Pascal's Pensees Part 40
We do not understand the glorious state of Adam, nor the nature of his sin, nor the transmission of it to us. These are matters which took place under conditions of a nature altogether different from our own, and which transcend our present understanding.
The knowledge of all this is useless to us as a means of escape from it; and all that we are concerned to know, is that we are miserable, corrupt, separated from G.o.d, but ransomed by Jesus Christ, whereof we have wonderful proofs on earth.
So the two proofs of corruption and redemption are drawn from the unG.o.dly, who live in indifference to religion, and from the Jews who are irreconcilable enemies.
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There are two ways of proving the truths of our religion; one by the power of reason, the other by the authority of him who speaks.
We do not make use of the latter, but of the former. We do not say, "This must be believed, for Scripture, which says it, is divine." But we say that it must be believed for such and such a reason, which are feeble arguments, as reason may be bent to everything.
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There is nothing on earth that does not show either the wretchedness of man, or the mercy of G.o.d; either the weakness of man without G.o.d, or the strength of man with G.o.d.
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It will be one of the confusions of the d.a.m.ned to see that they are condemned by their own reason, by which they claimed to condemn the Christian religion.
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The prophecies, the very miracles and proofs of our religion, are not of such a nature that they can be said to be absolutely convincing. But they are also of such a kind that it cannot be said that it is unreasonable to believe them. Thus there is both evidence and obscurity to enlighten some and confuse others. But the evidence is such that it surpa.s.ses, or at least equals, the evidence to the contrary; so that it is not reason which can determine men not to follow it, and thus it can only be l.u.s.t or malice of heart. And by this means there is sufficient evidence to condemn, and insufficient to convince; so that it appears in those who follow it, that it is grace, and not reason, which makes them follow it; and in those who shun it, that it is l.u.s.t, not reason, which makes them shun it.
_Vere discipuli, vere Israelita, vere liberi, vere cibus._[207]
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Recognise, then, the truth of religion in the very obscurity of religion, in the little light we have of it, and in the indifference which we have to knowing it.
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We understand nothing of the works of G.o.d, if we do not take as a principle that He has willed to blind some, and enlighten others.
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The two contrary reasons. We must begin with that; without that we understand nothing, and all is heretical; and we must even add at the end of each truth that the opposite truth is to be remembered.
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_Objection._ The Scripture is plainly full of matters not dictated by the Holy Spirit.--_Answer._ Then they do not harm faith.--_Objection._ But the Church has decided that all is of the Holy Spirit.--_Answer._ I answer two things: first, the Church has not so decided; secondly, if she should so decide, it could be maintained.
Do you think that the prophecies cited in the Gospel are related to make you believe? No, it is to keep you from believing.
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_Canonical._--The heretical books in the beginning of the Church serve to prove the canonical.
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To the chapter on the _Fundamentals_ must be added that on _Typology_ touching the reason of types: why Jesus Christ was prophesied as to His first coming; why prophesied obscurely as to the manner.
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_The reason why. Types._--[They had to deal with a carnal people and to render them the depositary of the spiritual covenant.] To give faith to the Messiah, it was necessary there should have been precedent prophecies, and that these should be conveyed by persons above suspicion, diligent, faithful, unusually zealous, and known to all the world.
To accomplish all this, G.o.d chose this carnal people, to whom He entrusted the prophecies which foretell the Messiah as a deliverer, and as a dispenser of those carnal goods which this people loved. And thus they have had an extraordinary pa.s.sion for their prophets, and, in sight of the whole world, have had charge of these books which foretell their Messiah, a.s.suring all nations that He should come, and in the way foretold in the books, which they held open to the whole world. Yet this people, deceived by the poor and ignominious advent of the Messiah, have been His most cruel enemies. So that they, the people least open to suspicion in the world of favouring us, the most strict and most zealous that can be named for their law and their prophets, have kept the books incorrupt. Hence those who have rejected and crucified Jesus Christ, who has been to them an offence, are those who have charge of the books which testify of Him, and state that He will be an offence and rejected.
Therefore they have shown it was He by rejecting Him, and He has been alike proved both by the righteous Jews who received Him, and by the unrighteous who rejected Him, both facts having been foretold.
Wherefore the prophecies have a hidden and spiritual meaning, to which this people were hostile, under the carnal meaning which they loved. If the spiritual meaning had been revealed, they would not have loved it, and, unable to bear it, they would not have been zealous of the preservation of their books and their ceremonies; and if they had loved these spiritual promises, and had preserved them incorrupt till the time of the Messiah, their testimony would have had no force, because they had been his friends.
Therefore it was well that the spiritual meaning should be concealed; but, on the other hand, if this meaning had been so hidden as not to appear at all, it could not have served as a proof of the Messiah. What then was done? In a crowd of pa.s.sages it has been hidden under the temporal meaning, and in a few has been clearly revealed; besides that the time and the state of the world have been so clearly foretold that it is clearer than the sun. And in some places this spiritual meaning is so clearly expressed, that it would require a blindness like that which the flesh imposes on the spirit when it is subdued by it, not to recognise it.
See, then, what has been the prudence of G.o.d. This meaning is concealed under another in an infinite number of pa.s.sages, and in some, though rarely, it is revealed; but yet so that the pa.s.sages in which it is concealed are equivocal, and can suit both meanings; whereas the pa.s.sages where it is disclosed are unequivocal, and can only suit the spiritual meaning.
So that this cannot lead us into error, and could only be misunderstood by so carnal a people.
For when blessings are promised in abundance, what was to prevent them from understanding the true blessings, but their covetousness, which limited the meaning to worldly goods? But those whose only good was in G.o.d referred them to G.o.d alone. For there are two principles, which divide the wills of men, covetousness and charity. Not that covetousness cannot exist along with faith in G.o.d, nor charity with worldly riches; but covetousness uses G.o.d, and enjoys the world, and charity is the opposite.
Now the ultimate end gives names to things. All which prevents us from attaining it, is called an enemy to us. Thus the creatures, however good, are the enemies of the righteous, when they turn them away from G.o.d, and G.o.d Himself is the enemy of those whose covetousness He confounds.
Thus as the significance of the word "enemy" is dependent on the ultimate end, the righteous understood by it their pa.s.sions, and the carnal the Babylonians; and so these terms were obscure only for the unrighteous. And this is what Isaiah says: _Signa legem in electis meis_,[208] and that Jesus Christ shall be a stone of stumbling. But, "Blessed are they who shall not be offended in him." Hosea,[209] _ult._, says excellently, "Where is the wise? and he shall understand what I say. The righteous shall know them, for the ways of G.o.d are right; but the transgressors shall fall therein."
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Hypothesis that the apostles were impostors.--The time clearly, the manner obscurely.--Five typical proofs.
{1600 prophets.
2000 { { 400 scattered.
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_Blindness of Scripture._--"The Scripture," said the Jews, "says that we shall not know whence Christ will come (John vii, 27, and xii, 34). The Scripture says that Christ abideth for ever, and He said that He should die." Therefore, says Saint John,[210] they believed not, though He had done so many miracles, that the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled: "He hath blinded them," etc.
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