9o\ 
 
 ! TSd 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE PASCAL COLLECTION 
 
 OF 
 
 GEORGE L. HAMILTON 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029056138 
 
SIR JOHN LUBBOCK'S 
 HUNDRED BOOKS 
 
 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION 
 
 AND OTHER SUBJECTS 
 
sic Jobn Xubbocirs f3unbre& JSoohs 
 
 THOUGHTS 
 
 ON 
 
 RELIGION 
 
 AND OTHER SUBJECTS 
 
 Written Originally in French 
 
 BY 
 
 MONSIEUR PASCAL 
 
 Translated into English 
 
 BY 
 
 BASIL K E N N E T, D. D. 
 
 LATE PRINCIPAL OF CORPUS CHRlSTI COLLEGE, OXON. 
 
 Xou5on nni> IRew lord 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS 
 
 limited 
 
f', 
 
 - i 
 
 ?43. !<3 
 
 §5 
 
 
 Monsieur Pascal in his most excellent discourse of the "^Tis^ry of 
 Man," tells us that all our endeavours after greatness proceed from 
 noihing but a de:-ire of being surrounded by a multilude of persons and 
 affairs that may hinder us from looking into ourselves, which is a view 
 wc cannot bear. 
 
 Had that incomparable person Monsieur Pascal been a little more 
 indulgent to himself, the world might probably have enjoyed him much 
 longer; whereas, through too great an application to his studies in his 
 yout'T, he contracted that ill liabit of body, which, alttr a tedious sickness, 
 carried him off in the fortielh year of his age ; and tiie wtiole hisioiywe 
 have of his life till that ii)ne is but one continued account of the behaviour 
 of a noble soul struggling under innumerable pains and distempers. 
 
 Vide Spectator, Vol. II., No. ii6. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 Giving an account of the manner in which these Thoui^hts were 
 collected; of the causes that retarded the impressioji j of the 
 Au thorns desigti in this workj and how he spent the latter 
 part of his life. 
 
 Monsieur Pascal having taken an early leave of the 
 mathematics, of natural philosophy, and of other human 
 studies, in which he had made so great a progress that 
 there are, undoubtedly, but very few persons who have 
 seen deeper into those subjects which he chose to handle, 
 began when he was about thirty years of age to apply him- 
 self to things of a more serious and more elevated character, 
 and to turn his whole thoughts, so far as his health would 
 permit, on the Scriptures, the Fathers, and the discourses of 
 practical Christianity. 
 
 But though his excellence in these latter studies, no 
 less _than in the former, has been already testified by such 
 woiks as are acknowledged to be exact and accomplished 
 in their kind, yet we may affirm, that if it had pleased God 
 to have granted him a longer space for the carrying on his 
 general design of the truth of religion, in which he had 
 
6 PR 11 1 ■ACE. 
 
 .esolved to employ the residue of his life, this performance 
 would have been far superior to an}- that we have received 
 from the same hand ; because his views, in this respect, 
 infinitely exceeded those which he had attained of all things 
 beside. 
 
 I believe this is no more than what any one will readily 
 admit, upon the sight of these few papers, with all their 
 imperfections ; especially when he shall be made ' ac- 
 quainted with the methods by which the author prosecuted 
 his undertaking, and with the entire history of our drawing 
 out this specimen for the use of the public ; of all which 
 take the following account. 
 
 M. Pascal had laid the scheme of this work many 
 years before his death ; and yet we ought not to wonder 
 that he began so late to commit any part of it to writing, 
 for he had always accustomed himself to think very 
 maturely of things, and to range and dispose them in his 
 mind ere he suffered them to venture farther, carefully 
 weighing and examining which ought to be placed first and 
 which last, and what order of the whole might seem most 
 conducible to the desired effect. And then being master 
 of an ' excellent, or, as we may truly say, a prodigious 
 memory, so as to have often declared that he never forgot 
 anything which he had once imprinted in it, he was under 
 no apprehension of letting those thoughts which he had at 
 any time formed afterwards escape him ; so that it was 
 usual with him to tarry very long before he set them down 
 in paper ; either for want of leisure, or because the state of 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 his health, which was scarce ever better than crazy and 
 uncertain, could not support a more laborious application. 
 
 This was the reason that, at his death, we lost the 
 greatest part of what he had conceived in pursuance of Ijis 
 design. For there was scarce anything left in writing, 
 either as to the principal arguments which he proposed to 
 insist on, or as to the grounds and foundations of the whole 
 work, or as to the method and disposition, which could not 
 but be very considerable. All these were so habitually fixed 
 in his mind, that having neglected to write them while, per- 
 haps, he was able, he at length found himself incapable of 
 going through with the task when he would gladly have 
 entered upon it. 
 
 Yet there once happened an occasion, some ten or 
 twelve years since, that obliged him, not indeed to write, 
 but to deliver himself in conversation on this subject, which 
 he did in the presence and at the request of many great 
 persons, his friends. To this company he opened in few 
 words the plan of his whole undertaking ; he represented 
 the subject-matter ; he gave an abstract of the reasons and 
 principles, and pointed out the intended order and sequel 
 of things. And these gentlemen, who are indisputably 
 qualified to be judges in the case, do aver that they never 
 heard anything which discovered more beauty or more 
 strength, which was fitter to move or to convince : they 
 declare themselves to have been charmed with the dis- 
 course, and say that the idea which they were able to 
 form of the main design from a narrative of two or three 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 hours, delivered thus offhand and wiihout being laboured 
 or premeditated, give them the pleasure of considering 
 with themselves what the work might one day prove, if 
 fully executed and carried to its last perfection by an 
 author whose force and capacity they had so often ex- 
 perienced ; one who had used himself to be so indefatigably 
 laborious in all his compositions ; who was scarce ever 
 satisfied with his first thoughts, how happy soever they 
 might seem to others ; and who had been known, on many 
 occasions, to new-model no less than eight or ten times 
 such pieces as any person but himself must have pro- 
 nounced admirable after a single trial. 
 
 Having first observed to them what sort of proofs those 
 are which make the greatest impression upon men's minds, 
 and what are the most proper means of persuasion, he 
 applied himself to demonstrate that the Christian religion 
 had no fewer marks of certainty and evidence than anything 
 which is received in the world for the most undoubted truth. 
 
 He began the design with giving the picture of a man, 
 under which he omitted nothing that might distinguish or 
 illustrate him, either without or within, to the most secret 
 motions of his heart. In the next place he supposed a 
 person who had lived hitherto under a general ignorance, 
 and utterly indifferent with regard to all things, to himself 
 especially, to come and view himself in this picture, and 
 by it to examine what he is. The person cannot but be 
 suri)rised to discover here an infinite variety of things 
 which never yet entered into his thought, nor can without 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 astonishment and admiration reflect on what he now learns 
 and feels of his dignity and his baseness, of his advantages 
 and his infirmities, of the small glimmering of light which 
 remains within him, and of the miserable darkness with 
 which he is, almost on all sides, encompassed ; in a word, 
 of all the prodigious contrarieties which appear in his 
 nature. After this it is impossible he should continue his 
 indifference, if he has but the least spark of reason ; and 
 how insensible soever he has hitherto been, he must now of 
 necessity desire, when he once knows what he is, to be 
 informed likewise whence he derives his original, and what 
 fate abides him hereafter. 
 
 Having brought his man to this good disposition of 
 seeking to be instructed in so important a doubt, he sends 
 him first to the philosophers, and having rehearsed to him 
 the sum of what their greatest professors have delivered on 
 the subject of human nature and condition, he makes him 
 discover so many failures and weaknesses, so many falsities 
 and contradictions in all that they advance, as to judge 
 very easily that these are not the men who must give him 
 satisfaction. 
 
 At the next remove he leads him the whole circuit of 
 all nations and all ages, so as to give him a view of the 
 almost endless variety of religions in the world ; but at the 
 same time lets him understand, by the strongest and most 
 convictive proofs, all these religions are so full of vanity 
 and folly, of error and extravagance, as to afford nothing in 
 which his mind may acquiesce and repose itself. 
 
to PREFACE. 
 
 At length he bids him fix his eye on the people of the 
 Jews, where the circumstances he is presented with are so 
 extraordinary as to engage and employ his whole attention. 
 Having let him into all that was singular in this nation, he 
 stops him to take particular notice of one book, by which 
 they entirely govern themselves, and which contains the 
 sum of their religion, their history, and their law. Upon 
 the first opening of this book he is informed that the world 
 is the work of God, and that it was the same God who 
 created man in His own image, and endowed him with all 
 advantages of mind and body suitable to so high an estate. 
 This truth, though it doth not at present convince him, yet 
 fails not to please him ; his bare reason being sufficient to 
 discover a greater probability in the supposing God to be 
 Author of the world and of mankind than in any of those 
 accounts which men have framed by their own fond inven- 
 tion. The only thing which gives him any doubt is that 
 he observes man, according to the picture he so lately 
 viewed, to be very far from possessing all those advantages 
 which must need have attended him when he came out of 
 the hand of his Maker. But he soon gets over this difficulty, 
 because upon looking a little farther into the same book, he 
 discovers that after man had been thus created by God in 
 a state of innocence and perfection, his very first act was 
 to rebel against his Creator, and to employ all the gifts he 
 had received from Him in opposing and offending Him. 
 
