorded Untruths or that the People to whom he committed them should suffer themselves to be Cheated had Moses a design to do so He spake also of all the Miracles that are mention'd in this Book and being of great concern to the Religion therein contain'd he made appear it was impossible but they must needs be true not only by the Authority of the Book wherein they are contain'd but also by the Circumstances wherewith they are attended and which render them Infallible He shew'd also how all Moses's Law was Figurative that all which hapned to the Jews was only the Figure of the Truths accomplish'd at the coming of the Messias and that the Veil that cover'd these Figures being taken off it was easie to see their accomplishment and full Consummation in regard of those that believed in Jesus Christ Monsieur Pascall afterwards undertook to prove the Truth of Religion by Prophecies and he inlarged very much on this Subject more than on any other having taken much pains therein and having particular Abilities to this purpose he explain'd them in a very full and clear manner
two Natures and one Person We believe the substance of Bread being changed into the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ makes him Really present in the Sacrament this is one Truth Another is That this Sacrament also is a Figure of the Cross and of Glory and a Comemmoration of both this is the Catholick Faith which comprehends these two Truths which seem to be opposite to each other The Heresie of this time not conceiving that this Sacrament contains at once the Presence of Jesus Christ and his Figure and that he is both a Sacrifice and the Commemoration of a Sacrifice thinks one of these Truths can't be admitted without excluding the other For this Reason they hold that this Sacrament is Figurative and therein they are not Hereticks They think we exclude this Truth and therefore 't is they make so many Objections upon the passages of the Fathers that say it To conclude they deny the Real Presence and therein they are Hereticks Therefore the readiest way to hinder Heresies is to instruct all things that are true and the surest way of refuting them is to make them all manifest 5. * Grace and Nature will always be in the World there will still be Pelagians and Catholicks because the first Birth produces the one and the second Birth the other 6. * The Church doth merit with Jesus Christ as being inseparable from him the Conversion of all those which are not in the true Religion And afterwards 't is these Converts that do succour the Mother which deliver'd them 7. * The Body can no more live without the Head than the Head can without the Body whoever separates from one or the other is no longer of the Body and belongs not to Jesus Christ all kind of Virtue Martyrdom Fasting and all manner of good Works avail nothing out of the Church and the Communion of the Head of the Church which is the Pope 8. * It will be one of the Torments of the Damned to see that they shall be condemned by their own Reason whereby they pretended to condemn Christian Religion 9. * There is this of common betwixt the Life of the generality of Men and of Saints that they all aspire to Felicity and they differ only in the Object wherein they place it both one and the others call those their Enemies that hinder them from attaining to it 10. * We should judg of what is Good and Evil by the Will of God which can be neither unjust nor ignorant and not by our own Will which is always full of Error and Malice 11. * Jesus Christ has in the Gospel given this Mark to know those that have true Faith which is that they shall speak with new Tongues and indeed the renewing of the Thoughts and the Desires doth cause that of the Discourse for these new things which cannot be displeasing to God as the Old Man cannot be pleasing to him are different from the new things of the Earth inasmuch as the new things of the World how new soever they be do soon decay whereas this new Spirit the longer it continues is so much the more strengthened and renewed Our Old Man dieth saith St. Paul and we are renewed day by day and we shall not be fully renew'd until we enter into Eternity where we shall for ever sing the new Song spoken of by David in the Psalms that is to say the new Song of the Spirit proceeding from Love. 12. * When St. Peter and the Apostles abolished Circumcision where there was any thing to be done against the Law of God they consulted not the Prophets but the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Persons of those that were Circumcised they judged it surer that God had approved those whom he had filled with his Spirit than that heed should be given to the keeping the Law they knew the end of the Law was but the receiving the Holy Ghost and so seeing it was received without Circumcision it was no longer necessary 13. * Two Laws may suffice to rule the whole Christian Republick better than all the Polliticks in the World To Love God and our Neighbour 14. * Religion is proportion'd to all sorts of Men the ordinary sort stop at the State and Establishment it is in and this Religion is such that its only Establishment is sufficient to prove the Truth of it Others ascend to the Apostles the most refin'd go farther even to the beginning of the World Angels see it yet plainer and farther off for they see it in God himself 15. * Those to whom God has given a feeling Sense of Religion in the Heart are very happy and fully convinced but as for those that have it not we cannot procure it for them but by Reasoning until such time as God himself imprints it in their Hearts without which Faith is not profitable to Salvation 16. * God to reserve to himself the power of instructing us and to shew us the difficulty of our unintelligible Being has hid the Mystery of it so far from our sight that we were incapable of attaining to it So that 't is not by the force of our Reason but by the meer submitting of our Reason that we can come rightly to understand our selves 17. * The Wicked that make Profession of following Reason had need be strangely fortify'd with Reason What is 't they say Don't we see say they Beasts live and dye as well as Men and the Turks as well as Christians They have their Ceremonies their Prophets their Doctors their Saints their Religious Orders as well as we Is this contrary to the Scripture Don't it speak of all this If you are indifferent of searching out the Truth here 's room enough you may lye down in ease but if you desire with all your Heart to know and find it 't is not enough to seek it by Halves that may serve for a vain Question of Philosophy but hear your All lyes at stake nevertheless after a slight Reflection of this Nature c. 18. * It is a horrible thing to find all one possesses to wast continually and yet to set ones Heart upon it without seeking if there be not something that is more permanent 19. * We should live otherwise in the World according to these divers suppositions if one could abide there still if it be certain we shall not bide there long and uncertain if it shall be one Hour this last supposition is ours 20. * Let us imagin to see a great many Men in Chains and all condemned to Death some of which are daily executed in sight of the rest those that remain see their own Condition in that of their Companions and looking upon each other with sorrow and without hope expect when it will be their turn This is the representation of the Condition of Men. 21. * By the parts you should concern your self in seeking the Truth for if you dye without seeking the true Good you are ruin'd But you will
necessary therefore once knowing the Truth by Reason to strive to feel it and to bring our Faith into the knowledg of the Heart else it will be always uncertain and wavering 80. * It is of the Essence of God that his Justice should be Infinite as well as his Mercy Nevertheless his Justice and Severity towards the Damned is yet less astonishing than his Mercy towards the Elect. §. XXIX Moral Reflections 1. SCiences have two Extremities that touch each other the first is pure Natural Ignorance wherein all Men are involv'd when they come into the World the other Extream is whereunto great Souls do attain that having passed through all things 't is possible for Men to know they find at last they know nothing and find themselves in that very Ignorance from whence they first set out But this is a Learned Ignorance that knows it self those betwixt these two that have set out of this Natural Ignorance and could not attain the other have yet some tincture of this high Knowledg and would be thought great these trouble the World and judg worst of all of things The Common People and the Learned usually make up the World the others despise them and are despised themselves 2. * The common People honour those of great Birth the Conceited sort dispise them saying Great Birth is not an advantage of the Persons but of hazard The Wise do honour them not by the motive of the People but by a higher Consideration Some Self-conceited Persons that have no great knowledg despise them notwithstanding the Consideration as makes them be honour'd by the Wiser sort because they judg by a new Light that Piety infuses into them but true Christians Honour them by another higher Light. So Opinions succeed for or against according as one is illuminated 3. * God having made Heaven and Earth which are not sensible of the Happiness of their Being he would make Beings that should know it and that should make up a Body of thinking Members All Men are Members of this Body and to be Happy 't is requisite they should conform their particular Will to the Universal Will that Governs the whole Body Nevertheless it often happens that one thinks to be all and that seeing no Body whereof we depend one thinks to depend of himself alone and one would be both a Center and a Body But in this State one should find himself a Member separated from the Body that not having in it self a Principle of Life does only ramble and go astray in the uncertainty of his Being At length when one begins to know himself one as it were returns into himself one finds one is not a Body one finds one is but a Member of the Universal Body that to be a Member is not to have Life Being nor Motion but by the Spirit of the Body and for the Body that a Member separated from the Body to which it belongs has only a perishing and fading Being so that one should only love ones self for this Body or rather one should only love him because in loving him one loves himself seeing our Being is only in him and by him and for him 4. * To regulate the Love we should have for our selves we should imagin a Body composed of thinking Members for we are Members of all and see how each Member should love 5. * The Body loves the Hand and the Hand if it had a Will should love it self after the same manner the Body loves it All Love that passeth this is unjust 6. * If the Feet and Hands had a particular Will they would never be in their right State but in submitting to the Will of the Body out of this they would be in mischief and extravagance but in not desiring but the good of the Body they seek their own good 7. * The Members of our Body are not sensible of the Happiness of their Union of their admirable intelligence of the care Nature takes to influence them with Spirits to make them grow and subsist were they capable to understand it and that they would use this Knowledg to retain in themselves the nourishment they receive without letting it pass to the other Members they would be not only unjust but also Miserable and would rather hate than love themselves their blessedness as well as their Duty consisting in agreeing to conduct the Universal Soul to which they appertain that loves them better than they do themselves 8. * Qui adhaeret Domino unus spiritus est One loves himself because he is a Member of Jesus Christ One loves Jesus Christ because he is the chief of the Body whereof one is a Member All is one one is in the other 9. * Concupiscence and Strength are the Springs of all our Actions purely human Lust produceth voluntary Strength the involuntary Actions 10. * Whence is it that we are not moved at a lame Man and that we are troubled to hear an ignorant Person It is because a lame Man acknowledges we go straight and that a Man of an ignorant Brain saith that 't is we are ignorant otherwise we should have more of pity than anger Epictetus asks also wherefore we are not angry if it be said we have the Head-ach and that we are angry as soon as 't is said that we Reason ill or that we make a wrong choice The Reason of this is because we are sure we have not the Head-ach and that we are not lame but we are not so cetain that we shall make a right choice So that not being assured but because we see with our full veiw when another sees with his full veiw the quite contrary this puts us in suspence and does astonish us and the more when a thousand mock at our choice for we must prefer our light before that of so many others and that is difficult and hard to do there is never this contradiction in the Sense touching a Cripple 11. * The People have very sound Opinions for Example for choosing Divertisements and Hunting rather than Poetry the Half-witted scoff and boast thereupon to shew the folly of the World but by a Reason that they do not fully search into it were also reasonable to distinguish Men by the Exteriour as by Birth or Riches the World boasts also to shew how unreasonable this is but it is very reasonable 12. * Good Parentage and Birth is a great advantage it sets a Man at Eighteen or Twenty Years old in a degree of as much respect and esteem as another should have at Fifty Years old And here is Thirty Years gain'd at a clap 13. * There be some Persons that to shew one does them wrong in not esteeming them do often tell that they are esteemed by such and such Persons of Quality I would answer such Shew by what Merit you have gain'd the esteem of such Persons and we will also esteem you as much as they do 14. * A Man that sets himself in
what is prov'd to them to their own Mind of which one cannot give them an absolute Reason But they do not see the advantage they think to find by believing nothing but what is indisputable is much less than they think and so far from securing themselves thereby from Error that on the contrary it is what plunges them deeper into it in depriving them of the knowledge of many Truths the want whereof is a great and certain Error and yet is scarce perceiv'd or felt for the habit they have taken up of this continual Doubting and of reducing all to Figures and Motion of the matter by degrees spoils their Judgment makes them strangers to their Heart so that they cannot return to it and at last makes them think they are themselves nothing but meer delusion what can there be that is more capable of making them insensible to true Reason and to the Proofs Monsieur Pascall has given although they have the least cause in the World to think that he could be mistaken and that in their way it self they lookt on him or ought to have so done with admiration To conclude There is one sort of Men almost as hard to be found as true Christians and that seem less unlike than others to become such Those that have been sensible of the Corruption of Men their Misery and their great want of Knowledge they have sought Remedies without knowing the Ground of their Distemper and regarding things in a general way as they could humanly do they have seen or believ'd to see what Men were bound to do one to another and some have extended their Speculations and the Notions of Natural Vertues as far as they could were there any thing great amongst Men and that the Glory they receiv'd one of another was of any worth those only could pretend to some share in it And as 't is only amongst such there is any Wit and Civility one would think more were there to be expected than of any others and that they were just on the Borders of Christianity But it is taking it in another Sense what sets them farthest off seeing there are no Sicknesses so dangerous as those that most resemble Health no◠any greater hinderance to perfection than to think one has attain'd it Charity if it be permitted to use the Comparison may be lookt upon as a Curious Work put into the hands of Men and by their neglect and want of care comes to be broken all to pieces they have in some measure been sensible of their Loss and gathering up what remain'd of the Peices they patcht up the best they could that they call Honesty But alas what a difference what spaces what disproportions is betwixt them It is but a wretched Copy of this Divine Original and Woe to him that sits down satisfi'd with it and cannot but see it is his own Work that is to say Vanity Nevertheless this difference as Infinite as it is in it self is not discern'd by those of whom I speak and the State whereto they are advanc'd being indeed considerable enough after the manner as they judge of it they are wholly satisfi'd with it they move and continue in it till Death and nothing is harder than to make them dispise what sets them so much above the rest of Men and to incline them to acknowledge their own Wickedness which is the very beginning and perfection of Christianity This is what gives occasion to think that very few would have been the better for Monsieur Pascall's Book if it had been put in the very State he intended it however let every body consider it it is well worth the Labour and that those that after having adjusted Christian Religion to their own Mind in doing all things as they list as also those that resolve to believe nothing of it Let them know that in Matters of Religion it is the highest pitch of mischief to ingage in any but in the right and that there is but one that is so Whatever Light whatever Knowledge one has there is nothing easier than to be deceiv'd especially when one will and of what likely appearance soever one flatters himself it is most certain one shall repent to have made an ill choice and one shall repent Eternally For to conclude one acts nothing that may be of force to perswade themselves And whatever Ground one finds in ones own Opinions the chief importance is that they are true and that at the fatal Moment that shall for ever determine our State at the drawing of the Curtain that will fully shew us this Truth if we discern more than we did know we should not at least find the contrary of what we believed The End. Approbation of Doctors WE whose Names are here under-written Doctors in Divinity of the Faculty of Paris Certifie that we have Read and Examin'd a Book Intitul'd A Discourse on Monsieur Pascall 's Thoughts Compos'd by Monsieur Du Bois de la Cour wherein we find nothing contrary to Faith and good Manners Dated at Paris the 25th of July 1671. Le Vaillant Curate of St. Christopher Grenet Curate of St. Bennet Marlin Curate of St. Eustach Labbé Fortin Peht Pied T. Roulliard A DISCOURSE ON THE PROOFS Of the Books of MOSES CHristian Religion makes no difficulty to own that the Mind of Man cannot attain to the height of the Mysteries which it teacheth and that it is too narrow to go discover the Foundations of it in the Eternal Springs of Truth where it does appear as visible as the first Principles could his sight reach so far Neither doth it pretend to be absolutely believed by a blind instinct without any Proof and God has not given to Man Reason and Understanding to render so great a Present not only vain but also hurtful in offerring him Objects of Faith against which the very Instrument of his Knowledge should be in a continual revolt This is the Portion of those Schismaticks who are grounded only upon their own rash Capricioes and Fanatical Visions who are not grounded nor do subsist but through the want of Reason like to that which first produc'd them whereas Christian Religion is such that how inpenetrable soever its Mysteries are they cannot be doubted of but by another kind of mistake For to conclude the business is not to Examine the possibility of these Mysteries nor to settle the Mind about all the Difficulties that it finds in submitting thereunto Men would be unjust to desire to comprehend them they who cannot comprehend themselves and yet doubt not of their Existence And it is sufficient to shew them that all these so unconceivable Truths are joined not only to other Truths they know but also to that of all the Truths that are most proportion'd to their Understanding and whereof they may inform themselves by the most known and certain ways If Men know any thing of certain it is Deeds and of any thing that falls within their Knowledge there is