 M. Pascal proceeds to inform his novice that this crime 
 having been in all its circumstances the greatest that could 
 
PREFACE. n 
 
 be committed, received its punishment, not only in the first 
 man, whom, from his state of excellency and happiness, it 
 plunged at one stroke into misery and weakness, into blind- 
 ness and error, but likewise in all his descendants, to whom 
 he communicated his corruption, and will continue to com- 
 municate it through all ages. 
 
 And now obliging him to peruse several other parts of 
 the book which furnished him with this truth, he makes 
 him observe that there is scarce anything recorded of man 
 but what bears a regard to this his condition of infirmity 
 and disorder ; that it is often said, all flesh have corrupted 
 themselves, and that men are described as abandoning 
 themselves to their own senses, and as having, from their 
 very birth, an inclination and tendency to evil. He farther 
 lets him see, that this primitive defection is the source, not 
 only of all those incomprehensible contrarieties in human 
 nature, but likewise, of infinite other effects in the things 
 without us, of which he could never before trace the cause. 
 In short, he exhibits to him such a portrait of man, in the 
 whole series of this book, as, by answering to the piece 
 which he first beheld, cannot but satisfy him of its true and 
 just resemblance. 
 
 Having thus brought him acquainted with his real con- 
 dition, full of misery and grief, he assures him that by 
 following the guidance of the same book he will be led into 
 the hopes of comfort and deliverance. He points out to 
 him the several passages where it is affirmed that the 
 remedy of all our evils is in the hand of God ; that His 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 assistance we ought to have recourse to for obtaining the 
 strength we want ; that He will permit Himself to be prevailed 
 upon by our entreaty, and will even send us a Saviour to 
 satisfy for our offences, to repair our breaches, and to heal 
 our infirmities. 
 
 After many other peculiar remarks on this book, he 
 engages him to consider that it is the only book in the world 
 which has spoken worthily of the Supreme Being, and has 
 inspired a just idea of religion. In order to which, having 
 made him conceive some of the most sensible tokens and 
 characters of the true religion, he compares them with those 
 A'hich are here dehvered ; teaching him to reflect, with 
 more especial attention, that this religion placeth the per- 
 fection of divine worship in the love of God ; a character 
 altogether singular, and such as distinguisheth it visibly from 
 all others, which are convicted of notorious falsehood by 
 their want of this essential mark. 
 
 Thus far he leads the man, whom by these insensible 
 means he proposeih to make his convert, without offering at 
 any arguments to demonstrate those truths which he has 
 taught him to discover. But then, he has fully prepared 
 him to receive them with delight and complacency, so soon 
 as they shall be demonstrated to his understanding ; and 
 even to wish, with the greatest earnestness, that they may at 
 length appear to be solid and well grounded ; because he 
 finds that they supply so many assistances towards the 
 clearing up of his doubts and the ensuring of his repose. 
 This, indeed, is the very desire which every rational man 
 
PREFACE. 13 
 
 ought to entertain upon the view of the several particulars 
 which M. Pascal has thus represented; and it was but just 
 for him to think th^t any person under such a disposition 
 would yield a ready assent to the proofs he should after- 
 wards allege in confirmation of those important truths 
 which he had before mentioned, and which are the founda- 
 tion of Christian belief, as the enforcement of this belief was 
 
 the sole aim of his discourse 
 
 J. 
 
 To speak a word or two concerning these proofs. Afier 
 he had observed in general that the points which he now 
 asserted were all contained in a written volume, the 
 authority of which every man of sound judgment must own 
 to be unquestionable, he insisted chiefly on the writings of 
 Moses, where the said points are in a particular manner 
 revealed ; and he made it apparent, from many undoubted 
 circumstances, that it was alike impossible, either for Moses 
 to have penned a whole series of falsities, or for th( Jewish 
 nation to have suffered the cheat if he had been ii clined 
 to act it. 
 
 He argued farther from the great and surprising miracles 
 recorded in this book of religion ; which as they are the 
 highest evidence, if true, so he demonstrated, that they 
 could not possibly be false ; not only from the authority of 
 these writings in which they are attested, but likewise froir, 
 all the particulars which accompany them, and which set 
 them beyond all suspicion and dispute. 
 
 He proceeded to evince that the whole economy of the 
 ritual law was purely figurative ; that all the dispensations 
 
14 PREFACE. 
 
 and promises to the Jewish state were but the shadows of 
 good things, which received their accomplishment from the 
 appearance of the Messias ; and that after the veil was 
 once taken awaj', they visibly conspired, and were consum- , 
 mated, in the behalf of those who believed in Jesus Christ 
 at His coming. 
 
 The next reason offered by M. Pascal for the credibility 
 of religion was taken from the prophecies — a. subject on 
 which he enlarged more than on any other. As he had 
 been very laborious in this inquiry, and had obtained very 
 particular views of the respective predictions, so he opened 
 thera after the most intelligible manner, explained their 
 design and their event with a wonderful facility, and placed 
 them in all their force and light. 
 
 At length, having run through the books of the Old 
 Testament, and intermixed, upon occasion, many convincing 
 remarks admirably serviceable to the foundations of religion, 
 he entered on the consideration of the New Testament, in 
 order to the completing the whole argument by the truth 
 and reality of the Gospel. 
 
 He began with our Lord Himself, whose character and 
 commission, though it was invincibly attested by the 
 prophecies and by all the figures of the law, which had 
 their perfect consummation in Him alone, yet he farther 
 illustrated by many evidences drawn from His person His 
 miracles, His doctrine, and the circumstances of His life. 
 
 Hence he descended to the character of the Apostles ; 
 and that he might establish the certainty of that faith 
 
PREFACE. 15 
 
 wliich they so resolutely and so universally preached, 
 having laid it down for a principle, that they cannot be 
 accused of falsehood but upon one of these two suppositions 
 — either that they were themselves deceived, or that they 
 were engaged in a design of deceiving others — he made 
 it evident that both these suppositions were alike absurd 
 and impossible. 
 
 In fine, he passed by nothing that might confirm the 
 truth of the evangelical history, inserting many admirable 
 reflections on the Gospel itself, on the style and person 
 of the Evangelists, on the Apostles particularly, and on 
 their writings ; on the astonishing number of miracles, 
 on the example of the saints, and on all the methods 
 which contributed to the final establishment of Christianity. 
 And though, in a single discourse, he wanted time for 
 the full improvement of so vast a subject, which he reserved 
 for his intended work, yet he offered enough to evince 
 that all this could not be the contrivance and achievement 
 of men ; and that it was God alone who was able thus 
 to guide the issue of so many different occurrences, as 
 to make them all conspire in giving an irresistible testimony 
 to that religion which He Himself came to settle amongst 
 men. 
 
 This was the substance of M. Pascal's conversation, 
 which he proposed only as a sketch of his great under- 
 taking : and it was by the favour of one of the gentlemen 
 there present that we have since obtained these short 
 memorials of what he delivered at that time. 
 
i6 PREFACE. 
 
 In the fragments hera published we see something of 
 the vast design conceived by our author ; yet we see but 
 little, and even this little comes to us after so imperfect a 
 manner, neither carried to its just height, nor digested in 
 its proper order, that it can afford us but a very obscure 
 idea of the perfection which he would have given it in his 
 finished performance. 
 
 The reader will not think it strange if, in these few relics 
 which are preserved, the disposition of the subjects is not 
 made according to the primitive method. For there being 
 so little found which had any dependence or connection, 
 the publishers thought it utterly useless to be confined to 
 this intended series, and therefore were satisfied with keep- 
 ing as near as they could to such an order as seemed most 
 convenient in respect of the fragments themselves. It is 
 also hoped that there are but few persons who, upon 
 forming a general notion of M. Pascal's design, will not 
 supply by their own judgment the defect of this disposition ; 
 and who, after an attentive regard to the different matters 
 here displayed, will not, in some measure, conceive how 
 they stand related, according to the original idea of the' 
 author. 
 
 Might we be so happy as to see a perfect transcript of 
 the forementioned discourse, in the same order in which it 
 was delivered, we should have somewhat to comfort us 
 under our loss of the greater work, of which we should by 
 this means enjoy some imperfect model. But it pleased 
 God to deprive us oi both these benefits. For M. Pascal 
 
PREFACE. 17 
 
 fell soon after into a languishing distemper, which held him 
 during the four last years of his life ; and which, though it 
 did not betray itself by many outward signs, nor oblige him 
 to be a prisoner to his bed or his chamber, yet very much 
 incommoded him, and, in a manner, rendered him incapable 
 of applying himself to business of any kind ; insomuch that 
 the chief care and employment of those about him was to 
 hinder him from writing, and even from speaking of any 
 thing which required intention and force of spirit, and to 
 entertain him only with indifferent things, and such as 
 could no way disorder or fatigue him. 
 