nothing wherein it is harder to impose upon them and wherein there is less occasion of Dispute So that when it is demonstrated to them that Christian Religion is inseparably join'd to Deeds the truth of which cannot justly be contested they must and ought submit to what it teacheth or that they abandon all Sincerity and right Reason If Moses for Instance was and that he wrote the Book that is attributed to him then the Jewish Religion is true If the Jewish Religion be True Jesus Christ is the Messias and if Jesus Christ be the Messias all must be believed that he said The Trinity the Incarnation Resurrection Ascension and all the Rest It is by this Divine chain of Truths God conducts Men to the true Faith and that they might shew there is nothing more reasonable than the submission they give to the most incomprehensible Mysteries very far from censuring them of Weakness and Imprudence And as this great Body of Christian Religion is compos'd of a great many different Parts which all tend to the same End and that it has subsisted Six thousand years it cannot but be by a Chain of infinite Truths that every Age has added a new Accumulation of Proofs and that at what Part soever one begins at what Point soever one apply themselves one still finds such a great abundance of Light that 't is impossible not to be convinc'd But one is so much the more obliged to apply themselves exactly to the seeking these Proofs God ordering it so that they should not consist in common Principles and so plain that they should presently be discover'd and that they should be alike seen of all Men. It is rather a heap of Circumstances that every body does not put together or don 't consider after the same manner which yet nevertheless are plain to the most ordinary Capacity when they ever so little open their Eyes and when they are all together produce a certainty if not greater at least more intimate and natural than that we have by speculative and abstracted Demonstrations because the manner of it is more proportion'd to the Mind of Man and that there 's no body but finds the Principles in themselves It is in this design that to give an Essay of the way that one should consider these Deeds which by their certainty do necessarily perswade that of our Religion we will make choice of the particular History of Moses and the Truth of his Books which serve as the Foundation of the Jewish Religion as this doth of the Christian according to St. Paul. I do not think my self bound presently to prove that if there was effectively a Man who lookt on himself to be sent on Gods part and that not desiring he should be believed on his bare Word or by Actions which are known to be but little above those of the power of Man has given for greater Evidence that wonderful Succession of Prodigies which is to be seen in the Pentateuch who was seen to have dispos'd of Life and Death to have Commanded the Elements and made the whole Frame of Nature stoop to his Orders I make no question I say but all the World will confess but this Man does best desérve to be believ'd of what he has writ concerning God in whose Name it was he wrought all these Wonders and that the Religion he Establish'd should be accounted as True and Divine The most obstinate Spirits will as 't were be at a loss under the weight of these Wonders and find no other means to satisfie the Inclination they have to Unbelief but to seek vain Reasons to question the Truth of these Miracles and of the Book which contains them But if they have any remains of Honesty and Sincerity left in them they cannot possibly proceed very far in these Doubtings and they will find them so dissipated by the abundance of Proofs which attend this History that they must be forc'd either to confess it to be true or be reduc'd to the dulness of those who to avoid believing what Religion Commands do rather chuse never to think at all of it For by what Suppositions do they think to shake the certainty of what is writ in these Books and put their Mind in a State of thinking that it all amounts to nothing Let them give all the scope they can to their Imagination and let it feed them with all the Chimera's it can they will never find any thing that has the least shadow of likelihood and which a Judgment never so little solid would not be asham'd to propose Will they say Moses never was and that all that is said of him is only a Fable invented at pleasure But let them consider that it is not Jews and Christians only that have been heard speak of this Moses seeing it is also known that Prophane Historians make mention of him and if that were not so let them also look on all the Histories in the World but as Fables seeing there is not one of them can be Credited if it were permitted to doubt that there was a Man called Moses who brought the Jews out of Aegypt after a long Captivity For all the Reasons whereby Men judge the truth of other Histories do equally appear in that of Moses For Instance we do not doubt but that there was an Alexander and a Cyrus because several Authors have writ of it and that no body ever thought of making any question of it neither has ever any body seriously question'd if there was a Moses It was constantly own'd and believ'd amongst a very Numerous People and by all those that knew them and that had any dealing with them without ever having been deny'd by any body But there is moreover this difference that Moses has particular Proofs and such as are not to be found in others for never was a Book preserv'd with so much Care and Affection as that which contains his History and nevertheless Men had never greater and more powerful Reasons to destroy the Truth of any Book if they could have found any colour for doing it than the Jews had in regard of this seeing that at once they might have freed themselves from a Law that was the most troublesom the most painful terrible and Injurious that could be to be observ'd so that one can see no Motive that should incline them to bear it but the firm perswasion of the Truth of it Incredulity not being able to subsist in this Chimera it must of necessity pass to some other and that for Example one must say That it is true there was a Man call'd Moses and that he was Chief of a great People he brought out of Aegypt but that he was a great Impostor which deceiv'd that People by false Miracles and forged all the Prodigies he Relates in his Book to subject them to the Law which he gave them and by that Law to himself in making them look upon it as come from Heaven and making
in Divinity of the Faculty of Paris Counsellor and Almoner in Ordinary to the King and Bishop of Grenoble â—T hapned to me in Examining this Work in the State it is in as it will almost to all those that will Read 〈◊〉 which is more than ever to lament the Loss of the â—uthor who only was able to finish what he so happily â—â—d begun To conclude if this Book imperfect as it is â—â—th nevertheless mightily work upon Reasonable Perâ—â—s and discover the Truth of Christian Religion to â—ose that Sincerely seek after it What would it not â—â—ve done if the Author had liv'd to have perfected it â—nd if these rough Diamonds do here and there cast â—â—th such shining Light what Mind would they not â—â—ve dazl'd if this Skilful Artist had liv'd to have â—â—lish'd and finish'd them Moreover had he liv'd his â—â—cond Thoughts had doubtless been more Methodical â—an the First which are made Publick in this Treaâ—â—e but they could not have been Wiser they might â—â—ve been better polish'd and cemented but they could â—â—t have been more Solid and Resplendent It is the Teâ—â—imony we give of this Work and that we find noâ—â—ing in it contrary to the Doctrine and Belief of the â—hurch At Paris 21st September 1669. Bish Le Camus Dr. of the Faculty of Divinity of Paris Counsellor and Almoner to the King. ADVERTISEMENT THe Thoughts contain'd in this Book having bâ— Writ and Compos'd by Monsieur Pascall in 〈◊〉 manner as hath been related in the Preface that to say just as they came in his Mind and with any continuance it cannot be expected much Order to be found in the Chapters of this Collection whâ— is compos'd for the most part of many Thoughts â—â—stinct the one from the other and that are â—â—ranged under the same Title but because they see to Treat near hand of the same Subject And thoâ— it be easie enough in Reading each Chapter to juâ—â— if it be a continuation of what preceeded or 〈◊〉 contains a New Thought nevertheless it was judgâ— the better to distinguish them to make some partâ—â—â—lar Mark. So that where at the beginning of â— Article this Mark * is seen it imports this â—â—ticle contains new Matter that relates not to 〈◊〉 went before but is distinct of it self and by 〈◊〉 same Rule it will be found that the Articles 〈◊〉 have not this Mark make but one Discourse 〈◊〉 were found in this Order in Monsieur Pascall's Oâ—â—ginals yet in some places the Articles being 〈◊〉 Two or Three of them are included in one Paragraph It hath also been thought convenient at the End â—â— these Thoughts to insert some Prayers Compos'd â—â— Monsieur Pascall during a great Sickness he had in 〈◊〉 younger years they have been Printed formerly twiâ—â— or thrice on imperfect Copies it being done withoâ—â— the knowledge of those that give this Impression to thâ— Publick THE LIFE OF MONSIEUR PASCALL Writ by Madam PERIER his Sister MY Brother was born at Clermont the 19th of June 1623. My Father's Name was Stephen Pascall President of the Court of Aids and my Mother was Antoinete Begon My Brother was no sooner of Age to be discoursed with but he gave pregnant Marks of an extraordinary Wit by the ingenious Replies he made to those that spake to him but much more by Questions he proposed on the Nature of sundry things to the admiration of those that heard him this hopeful Beginning was not without good ground for as he grew in Years and Stature so he increased in Wisdom and far surpassed what could be expected from one of his Age. My Mother departed this Life in the Year 1626. at which time my Brother was but Three years old My Father being left as 't were alone apply'd himself more closely in looking after his Family and having no other Son but this the quality of an only Son and the signs of a towardly Wit which he observ'd in this Child made him so much delight in him that he could not resolve to commit him to be educated by any body else and even then resolv'd to instruct him himself which he did My Brother never was bred up at any College nor had any other Master or Tutor but my Father In the Year 1631. my Father retired to Paris and took us all along with him and there made his Residence My Brother being about Eight years of Age found much benefit by this remove upon account of my Fathers design of educating him for 't is certain he could not have been so careful of him in the Country where the discharge of his Employment and the continual resort of Company that abounded at his House might have hinder'd him but at Paris he was free and at full liberty he made it his sole business and had all Books and helps that the care of so wise and affectionate a Father could procure His chief Maxim in the course of his Education was always to keep my Brother above his Work and 't was for this Reason he would not begin to teach him Latin till he was Twelve years old that so he might learn it with the greater ease and delight During this interval he left him not Idle but entertain'd him with all things whereof he found him capable He shew'd him in general what Languages were he shew'd him how they were reduced into Grammar by certain Rules that those Rules had Exceptions which were to be observ'd and that thereby the means was found out of making all Languages communicable from one Country to another This general Idea of things opened his Understanding and made him comprehend the Reason of Grammar Rules so that when he came to learn them he new the meaning of them and apply'd himself preisely to those things only which were most necessary to be learned After these general Notions my Father instructed him in other things he often discoursed him of the extraordinary effects of Nature as of Gun powder c. which are surprizing when one considers them My Brother was much pleas'd with this kind of Discourse but he was very curious to know the Reason of all things and as they are not always well known when my Father did not answer him or that he gave him those Answers that are commonly alledg'd which are for the most part but meer evasions he was not satisfied therewith for he had ever an admirable clearness of Judgment to discern things and it may be truly said That at all times and in all things Truth was the sole Object of his desire and nothing could satisfie him but the knowledge of it so that from his Childhood he could not submit to any thing but to what appeared to him plainly and evidently so that when Reasons were offer'd him that were not solid he sought out others himself and when he fixed on any thing he would not forsake it till he found some others that he liked better One time amongst others one chancing at Dinner to strike a China
that patiently waited for the Messias promis'd from the Foundation of the World. Afterwards God sent Noah that see the wickedness of Men in the highest pitch and drowning all the rest of the World saved him by a Miracle which sufficiently shewed the Power he had to save the World and his Good-will in doing it and in causing that to be born of a Woman that he had promised This Miracle was sufficient to confirm the Faith of Men and the Memory of it being still fresh in their Minds God renewed his Promise to Abraham who was incompassed with Idolaters and fully instructed him in the Mystery of the Messias which was for to come In the Days of Isaac and Jacob Iniquity had spread it self over the Face of the Earth but these Holy Men lived by Faith and Jacob at his Death blessing his Children cryed out with a Holy Extasie that interrupted his Discourse O my God I have waited for thy Salvation Salutare tuum expectabo Domine The Egyptians were corrupted with Idolatry and Witchcraft the People of God were also corrupted by their Examples nevertheless Moses and others see him that the greatest part perceived not and ador'd him looking to those Eternal Recompenses that he prepared for them The Greeks and Romans afterwards adored false Divinities Poets invented several Religions Philosophers were divided into a Thousand different Sects in the mean while there was in Judea Select Men that foretold the coming of the Messias which was known only to them He appeared at last in the fulness of time since which though there has ensu'd so many Schisms and Heresies such overturnings of States and Kingdoms and great changes this Church that Adores him that was ever ador'd doth subsist without interruption And that which is admirable incomparable and wholly Divine is that this Religion which has always been oppos'd doth still subsist It hath many a time been almost quite extinguished and yet God has always been pleas'd to raise and recover it by the Wonders of his Goodness and Power and what is also very observable is that it has never submitted to yield or bow to the Will or Power of Tyrants 9. * Kingdoms would fall to decay if the Laws did not give way to necessity But Religion never us'd this course nor submitted to this Rule yet such accomodations must be or do Miracles It is not strange to escape danger by complyance yet this cannot properly be call'd preservation in the end they vanish quite away there is none that have subsisted 1500. years But that this Religion should alway subsist and continue unalterable is altogether Divine 10. * It would shew too much of obscurity should not Truth have some visible Marks It is a very admirable one that it hath been always presery'd in a Church and visible Assembly of Believers It would give too great a Lustre were all the Church of one Mind and Opinion but to know the right you need only seek that which has been always believed for 't is most certain the Truth has been always believed and that no false Error has been always believed 11. * The Messias has been always believed Adam's Tradition was fresh in Noah and Moses the Prophets foretold it and in fortelling other things the success whereof being from time to time accomplish'd in the sight of Men proved the truth of their Mission and by consequence the truth of their Prophesies touching the Messias They all confessed the Law they had was but till the Messias should appear that till then it should continue but that of the Messias should dure Eternally that so their Law or that of the Messias whereof it was a Promise should always abide in the Earth In effect it hath ever subsisted and Jesus Christ is come in all the Circumstances that were Prophesied of him He wrought Miracles and the Apostles also whereby the Gentiles were converted whereby the Prophesies being verified the Messias is unanswerably proved 12. * I see many different Religions and by consequence all of them false but one Every one would be believ'd by their own Authority and threaten those that allow them not for that Reason I do not approve of them Every one may say so every one may say I am a Prophet But I see the Christian Religion wherein I find Prophesies accomplish'd and a great number of Miracles so well asserted that it cannot in reason be doubted this is what I do not find in any other Religion whatsoever 13. * The only Religion contrary to Nature in the State 't is at present in that thwarteth our Sensual Pleasures and that at the first view appears contrary to our common Sense is that alone which has always been 14. * The whole Course and Current of things ought to tend chiefly to the promotion and establishment of Religion Men should have Opinions suitable to what it teacheth and to conclude it ought in such a manner to be the Object and Center all things should tend unto that whoever knew the ground of it should be able to give an account of the Nature of Man in particular and of the State of the whole World in general Upon this Account the Prophane take liberty to blaspheme the Christian Religion because they understand it not aright they think it consists only in Adoring one God consider'd as Great Powerful and Eternal this is properly Deism almost as different from Christian Religion as Atheism which is quite contrary to it And from hence they conclude this Religion is false for if it were true God would manifest himself to Men by such Signs that it were impossible but that every one must know him But let them conclude what they please against Deism they can conclude nothing against Christian Religion which teaches that since the Fall God doth not manifest himself to Man with that clearness that he may do were it consistent with his Will which is properly done in the Mystery of the Redeemer who uniting in himself the two Natures Divine and Human has deliver'd Man from the Corruption of Sin and reconciled him to God in his Divine Person True Religion teaches Men these two truths that there is a God they are capable of attaining unto and that there is such a Corruption in Nature as render them unworthy so great a Happiness it concerns Men equally to understand both these things and it as dangerous for Men to know God without being sensible of their own Misery as it is to see his Misery without knowing his recovery out of it by a Redeemer One of these Knowledges alone occasion'd the Pride of Philosophers who knew God but not their own Misery and the despair of Atheists who perceive their Misery without any hopes of a Saviour So that as it is equally necessary for Men to understand these two Points it is also just God in his Mercy should make them known to us Christian Religion doth it it is therein it doth consist Consult the Oeconomy of all
made but that at least he knows that he is and that he loves something If he then sees something in the dark state wherein he is and finds something on Earth that deserves his Love If God be pleas'd to infuse into him some Beams of his Essence wherefore should it be thought strange that he should be made capable of knowing and loving him as he shall be pleas'd to communicate himself to him These kinds of reasoning therefore are very presumptuous though they seem to be grounded on a kind of Humility yet it is not sincere nor reasonable unless it makes us confess that not knowing of our selves what we are we cannot know it of any but God. §. V. The submission and use of Reason 1. THe farthest Reason can go is to confess that there are infinite numbers of things that are above it It is very weak if it proceeds not so far 2. * One must know to doubt where there 's cause to doubt assure where there is cause and submit when one ought who doth not these things don't understand the force of Reason There are many that do not observe these three Principles either they assure all as demonstrable in not rightly knowing what demonstration is or in doubting of all not knowing where to submit or in submitting to all not knowing where to judg 3. * If all be submitted to Reason our Religion would have nothing mysterious and supernatural in it if the Principles of Reason are violated our Religion would be absurd and Rediculous 4. * Reason saith St. Austin would never submit if it did not judg that there are certain occasions wherein it ought to submit It is therefore just it should submit when it judges that it ought to submit and that it should not submit when upon good grounds it ought not to submit but great care must be taken of not being deceiv'd 5. * Piety is very different from Superstition To advance Piety to Superstition you destroy it Hereticks charge us with superstitious submission it were to do what they charge us with if we requir'd this submission in things indifferent There is nothing so conformable to Reason as to lay aside Reason in matters of Faith and nothing more contrary to Reason than the disusing of Reason in things that do not concern Faith These are two extreams alike dangerous to exclude Reason and to admit nothing but Reason 6. * Faith teaches things which Sense doth not but never nothing contrary to it it is above but not contrary to Reason §. VI. Faith without Reasoning IF we see a Miracle say some Men we would be converted They would not speak in this manner did they know what Conversion means They think there is no more in it but to believe there is a God and that to Worship him consists only in certain Forms of Words much like those the Gentiles used to their Idols True Conversion consists in humbling our selves before that Soveraign Majesty we have so often provok'd and who might justly every Minute destroy us to confess that we can do nothing without him and that we have deserv'd nothing but his displeasure it consists in acknowledging that there is a great enmity betwixt God and us and that without a Mediator we could have had no access nor favour Do not think it strange to see common People believe without Reasoning God works in them a love of Holiness and a hatred of themselves he inclines their heart to believe One shall never believe with a true saving Faith unless God inclines the Heart and as soon as he inclines it one shall believe And it is what the Prophet David knew very well when he said Inclina cor meum Deus in testimonia tua Those that believe without having examin'd the Proofs of Religion it is because they have an inward Holy Disposition and that what they hear said of our Religion is wholly conformable to it They feel that God has made them they will love none but him they will hate none but themselves they find their own weakness and that they are unable to go to God and that if God don't vouchsafe to come to them they can have no Communion with him and they find it is said in our Religion that we must love God and hate our selves but being wholly depraved and uncapable of coming to God God became Man to unite himself to us There needs nothing more to perswade Men who have this Disposition in their Heart together with this knowledg of their incapacity and Duty Those whom we see to be Christians without the knowledg of Prophesies and Proofs do nevertheless judg as well as those that have this Knowledg they judge by the heart as the others do by the understanding It is God himself that inclines them to believe and therefore they are very effectually perswaded I grant that one of these Christians that believes without knowing the Proofs may not it may be know so well how to convince an Infidel who may say so much of himself But those that understand the Proofs of Religion can easily prove that a believer is truly inspired of God although he cannot tell how to do it himself §. VII That it is more advantageous to believe than not believe what is taught by the Christian Religion Advertisement MOst of what is contained in this Chapter concerns only certain Persons who not being satisfy'd with the Proofs of Religion and much less with the Reasons of Atheists remain in suspense betwixt Faith and Infidelity the Author pretends only to shew by their own Principles and the light of Natural Reason that they should judg it is their Intrest to believe and that 't were their wisest course so to do did this choice depend of their own Will. Whence it follows that till they have found means to convince them of the Truth they should do what may most tend that way and avoid all those Courses which hinder them from getting true Faith which are principally Passions and vain Amusements 1. UNity joyn'd to Infinity adds nothing to it no more than a Foot does to an infinite Measure the Finite disappears in presence of the infinite and becomes nothing so doth our Wisdom in the sight of God and our Righteousness before the Divine Holiness There is not so great a disproportion betwixt Unity and Infinity as there is betwixt our Righteousness and that of God. 2. * We know there is an Infinite Being but are ignorant of his Nature as for Example we know it is false that Numbers are Finite then it is true there is an Infinity in Number but we know not what it is It is false that 't is even it is false that 't is odd for in adding the Unity it changes not Nature So we may plainly see there is a God and not know what he is and you ought not conclude there is no God because we do not perfectly know his Nature To convince you of his existence I
Pagans it is Custom makes so many sundry Trades Soldiers c. It s true one must not begin by it to seek for Truth but when once the Understanding has discover'd Truth recourse must be had to her to be fortifi'd in that belief which otherwise we should be often ready to forget for it would be too tedious always to have Proofs in readiness We must acquire an easie Belief which is a kind of Habit that without violence Art or Argument may make us believe things and incline our Faculties to this belief so that our Minds may naturally fall into it It is not sufficient to believe by force of conviction if the Senses incline us to believe the contrary We must make our two parts march together the Understanding by the Reason through which it has been once already sufficiently convinc'd and the Senses by Custom in not suffering them to incline any other way § VIII The Portraiture of a Man tired in seeking God by Reasoning and that begins to Read the Scriptures 1. IN seeing the Blindness and Misery of Man and those strange contradictions which are discover'd in his Nature and seeing the whole Universe dumb and Man left in darkness abandon'd to himself and as it were lost in a corner of the World not knowing who put him there what his business is nor what will become of him when he dies I am amaz'd like a Man that should be carry'd a sleep into a desolate Island and that awaking knows not where he is nor any means of getting out hereupon I admire that most don't despair in such a miserable State. I see others by me of the same Nature I ask them if they are better inform'd than I they say no. Whereupon those miserable straglers lookking about them and seeing some pleasant Objects presently were wholly taken up with them as for my particular I could not be satisfi'd so nor could take any Pleasure in the Society of Persons like my self that were miserable as I was and indigent like my self I see they cannot give me comfort in my Death I will die alone now were I alone I would not build Houses I would not concern my self in troublesom businesses I would not seek the esteem of any body I would only endeavour to discover Truth So that considering how great likelihood there is of something else besides what I see I inquir'd if this God every body speaks of hath not given some Marks of himself I look every where and see nothing but obscurity Nature presents nothing to me but what admits of doubt and inquietude if I see nothing therein that shew'd a Divinity I would conclude not to believe at all If I every where see the marks of a Creator I would rest at quiet in believing but seeing too much to deny and too little to be assur'd I am in a State to be pitti'd and have wish'd a hunder'd times that if there be a God that supports Nature it would have shewn him plainly and that if the Marks that be given are fallacious that they had been wholly omitted that it would have said all or nothing to the end I might have known what side to have taken whereas in the State I am in not knowing what I am nor what I should do I neither know my Condition nor my Duty My heart is wholly bent to know where the chiefest good is to follow it I should think nothing too dear to obtain it I see a great many Religions in all parts of the World and at all times but neither do their Morals please me nor their Proofs convince me so that I should as well have refus'd the Religion of Mahomet as that of China and the Romans and Egyptians for this only Reason that the one having no more Marks of Truth than the other nor nothing that determines Reason cannot incline to one of them any more than the other But whilst I consider this inconstancy and strange variety of Manners and Religions in the divers Ages I find in a little part of the World a peculiar People separate from all the Nations of the Earth whose Histories are much antienter by several Ages than any others whatsoever I find this People great and numerous they Adore one God and are govern'd by a Law which they say they receiv'd from his Hand they affirm they are the only People in the World to whom God has revealed his Mysteries that all Men are Corrupt and under Gods Wrath that they are abandon'd to their Lusts and to their own Will and that from thence proceeds the strange Errors and continual Changes which happen amongst them both in Customs and Religion whereas they continue unmovable in their Course But God will not always leave the other Nations in darkness there will a Redeemer come for all that they are in the World to declare this that they are made on purpose to be the Hero's of this great design and to invite all Nations to joyn with them in expecting this Redeemer I am surpriz'd at the finding this People and they deserve to be seriously consider'd for the many singular and admirable things that do there appear It is a People all compos'd of Brethren and whereas all others are made up of the Mass of a number of Families this although so very numerous all proceeded from one Man and so being one Flesh and Members one of another they make up one united strength of one sole Family This is singular This is the antientest People that is in the knowledg of Man which induces me to recommend unto it a particular Veneration espectally in the search which we are making for if God has at all times reveal'd himself to Men it is to this People recourse must be had for information This People is not only considerable for Antiquity but is also singular for their Duration having always subsisted from their first Original till now whereas the Grecians Laâ—edaemonians Athenians Romans c. and the others that came so long after them are extinct and these still remain notwithstanding the attempts of so many great Kings that have a hundred times essay'd to destroy them as Historians inform us and as is easie to be judg'd by the Natural course of things and through length of time wherein they have still subsisted and continuing from the first to the last times their History by its continuance contains in it the substance of all our Histories The Law whereby this People is govern'd is both the antientest and most perfect Law in the World it is the only Law that was always observ'd without interruption in any State as is mention'd by Philo the Jew in sundry places and admirably well by Josephus against Appion where he shews that 't is so antient that the very name of a Law was not known by the most antient till above a thousand years after this was promulgated insomuch as Homer that spake of so many People never us'd it And the purity of
Darkness Despair and we see nothing but obscurity and confusion in the Nature of God and in our own Nature §. XXI The strange Contrarieties that are found in the Nature of Man in reference to Truth Happiness and several other things 1. THere 's nothing more suprising in the Nature of Man than the Contrarieties that are therein to be seen in regard of all things he is made to discern the Truth he earnestly desires it he seeks after it and nevertheless when he thinks to lay hold of it his Eyes dazzle and is so disorder'd that he seems to find some great difficulty This is what has produced so many Sects of Pyronians and of Dogmatists some of which have gone about to deprive Man of all knowledg of the Truth and the others endeavour to assure him of it but both with such unlikely Reasons that they encrease the disorder and confusion Men are in when he discerns no other Light but what he finds in his own Nature The chief Arguments of the Pyronians are That we have no certainty of the Truth of things without Faith and Revelation otherwise than as we feel it Naturally in our selves Now this natural Sentiment is no convincing Proof of their verity because there being no certainty without Faith whether Man be Created by a good God or by a bad Divel if he has been from everlasting or if he made himself by chance he is in suspence if these Principles are given us either true or false or incertain according to our Original Besides that no body without Faith has assurance if he be asleep or awake seeing that whilst one sleeps one no less assuredly thinks he is awake then if he were really awake One thinks one sees Spaces Figures Motions one finds the Time pass one measures it and to conclude one acts just as if they were awake So that half our Life being spent in sleeping by our own acknowledgment what ever we think of it we have no Idea of Truth all our Thoughts being then but Illusions who can tell if the other part of our Life that we think we are awake is not a sleep a little different from the other from which we awake when we think we sleep as we often dream we dream when one Thought crowds upon another I wave the Arguments used by the Pyronians against the impressions of Custom Education Manners Countries and the like things which lead away Men that discourse only on these vain Foundations The only hold of the Dogmatists is that in discoursing sincerely and in good earnest one cannot doubt of Natural Principles We say they know the Truth not only by Reasoning but also by Sense and a clear and lively understanding and it is by this also we know the first Principles It is to no purpose that Reasoning that has no share therein should go about to question it The Pyronians that have only this for their Object labour to no purpose we know we do not dream how weak soever we find our selves to prove it by Reason this weakness concludes nothing else but the weakness of our Reason but not the incertainty of our Sense as they pretend For the knowledg of the first Principles as for Example that there is Space Time Motion Number Matter is as firm as any our Reasonings do afford And it is upon these Reasonings of the Understanding and Sense that Reason must relye and ground all its Discourse I find there are three dimensions in Space and that the Numbers are infinite afterwards Reason demonstrates that there is not two square Numbers one double as much as the other The Principles are found the Proportions are agreed to all with certainty although by different ways And it is as ridiculous that Reason should demand of the Sense and Understanding Proofs of these first Principles to consent to it as it would be ridiculous that the Understanding should ask of the Reason a meaning of all the Propositions it doth demonstrate this weakness then only serves to humble Reason which would judg all things but not to oppose our Certainty as if there was nothing but Reason able to instruct us Would to God we had never need to the contrary and that we knew all things by instinct and sentiment But Nature has refus'd us this Happiness and has given us but very few Gifts of this sort all the rest can only be attained by Reasoning See here an open War betwixt Men every one must take part and range himself either to the Dogmatists or the Pyronians for whoever would think to stand Neuter would be a Pyronian indeed this Neutrality is the very essence of Pyronism whoever is not against them is for them with a Witness What shall Man do in this State Shall he doubt of all things Shall he doubt if he be awake if one pinch him if one burn him Shall he doubt if he doubts Shall he doubt if he subsists Sure one cannot proceed so far and I affirm there was never a true real Pyronian Nature declares the weakness of Reason and hinders it from being so extravagant On the other hand Will any one say that he certainly possesses the Truth What! him that if you urge ever so little can shew no Proofs and is forced to quit his hold Who shall reconcile this difference Nature confounds the Pyronians and Reason the Dogmatists What then will become of thee O Man that seeks the truth of thy Condition by thy Natural Reason You cannot avoid one of these Sects and cannot subsist in either of them See hear what Man is in regard of Truth Let us now consider him in regard of Felicity which he so eagerly hunts after in all his Actions for all Men desire to be happy that 's for certain whatever different means they use all tend to this end What inclines one to go to tâ—e Wars and that the other does not go is the â—ame desire in both but with several Prospects the Will does never move one step but with regard to this Object It is the motive of all Mens Actions even of those that kill and hang themselves And nevertheless since such a long Succession of time never any Person attain'd this Point whereunto all do continually aim without Faith Every body complains Princes Subjects Noblemen Plowmen Young Old Strong Weak the Learned the Ignorant the Healthy the Sick those of all Countries of all Ages and of all Qualities So long constant and regular a Proof should convince us of our inability to attain to Happiness by our own strength But Example will not instruct us it is never so perfect but there is still something wanting thence it is â—hat we think our hope will not be frustrated in this occasion in this as in the other so that the present never contenting us hope deceives us and from one Evil to another we go on to Death which consigns us over to Eternal Misery It 's strange there 's nothing in Nature capable to contain the
that we never live and preparing our selves ever to be happy it is certain we never shall be so if we do not aspire to some other Happiness than what is to be enjoy'd in this Life 13. * Our imagination does so swell the time present by making such continual Reflections on it and does so much diminish Eternity for want of reflecting on it that we make a meer Nothing of Eternity and of Eternity Nothing And all this is so firmly rooted in us that all our Reason cannot hinder us from it 14. * Cromwell went about destroying all Christendom the Royal Family was ruin'd and his made great for ever had it not been for a little Grain of Sand that lighted in his Uratory Rome also was near trembling under him but this little Gravel that was nothing elsewhere lighting in this part it occasion'd his Death the fall of his Family and the Kings Restoration §. XXV Of the weakness of Man. 1. VVHat most of all surprises me is that all the World are not astonish'd at their own weakness one acts seriously and every one follows his own Course not because it is indeed good to follow it it being the Fashion but as if every body did certainly know they had found where Reason and Justice was Men find themselves deceiv'd every Moment and by a ridiculous Humility he thinks 't is his fault and not the fault of the Art Men always boast they have found It is requisite there should still be store of these Men in the World to shew that Men are capable of the most extravagant Opinions seeing he is capable to think he is not in this Natural inevitableness and that he is on the contrary naturally Wise 2. * The weakness of Mans Reason appears much more in those that have not the knowledg of it then in those that have 3. * If one be too Young one cannot judg aright if too Old the same If one thinks not enough if one thinks too much one grows giddy and cannot find the Truth If one considers ones Work as soon as ever 't is done one is too much conceited with it If too long after one cannot recollect it There is but just one indivisible point that is the true place of perceiving Pictures the others are too near too far too high too low Perspective assigns place in the Art of Painting But in Truth and Morality who is it that can assign a place 4. * This Mistress of Error called Fancy and Opinion is so much the greater cheat as that 't is not always the same for it would be an infallible Rule of Truth if it were infallible of lying but being for the most part false it gives no mark of its quality marking with the same Character things both true and false This boasting Authority Enemy of Reason that assumes to controul and domineer to shew how far it governs all things has establish'd a second Nature in Man It esteems some Rich some Poor some Happy some Miserable some Wise some Fools and nothing troubles us more than to see it fills its followers with a satisfaction greater and fuller then Reason does hers The High-minded by imagination pleasing themselves quite otherwise in themselves then the Wise and Prudent can reasonablly please themselves They behold People disdaining they dispute with confidence and heat the others with fear and mistrust And their confident Looks do oftentimes get them the Victory in the Opinion of the Hearers So much favour the conceited Wise do get with such as are Judges of the like Nature It cannot make Fools Wise it makes them content whereas Reason on the other side can only render her followers miserable the one loads them with Praises the other with Ignominy Who gives Reputation Who gives respect and veneration to Persons to Works to great Folks but Opinion How empty are all the Riches of the World without its Applause Opinion governs all things It determines Beauty Justice and Happiness which is all the World can afford I would willingly see the Italian Book whose Title I only know which its self alone is worth many Books Della Opinione Regina del Mondo I subscribe to it without knowing it excepting only the Evil if there be any in it 5. * One scarce sees any thing just or unjust but changes Quality in changing Clymate Three degrees of Elevation of the Pole overturn the Laws A Meridan decides all Controversie or a few Years the Possession Fundamental Laws do change Law has its bounds Pleasant Justice that a River or Mountain does limit Truth on this side the Pyrenean Hills Error on the other side 6. * The Art of subverting Kingdoms is to shake their establish'd Customs in searching them to the bottom therein to discover the defect of Justice and Authority It is necessary say some to have recourse to the Primitive and Fundamental Laws of the Country which an unjust Custom has abolish'd this is a sure way to ruin all Nevertheless the People listen to these Discourses they throw off the yoak as soon as they hear them and great Persons make advantage by their Ruin and by that of these curious inquirers into received Customs But by a contrary omission Men think to do by Justice any thing that is not without Example 7. * The greatest Philosopher in the World let him but walk on a Plank though larger than he usually walks upon if there be a Precipice under him though his Reason convince him that he is safe yet his Imagination would prevaricate Many cannot support the though◠of danger without sweating and turning pale I will not instance in all the effects Who don't know that there are some affrighted almost out of their Senses at the sight of Cats Rats the cranching of Char-coal 8. * Will you not say that the Venerable Magistrate whose Age imposeth silence and respect on all the People that governs himself by sublime pure Reason and judges things by the◠Nature without sticking at vain Circumstances which only influence the Imaginations of the weak See him enter into the place where he is to do Justice See him there ready to give Audience with exemplary Gravity Let the Advocate appear if Nature has given him a hoarse Voice and some odd Features and Looks that his Barber has not well trimm'd him or if by chance he be not exactly drest I dare lay a Wager the Judg loses his Gravity 9. * The Mind of the greatest Man in the World is not so steady but that he is subject to be troubled with the least noise that is made about him Less then the noise of a Canno◠shot is enough to affright him the noise of a Fane or Pully will disturb him Do not wonder if he don't discourse well at present a Fly buzzes at his Ears that 's sufficient to make him uncapable of good Counsel If you will that he should find the Truth drive away that Insect that holds his Reason in suspence and troubles this