 Yet it was in these four years of weakness that he framed 
 and penned all that he left behind on this subject, and all 
 that is here made public. For though he waited till his 
 health should be fully re-established and confirmed to set 
 upon the work in good earnest, and to commit exactly to 
 writing what he had so well digested and disposed in his 
 mind ; yet when there occurred to him any thought, any 
 view, any idea, or even any turn of expression, which he 
 saw might one day prove serviceable to his design — the con- 
 dition he was now under not sufl'ering him to attend them 
 so closely as before his illness, nor to fix them with so 
 much strength and steadfastness in his memory — he chose to 
 preserve them by the help of some short notes. In order 
 to this, he took the first remnant of paper that came to hand, 
 and entered what he was then meditating in a very few 
 words, and often in but half a word ; for he writ purely 
 for nis own use, and therefore was content to perform it very 
 
 £ 
 
1 8 PREFACE. 
 
 slightly, and so as not to discompose his temper, barely setting 
 down those hints which were necessary for the recalling to 
 his mind the ideas he had once conceived. 
 
 This was the way in which M. Pascal, penned his thoughts. 
 And I believe there is no man, who, from these slight be- 
 ginnings, these feeble essays of a sick person, that writ 
 only for himself, and writ those things only which he was 
 afraid might otherwise be lost, and which he never after- 
 wards touched or revised, will not make some guess what 
 the entire work must have been, had the author perfectly 
 recovered, and 'found opportunity to give it his last hand : 
 he who had the art of placing things in so goodly an order 
 and in so fair a light ; who gave so particular, so noble, 
 and raised a turn to all that he said ; who designed that this 
 performance should be more laboured than all his former 
 pieces ; who had resolved to employ in it his whole strength 
 of genius, and all the talents which God had given him ; 
 and who had many times declared that it would require ten 
 years of sound health to bring it to perfection. 
 
 It being well known that M. Pascal had engaged himselt 
 in the cause of religion, great care was used at his death to 
 collect all his writings on this subject. They were found all 
 together tied up in several bundles, but without order or 
 connection ; because, as we before observed, these were but 
 the rude expressions of his thoughts, which he set down in 
 broken papers as they occasionally offered themselves. And 
 then the whole was so imperfect, and so very ill written, that 
 it seemed no ordinary labour could barely decipher it. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 '9 
 
 The first thing that was done was to get the papers 
 copied, such as they were at present, and with the same 
 confusion in which they lay. But when this was performed, 
 and the fragments more easily perused and examined in the 
 copy than in the author's manuscript, they appeared at first 
 view so indigested, so little pursued, and for the most part 
 so obscure, that it was very long ere the parties concerned 
 were brought to entertain any design of printing them ; 
 though frequently urged by persons of the greatest note, with 
 the most pressing instances and solicitations ; because they 
 well understood that they should not answer the expectation, 
 and fill up the idea which had been long conceived of the 
 undertaking, by sending abroad these remains under so 
 manifest disadvantages. 
 
 At length they found themselves obliged to give way 
 to the desire and impatience which almost all the world 
 seemed daily to express. And they were the rather pre- 
 vailed upon to give their consent, because they hoped that 
 the readers would have so much justice as to distinguish 
 between a finished performance and the first lines of a 
 piece, and to guess at the beauty of the work by the rudest 
 and most imperfect draught. The publication thereof was 
 resolved upon ; but there being several ways of executing 
 it, some time was again spent in considering which to 
 take. 
 
 The most obvious, and without doubt the most easy 
 manner, was to let them be printed in all respects as they 
 were found. But it was soon perceived that this would 
 
 B a 
 
20 PREFACE. 
 
 entirely obstruct all the use and benefit that might otherwise 
 be promised from them ; because, those thoughts which 
 seemed to be more finished and more connected, to be 
 expressed with greater clearness and carried to a better 
 head, being intermixed and almost overwhelmed with so 
 many others which were imperfect, obscure, unwrought, 
 and some of them utterly unintelligible to any but the 
 author, there was good reason to apprehend that the latter 
 would highly prejudice the former, and that this volume 
 of broken meditations, which must swell to so great and 
 60 very unprofitable a bulk, could be only looked on as a 
 confused mass, without order, dependence, or use. 
 
 There was another way of publishing these relics, and 
 that was to spend some labour upon them before they went 
 to the press, in illustrating such reflections as were obscure, 
 finishing those that were imperfect, and in carrying on the 
 design of the author through all the fragments, so as, in a 
 great measure, to accomplish the work which he had begun. 
 This method was evidently the most perfect, but then it was 
 exceedingly difficult to be pursued However, the thing 
 stopped here for a time, and some steps were actually made 
 towards the performance. Yet it was at last resolved to 
 reject this expedient as well as the former, it being con- 
 sidered that it was a thing next to impossible to fall 
 regularly into the measures of an author, especially of a 
 deceased author ; and that this would not be to present the 
 world with M. Pascal's offspring, but with somewhat of a 
 quite different complexion and constitution. 
 
PREFACE. 21 
 
 To avoid the inconvenience of both these proposals, a 
 middle way was found, which has been here followed by 
 the publishers. They have only selected from the whole 
 number of scattered thoughts such as they judged to be 
 the most finished and most intelligible ; and these they 
 have presented to the world without addition or alteration, 
 excepting that whereas they lay before confusedly dispersed, 
 without order and dependence, they are now put into some 
 kind of method, and reduced under common heads, agree- 
 ably to their respective subjects. As for all those which 
 were too imperfect or obscure, it was determined entirely 
 to suppress them. 
 
 Not but that there were many admirable reflections of 
 this latter kind, and such as might afford very noble views 
 if thoroughly apprehended. But as it had been a settled 
 rule that no endeavours should be used towards illustrating 
 and completing them, so in their present condition they 
 must have been wholly useless. I shall produce one 
 example to furnish the reader with such an idea as may 
 assist him in forming a judgment of the rest. The reflection, 
 as we found it in the author's own words, is as follows : "A 
 mechanic speaking of riches ; a solicitor speaking of war, oi 
 of regal state, etc. But the rich discourse well of riches ; a 
 king speaks coldly of a vast present which he is about to 
 make ; and God discourseth well of God." 
 
 This fragment contains a most excellent thought; but 
 such as few, perhaps, will be able to penetrate, because it 
 appears so intricate, abrupt, and concise, that if the author 
 
22 PREFACE. 
 
 had not frequently delivered himself to the sirae purpose in 
 conversation with his friends, it would have been no easy 
 task to retrieve it from so confused and perplexed an ex- 
 pression. Let us examine it more nearly, and observe 
 where the secret beauty is concealed. 
 
 M. Pascal had made a great number of very particular 
 observations on the style of the Holy Scriptures, of the 
 Gospel especially, and had discerned many excellences, 
 which, perhaps, none ever reached before him. Amongst 
 other things, he was wont to admire the native simplicity, 
 and, if we may so term it, the coldness and unconcernedness 
 with which our Lord seemed to speak of the greatest and 
 most important subjects ; as, for instance, of the Kingdom 
 of God, of the glory of the saints in Heaven, and of the 
 pains of hell, without dilating upon these topics, as the 
 Fathers and all other writers are observed to do. And he 
 said the true reason of this difference was that the par- 
 ticulars before-mentioned though infinitely noble and sublime 
 in respect of us, were by no means so in respect of Jesus 
 Christ, and that therefore it was natural for Him to speak of 
 them without astonishment or admiration ; as we hear a 
 general speaking of the siege of some place of consequence, 
 or of his success in a mighty battle, without being moved or 
 affected ; or as a king expresseth himself with indifference 
 about a sum of many thousands, which a private person, 
 or a mechanic, could not name without the highest 
 exaggerations. 
 
 This is the thought which is really couched under those 
 
PREFACE. 23 
 
 few words of the fragment now recited ; and this considera- 
 tion added to many of the like nature, cannot fail of 
 supplying rational and sober men with an argument for our 
 Lord's divinity. 
 
 I am persuaded that this one instance may be sufficient, 
 not only for a standard in judging of almost all the other 
 fragments which have been retrenched, but likewise for a 
 proof of the little application, and even the negligence, with 
 which the greatest part of M. Pascal's remains were written. 
 And as this will justify what was before asserted, that the 
 author writ them, in effect, for none but himself, and with- 
 out the least apprehension of their appearing abroad in this 
 dress, so it is hoped it may, in some measure, excuse the 
 failures with which they come attended. 
 
 If in the present collection the reader shall still meet 
 with some thoughts which are not altogether free from 
 obscurity, I believe that as his attention will soon render 
 them intelligible, so it will engage him to confess that they 
 are no less happy than others, and that it was better to 
 present them under their own sententious brevity than to 
 explain them by a multitude of words, which would only 
 have rendered them faint and languishing, and would have 
 defeated one of their principal graces — the saying much in 
 little compass. 
 