great Oracle that Governs Cities and Kingdoms 10. * The Will is one of the Principal Organs of Belief not that it forms the Belief but because things appear true or false according to the Face one sees them with The Will that pleaseth it self with one thing more than another diverts the Understanding from considering the Qualities of those things it loves not and so the Understanding complying with the Will is pleas'd in looking on that it loves and judging by what it sees it insensibly directs its Belief according to the inclination of the Will. 11. * We have another Principle of Error and that is Sicknesses they spoil our Reason and Judgment and if great Sicknesses do visibly alter us I make no doubt but lesser make like impressions in proportion Self-interest is also a wonderful instrument that pleasantly puts out our own Eyes Love or hatred do divert Justice When an Advocate is well paid before-hand it makes him find the Cause he Pleads much more Just But by another strange humor of the Mind of Man I have known those that not to be guilty of this Crime have been the most unjust that could be on the other extream The sure way to lose a Cause were it never so Just was to recommend it by a near Relation 12. * Imagination many times swells up the smallest objects by a fantastical esteem so far as even to fill our Soul and by a bold insolence it also lessens the greatest things even to our measure 13. * Justice and Truth are two such nice things that our Faculties are too dull to touch them exactly if they do they blunt the Edge and flutter round about it inclining to wrong rather then right 14. * Old impressions are not capable alone to abuse us the charms of Novelty have the same power from thence proceed all the disputes of Men that tax each other either in following the false impressions of their Infancy or rashly to take up new ones Who is it that holds the medium Let him appear and prove it There is no Principle how natural soever it be even from our very Infancy but is made to pass for a false impression whether it be of Instruction or of Sense because say some that from your Infancy you believ'd a Chest was empty when you see nothing in it you thought vacuity possible it is a strong Illusion of your Senses strengthned by Custom Art must rectifie it Others say on the contrary because you were taught at School that there is no vacuity they have spoil'd your common Sense which knew it so plainly before you receiv'd this Evil impression which you must rectifie by having recourse to your first Nature Who is then deceiv'd the Senses or Art 15. * All Mens care and study is to get Riches and the Title by which they hold them is in its Original nothing but the Fancy of those that have made the Laws neither have they any assurance of safely enjoying them a thousand Accidents deprive them of them It is the same of Learning Sickness deprives us of it 16. * Man then is only a Subject full of Errors which are not to be hid without Grace nothing discovers Truth to him every thing abuses him The two Principles of Truth Reason and the Senses besides that many times they want sincerity they reciprocally abuse each other The Senses abuse the Reason by false appearances and the same delusion they bring they receive of her again it revenges it self The Passions of the Soul trouble the Senses and gives them sad impressions they lye and strive to deceive each other 17. * What are our Natural Principles but our Principles of Custom In Children those they received from their Fathers as hunting is in Beasts A different Custom will give other Principles of Nature this is found by experience and if there are some that are not defaced by Custom there are also others of Custom that are not defaced by Nature This depends of the disposition Fathers do fear least the Natural Love of Children should be defaced What then is this Nature subject to be blotted out Custom is a second Nature that destroys the former Wherefore is not Custom natural I much fear that this Nature is it self no more than a first Custom as Custom is a second Nature §. XXVI Of the Misery of Man. 1. NOthing is more capable to make us enter into the knowledg of the Misery of Man than to consider the true cause of the continual agitation in which they spend their Life The Soul is sent into the Body to sojourn there for a little time it knows 't is but only a passage to an Eternal Journey and that it has only the short time of Life to prepare for it The necessities of Nature rob her of a great part of it there remains but a very little part to her dispose but this little part that 's left does so incommode and strangely perplex her that she only studies how to lose it It is an insupportable burden to her to live with her self and to think of her self so that all her care is to forget her self and to let slip this little time which is so short and precious without reflection and in doing those things that hinder her from thinking of it This is the Spring of all the bustling Occupations of Men and of all that which is called Divertisements or Pastimes in which it is in effect the chief scope to let time slide away without minding it or rather without so much as minding our own selves and to shun in losing this part of Life feeling the bitterness and inward grief that would necessarily attend that watchfulness we should have had over our selves during that time The Soul finds nothing in it self that it can like it sees nothing in it self but what makes it sad when it thinks of it This is it which makes her look abroad and to strive by the using of exteriour things to lose the remembrance of her true State her Joy consists in this forgetfulness and 't is enough to make her miserable to oblige her to look upon her self and to be with her self Men are warned even from their Infancy to be careful of their Honour of their Riches and even of the Riches and Honour of Parents and Friends They are baited at to learn Languages Exercises Arts and Sciences They have the charge of Business they are made to understand that they can't be happy if they do not so order matters that by their industry and care they do not so secure their Fortune and Honour also that of their Friends that if any of these things be wanting they will be miserable so that they give them Offices and Imployments that harras them from their Infancy You will say This is a strange way of making them happy What more can one do to render them miserable Do you ask what one may do Why do but only take away all these things for
And they do not afford us any comfort in our Miseries but in procuring us a more real and effective Misery for it is what doth more effectively hinder us of thinking of our selves and that makes us insensibly lose our time If 't were not for it we should be weary and this weariness would incline us to seek some more solid means to get out of it But Divertisements cheat us amuse us and unawares makes us be surpriz'd by Death 4. * Men not being able to shun Death Misery Ignorance have bethought themselves of becoming happy by never thinking of these things It is all they could invent to comfort themselves against so many Evils but 't is but a miserable consolation because it don't reach so far as to cure the Sore but to hide it only for a little time and by hiding it makes one neglect to get it truly healed So that by a strange subversion of the Nature of Man he finds Weariness which is the most sensible Evil to him is in some sort his greatest Good because it may contribute more than any thing else in making him seek his true cure and that Play which he looks upon as his chiefest Good is indeed his greatest Evil because it hinders him more than any thing to seek the Remedy of his Miseries both the one and the other is an evident Proof of the Misery and Corruption of Man and in the same time of his Grandeur because Man is not wearied with all things and don 't seek these various Occupations but because he hath the Idea of the Happiness he has lost the which not finding in himself he in vain seeks it in outward things without ever being able to content himself because it is not to be had in us nor in the Creatures but in God only §. XXVII Of Miracles 1. VVE must judg of Doctrine by Miracles we must judg of Miracles by Doctrine The Doctrine discerns the Miracles and the Miracles discern the Doctrine all this is true but this doth not contradict each other 2. * There are Miracles that are certain Proofs of the Truth and there are some that are not certain Proofs of the Truth there must be some Mark to distinguish and to know them otherwise they would be of no use now they are not unuseful and on the contrary they are Foundations The Rule then that is given us must be such as that it must not destroy the Proof that true Miracles give of the Truth which is the chief end of Miracles 3. * Were there no Miracles joyn'd to Error there would be Certainty were there no Rule for discerning them Miracles would not be necessary and there would be no Reason to believe Moses gave one but 't was when the Miracle induced to Idolatry and Jesus Christ one Him saith he that doth Miracles in my Name cannot easily speak evil of Me. Whence it follows that whosoever declares himself openly against Jesus Christ cannot work Miracles in his Name If he does any 't is not in the Name of Jesus Christ and should not be regarded See here the occasions of Exclusion of the belief of Miracles marked there need no other Marks of exclusion be instanc'd when they turn you from God in the Old Testament when from Jesus Christ in the New Testament When therefore you see a Miracle one must submit or have very great evidences against it One must see if him that works it denies God or Jesus Christ 4. * That Religion is false that in its Faith doth not Adore one God as Author of all things and that in their Morals do not love only God. Any Religion that loves not Jesus Christ is notoriously false and Miracles cannot any way be profitable to it 5. * The Jews had a Doctrine of God as we have one of Jesus Christ it was confirm'd by Miracles and were forbidden to believe any that wrought Miracles and taught any Doctrine contrary to it also they were commanded to have Recourse to the High Priests and to obey them so that it appears that the Reasons that we have to refuse believing those that do Miracles they had the same in regard of Jesus Christ and his Apostles Nevertheless it is certain they were very guilty for refusing to believe them for their Miracles because Jesus Christ saith they had not been guilty if they had not seen his Miracles Si opera non fecissem in eis quae nemo alius fecit peccatum non haberent It follows then that he judged his Miracles were assured Proofs of what he taught and that the Jews were obliged to believe him And indeed it was the Miracles that render'd the Jews guilty of unbelief for the Proofs that could be taken from the Scriptures during the Life of Jesus Christ would not have been sufficiently clear for instance we find Moses said That a Prophet should arise but that was not enough to prove Jesus Christ was that Prophet and that was the Question these passages did shew that he might be the Messias and that with his Miracles were sufficient to prove that he was so effectively 6. * Prophesies alone could not prove Jesus Christ during his Life and so one had not been culpable for not believing in him before his Death had not the Miracles put all out of doubt therefore Miracles do suffice when one finds the Doctrine is not contrary and one ought to acquiesce 7. * Jesus Christ proved he was the Messias in verifying his Doctrine and Mission rather by his Miracles than by the Scripture and the Prophets It was by Miracles that Nicodemus confessed his Doctrine was of God Scimus quia à Deo venisti Magister nemo enim potest haec signa facere quae tu facis nisi fuerit Deus cum eo He don't Judg of Miracles by the Doctrine but of the Doctrine by Miracles So that if the Doctrine were doubtful as that of Christ might be to Nicodemus because it seem'd to destroy the Tradition of the Pharisees if there be Miracles clear and evident of the same side the evidence of the Miracle must turn the Scale against what there may be of difficulty in the Doctrine the which is grounded on this immutable Principle That God cannot command an Error There is a reciprocal Duty betwixt God and Men. Accuse me saith God in Isaiah What should I have done to my Vineyard that I have not done Men are bound to God to receive the Religion he sends them God is bound to Men not to lead them into Error Now they would be led into Error if the workers of Miracles taught them a false Doctrine that appeared not visibly false to the light of common Sense and that if one that had wrought greater Miracles had not before given warning not to believe them If there had been a Schism in the Church and that the Arians for Example who said they were grounded on the Scriptures as well as the Catholicks had wrought Miracles and
effects that are true the Common People that can't distinguish which amongst these particular effects are true do believe them all in like manner what occasions to believe so many false effects of the Moon is that there are some true as the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea. So also it appears to me as evidently that there are not so many false Miracles false Revelations Sorceries c. but because there are true also nor so many false Religions but because there is one True for if there never had been any thing of all this it 's impossible Men could ever have imagin'd it and much less that so many others should have believed it But as there has been very great things true and thereby have been believed by great Men this impression has been the cause that almost all the World are become even ready to believe also false things And so instead of concluding that there are no true Miracles because there be false ones it should be said on the contrary that there are true Miracles because there be so many false ones and that there are no false ones but by this Reason because there are true ones and in like manner that there are no false Religions but because there is a True one this proceeds from the Mind of Man being inclin'd that way by the Truth becomes thereby more pliable to receive Error 17. * It is said Believe the Church but 't is not said Believe Miracles because the latter is Natural and not the former the one had need of a Precept not the other 18. * There are so few Persons to whom God appears by these extraordinary ways that one should make good use of such occasions because it proceeds not from Nature that hides it but to excite our Faith to serve him with so much the more Zeal as we know him with greater certainty If God did continually discover himself to Men it would be no thanks to believe and if he never discover'd himself there would be but little Faith but he commonly hides himself and discovers himself but seldom to those whom he would ingage in his Service This strange secrecy wherein God keeps himself unseen to the Eyes of Men should teach us sometimes to retire our selves also from the sight of Men the better to contemplate his Majesty He remain'd hid under the Veil of Nature that hid him from us till the Incarnation and when 't was requisite he should appear he hid himself yet more in covering himself with his Humanity he was much easier known when he was invisible than when he became visible And at last when he would accomplish the Promise he made to his Apostles to remain with Men till his last coming he chose to abide with them in the strangest and obscurest manner could be to wit under the Species of the Eucharist It is this Sacrament St. John in the Revelation calls the hidden Manna and I believe the Prophet Esay saw him in this manner when he said Truly thou art a God that hidest thy self this is the greatest secresie he can be in The Veil of Nature was search'd into by many Heathens who as St. Paul saith Confessed the invisible God by visible Nature Many Christian Hereticks knew him through his Humanity and Adored Jesus Christ God and Man But as for us we should think our selves happy in that God would enlighten us so far as to know him under the Species of Bread and Wine Unto these Considerations may be added the Mystery of the Spirit of God also hidden in the Holy Scriptures for there are two perfect Senses the mystical and the litteral and the Jews held to the one not so much as thinking there was another and never thought of troubling themselves to find it So also wicked Persons seeing natural effects attribute them to Nature never thinking there is another Author of them The Jews seeing a perfect Man in Christ Jesus never thought of seeking another Nature in him We did not think it was him saith Esay So also Hereticks seeing the perfect appearance of Bread in the Eucharist think not of seeking any other Substance There is a Mystery hid under every thing every thing is a Veil that covers God Christians should acknowledg him in all things Temporal Afflictions cover Eternal Rewards whereunto they lead us Temporal Pleasures cover Eternal Pains which they do occasion Let us Pray to God that he would make us know and serve him in all and for all things and let us give him Infinite Thanks that having hid himself in so many things to others he has manifested himself in so many things and in so many sundry ways to us §. XXVIII Christian Reflections 1. THe wicked which suffer themselves blindly to be led along by their Passions without knowing God or taking any care to seek him do by themselves verifie the Fundamental Faith that they oppose which is That the Nature of Man is in a State of Corruption And the Jews which so obstinately oppose the Christian Religion do also confirm this other Foundation of the Faith they oppose which is That Jesus Christ is the true Messias and that he is come to Redeem Men and free them from the Corruption and Misery wherein they were as well by the State wherein they are at this time and which is found to be foretold by Prophesies as by the very Prophesies themselves which they precisely keep and preserve as undoubted Marks by which the Messias should be distinguish'd and known So that the Corruption of Man and the Redemption of Jesus Christ which are the two chief Truths that establish Christianity is drawn from the prophane who live in an indifferency of Religion and of the Jews who are irreconcileable Enemies to it 2. * The Dignity of Man in his Innocence consisted in his using and bearing rule over the Creatures but now it consists in withdrawing himself and keeping himself humble and low in Heart 3. * Many do Err and so much the more dangerously that they take a Truth to be the Principle of their Error their fault is not in believing an Error but in following one Truth by excluding of another 4. * There are a great many Truths both Moral and Divine which seem repugnant and contrary and nevertheless subsist in an admirable order The cause of all Heresies is the exclusion of some of these Truths And the Spring of all the Objections made against us by Hereticks is the not knowing some of our Truths And for the most part it happens that not apprehending the relation there may be betwixt two opposite Truths thinking owning one of them excludes the other they hold to the one and exclude the other The Nestorians would needs have two Persons in Jesus Christ because there was two Natures in him and the Eutychians on the contrary taught there was but one Nature because there was but one Person The Catholicks are Orthodox because they joyn both Truths together of