 An instance of this kind we have in the chapter 
 entitled, " The Proofs of Jesus Christ by the Prophecies," 
 where the author expresses himself in the following terms : 
 " The prophets have interwoven particular prophecies with 
 
24 PREFACE. 
 
 those concerning the Messias : that neither the prophecies 
 concerning the Messias should be without their proof, nor 
 the particular prophecies without their fruit." In this 
 fragment he gives the reason why the prophets, whose eyes 
 were fixed on the Messias only, and who, in all appear- 
 ance, ought to have foretold nothing but what bore a 
 relation to Him, do yet frequently insert other matters 
 which seem to be indifferent and unprofitable to their 
 design. Which, he tells us, was done that these particular 
 events being accomplished day by day in the eyes of all 
 the world exactly as they were foretold, the authors of 
 them might be incontestably acknowledged as prophets; 
 and, consequently, none might doubt of the truth and 
 certitude of their predictions concerning the Messias ; so 
 that by this means, as, on the one hand, the prophecies 
 which regarded the Messias in some sort derived their 
 evidence and authority from the particular prophecies which 
 were thus manifestly verified, so, on the other hand, these 
 particular prophecies, serving in such a manner to evince 
 and authorise those which regarded the Messias, were not 
 without their fruit and benefit. This is the sense of the 
 above-mentioned passage in its true light and just extent. But 
 there is no man who will not take a much greater pleasure 
 and satisfaction in opening it himself, than in finding it thus 
 cleared and unravelled to his hand. 
 
 I think it not impertinent, in order to the undeceiving 
 certain persons who may possibly expect to meet here with 
 geometrical proofs and demonstrations of the existence of 
 
PREFACE. 25 
 
 God, the immortality of the soul, and many other articles of 
 Christian faith, to assure them that this was never the design 
 of the author. He proposed to evince these truths of 
 religion, not by demonstrations founded on self-evident 
 principles, and therefore able to overcome the obstinacy 
 of the most hardened infidel ; nor by metaphysical reasons, 
 which very often rather unsettle than persuade the mind ; 
 nor by commonplaces drawn from the divers effects of nature, 
 but by moral arguments which operate more on the will 
 than on the understanding : that is, he resolved to make 
 it his chief aim rather to dispose and engage the heart 
 than to convince and subdue the judgment ; because 
 he knew that the passions and vicious inclinations which 
 corrupt the will, are the greatest obstacles and prejudices 
 which we labour under ; and that if these were once removed 
 out of the way the understanding would not long resist the 
 light and assurance of faith. 
 
 Thus much will be easily observed from the following 
 papers. But the author has declared himself more expressly 
 on this point in one of the fragments which remain un- 
 published. " I shall not here," says he, " undertake to prove 
 by natural reasons, either the existence of God, or the 
 mystery of the Holy Trinity, or the immortality of the soul, 
 or any other truth of the same order ; not only because I 
 think myself unable to produce any such argument from 
 nature as shall evince a settled atheist, but because all such 
 knowledge without Jesus Christ is unprofitable and barren. 
 After a man was perfectly well persuaded that the proportions 
 
26 PREFACE. 
 
 of numbers are really immaterial, eternal truths, depending 
 on the first and original truth in which they subsist, and 
 which is no other than God, I should think him but very 
 little advanced in the affair of his salvation," 
 
 Some, again, may be surprised to find in this collection 
 so great a diversity of thoughts, many of which seem very 
 remote from the subject that M. Pascal undertook to illus- 
 trate. But it ought to be considered that his design was 
 really of a larger extent than we may imagine, and not 
 levelled barely against atheistical persons, nor against 
 those who deny some fundamental article of faith. The 
 great love and singular veneration which he had for religion 
 made him impatient, not only when he saw it directly struck 
 at, but when it was in the least degree corrupted or im- 
 paired. Insomuch that he professedly opposed himself to 
 all those who attacked it either in its truth or in its holi- 
 ness ; that is, not only atheists, infidels, and heretics, who 
 refuse to submit their false lights of reason to the evidence 
 of faith, but ev^n to such Christians and Catholics as, 
 though they continue within the pale of the Church, yet do 
 not conform their lives to the purity of the Gospel maxims, 
 which are proposed to us as the measure and rule of all our 
 actions. 
 
 This was his design, and this was great and ample 
 enough to take in the main of what is here collected. Yet 
 the reader will meet with some observations which have no 
 dependence on it, and which, indeed, were never conceived 
 under such a relation ; as, for instance, the greatest part of 
 
PREFACE. 27 
 
 those in the chapter of " Miscellaneous Thoughts "which were 
 likewise found amongst the papers ot M. Pascal, and which 
 were therefore permitted to accompany the rest, because the 
 book is not now given to the world barely as a refutation of 
 atheism or a discourse upon religion, but as a collection 
 of M. Pascal's thoughts on religion and other subjects. 
 
 I think there is nothing behind in this preface but to 
 say somewhat of the author, now we have done speaking of 
 his work. Such an addition may not only seem just and 
 proper, but may likewise turn to excellent use by showing 
 us how M. Pascal first entered into that esteem for religion 
 and these sentiments about it, which engaged him to form 
 the model of so great an undertaking. 
 
 In the preface to his treatises of " The Equilibrium of 
 Liquors and of the Gravity of the Air," a brief relation has 
 been already given of the manner in which he passed his 
 childhood ; of the vast progress made by him, with the 
 greatest celerity, in all the parts of human and profane 
 knowledge to which he applied himself, especially in the 
 mathematics ; of the strange and surprising method by 
 which he was taught this last science at the age of eleven 
 or twelve; of the little works which he would then compose, 
 and which always appeared far above the strength and 
 capacity of those years ; of the prodigious and astonish- 
 ing force of his genius, discovered in his arithmetical 
 instrument, which he invented between nineteen and 
 twenty; and, in fine, of his curious experiments about 
 a vacuum, performed at Rouen, in the presence of the most 
 
28 PREFACE. 
 
 considerable persons of that city, where he resided for 
 some time, while his father was employed there in the 
 King's service as Intendant of Justice. So that I shall not 
 repeat what was then said, but only represent in a few 
 words by what means he was at length induced to despise 
 all these things, and with what kind of spirit he passed his 
 concluding years ; by which he no less evidenced the great- 
 ness and solidity of his piety and virtue, than he had before 
 demonstrated the force, the extent, and the admirable pene- 
 tration of his judgment. 
 
 He had, by the particular providence of God, been 
 preserved from those vices into which young gentlemen 
 are so often betrayed; and, what seemed very extraordinary 
 in so nice and inquisitive a genius, he was never disposed 
 to scepticism in religious matters, having always confined 
 his curiosity to natural things. He has often said that he 
 owed this obligation, amongst many others, to his excellent 
 father, who, having himself the most profound veneration 
 for religion, took care to instil the same into him from his 
 infancy, giving him this for a maxim, that whatever is the 
 object of faith cannot be the object of reason, and there- 
 fore ought much less to bow and submit to it. 
 
 These instructions, frequently repeated to him by a 
 father for whom he had the highest respect, and in whom 
 he observed a general knowledge, joined with a strong and 
 piercing judgment, made so deep an impression on his 
 spirit that he was never inclined to the least doubt by the 
 discourses which he heard from libertines, whom, with so 
 
PREFACE. 29 
 
 early a discernment, he looked upon as men guided by this 
 false principle, that human reason is above all things, and 
 as those who were utter strangers to the nature of faith. 
 
 But having passed his youthful days in such employ- 
 ments and diversions- as appear very innocent to the eyes 
 of the world, it pleased God so to touch his heart as 
 to let him perfectly understand that the Christian religion 
 obligeth us to live for God only, and to propose no other 
 object or aim. And this truth appeared to him so evident, 
 so useful, and so necessary, that it made him enter on a 
 resolution of retiring and disengaging himself by degrees 
 from all his worldly dependencies, to attend wholly on this 
 one design. 
 
 He had, indeed, taken up such a desire of privacy and 
 of devoting himself to a more holy and Christian life while 
 very young ; and this had before moved him entirely to 
 abandon all profane studies, in order to the giving himself 
 to those only which might be serviceable to his own salva- 
 tion and to that of others. But the continual illnesses 
 into which he fell diverted him many years from his 
 purpose, and retarded the full execution of it till he 
 arrived at the age of thirty. 
 
 It was then that he began to labour in it with all his 
 force ; and that he might the more easily obtain his wish 
 and cut off all his engagements at one stroke, he changed 
 his lodgings and soon after removed into the country, 
 whence returning after some time, he so well testified his 
 resolution of forsaking the world that, in fine, the world 
 
30 PREFA CE. 
 
 forsook him. The conduct and regulation of his privacy 
 he established on these two principal maxims, to renounce 
 all pleasure and all superfluity ; on these he ever fixed his 
 eye, studying to make nearer advances towards them, and 
 to attain every day new degrees of perfection. 
 