Repentance his Book not being made to incline to Piety he was not indeed obliged thereunto but one is always bound not to divert any from it Whatever may be said to excuse his too extravagant Opinions upon several things one cannot in any manner excuse his Heathenish Opinions touching Death for one must renounce all Piety if one won't at least dye like a Christian now he throughout his whole Book teaches to dye securely and in ease 44. * What usually deceives us in comparing what 's past heretofore in the Church with what 's seen at present is that commonly one looks upon St. Athanasius St. Theresius and other Saints as Crown'd with Glory now that time has clear'd up things it appears to be truly so But at the time this great Saint was persecuted he was a Man that was called Athanasius and St. Theresius in her time was a Religious Person like the rest Elias was a Man subject to like Passions as we are saith St. James to disabuse Christians from this false Idea that makes us reject the Examples of Saints as disproportionable to our Condition They were Saints say we 't is not like us 45. * To those that have an aversion for Religion one must begin to instruct them by shewing it is not contrary to Reason then after that it is Venerable and give it respect then render it Lovely and create a desire to wish it were true then shew by undeniable Proofs that it is true shew its Holiness and Antiquity by its Greatness and Authority And to conclude that it is Aimable because it promiseth the chiefest Good. 46. * One word of David or of Moses like this that God will Circumcise their Hearts shews what their Souls desire Let all the rest of their discourse be ambiguous and be it uncertain whether they are Philosophers or Christians a Word of this Nature determins all the rest so far the Ambiguity may hold but no farther 47. * To be cousen'd in thinking the Christian Religion true there can be no loss but what a Misery will it be to think it is false 48. * The ways of living the easiest according to the World are the most difficult to live according to God and on the contrary nothing is so difficult in the Worlds esteem as a Religious Life there is nothing easier than to live so according to God Nothing is pleasanter than to be in a great Employment and to enjoy great Riches in the esteem of the World nothing is more difficult then to live in these things according to God and not to be affected with delight and pleasure in them 49. * The Old Testament contain'd the Types of future Happiness the New contains the Means of attaining them The Figures were Happiness the Means are Repentance and yet the Pascal Lamb was eat with bitter Herbs cum amaritudinibus to signifie that Joy could not be attain'd but by sorrow 50. * The word Galilee being spoke as 't were by accident by the Multitude of the Jews in accusing Jesus Christ before Pilate gave Pilate occasion of sending Jesus Christ to Herod wherein was accomplished the Mystery that he should be Judg'd by Jews and Gentiles Hazard seems to be the cause of fulfilling the Mystery 51. * One told me on a day that he was full of Joy coming from Confession Another told me that he was in fear on this I thought that of these two might be made one good and that both of them fell short because they had not the Opinion of each other 52. * There is pleasure to be in a Vessel tossed with a Tempest when one is in no danger of Shipwrack Persecutions which afflict the Church are of this Nature 53. * As the two Springs of our Sins are Pride and Sloath God has revealed to us two Qualities in him to cure them his Mercy and Justice the Nature of Justice is to abate Pride and the Nature of Mercy is to destroy Idleness by stirring up to good Works according to this passage The mercy of God inviteth to Repentance and this other of the Ninevites Let us Repent and see if he will have mercy upon us So that the Mercy of God is so far from indulging Sloath that nothing is a greater Enemy to it and that instead of saying Were there not Mercy in God we ought to do all our endeavour to fulfil his Laws we should say on the contrary That 't is because there is Mercy in God one should do all one can to keep his Commandments 54. * The History of the Church ought properly be called the History of Truth 55. * All that is in the World is the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life libido sentiendi libido sciendi libido dominandi Unhappy is that accursed Land that is overflown and burnt up rather than watered with these three Rivers of Fire Happy they who being on these Rivers are not carried away by them nor plunged into them but remain steadfastly fixt not standing but sitting in a low and safe place from whence they will not rise till the light appear and after having rested in safety stretch forth their hands to him that will deliver them to make them stand upright in the Gates of the new Jerusalem where they shall no longer fear the assaults of Pride and who weep in the mean time not to see the decay of all these perishable things but in the remembrance of their dear Country of the Heavenly Jerusalem which they continually breathe and thirst after in continuance of their Exile 56 * Some will say A Miracle would confirm my Faith Men say so when they do not see it Reasons brought from a great distance seem to limit our sight but do not when one more nearly considers them one begins to look farther nothing stops the quickness of our Mind It is said There 's no Rule without an exception nor Truth so general but it has something that may seem defective 'T is sufficient that 't is not absolutely Universal to give us a pretence of applying the Exception to the present Subject and to say It is not always true then there are some cases where it is not There remains only to say this is one and one must be very stupid not to discern it 57. * Charity is not a Figurative Precept To say that Jesus Christ who is come to take away Figures and to establish Truth should only come to settle the Figure of Charity and to take away the Substance which was before this is horrible 58. * The Heart has its Reasons which Reason doth not comprehend one finds it in a hundred things It is the Heart that finds God and not Reason See then what true Faith is God known to the Heart 59. * How many Bodies has Telescopes discover'd to us that were not known to the Antient Philosophers The Truth of the Scriptures were boldly question'd for making mention of such great
care of boasting of this advantage as great as it is and one ought to rest satisfi'd to be counted one of the little number of those that know the value of it 13. * The Mind believes naturally and the Will loves naturally So that for want of true Objects they will fix upon false ones 14. * Many true things are contradicted many false things pass without contradiction Contradiction is no mark of Fashood nor Allowance is no mark of Truth 15. * Caesar me thinks was too old to think of Conquering the World this Dream was fitter for Alexander he was a young Man hard to be rul'd but Caesar might have been more stay'd 16. * All the World sees one labours at incertainty by Sea by Land at the Wars c. but all the World don't see the Rule of the Persons that shew one ought to do it Montaigne saw that one is displeas'd at a dull head and that Custom is all but he saw not the Reason of this Effect those that see the Effects and not the Causes are in regard to those that see the Causes like those that have only Eyes in comparison of those that have Understanding for Effects are as it were sensible and Reasons are only visible to the Understanding and though 't is by the Understanding those Effects are seen this Understanding is in comparison of the Understanding that sees the Causes as the Corporal Senses are in regard of the Soul. 17. * The sense of the deceitfulness of present Pleasures and the Ignorance of absent Pleasures cause inconstancy 18. * If we dream'd every night the same thing happily it might affect us as much as the things we see every day And if a Tradesman was sure every Night to dream twelve Hours that he was a King I think he would be as happy as a King that should dream twelve Hours every Night that he was a Tradesman If we should dream every Night we were pursu'd by Enemies and disturb'd by these frightning Fancies and that we passed the days in sundry Occupations as when one is on a Journey one should suffer almost as much as if the thing was really true and we should be as much afraid of sleep as if we were to enter into such troubles effectively and indeed it would be almost as bad as if the things were really acted But because Dreams are all different and do vary what is there seen does much less affect than what one sees awake by reason of the continuance which yet is not so equal but it changeth also but not so suddenly or but seldom unless it be in travelling and then one says Me thinks I dream for Life is a Dream a little more inconstant 19. * Kings and Princes recreate themselves sometimes they be not always on their Thrones that would weary them Greatness must be laid aside the better to be rellish'd 20. * My humor does not depend much on the Weather I have my fair and foul Weather within my self the good or ill success of my Affairs don't move me much neither I sometimes set my self against ill Fortune and the Glory of overcoming it makes me master it with Pleasure whereas at other times I am indifferent and as 't were dissatisfi'd even in Prosperity 21. * It is pleasant to consider that there are certain People in the World that having renounced all the Laws of God and Nature yet have made themselves Laws that they exactly obey as for instance Robbers c. 22. * Those great Raptures of Mind the Soul sometimes reaches to are things that it does not keep up unto It flies up but suddenly falls back again 23. * Man is neither Angel nor Beast and the mischief is he that would be thought an Angel acts the Beast 24. * Provided one knows the chief Passion of any Body one may easily please him nevertheless every body has Fancies contrary to his own good even in the very Idea he has of good and this is a variety that puts those to a loss that would gain their Affection 25. * A Horse don't strive to be admir'd by his Companion there is indeed some emulation seen betwixt Horses in running a Race but it don't continue for put them up in a Stable the ugliest and dullest will not therefore part with his Oats to the other It is not so amongst Men their Virtue is not satisfi'd with it self and they are not satisfi'd unless they get some benefit by it over others 26. * As one impairs the Mind so one also spoils the Understanding Our Mind and Knowledge is fram'd according to our Discourse and Company good or bad Company does make or marr us It above all things therefore concerns us to know how to make a good choice to mend and not spoil it and one can't make this choice if one has not already formed and not spoil'd it So that here 's a Circle and happy are they that are got out of it 27. * One thinks naturally one is more capable of attaining the Center of things than to embrace their circumference The visible extent of the World doth surpass us visibly But as it is we that do surpass little things do think our selves the more capable of enjoying them Nevertheless there 's as much capacity requisite to attain to nothing as to arrive at all that that 's infinite is required both for one and the other and I suppose they who can comprehend the last Principles of things may also attain to understand that that 's infinite the one depends on the other the one leads to the other the extremities meet and by reason of their distance do rejoin and meet in God and in God alone Man for instance has relation to all he knows he has need of Place to contain him Time to dure Motion to live Elements to compose him of Heat and Food to nourish him of Air to breath he sees the light he feels the Body To conclude all things are appointed for him To know then what Man is 't is necessary to see wherefore he requires Air to subsist and to know what Air is it should be known wherein it relates to the Life of Man a Flame can't subsist without Air then to know the one one must also know the other All things being caused and causing helped and helping mediately and immediately and all things depending on one another by a natural and insensible Band that binds the most distant and different things I hold it as impossible to know the parts without knowing the whole as it is to know the whole without knowing distinctly the several parts And what it may be most contributes to our weakness of knowing things is that they are single in themselves and that we are compos'd of two opposite Natures of divers kinds of Body and Soul for 't is impossible that the part which reasons in us should be other than Spiritual And if it should be pretended that we were simply Corporeal this would
its own sake nor for the sake of any thing it has for there is nothing in it but deserves thine Anger but for the Pains it endures which alone can be worthy of thy Favour Love my Sufferings Lord and let my Sorrows invite thee to visit me But to finish the preparation of thine abode Grant O my Saviour that if my body has that in common with thine that it suffers for mine Offences my Soul may also have that in common with thine too that it might be in sadness for the same Offences and that so I may suffer with thee and as thou didst in my Body and in my Soul for the Sins which I have committed XI Grant me the Grace Lord to join thy Consolations to my Sufferings that I may suffer as a Christian I don't desire to be free from Sufferings that 's the recompence of Saints but I desire not to be abandon'd to the Sorrows of Nature without the Comforts of thy Spirit for that 's the Malediction of Jews and Infidels I don't desire to have a fulness of Consolation without any Suffering for that 's the Life of Glory neither do I desire to be in a fullness of Evils without Comfort this is the State of Judaism But I desire Lord to feel altogether the sadness of Nature for my Sins and the Comforts of thy Spirit by thy Grace for that 's the true State of Christianity Let me not feel sadness without Consolation but let me feel sadness and Comfort both together that I may at length attain to feel only thy Consolations without any Grief For Lord thou didst let the World languish without consolation before the coming of thy only Son now thou comfortest and softenest the Sufferings of thy Children by the Grace of thy beloved Son and thou wilt fill with perfect Happiness thy Saints in the Glory of thine only Son These are the admirable steps by which thou conductest thy Works Thou hast drawn me out of the First make me to pass through the Second to arrive at the Third Lord it is what I heartily beg of thee XII Suffer not that I may be in that distance from thee that I may consider this Soul sorrowful unto Death and this Body pressed by Death for my Sins and not rejoice to suffer both in my Body and in my Soul For what is there more shameful and yet more common in Christians and even in my self than whilst thou didst sweat Blood to expiate our Offences we live in Pleasures That Christians who make Profession to belong to thee that those who by Baptism have renounced the World solemnly in the Face of the Church to Live and Die with thee that those that make Profession to believe the World Persecuted and Crucified thee that those that believe thou didst expose thy self to Gods anger and to the rage of Men to ransom them from their Sins that those I say that believe all these Truths that consider thy Body as the Sacrifice that was deliver'd for their Salvation that consider the Pleasures and Sins of the World as the only Subject of thy Sufferings and the World it self as thy Executioner yet should seek to Pamper their Body with these same Pleasures in this same World and that those that cannot without horror see a Man imbrace and cherish the Murderer of their Father that gave himself to Death to restore them to Life how they can live as I have done with full delight in the World which I very well know was the Murderer of him that I acknowledge to be my Father and my God and that gave himself to the Death for my Salvation and that bore in his Body the Punishment due to my Sins It is just Lord that thou shouldst put a stop to such Sinful Delights as those were wherein I rested under the Shadow of Death XIII Take therefore from me Lord the sorrow which Self-love might give me for my own Sufferings and by reason that Worldly things don't succeed according to the Inclinations of my Heart that tend not to thy Glory But be pleased to cast me into a sorrow conformable unto thine let my Sufferings in some measure pacifie thine Anger Make them be an occasion of my Conversion and Salvation Let me not henceforth desire Health nor Life but that I may employ and end them for thee and with thee and in thee I don't ask Health nor Sickness nor Life nor Death but that thou wouldest dispose of my Health and Sickness of my Life and Death for thy Glory and my Salvation and for the good of thy Church and Saints of which I hope by thy Grace to make a part Thou only knowest what is expedient for me thou art the absolute Disposer of all things do what seems good in thy sight Give unto me take away from me but conform my Will to thy Holy Will and that in an humble and perfect submission and Holy confidence I may prepare my self to receive the Decrees of thine Eternal Providence and that I may equally adore all things that proceed from thee XIV Grant O my God that in a constant Uniformity of Mind I may receive all sorts of Events because we don't know what to ask for and that I cannot desire one thing rather than another without Presumption and without making my self a Judge and liable to answer the consequences which in thy Wisdom thou hast justly hid from me Lord I know I know but one thing which is That 't is good to serve thee and that 't is ill to offend thee besides this I don't know which is worst or best in any thing I can't tell which is best for me Health or Sickness Riches or Poverty or any thing else in the World these things pass the Skill of Men and Angels to discern and are hid in the secrets of thy Providence which I humbly adore and will not presume to pry into XV. Grant therefore Lord that such as I am I may conform my self to thy Will and that being sick as I am I may glorifie thee in my Sufferings without them I cannot attain to Glory and thou thy self my Blessed Saviour wouldst not arrive thereunto by any other way It is by the marks of thy Sufferings that thou wert known to thy Disciples and it is by Sufferings that thou dost also know those that are thy Disciples acknowledge me therefore for thy Disciple in the Pains which I suffer both in my Body and Mind for the Offences which I have committed And because nothing is well pleasing to God but what is offerr'd up by thee conform my Will to thy Will and my Sufferrings to those which thou hast suffered grant that mine may become thine unite me unto thee fill me with thy self and thy Holy Spirit Enter into my Heart and Soul to bring thither my Sufferings and to continue to maintain in me what is yet behind to suffer of thy Passion which thou dost fulfil in thy Members until the full consummation of thy Body
Being of God in his Works is Eternal and Indelible and the feeling of it can't be resisted unless the Faculties of Knowing and Feeling are quite lost It 's true this Sense is but weak and feeble but yet inasmuch as it knows its own weakness it subsists and may be restor'd and soon or late it shall be if it sincerely owns it and laments it and a Man shall find in his Heart those Foot-steps of God that it in vain should seek after in the dead Works of Nature seeing it could never inform him neither what this God is nor what 't is he requires of him This is properly what was Monsieur Pascall â—s Design he would bring Men home to their Heart and would make them begin rightly to know themselves All other ways though good yet he thought was not so suitable and fit as this to their Nature whereas this appear'd to him to be agreeable to their Heart and Mind and so much the fitter to make them capable of knowing God and believing in him that they incline them to desire his Existence and in making their chiefest Happiness consist in it and all their Comfort to depend of not doubting it It is this which is the chief scope of his Fragments and of several things which were laid aside as being too imperfect and which only intimated the Method he intended to follow But besides this it is known by a Discourse he made one day in Presence of some Friends which contain'd as 't were the Model of the Work which he design'd He spake almost Two Hours and though those who were present are Persons who admire not all they hear as every body would own if I nam'd them yet they freely confess they were Transported at the weight of his Expressions That this transient Essay as little as 't was gave them an Idea of the greatest Design any Man could be capable of and also of a Profound Wisdom and Knowledge of what is most Mysterious in the Holy Scriptures it discover'd to them several things that till then had not been taken notice of in the World and what they discern'd of Monsieur Pascall's deep Knowledge in that little time made them not question in the least but that he was very fit to perform so great an undertaking and Moreover that if he did not finish it it would scarce ever be compleated Whether it be of what was Real and on their part and his there was also added something of that Union of Mind and Spirit which animates and gives new vigour or it was one of those Happy Moments wherein the most able do surpass themselves and wherein there is such deep Impressions made that all Monsieur Pascall then said to them is still fresh in their Mind and 't is of one of them Eight Years after that we were inform'd what shall be now related Having declar'd to them what he thought of the Proofs which are commonly alledged and shew'd how much those which are drawn from the Works of God are disproportion'd to the Natural State of the Heart of Man and how little Mens Brains are capable of Meta-physical Disputes he shew'd plainly that it was only Moral and Historical Proofs and certain natural Notions and things of Experience that are most suitable to the Understanding of Man and he shewed that it was only upon Proofs of this Nature that those things are grounded which are most certainly believed and received in the World And in effect that there is a City called Rome That there has been a Mahomet That 't is true London was burnt are things would be hard to Demonstrate nevertheless it were a madness to doubt of or to fear hazarding ones Life upon the Truth of them were there any thing to be got by it The way whereby we attain these sorts of assurances are no less certain than if we were Geometricians and should nó less incourage us to Act and 't is only hereupon that we ground almost all we do Monsieur Pascall undertook to shew that the Christian Religion was as evidently true as any thing that is undoubtedly believ'd amongst Men. According to his design of directing them to know themselves he began by a Description of Man which though 't was but very compendious yet it contain'd all that ever was best said on that Subject besides what he added of his own which was much more than is usually mention'd Never did those who most of all debased Man so fully display his Infirmity and Ignorance And never was his Grandeur and Privileges more fully represented by those who have most striven to exalt him What is seen in these Fragments touching the Illusion of the Imagination Pride Envy Vanity Self-love the Error of Pagans the Blindness of Atheists c. and also what is therein seen of the Inclination of Man of seeking the chief Good the Sense of Misery the Love of Truth all this shews plainly to what pitch he had study'd and known the Nature of Man and would have known and study'd it much better had God given him time to have perfected his intended Work. Let every one Examin themselves seriously on what they shall find in this Collection and and let them put themseves in a State of one Monsieur Pascall supposes to have some Sense and that he should fansy to convince and overcome thereby to reduce by little and little to the knowledge of the Truth Doubtless one shall find that 't is impossible but in the End he will be amaz'd at what he shall discover in himself and will look on himself as a Monstrous Composition of strange Contradictions That this Love of Truth which cannot be defac'd out of his Mind together with so great an incapacity of knowing it cannot but surprize him That this Pride born with him and which is cherisht in the height of his Misery must needs astonish him That this slow Voice in the midst of all Enjoyments which tells him something is still wanting though he can't tell well what 't is does deject him And to conclude that those involuntary Motions of the Heart which he dislikes and which he can scarce resist when he is at the best and those that give him some disquiet if he do but look into himself how Prophane soever he be must needs abate ones height and make him question if a Nature so full of Contrarieties double and single all at once as he finds his can possible be a Production of hazard or come such out of the Hands of its Creator Although a Man in this State be very far from knowing God however 't is certain that nothing is fitter to perswade him that there may be something else besides what he knows and this unknown thing may be of consequence to be sought for if there be no Created thing that is able to shew it him And one cannot deny but those who are set in this Disposition were otherwise capable of being touch'd with other Proofs of God and that they received
with the more Joy the satisfaction of their Doubts that they should be taught at the same time the Remedy of this Gulf of Miseries wherein Man is incompassed and wherein it cannot be imagin'd how those who are without hope of Delivery can find any Rest It is against this surprizing Rest Monsieur Pascall most of all invey'd and one shall find him mov'd against it in all his Writings with so much Force and Eloquence that 't is hard to listen to what he says without being concern'd and those Persons who have set up their Resolution and that say they know what they have to do yet if they seriously consider'd it could scarce avoid being shaken and he did not think they could have the least spark of good Sense that did not yield to it And having suppos'd that a reasonable Man could not rest therein no more than in the Ignorance of his true State past and to come he caus'd to be sought out all things that could give him any Light and first examin'd what those had said who are called Philosophers But he had not much trouble to shew that 't was no hard matter to be satisfi'd that all they had done was nothing else but to contradict one another That they had found out so many sorts of true Happinesses that 't was impossible any one of them should have found the true one because in all likelihood it must be of that Nature that one could not be mistaken in it and false Happiness cannot be like it If it chanc'd that any amongst them attain'd to know Man was born Miserable none of them ever thought of giving the Reason of it nor so much as to enquire after it although there 's nothing in the World more worthy to be sought after Some of them Figur'd Man great notwithstanding what he finds in himself of low and mean. Others again represented him Vile notwithstanding the instinct which lifts him up Some of them taught Man was Disposer of his own Happiness others that he was Miserable without Recovery Some that he was capable of all things others that he was of nothing To conclude there was no Sect that spake so well of him but that every body found in himself the quite contrary Man not able to satisfie himself herein nor yet to give over so necessary an Inquiry and thinking 't was not Men like himself and Ignorant as he is from whom he could expect to find information Monsieur Pascall made him call to mind that it may be he and such as him had a Maker that was able to Communicate himself to them and give them some Marks of their Original and of his Design in giving them their Being And thereupon taking a view of the whole World and all Ages he discover'd a great many Religions but not one of them was able to affect him Being indued with Sense he comprehends something of that which may consist with a Sovereign Good if there be one and of what he has reveal'd to Man in case he reveal'd himself to them at all as he must needs have done if there be any such thing as true Religion But instead thereof what finds he in his Inquiry Religions that take rise with certain People and expire with them Religions wherein several Gods are ador'd and Gods more ridiculous than Men Religions that have nothing Divine nor Spiritual in them which tolerate Vice which sometimes are setled by force sometimes by falshood Religions without Authority without Proofs or any thing Supernatural having nothing but a gross Carnal Worship all consisting in outward Shew savouring of Man and wholly displeasing to Almighty God the which leaving Man in a like Ignorance of the Nature of God and of himself doth serve only more and more to shew whereunto the Folly of Man doth extend To conclude rather than to make any choice or to fix his Rest on any of those he see he would rather choose to be his own Executioner and at once to rid himself out of so Miserable a Condition when being just ready to fall into Dispair he discover'd a certain People which of a sudden drew his Attention by a great many singular and wonderful Circumstances It is the Jewish Nation of which Monsieur Pascall observes so many things throughout his Thoughts and whole Book That if one has the least measure of Curiosity one cannot chuse but inquire and search into it They are a People that issu'd all from one Man they had ever a great care of not making Alliance with other Nations so that by preserving their Genealogy they could give to the World a History worthy of Credit rather than any other Nation whatsoever it being in effect nothing else but the History of one sole Family and therefore cannot be subject to any great Confusion howsoever 't was a Family so numerous that had there been any deceit used 't was impossible the Nature of Man is such but that some one or other would have discover'd and made it known Moreover this History being the oldest of any it cannot have borrow'd any thing of others and for that very Reason it deserves a peculiar esteem and veneration For whatsoever is said of the History of China Japan c. with half an Eye one may perceive they are but ridiculous Fables and this is True. The more one examins those the more their Falshood is discover'd whereas the more this is search'd into it confirms it self and becomes undeniable And to conclude when there is occasion to hear mention made of Men fallen from the Sun or sprung up out of Mountains and of Men Created by an Omnipotent God one must have very little Judgment of things to be one Moment in suspence which is the most likely to be True. This Man overjoy'd of this Discovery resolv'd to relie on it as his chiefest Stay and presently found that this so great a People Govern'd themselves by one only Book which contains both its History its Laws and Religion and all this so compact and inseparable that he the more admir'd it and was fully perswaded that if any part of it be true all the rest must needs be so too But what 's remarkable is he no sooner opened this Book but with the History of this People he there also finds that of the Creation of the World that Heaven and Earth are the Works of Gods hands that Man was Created and that his Maker made himself known to him that he put all other Creatures under his Subjection that he made him after his own Image and by consequence endow'd him with Knowledge and Light and capable of Truth and Happiness free in his Knowledge and in his Actions and in a perfect Conformity of his Desires to Justice and right Reason For to conclude it is what signifies the resemblance to God which Man cannot approach to in the Body and is the Breath of Life wherewith God enliven'd him which is nothing else but a Beam of that most pure
and intelligible Life where of his Essence is compos'd To say truth here are many Doubts remov'd and that very easily The Eternity of the World which is so difficult to conceive and the accidental meeting of a few Atoms are things doubtless not very easie to be imagin'd when there is need to explain the admirable Order of the Universe the production of Beasts and Plants the curious Fabrick of Mans Body and more especially what is meant by Thought and Soul 't is hard to be believed this Eternity and these Atoms do appear to hang so well together and that the Understanding is not very forward to submit to the Belief of it How happy would this Man think himself if he could find the Truth of these things he would be willing to part with any thing on Condition this beginning of discovering Truth might succeed But as he would not fix on a rest wherein there may be any doubt and that he fears as much to be deceived as to rest in the incertainty he is in he resolves to search fully into the thing and to examin it with the greatest exactness may be In the first place he observes as a Circumstance that can't sufficiently be admir'd that the Pen-Man of the Holy Bible did comprize many and great things in one Chapter and that but a very short one and whereas 't is the Nature of most Men to make the smallest things look Big and that any one else would have thought it unbecoming to Treat of so weighty a Subject so unconcernedly he is amaz'd to see this Man speak so plainly of it and being to be lookt upon as a Person chosen to reveal it to Men that he so little indeavour'd to put a value on himself by flattering his Readers or in setting a Gloss on what he said or taking any heed of proving it So strange or rather so singular a way of proceeding doubtless deserves extraordinary Respect and 't is very likely that whoever could Treat of things of this Nature in this manner knew very well that their value consisted in their own Truth without having need of other Ornaments and that he was also verily perswaded that they were either well known or very easie to be believed Nevertheless of a sudden there appears a difficulty that can scarce be surmounted and at the same time one sees That if it be a God that Created the World and that he himself gave a Testimony of the goodness of his Works Man must needs be made in the State before recited yet one finds himself so quite another thing that one knows not scarce what to think Very far from taking ones self for the Image of God we don't find the least resemblance of God in us and the more we know our selves the less shall we find our selves inclin'd to obey God whom we ought in all things to resemble It is certain we should be but little enlightn'd should we stop our Inquiry here it would argue great negligence and guilt not to make farther Progress in so weighty an Inquiry For this very first view that 't is God made us is attended with so many Circumstances that nothing but fear of finding more than we seek for can hinder Men from inquiring more distinctly into it This very Man that Monsieur Pascall thought uncapable of this great fear of knowing his Duty and that too well knew his inability of himself to determine a thing of so great Importance stopt not there and stay'd not long before he was better inform'd For he perceiv'd soon after that the same Man we describ'd to be so inlightned and so much Master of himself had no sooner known his Maker but he offended him The first use he made of so precious a Gift as Liberty was to Transgress the very first Commandment he had received and all of a sudden forgetting what might justly be thought a Creature owed to Almighty God who was but newly taken from the Dust of the Earth to enjoy the whole World and to know and serve his Creator he aspir'd to quit his dependance and by his own Skill to acquire the knowledge God was pleas'd to hide from him and in a Word aspir'd to become his equal It 's not needful to use many Words to shew nor much Wisdom to comprehend that this was the most horrible Crime that could be in all its Circumstances and it was Punish'd as it deserv'd For besides the Death wherewith Adam was threatned he also fell into a deplorable State which could not be better shewn than by that bitter Irony that he had the Grief to hear from the Mouth of God For instead of continuing an Image of the Holiness and Justice of his Creator as he might have done and of becomming like him as he thought to have done in that same Moment he lost all those Advantages that he had not rightly improv'd His Understanding became obnubilated God hid himself from him in impenetrable Darkness he became a Child of Wrath and a Slave of Sin of all the Light and Knowledge he had he only retain'd a faint desire of Knowledge which was of no other use to him but to increase his Torment he had no other benefit and use of his Liberty but to commit Sin and found himself wholly uncapable of doing good At last he became that incomprehensible Monster call'd Man and moreover imparting more and more his Corruption to all that proceeded from him he replenish'd the whole World with poor blind guilty Creatures like himself It is what is to be found at large in the following part of this Book for Monsieur Pascall supposing that one could not chuse but be allur'd by so great a view and representing it with much earnestness and also all that 's contain'd in the Old Testament it may be observ'd that what 's therein Treated is the Corruption of Man of Mens giving themselves up to their Vile Affections and their Inclination to Evil from their very Infancy and inlarging upon the things which render this Book remarkable and worthy of Respect he shew'd that 't was the only Book in the World wherein the Nature of Man was truly describ'd in its Greatness and in its Misery and discover'd to him the State of his Heart in a great many places Whatever he had discover'd in studying himself he therein found it very clearly The Reading hereof having created as 't were a new Light in the Darkness of his Soul he not only discern'd more plainly what he already had seen but he also found a great many things that he had not thought of and that were never before taken notice of by those that had made the greatest inquiry after them Then he not only admires this Book should make Man know himself better than he doth himself but also that 't is that alone in all the World that has to purpose Treated of the Soveraign Being and that it makes him conceive it to be as far above what he thought him to