 It was his continual application to these two noble 
 maxims that enabled him to sustain, with so exemplary a 
 patience, all his sickness and sufferings, which scarce left 
 him free from pain during his life. It was this that enjoined 
 him to practise so rigorous and severe a mortification 
 towards himself, not only denying his senses whatever 
 was agreeable to them, but taking without uneasiness or 
 disgust, and even with joy and satisfaction, anything that 
 might seem distasteful, when it was proper either as nourish- 
 ment or as physic. It was this that engaged him to 
 retrench, every day, what he judged not absolutely neces- 
 sary, either in clothes, or food, or furniture, or in any 
 other accommodation. It was this that inspired him with 
 so great and ardent a love for poverty, as to make it the 
 ruling thought of his mind, so that he never undertook 
 anything till he had first asked himself whether poverty 
 was consistent with such a proposal ; and on all occasions 
 expressed so much tenderness and affection towards the 
 poor as never to refuse an alms, and many times to bestow 
 very largely on a charitable account, though out of his own 
 necessary subsistence. It was from this that he could not 
 bear any nicety in providing things for his convenience or 
 use ; and that he so much blamed the humour of searching 
 
PREFACE. 31 
 
 after curiosities, and the desire of excelling in all things, 
 as of employing the very best artists, of having everything 
 made in the newest fashion, and many other fancies, which 
 are wont to be gratified without scruple because they are 
 looked upon as harmless, though to him they bore a quite 
 different aspect. To conclude, it was this that prompted 
 him to perform a great number of most remarkable and 
 most Christian actions, which I forbear here to relate, 
 that I may not seem tedious, and because I attempt not 
 to compose a life, but only to convey some idea of the 
 piety and virtue of M. Pascal to those who had not the 
 happiness of his acquaintance. For, as for those who knew 
 him, and who were admitted to his company during his 
 latter years, as I do not take upon me to inform them by 
 what I w^rite, so I doubt not but they will testify in my 
 behalf that I might still have enlarged on many worthy 
 particulars, which I have now chosen to pass over in 
 silence. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The thoughts which make up this book having been 
 composed and written by M. Pascal, after the manner 
 reported in the preface — that is, as they happened to come 
 into his mind, without sequel or order — the reader cannot 
 suppose that he shall find any great regularity in the 
 chapters of this collection, which consist for the most part 
 of many independent thoughts, ranged together under the 
 same heads for no other reason but because there appeared 
 some kind of affinity between their subjects. But though 
 from the bare reading of any paragraph it might with ease 
 be determined whether it be a continuation of that which 
 preceded, or whether it belongs to a new design, yet for 
 the more convenience it was judged proper to make use of 
 some particular mark of distinction. Those paragraphs, 
 therefore, which have an asterisk (*) prefixed to them will 
 be known to be such as are of a quite different piece, and 
 entirely separate from the foregoing. And those which 
 want this mark will as easily be known to make but one 
 and the same discourse, and to have been found in this 
 very order and method amongst the author's original papers. 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 As the name of M. Pascal is dear to all who have the 
 happiness to be affected with what is either profound in 
 knowledge or exact in wit, so the design and manner of 
 the following work are displayed at large in the excellent . 
 preface of those friends, by whose care it was made public. 
 Yet the translator being obliged to offer some excuses for 
 himself, is contented to premise some recommendations of 
 his author, wishing those may appear as just as these will 
 prove unnecessary. 
 
 In the main attempt, we are shown what the greatest 
 genius could do on the greatest subject; for though the 
 draught is far from being finished, yet it consists entirely of 
 master-strokes, and therefore may the more easily be dis- 
 pensed with for the want of colouring and shade. 
 
 To consider some of the principal parts. The most 
 rational and most pathetic addresses to the sceptics demon- 
 strate, that were the utmost latitude indulged to these men 
 till they should be lost in their privilege of free-thinking, 
 they could not otherwise recover and come to themselves 
 but by settling upon the foundations of faith, which is as 
 
34 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 natural a cure for the wanderings of reason as reason itself 
 is for the extravagancies of imagination j and that the only 
 cause why so many have miscarried in this adventure has 
 been their want of strength to go through the course, and 
 to ride out that storm which vice or rashness had brought 
 upon their faculties. It will be observed that in one essay 
 against this spirit of indifference, the author has proceeded 
 upon the supposition of his adversaries, and has evinced 
 that if reason (as is pretended) were doubtful in the case, 
 yet prudence ought to incline to the safer side. Bat it 
 .should likewise be observed that a peculiar advertisement 
 is prefixed to that chapter, and that this was a way of 
 arguing which M. Pascal or his friends confessed to stand 
 in need of an apology. 
 
 The metaphysical speculations seem most refined and 
 accomplished, not only for their surprising novelty, and for 
 the engaging manner in which they are delivered, but 
 chiefly on account of those more sublime views in which 
 they terminate and conspire. For it is absurd to condemn 
 the jejuneness of the ancients in this science, if our 
 reasonings be as heaihenish as their language was barbarous ; 
 and if instead of the dry trunks of their terms and dis- 
 tinctions (which, being rightly transplanted, we might 
 improve into useful fruit) we cultivate an unprofitable 
 elegance, and under all the verdure of expression betray 
 a barrenness of thought : which is yet the case of these 
 abstracted doctrines when raised upon principles merely 
 human, upon that wisdom which is earthly and cometh of 
 
TI^ANSLATOR'S PRE.FACE. 35 
 
 the earth, but is not watered from above or mingled with 
 the fountains of truth ; whereas, therefore, some professing 
 this retired knowledge have much impaired the credit of 
 their labours by seeming to derogate from that of the Holy 
 Scripture; M. Pascal, by his accurate knowledge of its 
 harmony and agreement, his peculiar discernment of pro- 
 phecies and miracles, and his singular art of illustrating 
 and comparing different texts, has made it appear venerable, 
 even to such as are not wont to read it with his sincerity of 
 intention and his truly Christian heart. 
 
 How useful are those curious inquiries concerning the 
 extent and divisibility of matter and the powers of numbers 
 (of which the author had so vast a comprehension) in 
 rendering the mysteries of nature subservient to those of 
 faith, in abasing the pride of our understanding, and in 
 ascribing glory to Him who alone is truly infinite, and who, 
 while He has given us ability to make and compare these 
 seeming infinities, does yet present us with something even 
 in these, which is much more unfathomable to our perfec- 
 tions than commensurate to His own? How may the 
 reflections upon mankind, so sprightly and vigorous, so 
 penetrating and sensible, invite us to observe that the 
 sentence which the wisest of men so long since pronounced 
 on mortal vanity has been most strongly confirmed by 
 those who have made the nearest approaches to his wisdom ; 
 and that, as he resolved the whole matter (all that was 
 good or great in life) into the fearing God and keeping His 
 commandments, so these have centred all their conterapla- 
 
 c 2 
 
36 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 tions in religious belief and practice, as the only things 
 which can restore the credit of our nature and reconcile us 
 to our own good opinion ? How do the thoughts upon 
 death exalt the consolations of philosophy into the hope 
 and assurance of religion ? Did ^milius, or Cato, or 
 TuUy deliver themselves with so composed gravity and 
 yet so tender affection on the loss of their children as 
 M. Pascal has done on that of his father ? Or was he not, 
 indeed, an early proficient in that better school and 
 discipline which alone could make him wiser than the 
 ancients and give him more understanding than those 
 teachers and examples ? Lastly, does he not, in the chapter 
 of " Miscellaneous Thoughts," discover the same true 
 relish of what is jdst and natural in style and behaviour as 
 before of what is deep and solid in reason ? And does not 
 the prayer annexed, by evincing that this great and universal 
 capacity was animated by a tiue spirit of humility and 
 devotion, seem equally proper to complete his character and 
 his works ? 
 
 The translator, having been almost insensibly engaged 
 in this delightful task, was afterwards induced to communi- 
 cate the satisfaction ; knowing there were still many persons 
 of learning and judgment who continued strangers to the 
 language of the original, either as neglecting so easy a con- 
 quest, or as despising an attainment which is now become 
 rather vulgar than fashionable. 
 
 How much soever the performance may have suffered 
 for want of those advantages which were peculiar to the 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 37 
 
 author, yet it is here presented entire, excepting some 
 lines which directly favoured the distinguishing doctrines of 
 those of the Roman Communion. If that excellent person 
 thought fit to pay this submission to the authority of his 
 own Church, we cannot be injurious to him in expressing 
 the like veneration for ours. But considering the great 
 liberty with which these fragments were put together, it is 
 not wholly improbable that M. Pascal's friends might 
 officiously insert some marks of this kind to prove him (in 
 their notion) a good Catholic, and to shelter his memory 
 from the odium of some, whom in another admirable book 
 (" Lettres aux Provinciaux ") he had proved not to be very 
 good Christians. Yet, as to any such passages, it is not so 
 generous to dispute the manner of their coming in as to 
 be satisfied with the power of leaving them out. 
 
 At the beginning of the French editions we commonly 
 meet with the large Approbations of the bishops and clergy ; 
 and.at the end with two' discourses, one on this piece, the 
 other on the proofs of the Books of Moses. The former, 
 as they are not here needful, so in some respect they might 
 have seemed prejudicial. The latter would have passed 
 with reputation, had they not the disadvantage of appearing 
 with M. Pascal's compositions, which is yet, perhaps, a 
 greater praise than the translator could obtain, should he 
 now enlarge his preface to a treatise on his author's 
 arguments. ^ 
 
THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 AGAINST AN ATHEISTICAL INDIFFERENCE, 
 
 It were to be wished that the enemies of religion would 
 at least bring themselves to apprehend its nature before 
 they opposed its authority. Did religion make its boast 
 of beholding God with a clear and perfect view, and of 
 possessing Him without covering or veil, the argument 
 would bear some colour when men should allege that 
 none of the things about them do indeed afford this 
 preended evidence and this degree of light. Bat since 
 religion, on the contrary, represents men as in a state of 
 darkness and of estrangement from God ; since it affirms 
 Him to have withdrawn Himself from their discovery, 
 and to have chosen, in His Word, the very style and 
 appellation of Deiis abs:ondilus ; lastly, since it employs 
 itself alike in establishing these two maxims, that God 
 has left in His Church certain characters of Himself, by 
 which they who sincerely seek Him shall not fail of a 
 sensible conviction, and yet that He has, at the same 
 time, so far shaded and obscured these character:) as to 
 
40 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 render them imperceptible to those who do not seek 
 Him with their whole heart, what advantage is it to 
 men who profess themselves negligent in the search of 
 truth to complain so frequently that nothing reveals and 
 displays it to them ? For this very obscurity under which 
 they labour, and which they make an exception against 
 the Church, does itself evince one of the two grand 
 points which the Church maintains (without affecting the 
 oth^r), and is so far from overthrowing its doctrines as 
 to lend thern a manifest confirmation and support. 
 
 If they would give their objections any strength, they 
 ought to urge that they have applied their utmost en- 
 deavour, and have used all means of information, even 
 those which the Church recommends, without satisfaction. 
 Did they express themselves thus, they would indeed 
 attack religion in one of its chief pretensions ; but I 
 hope to show in "the following papers that no rational 
 person can speak after this manner, and I dare assert 
 that none ever did. We know very well how men under 
 ».his indifferency of spirit behave themselves in the case. 
 They suppose themselves to have made the mightiest 
 effort towards the instruction of their minds when they 
 have spent some hours in reading the Scriptures, and 
 have asked some questions of a clergyman concernino- 
 the Articles of Faith. When this is done, they declare 
 to all the world that they have consulted books and m'en 
 without success. I shall be excused if I refrain not from 
 telling such men (what I have often told them) that this 
 
AGAINST AN ATHEISTICAL INDIFFERENCE. 41 
 
 neglect of theirs is insupportable. It is not a foreign or 
 a petty interest which is here in debate ; we are our- 
 selves the parties, and all our hopes and fortunes are 
 the depending stake. 
 
 The immortality of the soul is a thing which so deeply 
 concerns, so infinitely imports us, that we must have utterly 
 lost our feeling to be altogether cold and remiss in our 
 inquiries about it. And all our actions or designs ought 
 to bend so very different a way, according as we are either 
 encouraged or forbidden to embrace the hope of eternal 
 rewards, that it is impossible for us to proceed with judg- 
 ment and discretion otherwise than as we keep this point 
 always in view, which ought to be our ruling object and 
 final aim. 
 
 Thus is it our highest interest, no less than our prin- 
 cipal duty, to get light into a subject on which our whole 
 conduct depends. And therefore, in the number of 
 wavering and unsatisfied men, I make the greatest diffe- 
 rence imaginable between those who labour with all their 
 force to obtain instruction and those who live without 
 giving themselves any trouble, or so much as any thought 
 in this affair. 
 
 I cannot but be touched with a hearty compassion 
 for those who sincerely groan under this dissatisfaction ; 
 who look upon it as the greatest of misfortunes, and who 
 spare no pains to deliver themselves from it by making 
 these researches their chief employment and most serious 
 Study. But as for those who pass their life without re- 
 
43 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 fleeting on its issue, and who, for this reason alone, because 
 they find not in themselves a convincing testimony, refuse 
 to seek it elsevirhere, and to examine to the bottom whether 
 the opinion proposed be such as vfe are wont to entertain 
 by popular simplicity and credulity, or as such, though 
 obscure in itself, yet is built on solid and immovable 
 foundations, I consider them after, quite another manner. 
 The carelessness which they betray in an affair where 
 their person, their interest, their whole eternity is em- 
 barked, rather provokes my resentment than engages my 
 pity. Nay, it strikes me with amazement and astonish- 
 ment; it is a monster to my apprehension. I speak not 
 this as transported with the pious zeal of a spiritual and 
 rapturous devotion ; on the contrary, I affirm that the love 
 of ourselves, the interest of mankind, and the most simple 
 and artless reason do naturally inspire us with these 
 sentiments ; and that to see thus far is not to exceed the 
 sphere of unrefined, uneducated men. 
 
 It requires no great elevation of soul to observe that 
 nothing in this world is productive of true contentment ; 
 that our pleasures are vain and fugitive, our troubles 
 innumerable and perpetual ; and that after all, death, 
 which threatens us every moment, must in the compass 
 of a few years — perhaps of a few days — put us into the 
 eternal condition of happiness, or misery, or nothing. 
 Between lis and these three great periods or states, no 
 barrier is interposed but life, the most brittle thing in all 
 nature ; and the happiness of heaven being certainly not 
 
AGAINST AN ATHEISTICAL INDIFFERENCE. 43 
 
 designed for those who doubt whether they have an im- 
 mortal part to enjoy it, such persons have nothing left but 
 the miserable chance of annihilation or of hell. 
 
 There is not any reflection which can have more reality 
 than this, as there is none which has greater terror. Let 
 us set the bravest face on our condition, and play the 
 heroes as artfully as we can ; yet see here the issue which 
 attends the goodliest life upon earth. 
 
 It is in vain for men to turn aside their thoughts from 
 this eternity which awaits them, as if they were able to 
 destroy it by denying it a place in their imagination. It 
 subsists in spite of them, it advanceth unobserved ; and 
 death, which is to draw the curtain from it, will in a short 
 time infallibly reduce them to the dreadful necessity of 
 being for ever nothing or for ever miserable. 
 
 We have here a doubt of the most affrighting con- 
 sequence, and which, therefore, to entertain may be well 
 esteemed the most grievous of misfortunes ; but at the 
 same time it is our indispensable duty not to lie under it 
 without struggling for deliverance. 
 
 He, then, who doubts and yet seeks not to be resolved 
 is equally unhappy and unjust; but if withal he appears 
 easy and composed, if he freely declares his indifference 
 nay, if he takes a vanity in professing it, and seems to 
 make this most deplorable condition the subject of his 
 pleasure and joy, I have not words to fix a name on so 
 extravagant a creature. Where is the very possibility of 
 entering into these thoughts and resolutions? What 
 
44 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 delight is there in expecting misery without end ? What 
 vanity in finding one's self encompassed with impenetrable 
 darkness ? Or what consolation in despairing for ever of a 
 comforter ? 
 
 To sit down with- some sort of acquiescence under so 
 fatal an ignorance is a thing unaccountable beyond all 
 expression ; and they who live with such a disposition 
 ought to be made sensible of its absurdity and stupidity 
 by having their inward reflections laid open to them, that 
 they may grow wise by the prospect of their own folly. 
 For behold how men are wont to reason while they 
 obstinately remain thus ignorant of what they are, and 
 refuse all methods of instruction and illumination. 
 
 Who has sent me into the world I know not; what the 
 world is I know not, nor what I am myself. I am under 
 an astonishing and terrifying ignorance of all things. I 
 know not what my body is, what my senses, or my soul : 
 this very part of me which thinks what I speak, which 
 reflects upon everything else, and even upon itself, yet is 
 as mere a stranger to its own nature as the dullest thing I 
 carry about me. I behold these frightful spaces of the 
 universe with which I am encompassed, and I find myself 
 chained to one little corner of the vast extent, without 
 understanding why I am placed in this seat rather than in 
 any other ; or why this moment of time given me to live 
 was assigned rather at such a point than at any other of the 
 whole eternity which was before me, or of all that which 
 js to come after me. I see nothing but infinities on all 
 
AGAINST AN ATHEISTICAL INDIFFERENCE. 45 
 
 sides, which devour and swallow me up like an atom, or 
 like a shadow which endures but a single instant and is 
 never to return. The sum of my knowledge is, that I 
 must shortly die ; but that which I am most ignorant of 
 is this very death, which I feel myself unable to decline. 
 