better to give true Comfort than all other Men whatsoever But what is most considerable is they teach those Remedies are not in our power All the rest taught some that there was none at all others that they were in our own Power and thereby have deceiv'd all those that trusted therein whereas these with a sincerity that no Deceiver ever durst pretend to assure us that we can do nothing of what we are commanded that we are born unclean and unable to resist Corruption and whilst we act only by our own Strength we shall undoubtedly stoop to the same Passions they command us to surmount But at the same time they tell us that we must implore this strength of God which we stand in need of that he will not refuse it to us and that he will also send a Redeemer unto Man who satisfying Gods Justice for them will repair this Weakness and will inable them to do all things he requires of them How excellent a Design is hear and how agreeable to Truth and Reason it self as far as Reason can share in it Let us consider and view it all at once in its full extent the better to comprehend its Greatness and Majesty All things are Created by God to whom nothing is impossible Man came out of his hands in a State worthy the Wisdom of his Maker He Rebels against him and forfeits all the Privileges of his Creation Sin and Punishment is transmitted to all Men and thereby they are born Perverse and Corrupt as is too evidently seen they retain some glimmering of their first Greatness and they are told they may be restor'd to it They find no ability in themselves to do it and they are taught that they have none but that they ought to seek it of God they find themselves at so great a distance from God that they can see no manner of way how they can draw near to him and they are promis'd a Mediator that will effect this great Reconciliation What can a Man of Reason and good Sense do herein but acknowledge that never any thing was better conceiv'd and those that spake so how little Proof soever they have they deserve to be believ'd There are several to whom the very mentioning of it will sufficiently convince for indeed this matter does not appear easie to be invented whoever will but narrowly examine it One only needs see what the ablest Men have said on this Subject either of themselves or after seeing the Books of Moses to judge that this is not of the Stamp and Invention of Men. In truth this is not their Voice and 't is strange they don't see it and that they don't use herein the same exactness of judging as they are wont to do in all other things for there 's no body but agrees that as for things which fall within our Sphere we have in us a Sentiment that makes us judge at first sight if what presents it self to us be the Work of Nature or of Men whether we receive it by Nature or by Custom no matter it never deceives us for Instance If in a Mountain in some remote Island we should find Steps regularly cut in a Rock or some strange Characters ingraven we should not fear to say there had been Men there before us and that those things could not be done by Nature Nevertheless have we examin'd the two infinite differences there is betwixt Nature and Art that they have nothing in common and if we judge so wel without Art why don't we extend farther the Principle that leads us thereunto and discern by what we feel in us and by the experience we have that these great Ideas are of a very different kind from what the Spirit of Man is able to produce But because Men are of that Nature that when they are but a little accustom'd to things they can scarce tell whether they were able to imagin them or not yet 't is not therefore expected they shall presently submit they shall be sufferr'd to count for nothing that 't is not Natural that with a design to impose on Men all things most contrary to Reason and Nature should be imploy'd Let them believe if they can that 't was not impossible Moses and those that follow'd him that Men so Wise and withal so Learned should of their own Head go about to invent a thing so incomprehensible as Original Sin and which appears so contrary to the Justice of God whereof they relate so many Wonders and besides that they should presume to Attribute to God an Expedient so strange for the Purifying of Men as that of sending his only Son into the World that he should die the Death At least let them do themseves right and for the little certainty they have in themselves of judging the least things they should judge themselves uncapable by their own Strength to determine whether Transmission of Sin wherein all doth consist be unjust or impossible And to conclude That they esteem and should judge themselves Happy that in a thing which so nearly concerns them instead of lying at the Mercy of their poor Reason which so easily is impos'd upon they need only Examin Matters of Faith and History for convincing Proofs that is to say things for which they have good Ground For once granting as 't is plainly evident that there is a God there needs not many Words be used to affirm that he cannot do any Injustice because his Will is the sole Rule of Good and Evil The Question is not to Examin what the thing is in him but only if those who insure us on Gods behalf that it is have sufficient Reason to be believ'd And it would be in vain to answer that one has Proof those things are unjust and impossible to shew they cannot be as 't is said there is that they are real to shew they are neither unjust nor impossible It cannot be there should be Reason on both sides and it must needs be that either the one or the other must be deceived and what indeed deceives them is That the Notions we have of what is Just and Unjust are strangely Limited seeing there is no farther Dispute amongst us but of Justice betwixt Man and Man that is to say amongst Brethren where all Duties are equal and reciprocal and that here is meant a Justice of the Creator towards the Creature where the Rules and Rights are infinitely disproportion'd But when all is done as they dare not boast fully to know how far the Power of God does extend and what his Justice is their Proofs instead of being Demonstrative they are only at best nothing but Reasoning of a Metaphysical Nature Grounded on Principles invented by Men and therefore uncertain whereas what is offerr'd them for Proof being of the Nature of things which are capable of certainty and intire Evidence Reason and good Sense obliges them to begin by these And to conclude if they find themselves convinc'd that they
been hitherto said might occasion any Grief for the Death of Monsieur Pascall to his Friends who only knowing to what Degree he understood Prophecies how able he was to explain and shew their meaning and with what ease and facility he made them be understood at large are also best sensible of the publick loss of so great a Man. I very well know these scatter'd glimmering Lights which are to be seen in this Treatise of his Thoughts will give but an imperfect view of the Volume he would have made it may be but very few will believe me But those who know it are bound to give this Testimony to the Truth and to his Memory I can therefore boldly affirm that those who diligently hearkned to him in the occasion above mentioned were as it were Transported when they heard him speak of what he had gather'd from the Prophets and Prophecies He began by shewing the obscurity which seemed therein was so order'd on purpose that we have been warn'd of it and that 't is said in sundry places that they shall not be understood by the Wicked and that they shall be clear to those that are upright of Heart That the Scripture has two Senses that 't is made to enlighten some and to darken others That this is visible in it almost throughout and that 't is also express'd in it in plain Terms Also to speak truly It is the Foundation of this great Work of the Scripture and those who rightly comprehend it find no difficulty in any thing whatsoever On the contrary it is this very thing that causes it to shew the Superiour Spirit wherewith all those which have any part therein have been Inspired seeing that had they combin'd all together and that afterwards they had changed they could never have contriv'd any thing better that nothing but obscurity should appear to those that only sought therein to increase their own Ignorance and afford much Light to those who seek for and desire it Had God been pleased to have Created all Men in Glory and Happiness as he might have done then it had not been necessary but he was not pleas'd to do so It is our Duty to take whatever he is pleased to afford us and the rather because deserving nothing of him but his Anger it becomes not condemn'd Persons to complain of the Conditions of their Pardon But what renders us very guilty and admirably vindicates the Justice of God is That the Gross and Carnal Sense wherein the Jews remain'd is unintelligible in several places and has so little Coherence that one must already be blind to be blinded by it and that on the contrary every part of the true Sense has such a reference and inseparable relation to each other that one must also be blind not to see it But besides this obscurity such as 't is in some places can't hinder but with a Moderate Spirit and a little Sincerity one may receive as much Light as is needful Let us fansy this Man that Monsieur Pascall would lead as 't were by the hand and doubtless we shall perceive that his Clouds dissipated as he proceeded in the study of the Old Testament and well considering all he saw and judging of what at first seemed difficult by what he found afterwards more clear all this great Mystery presently unfolds it self and appears open and clear to him He perceives in the first place that when there is mention of the fall of Adam it is said to the Serpent that the Seed of the Woman shall bruise his Head and he therein finds the first Draughts and a Promise of a Redeemer expected by the Jews he after observes that this same thing which was so obscurely promis'd and scarce taken notice of goes on manifesting it self so far till at length it gets the Victory and becomes the Center whereto all does tend for soon after he finds this same promise more clearly and fully made to Abraham and reiterated again to Jacob with assurance that all Nations of the World shall be bless'd in their Posterity of whom this Redeemer should be born Moreover he finds the whole Jewish Nation fully perswaded of this Hope and expecting this great King from the Tribe of Judah who was to load them with Riches and make them Conquerors over all their Enemies David comes after and writes the admirable Work of his Psalms pointing at this Messias and incessantly hoped and waited for his appearing Then come the Prophets who unanimously declare That God is going to accomplish what he had promis'd That his People are shortly to be freed from their Sins and that those which lay in Darkness should see Light. It also appears clearly to him That Heaven and Earth was to assist to the production of this Extraordinary Person One of the Prophets cry'd Let the Dew descend from Heaven and let the Righteous fall as the Rain from the Clouds Let the Earth open and let her conceive and bring forth the Saviour Thereupon they admire the Names given this Man Eternal King Prince of Peace Father Everlasting God He observes also that the Conquest of Cyrus of Alexander of the Romans and all the other great things done in the World serv'd only to put the Universe in the State 't was said it should be in at his coming To conclude he sees the Jews scatter'd over the Face of the Earth carrying with them the Books which contain the Promises made to Mankind as 't were to put into their Hands so many assurances of the share they had therein What then could he infer from all this but that this promis'd Redeemer cannot be the Conqueror expected by the Jews to have been only for them That the Riches he was to bestow and the Enemies he was to destroy could not be Temporal Riches and Enemies and that only a meer winner of Battels being but an unfit Object for such great Preparations it could be no other but God only could perform it But when after an Expectation of Four thousend Years Heaven opned to send Jesus Christ upon Earth and that he came and said to Men It is for me all this has been done and 't is I that you expect That he was worthy of all this preparation and had it been less it had been too little for him He was born it 's true in Obscurity he liv'd in Poverty he di'd in Shame but if thereby he veil'd his Divinity which he sufficiently manifested otherwise and that the blindness of the Jews and of so many others must needs be very great not to discern him and to believe there was no other greatness in the sight of God besides that of Holiness Had there been no Prophecies for Jesus Christ and that he had wrought no Miracles yet there was something so Divine in his Doctrine and in his Life that one must needs be charm'd with it and as there is neither true Vertue nor Sincerity of Heart without the love of Christ so there is
pleas'd to veil his Conduct and in such a manner to mingle Light with Obscurity that it should most depend on the Dispositions of the Heart to believe or to rest in Darkness So that those to whom he hides himself ought never to hope for any good till first they do as much as they can possible set themselves in the way of those that have found the Truth But they shall scarce give over counting for nought the Miserable Riches which some would deprive them of they will scarce begin to believe Poverty cannot be an Evil that Disgraces and Oppressions may be lookt upon as Good that nothing is to be shunn'd but offending God and nothing to be sought for but how to please him that all shall be clear to them and if there remains any Obscurity it will appear at least that it is only for those who desire to rest in it For Instance God was pleas'd to send his only Son into the World to save Men and at the same time to be a Stone of stumbling and an Object of contradiction to those who made themselves unworthy of so great a Blessing Could he have done any thing better than what he did to this End He was born of mean Parents he made him spend his Life without having wherein to lay his Head he only gave him the refuse of his People to be his Followers he would not that he should speak of any Sciences nor of any thing esteem'd great amongst Men he made him be thought a Deceiver he caus'd him to fall into the hands of his Enemies to be betray'd by one of his Disciples and forsaken by all the rest he made him tremble at the approach of Death which he sufferr'd publickly and as a Malefactor how could he better disguise him to those who only savour the things of Worldly Greatness and have no Eyes to behold true Wisdom But he also made him Command the Sea the Waves and the Wind yea he had also power over Devils and Death he made him know the inward Thoughts of those that spake with him he pour'd forth his Spirit upon him and put those things in his Mouth as could proceed from no other but God he made him speak the things of Heaven in such a manner as far surpasseth the reach of Men he was desirous to inform them the State of their Heart and how they might be deliver'd from their Miseries he made him live without the least appearance of Sin insomuch as his greatest Enemies had not the least pretext of accusing him he made him foretel his own Death and Resurrection and he raised him up out of the Grave What could there have been fitter to hinder him from being rejected by those who love true Greatness and Wisdom To conclude because all Ages and the whole Universe were concern'd in the same Conditions of Obscurity for some and of Light for others he would have his History and Life writ by none but his Disciples to render it suspicious to those who desir'd to be deceived and that it should be the most undoubted of all Histories that so they might be inexcusable For in a Word not to enter into this vast Field of Dispute if it be not true either the Apostles must be deceived or they must be Cheats and neither the one nor other is to be believ'd how could it be that they were deceiv'd those who said They were Eye Witnesses of the Life of Jesus Christ and also believ'd to be Chosen and endow'd with Gifts to that very End Could they be deceiv'd to know if they themselves healed the Sick if they raised the Dead What other or greater Sign could they have desired to be assur'd of knowing the Truth But if Jesus Christ made them believe during his Life how comes it to pass they were not better advis'd after his Death seeing they believ'd he was truly God that is Master of Life and Death For as for the Disciples of Mahomet who only call'd himself a Prophet it is plain they rested in Ignorance and Error after his Death and he was careful not to promise them to Rise again But it is not so of those of Jesus Christ they are far bolder accordingly they declare If he is not Risen all they did and said is in Vain It is thence they draw their greatest Comfort and Constancy and 't is very unlikely and even impossible but they believ'd at least that they saw him after his Death and they believ'd it with the greatest certainty could be in exposing themselves to all they sufferr'd and by reposing thereon the great Work wherein they had so happy success This being granted how can it be imagin'd they all believ'd so strongly a thing so difficult to be receiv'd and whereof the Eyes only can be the Judges Did they all dream it in one Night for they all declare they see him and we think they were all honest Men. Is it a Ghost that deceiv'd them for the space of Fourty Days or was it some Impostor that made them believe that he was the Man that Dy'd before their Eyes and whom they had laid in the Sepulcher and who afterwards found means to ascend up into Heaven in their sight This would be ridiculous to say and so much the more because 't is plainly seen by what we have left us of theirs that they were not so simple to believe That if Jesus Christ had been but a Common Man he could not have Raised himself from the Dead It would be altogether as Vain to say the Apostles were Deceivers and that after the Death of their Master they agreed amongst themselves to say he was Risen and should think all the World must take their Word for it For though it be said Men are Naturally Lyars it is not so in the Sense it is commonly taken It 's true they are born such inasmuch as they are born Enemies to God who is the Sovereign Truth and that their Heart is bent and prone to Vanity and Falshood which too often they look upon to be Real But else it is certain they Naturally love to speak Truth and it cannot well be otherwise the Natural Inclination tending to speak what one knows or at least what one believes that is what 's True in it self or in regard of him that speaks it Whereas for Lying there must be deliberation and design one must be at the trouble of inventing and it is seen such Men never Lye but for Interest or for Honour and then too because they cannot otherwise attain to it And they take great heed that what they say should seem probable and that the Falshood should not be discover'd especially if the Consequences are dangerous and if any should be found that Lye for Pleasure they never think but of enjoying it in the Moment not grounding any thing that 's Real upon their Lye. So that the Apostles could not possibly have any design of imposing upon Men in what they taught of
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Who were they that they should make themselves be believed And what Authority did their Merit or the Power they held amongst the Jews give them to that purpose Could they invent nothing else but such a gross Lye which would have been so easie to have been gain-said and for the which they could have given no other Proof but their own bare Allegation And how can any one imagin they should have been so bold upon such a ground to Attack all the Authority that was amongst the Jews and the greatest powers on Earth and attempt to change a Religion that was as Old as the very World and grounded on as many Miracles which were as publick as this would have been deemed private to them 't was not enough they should be Cheats to form such a strange design they must also have lost their Senses and so the Fraud would soon have been discover'd And if they had been the Wisest Men in the World as they since appear'd to be they would but the better have seen what there was to be fear'd how difficult it would be considering Mens Lightness and Inconstancy but that some of them would suffer themselves to be gain'd by Promises or Threats And to conclude It were the greatest Extravagance for Pleasure to expose themselves to the greatest Dangers and Torments and to unavoidable Death whether the Fraud were discover'd or whether it succeeded to their desire I will not now ingage in speaking any farther of what might be offer'd touching the the Truth of the Evangelical History whereupon Monsieur Pascall has left such fine Remarks but such as are far short of what he would have done had he liv'd a little longer he had a particular Gift of Understanding Prophecies and found the New Testament such an inexhaustible Spring that he would still therein have made new discoveries What would he not have said of the Stile of the Evangelists and of their Persons of the Apostles in particular and of their Writings of the way whereby this Religion was first Establish'd and of the State 't is now in of the great Numbers of Miracles Martyrs and Saints in all Ages And in fine of so many things as show 't is impossible only to be the Work of meer Man Were I as capable as I am deficient to supply wherein he fell short this is not the place to do it That would be to compleat the Work which he only began to describe But though I have done it imperfectly and how ill soever we have it it seems to shew a Glimpse of what it was design'd to be and is even sufficient to produce the Effect he desir'd in the Minds of those that desire to make a right improvement of their Reason For he pretended not to work Faith in Men nor to change their Hearts his drift was to prove there was no Truth better supported in the World than that of the Christian Religion and that those who are so wretched as to doubt of it are apparently guilty of wilful blindness and can complain of none but themselves And 't is what will evidently appear to whomsoever will consider the thing at large as he did and all at once without Passion or Prejudice observe the long Succession and Train of Prophecies and Miracles that relate to it This so continu'd a History is the ancientest that is to be found in the World and is chiefly what is contain'd in this Treatise I say it must be Read without Prejudice for one must decline one part to which we must willingly renounce if one do themselves right that is not to believe but what one sees without any difficulty for if we were not warn'd by God himself of this mixture of Darkness and Light we are so made as that it ought not at all to hinder us There is no doubt but all Truths are Eternal that they are link'd in a Chain and have dependance one on another and this dependance is not only for Natural and Moral Truths but also for Truths of fact which may in some sort be called Eternal because being assign'd to certain Points of Eternity and Space they make a Body that all at once subsists for God. So that if Men had not their Understanding bounded and full of Darkness and that they could plainly discover the large Continent of Truth and that 't were expos'd to their view like a Country in a Geographical Map they would be in the right not to believe any thing but what was extreamly evident and for which they may see the Grounds and Consequences But seeing God has not been pleas'd to deal so favourably with them and that he was not thereto oblig'd they must comply with their State and the Necessity of things and must at least act Reasonably within the extent of their limitted Understanding without reducing themselves to Extremities and so make themselves Miserable and Ridiculous both together Could they but once bring themselves to this very far from resisting as they often do the bright Light that certain connections cast in their Minds they would easily own they ought to content themselves in all things with any moderate Beam of Light that appears to them provided it be a true Light that the convincing Proofs be Real and Positive and the Difficulties but bare Negations occasioned by the want of a full view of things and as there are other Proofs that leave no Obscurity so there are also those that give Light sufficient to shew something after which whatever doubt remains it cannot hinder but that what one sees is certain and 't is no longer but the weakness of him that instructs and cannot make every thing clear or of him that would see and has not sufficient Light of Knowledge For to conclude there are an infinite number of things that yet do subsist though they are incomprehensible to us and 't would be Ridiculous for Instance to dispute against Demonstrations because they may have Consequences the connection whereof may not appear very plain to us Were there nothing incomprehensible but in Religion probably there were something to be said but what is most known in Nature is that almost all we know that subsists is unknown to us past certain Bounds although we have them as 't were before our Eyes and in our Hands whereas Religion has this advantage that what we don't comprehend is found to be grounded on the Nature of God and upon his Justice of which he knows very well that we can know nothing but what he is pleas'd to reveal to us Let us then rest satisfi'd and Bless his Name for having shew'd us sufficient to guide us in safety And those that are displeas'd at our Submission to things that can't be comprehended know their unreasonableness seeing one desires it not of them till after having shewed an infinite Number of Proofs that one must be wholly depriv'd of Reason not to submit to it For can there be any so bold