 As I know not whence I came, so I know not whither 
 I go ; only this I -know, that at my departure out of the 
 world I must either fall for ever into nothing or into the 
 hands of an incensed God, without being capable of de- 
 ciding which of these two conditions shall eternally be my 
 portion. Such is my state, full of weakness, obscurity, 
 and wretchedness. And from all this I conclude that I 
 ought, therefore, to pass all the days of my life without 
 considering what is hereafter to befall me ; and that I have 
 nothing to do but to follow my inclinations without re- 
 flection or disquiet in doing all that which, if what men 
 say of a miserable eternity prove true, will infallibly plunge 
 me into it. It is possible I might find some light to clear 
 up my doubts ; but I shall not take a minute's pains nor 
 stir one foot in the search of it. On the contrary, I am 
 resolved to treat those with scorn and derision who labour 
 in this inquiry and care, and so to run without fear or 
 foresight upon the trial of the grand event ; permitting 
 myself to be led softly on to death, utterly uncertain as to 
 the eternal issue of my future condition. 
 
 In earnest, it is a glory to religion to have so unreason- 
 able men for its professed enemies ; and their opposition is 
 of so little danger, that it serves to illustrate the princii^a) 
 
46 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 truths which our religion teaches. For the main scope of 
 Christian faith is to establish these two principles, the cor- 
 ruption of nature and the redemption by Jesus Christ. And 
 these opposers, if they are of no Use towards demonstrating 
 the truth of the redemption by the sanctity of their lives, 
 yet are at least admirably useful in showing the corruption 
 of nature by so unnatural sentiments and suggestions. 
 
 Nothing is so important to any man as his own estate 
 and condition ; nothing so great, so amazing, as eternity. 
 If therefore, we find persons indiflferent to the loss of their 
 being and to the danger of endless misery, it is impossible 
 that this te nper should be natural. They are quite other 
 men in all other regards, they fear the smallest incon- 
 veniences, they see them as they approach, and feel them if 
 they arrive; and he who passeth days and nights in chagrin 
 and despair for the loss of an employment, or for some 
 imaginary blemish in his honour, is the very same mortal 
 who knows that he must lose all by death, and yet remains 
 without disquiet, resentment, or emotion. This wonderful 
 insensibility with respect to things of the most fatal con- 
 sequence, in a heart so nicely sensible of the meanest trifles, 
 is an astonishing prodigy and unintelligible enchantment, a 
 supernatural blindness and infatuation. 
 
 A man in a close dungeon, who knows not whether 
 sentence of death has passed upon him, who is allowed but 
 one hour's space to inform himself concerning it, and that 
 one hour sufficient, in case it have passed, to obtain reverse 
 would act contrary to nature and sense should he make use 
 
AGAINST AN ATHEISTICAL INDIFFERENCE. 47 
 
 of this hour not to procure information, but to pursue his 
 vanity or sport. And yet such is the condition of the per- 
 sons whom we are now describing ; only with this difference, 
 that the evils with which they are every moment threatened 
 do infinitely surpass the bare loss of life and that transient 
 punishment which the prisoner is supposed to apprehend ; 
 yet they run thoughtless upon the precipice, having only 
 cast a veil over their eyes to hinder them from discerning 
 it, and divert themselves with the officiousness of such as 
 charitably warn them of their danger. 
 
 Thus not the zeal alone of those who heartily seek God 
 demonstrates the truth of religion, but likeivise the blind- 
 ness of those who utterly forbear to seek Him, and who pass 
 their days under so horrible a neglect. There must needs 
 be a strange turn and revolution in human niture before 
 men can submit to such a condition, much more ere they can 
 applaud and value themselves upon it. For supposing them 
 to have obtained an absolute certainty that there was no fear 
 after death but of falling into nothing, ought not this to be 
 the subject rather of despair than of jollity ? And is it not 
 therefore the highest pitch of senseless extravagance, while 
 we want this certainty, to glory in our doubt and distrust ? 
 
 And yet, after all, it is too visible that man has so far 
 declined from his original nature and as it were departed 
 from himself, to nourish in his heart a secret seed-plot of 
 joy, springing up from the libertine reflections. This brutal 
 ease or indolence between the fear of hell and of annihila- 
 tion carries somewhat so tempting in it, that not only those 
 
48 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 who have the misfortune to be sceptically inclined, but even 
 those who cannot unsettle their judgment, do yet esteem it 
 reputable to take up even a counterfeit diffidence. For we 
 may observe the largest part of the herd to be of this latter 
 kind, false pretenders to infidelity and mere hypocrites in 
 atheism. There are persons whom we have heard declare, 
 that the genteel way of the world consists in thus acting the 
 bravo. This is that which they term throwing off the yoke, 
 and which the greater number of them profess, not so much 
 out of opinion as out of gallantry and complaisance. 
 
 Yet if they have the least reserve of common sense, it 
 will not be difficult to make them apprehend how miserably 
 they abuse themselves by laying so false a foundation of 
 applause and esteem. For this is not the way to raise a 
 character, even with worldly men, who, as they are able to 
 pass a shrewd judgment on things, so they easily discern 
 that the only method of succeeding in our temporal affairs 
 is to prove ourselves honest, faithful, prudent, and capable 
 of advancing the interest of our friends ; because men 
 naturally love nothing but that which some way contributes 
 to their use and benefit. But now what benefit can -we 
 any way derive from hearing a man confess that he has 
 eased himself of the burden of religion ; that he believes no 
 God as the witness and inspector of his conduct ; that he 
 considers himself as absolute master of what he does, and 
 accountable for it only to his own mind ? Will he fancy 
 that we shall be hence induced to repose a greater degree of 
 confidence in him hereafter ? or to depend on his comfort, 
 
AGAINST AN ATHEISTICAL INDIFFERENCE. 49 
 
 his advice, or assistance in the necessities of life ? Can he 
 imagine us to take any great delight or complacency when 
 he tells us that he doubts whether our very soul be any- 
 thing more than a little wind and smoke? nay, when he tells 
 it us with an air of assurance and a voice that testifies the 
 contentment of his heart ? Is this a thing to be spoken of 
 with pleasantry ? or ought it not rather to be lamented with 
 the deepest sadness, as the most melancholic reflection that 
 can strike our thoughts ? 
 
 If they would compose themselves to serious considera- 
 tion, they must perceive the method in which they are 
 engaged to be so very ill chosen, so repugnant to gentility, 
 and so remote even from that good air and grace which 
 they pursue, that, on the contrary, nothing can more 
 effectually expose them to the contempt and aversion of 
 mankind, or mark them out for persons defective in parts 
 and judgment. And, indeed, should we demand from them 
 an account of their sentiments and of the reasons which 
 they have to entertain this suspicion in religious matters, 
 what they offered would appear so miserably weak and 
 trifling as rather to confirm us in our belief. This is no 
 more than what one of their own fraternity told them with 
 great smartness on such an occasion. " If you continue," 
 says he, "to dispute at this rate, you'll infallibly make me a 
 Christian." And the gentleman was in the right ; for who 
 would not tremble to find himself embarked in the same 
 cause with so forlorn, so despicable companions ? 
 
 And thus it is evident that they who wear no more than 
 
 o 
 
so THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 the outward mask of these principles are the most unhappy 
 counterfeits in the world ; inasmuch as they are obliged to 
 put a continual force and constraint on their genius, only that 
 they may render themselves the most impertinent of all 
 men living. 
 
 If they are heartily and sincerely troubled at their 
 want of light, let them not dissemble the disease. Such a 
 confession could not be reputed shameful, for there is 
 really no shame but in being shameless. Nothing betrays 
 so much weakness of soul as not to apprehend the misery 
 of man while living without God in the world ; nothing is 
 a surer token of extreme baseness of spirit than not to hope 
 for the reaHty of eternal promises ; no man is so stigmatised 
 a coward as he that acts the bravo against Heaven. Let 
 them therefore leave these impieties to those who are born 
 with so unhappy a judgment as to be capable of entertain- 
 ing them in earnest. If they cannot be Christian men, let 
 them, however, be men of honour ; and let them, in con- 
 clus-'on, acknowledge that there are but two sorts of persons 
 who deserve to be styled reasonable, either those who serve 
 God with all their heart because they know Him, or those 
 who seek Him with all their heart because as yet they know 
 Him not. 
 
 If then there are persons who sincerely inquire after God, 
 and who, being truly sensible of their misery, affectionately 
 desire to be rescued from it, it is to these alone that we 
 can in justice afford our labour and service for their direc- 
 tion in finding out that light of which they feel the want. 
 