retain the design of moving his Tongue and so he would not pronounce one Word if he stirr'd it to speak it would be only Words that he before had form'd in his Head and that being put together would signifie nothing because he would put them together though they signifi'd nothing and so would not make a Speech that had any Sense or if he would that their putting together should signifie any thing it could not be the Speech whereof he had no Notions see here a thing that consists only in Multiplications and yet whereto it is impossible chance should ever attain And what is Admirable is that this divers assembling of Letters that Composes a Speech of Cicero's extending to all Languages are incomparably in much greater Number than the Words of the French Tongue that the President spoke and that yet nevertheless it was not impossible but this Speech might be hit on and that it is evidently the same this Man found out But it is as has formerly been said that the Hand that ranges these Letters at hazard is it self in the Hands of Chance and that this Man that speaks is govern'd by a Will and a Mind that are not at all subject thereto hazard never making a Man act against his Will nor lifting him above his Understanding It may easily be shewn that the Wager that Rome is is of this Nature and that hazard has nothing to do with it For of all those that have said there is a City so call'd there is not one but have had a Mind to say so but knew what they did in saying so and that also had some End or other in saying it All which things have no dependance at all upon hazard And as it cannot be but amongst them there were great Numbers that knew this City was not if it had not been in Effect one must be out of their Senses to imagin that hazard should make them all have Reasons to chuse rather to stand in this Lye than to tell the Truth or that all should desire so to do without any Sense or Reason It is needless to urge this any farther it would but weaken its force to Dilate more upon it to those that do not comprehend it at first view But one may boldly affirm it is impossible but it should be felt as much as a first Principle and that if the Existence of the City of Rome be not demonstrable to those that have not been there it follows there are things not demonstrable which are more certain as may be said than Demonstrations themselves Christian Religion is undoubtedly of this kind and whosoever had Understanding Knowledge and Reading sufficient and would diligently apply himself thereunto would plainly and easily make it out For let one seriously think of so many great and wonderful things as have accur'd for these Six thousand years past in the view of all Men and whereof Foot-steps are to be seen throughout the whole World and the Antiquity of the History that contains what is known of greatest Antiquity in the same the Verity whereof has never been question'd by any Let us consider of the Reflections Nature may be induc'd to make upon the Events and Mysteries which are taught us by the Christian Religion the manner how things have past down to us of the Stile Uniformity and Education of those that have transmited the Holy Scriptures to us of the Profoundness of the Truths they above all other Writings have discover'd to us as well touching the Nature of the Divinity as that of the human Nature also concerning what relates to Vertues and Vices Let the infinite distance be consider'd which there is betwixt these Holy Persons Notions and their manner of Thinking Expressing and Acting from that of all other Men and you would think thâ—m to be quite another thing The original Perfection they so peculiarly enjoy'd shews that all that ever was spoke by Men that seem'd to savour good Sense is only a weak imitation of their Copy and also that the Spring of their Errors and Abjurations is only a gross depravation of their solid Works And the Means whereby all we believe is Establish'd has hitherto subsisted doth yet subsist and will in all likelihood subsist as long as the World indures To conclude let all that so many great Men have writ on this Subject be summ'd up and let what they omitted be added thereunto for that 's but just because the weakness of Man's Understanding not admitting him to see things but imperfectly the abundance of what he discovers does infallibly shew that which is yet wanting I say let them consider all this and seriously ponder it and it will be evident that such an Accumulation of Proofs may be shewn for the certainty of our Religion that there is no Demonstration could be more convincing and it would be as hard to doubt of it as of a Propo sition of Geometry if one had nothing else but the very light of Reason to direct us For although it may be in the strictness of Geometry one may not be able to shew that these Proofs severally are not indubitable nevertheless being put together they have such a force that they do more fully convince ones Reason than all that does that Geometricians call Demonstration and the Reason is because Proofs of Geometry do only for the most part impose a kind of silence without diffusing any Light in the Understanding nor shew the thing plainly whereas these do as one may say lay it open before ones Eyes and that because they are adapted to our Capacity and we comprehend them with more care and safety than we can Principles of Geometry whereto few Heads do reach insomuch as infallible as these Demonstrations seem to be Geometricians themselves are oftentimes puzzl'd and deceiv'd in them FINIS At Port Royal Des Champ. This Thorn is at Port Royal in Suburbs St. James 's at Paris See Monsieur Pascall 's Thoughts 1 Cor. 1. 25. Psal 118. 36. 1 Cor. 1. 25. 8. 16. 8. 14. Mat. 11. 6. 14. 10. Gen. 12. 3. Ibid. 22. 3. 8. Luk. 2. 32. Psal 127. 20. Joel 2. 28. Jer. 23. 7. Isa 15. 7. Jer. 31. 33. Ide 32 40. Isa 5. 2 3 4 c. Ide 65. 2. Deut. 28. 28 29. Ezek. 17. Ezek. 30. 3. 13. Mal. 1. 11. Mal. 3. 1. Isa 9. 6. Mich. 5. 2. Isa 6. 8 29. Isa 42. 55. Isa 53. Isa 28. 26. Isa 8. 14. Ibid. 15. Psal 117. Dan. 2. 35. Zach. 11. 12. Psal 68. 22. 21. 17 18 19. Oze 6. 3. Psal 110. Psal 2. 2. Isa 60. 10. Jer. 31. 36. Joh. 19. 15. Isa 8. 14. Deut. 19. 20. Isa 63. 16. Deut. 10. 17. Jer. 4. 4. Deut. 30. 6. Gen. 17. 11. Deut. 30. 19 20. Deut. 32. 20 21. Isa 65. Psas 72. Amos. 5. Isa 66. Jer. 6. 20. Mal. 1. 11. 1 King 15. Oze 6. 6. Jer 31. 31. Isa 43. Jer. 3. 16. Jer. 7. 12 13. Mal. 1. 10 11. Psal 109. Isa 56. Oze 3. Jer. 31. 16. Rom. 19. Isa 43. 15. Mat. 11. 27. Deut. 13. 2 3 and Mar. 9. 38. Joh. 15. 24. Joh. 3. 2. Isa 1. 18. Ibid. 5. 4. John. 10. 26. 2 Thes 2. 10 11. Apoc. 2. 17. Isa 45. 15. Isa 53 3. Prov. 8. Joel 2. Psal 81. Isa 40. Eccles 3. 18. Mat. 25. Jam. 5. 17. Rom. 2. John 4. 3. Ezekiel 1 Cor. 6. 17. Gen. 8. 21. Heb. 9. 14. Heb. 10. 5 7. Psal 39. 7 8 9. Luk. 24. 2. Heb. 5. 8. Ibid. Phil. 3. 20.
will not insist upon the Faith by which we certainly know him nor of all the other Proofs which we have seeing you will not submit to them I will deal with you only by your own Principles and I don't doubt by the usual way that you discourse daily of things of the least Moment you will see how you should discourse of this matter and what side you should take in discussing this important Point of the Existence of God. You say we are incapable of knowing if there is a God nevertheless it is certain there is a God or there is not there is no Medium but which side shall we take Reason you say can determine nothing in the case there is an Infinite chaos that separates us at this infinite distance there will a chance happen Cross or Pile what will you lay by Reason you cannot assure one nor the other by Reason you cannot deny neither of both Do not then blame those of falshood that have made a choice for you can't tell if they have done ill or chosen wrong no you will say but I blame them not for having made this choice but for making any choice and as well he that took Cross as he that took Pile have both done ill the best way had been not to have lay'd at all Say you so but there 's a necessity we must lay it is not at our liberty you are imbarqu'd and not to lay God is is to lay he is not which of the two will you bet Let us consider the loss and gain in betting to believe God is if you win you win all if you lose you lose nothing lay then that he is without hesitating Well I must lay but it may be I risque too much let us see seeing there is the like hazard in winning and losing had you but two Lives to win for one you may well lay and were there Ten to be gain'd you would be very unwise not to venture your Life to win ten at a Game where there is no more hazard of losing than winning But here there is an infinite number of Lives infinitly happy to be won with the like hazard of winning as of losing and what you risque is of so little value and short continuance that 't is a meer Folly to spare it in this occasion For it avails nothing to say it is uncertain if one shall win and that 't is sure one does venture and that the infinite distance which is betwixt the certainty of what one lays down and the uncertainty of what one shall win does equal the finite good which one lays down to the infinite good which is uncertain This is not true All Gamsters do venture certain in hopes to win and yet he certainly risques the finite to gain uncertainly the infinite without any contradiction of Reason There is not an infinity of distance betwixt this certainty of what one lays down and the uncertainty of winning that is not true there is indeed infinity betwixt the certainty of gaining and the certainty of losing But the uncertainty of wining is proportion'd to the certainty of what one ventures according to the proportion of the hazards of winning and losing and thence it is that if there be as many hazards of one side as there is of the other the Game is equal and then the certainty of what one plays is equal to the uncertainty of the Game it is so far from being infinitly distant and so our Proposition is in full force when the Finite only is hazarded at a play where there is as much probability of winning as losing and the Infinity to be won this is Demonstration and if Men are capable of admitting Truth they ought to receive this I own I grant it but is there not yet other means of seeing more clearly yes by the Scriptures and by all the other Proofs of Christian Religion which are very many and clear Those who expect to be sav'd you will say are happy in such a State but then they are often terrify'd with the fear of being Damn'd But who is it has more cause to fear Hell either him that thinks there is no Hell and sure to be damn'd if there be one or him that is certainly perswaded there is a Hell and in hope to be preserved from it if there be one Whoever had but eight Days to live and would think the best way was to believe it fell out so by hazard must needs have lost his Senses now were we not sway'd by our Passions eight Days and a hundred Years would be but the same thing What danger can it be to you to resolve on this Course it will make you Faithful Honest Humble Thankful Sincere and Charitable It s true you will not live in filthy Pleasures in Vanity and Fleshly delights But shall I gain nothing else I tell you even in this Life you will be a Gainer and as you proceed in this way you will find so much certainty of profit and so much of emptiness in what you risque that at last you will find you have betted for a thing certain and infinite and that you have given nothing for obtaining it But you say you are so made that you cannot believe Learn at least your own inabillity to believe seeing your Reason tells you you should and yet have not power to do it strive therefore to overcome your self not by desiring more Proofs on Gods part but by diminishing your own Passions You would walk in Faith and do not know the way you would be heal'd of your infidellity and seek not the Remedies inform your self of those that have been in your State and that now are free from Doubts they know the way you would willingly go in and are cured of the Evil you would be freed from follow the Course they took follow their outward Examples if you cannot as yet enjoy their inward Dispositions lay aside those delays wherewith you have been hinder'd I should soon have quitted these Pleasures you will say if I had but Faith and I tell you you would soon have Faith if you would forsake these Pleasures Now 't is your part to begin If it were in my power I would give you Faith but I cannot and by consequence am not able to prove the truth of what you say but you may easily quit these Pleasures and try if what I say be true 3. * Let us not be ignorant of our selves we are Flesh as well as Spirit and thence it is that the instrument which perswadeth is not the only Demostration How few things be there that is demonstrated Proofs do only convince the Understanding Custom gives us the strongest Evidence it inclines the Senses which insensibly draws the understanding after it unawares Who ever demonstrated that to morrow it would be Day and that we shall Dye and yet what is there more universally believ'd therefore it is Custom perswades us hereunto it is that makes so many Turks and
an Altar they call it the God that brought them out of Aegypt and give to this pleasant Divinity made of Bracelets and Ear-Rings the same Honours and Praises as they owed and were wont to give to the true God Creator of Heaven and Earth which had chosen them from amongst all People for his Favourites One must needs have lost their Senses to imagin this People should suffer that this Passage should be added to their History and that they should do it to acquire the admiration of other Nations could they think their Glory had not been compleat without it Is it not on the contrary a stain that never can be washt out and which Posterity will for ever tax them with And is it not rather one of the strangest things in the World that this Action should be come to our Knowledge and that this whole Nation should not have us'd all their indeavours to suppress the Memory of it much less to invent it against themselves and to suffer to add to so many things that might have serv'd to make them be consider'd a Passage that covers them with shame to all Eternity And we find that Josephus manag'd the Intrest of his Nation so different a way that he chose rather to expose himself to the reproach of violating the Law of History in suppressing this Crime publickly committed by the Jews in the Wilderness than to expose them to the shame of all the World in divulging it How could it be also that the Rebellion of Corah should be added to this History which was so shameful to all his Posterity Was there no Cause of fearing least some or other of his Family to free them from this disgrace would have discover'd the falseness of it Wherefore should they rather than others bear the Burden of this disgrace Had they cast Lots for it Was it a thing they could not avoid And is it not evident that if it had been a Fiction all the whole Family together would have oppos'd it and would have desir'd the Authors of this Fraud to have sought out other Flourishes to inrich their History But if the Dying Words of Moses be consider'd that Threatens this People with so many Calamities and so many Curses and that after reproaching them with all their Rebellions farther declares to them that they will commit yet far greater and for their Punishment they shall fall into endless Miseries that they shall see themselves trodden down with Enemies and reduc'd to such a strait that they shall see their Cities destroy'd their Wives and Daughters ravish'd and their Sacrifices abolish'd And to conclude that they shall be carry'd away Captive and dispers'd over the Face of the Earth to be a Shame and Reproach to all the World I say if all this be consider'd I cannot tell what one must be to imagin that this People could combine with any body that had us'd them so sharply But it is most of all to be observ'd that these are not only bare Discourses of one that would terrifie his Followers and only Threatnings of what Evils should befal the Jews if they fail'd observing the Law. If they in some places appear'd Conditional in others they are Positive Prophecies which declare they will absolutely Transgress this Law as indeed they did and that all these Evils shall fall upon them as also it hapned What likelihood is there then that the Jews should be so simple or rather so stupid to suffer such Prophecies to be added to their History and that in a design of Honour to their Nation they should consent to a thing that must needs turn to their shame and disgrace For could they not see that if these Productions prov'd false their Religion would pass for a Cheat and they must of necessity lose the Credit they had got all the World over and if indeed they fell into these Miseries they should be esteem'd the worst of Men and instead of any Comfort were only to expect the scorn of all Men of falling into the Miseries they were warn'd of and to be fallen in them for having drawn on themselves Gods Indignation for the breach of his Law. So that whatever Liberty one gives to the Imagination it produces nothing but Chimera's Moses did not abuse the Jews he could have no such design and if he had it was impossible he should succeed in it by the ways he took neither were the Jews of Intelligence with him to impose upon their own Posterity and upon all other Nations It was no Stranger that made use of this way to make them believe either by what he found Establish'd amongst them or by Tradition or by Writing and it is as unlikely that the Jews should be concern'd in this Imposture with any body else as with Moses This is a little of what might be said on this large Subject for it is not to be thought one can relate all the Proofs this Book gives of its Truth the more one thinks of them the more they do discover themselves to us it is an Inexhaustible Spring of Light and without being at the trouble of explaining them one finds the Language and Stile of this Book is not the Production of Man nor of human Wisdom That nothing is more different from the ways not only of Impostors and Cheats but also of those that are called Prudent and Wise Men of the World that it is a Stile very singular and quite different from that of Men which act by their own private Spirit and that therein is not discovered common Passions common Interests nor Prudent nor Politick Ends as is usually seen in others And to conclude that it is impossible so much to divest human Passions as one must to produce such a Work wherein so little of Man doth appear Nevertheless this Book is we have it and it was not Chance nor Fortune made it It hath been and is the most considerable Object that ever was in the World for Two thousand years the most considerable People in the World were so enamour'd with it that they never let it out of their sight From the Hands of this People it fell into the keeping of Christians that is it was spread over the Face of the whole Universe And now at the End of Sixteen hundred years these two Nations diametrically opposite still consider it with the same Veneration dispute of the right meaning of it and therein equally find the Original right they pretend to the Kingdom of Heaven wherein they both think no others have any Intrest Who then durst presume to say That he may chuse to be any way concern'd in a Matter of this importance And who is it can forbear and lay this Book aside as it is without being satisfi'd whether it be true or false as a thing that were indifferent or of which the Truth were not to be found out Or who can be so obstinate to go on Head-long against such an abundance of Truth and Light without any