AGAINST AN ATHEISTICAL INDIFFERENCE. 51 
 
 But as for those who live without either knowing God 
 or endeavouring to know Him, they look on themselves as 
 so little deserving their own care that they cannot but be 
 unworthy the care of others ; and it requires all the 
 charity of the religion which they despise not to despise 
 them to such a degree as even to abandon them to 
 their own folly. But since the same religion obliges us 
 to consider them while they remain in this life, as still 
 capable of God's enlightening grace, and to acknowledge it 
 as very possible that in the course of a few days they may 
 be replenished with a fuller measure of faith than we now 
 enjoy, and we ourselves on the other side fall into the 
 depths of their present blindness and misery, we ought to 
 do for them what we desire should be done to us in their 
 case ; to etitreat them that they would take pity on them- 
 selves, and would at least advance a step or two forward, 
 if perchance they may come into the light. For which end 
 it is wished that they would employ in the perusal of this 
 piece some few of those hours which they spend so un- 
 profitably in other pursuits. It is possible they may gain 
 somewhat by the reading ; at least, they cannot be great 
 losers. But if any shall apply themselves to it with perfect 
 sincerity and with an unfeigned desire of knowing the 
 truth, I despair not of their satisfaction, or of their being 
 convinced by so many proofs of our divine religion as thev 
 will find laid together. 
 
 D 3 
 
II. 
 
 MARKS OF THE TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 The true religion ought chiefly to distinguish itself by 
 obliging men to the love of God. This is what natural 
 justice requires, and yet what no institution besides the 
 Christian has ever commanded. 
 
 It ought likewise to have some apprehension of the 
 innate concupiscence of man and of his utter insufficiency 
 for the attainment of virtue by his own strength, and some 
 skill in applying the proper remedies to this defect, of 
 which prayer is the principal. Our religion has performec' 
 all this, and none besides has ever begged of God the 
 power of loving and of obeying Him. 
 
 * To make out the truth and certainty of a religion, it is 
 necessary that it should have obtained the knowledge of 
 human nature. For our true nature and true happiness, 
 true virtue and true religion are things, the knowledge of 
 which is reciprocal and inseparable. It should also be able 
 to discern the greatness and the meanness of human con- 
 dition, together with the cause and reason of both. What 
 
MARKS OF THE TRUE RELIGION. 53 
 
 religion, the Christian only excepted, could ever pretend to 
 be thus knowing ? 
 
 * Other religions, as those of the heathens, are more 
 popular, as consisting only in external appearance ; but 
 then they are unqualified for moving the judicious and 
 prudent. Again, should any religion reside altogether in 
 the inward spirit, it might be fitter to work on parts and 
 genius, but could hold no influence over the gross of man- 
 kind. Christianity alone is proportioned to all capacities, 
 being duly composed and tempered of the internal and the 
 external way. It raises the most ignorant to inward and 
 spiritual acts, and, at the same time, abases the most 
 intelligent by pressing the obligation to outward per- 
 formances, and is never complete but when it joins one of 
 these effects to the other ; for there is the like necessity 
 that the people should understand the spirit which is veiled 
 under the letter, and that the learned should submit their 
 spirit to the letter, in complying with exterior practices 
 and rites. 
 
 * That there is somewhat in us which ought to be 
 hated, bare reason will convince us ; and yet there is no 
 religion but the Christian which enjoins us to hate ourselves ; 
 wherefore no other religion ought to be entertained by those 
 who know and confess themselves to be worthy of nothing 
 but hatred. 
 
 * No religion, except the Christian, has known man to 
 be the most excellent of visible creatures, and, at the same 
 time, the most miserable. Some having apprehended the 
 
54 THOUGHTS ON PELIGION. 
 
 reality of his excellence, have censured as mean and un- 
 grateful the low opinion which men naturally entertain of 
 their own condition. Others, well knowing the unhappy 
 effects of his baseness and misery, have expose i as 
 ridiculously vain those noiions of grandeur which are no 
 less natural to men. 
 
 * it is our religion which has first taught that man is 
 born in sin. No sect of p'lilosophers ever said this, there- 
 fore no sect ever said the truth. 
 
 * The divine nature being removed from human 
 thoughts and discovery, every religion which does not con- 
 fess it to be so is false ; and every religion which does not 
 show the reason why it is so must be barren and unedifying. 
 Our religion has performed both parts. 
 
 * That religion which consists in believing the fall of 
 man from a state of glory and communication with God to 
 a state of sorrow, humiliation, and estrangement from God, 
 together with his restoration by a Messias, has always been 
 in the world. All things are passed away, and this remains 
 for which all things were: for God, in His wisdom, designing 
 to form to Himself a holy people, whom He should separate 
 from all ofher nations, should deliver from their enemies, 
 and should settle in a place of rest, was pleased expressly 
 to promise, not only that He would accomplish this mercy, 
 but that He would come Himself into the world for its per- 
 formance, foretelling by His prophets the very time and 
 manner of His coming j yet in the mean while, to confirm the 
 hope of His elect through all ages. He continually afforded 
 
MARKS OF THE TRUE RELIGION. 55 
 
 them the pledges of types and figures, and never left them 
 without assurances, as well of His power as of His inclina- 
 tion to save them. For immediately after the first creation, 
 Adam was the witness and depositary of the promise con- 
 cerning a Saviour to be born of the seed of the woman ; 
 and though men, while they stood so near to their own 
 originals, could not forget the gift of their being, the shame 
 of their fall, or the divine promise of a Redeemer, yet since 
 the world in its very infancy was overrun with all sorts of 
 corruptions and disorders, God was pleased to raise up holy 
 men, as Enoch, Lamech, and others, who, with a peculiar 
 faith and patience, waited for the Author of their deliverance. 
 After this, when the wickedness of men was arrived at its 
 pitch, we read of God's sending Noah on a special com- 
 mission, and of His rescuing him from the common destruc- 
 tion ; a miracle which testified at once the power of God to 
 save the world, and His will to perform this by raising up to 
 the woman the seed which He had promised. This signal 
 act of omnipotence was enough to strengthen the expec- 
 tation of mankind, and the memory of it was still fresh 
 when God renewed His promises to Abraham (who dwelt 
 in the midtt of idolaters) and opened to him the mystery 
 of the Messias that was to come. In the days of Isaac 
 and Jacob, the abomination was spread over the whole 
 earth J yet these holy patriarchs lived in faith, and the 
 latter of them, as he blessed his children before his 
 approaching death, refrained not from crying out with 
 a pious transport, which interrupted his discourse, " I will 
 
56 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 wait for Thy salvation, O Lord " : Salutare timm expedaho, 
 Domine. 
 
 The Egyptians were besotted with idolatry and magic, 
 nor did the people of God escape the infection of their 
 example ; yet Moses with other excellent persons saw Him 
 whom they saw not, and adored Him, and had respect unto 
 the eternal recompense which He was preparing for them. 
 
 The Greeks and Romans introduced a new multitude of 
 fictitious deities ; the poets advanced their repugnant systems 
 of theology ; the philosophers broke out into a thousand 
 different sects and clans ; yet were there always in the 
 little corner of Judea chosen men who foretold the coming 
 of the Messias, unknown to all but themselves. 
 
 He came at length in the fulness of time ; and ever 
 since His appearance, notwithstanding the numerous births 
 of schisms and- heresies, the revolutions in government, 
 and the utter change in all things, the same Church, whose 
 glory it is to adore Him who has been ever adored, still 
 subsists without interruption or decay. And what must 
 be owned to be incomparably excellent, wonderful, and 
 a'together divine, this religion which has ever subsisted 
 has ever been opposed. A thousand times has it been on 
 the very brink of universal ruin ; and as often as it has 
 been reduced to this estate, so often has it been relieved 
 by some extraordinary interposal of Almighty power. It is 
 astoniihing that it should never want a miracle to deliver it 
 in extremity, and that it should be able to maintain itself 
 without bending to the will of tyrants and oppressors. 
 
MARKS OF THE TRUE RELIGION. 57 
 
 * Civil states must infallibly perish if they did not 
 many times permit their laws to give way to necessity ; 
 but religion, as it has never suffered this violence, though 
 it has never stooped to this compliance, yet here must 
 be such accommodations and submissions, or there must 
 be a miraculous support. It is no wonder that empires and 
 governments should procure their safety by thus bending 
 and bowing ; and it is indeed improper in this case to 
 say that they maintain or uphold themselves ; yet we see 
 that they at length find an utter dissolution ; nor has 
 any one amongst them been so long-lived as to reach 
 the period of fifteen hundred years. But that religion 
 should have always kept its ground by always continuing 
 unalterable and unfiexible, this is truly great and pro- 
 vidential. 
 
 * Thus has the belief in the Messias been derived down 
 by a constant series and uninterrupted course. The 
 tradition from Adam was fresh and lively in Noah, and 
 even in Moses. After these the prophets bore testimony 
 to him, at the same time predicting other things which, 
 being from day to day fulfilled in the eyes of all the world, 
 demonstrated the truth of their mission, and consequently 
 of their promises in this behalf They unanimously de- 
 clared that the legal ordinances were but preparatory 
 to the Messias's institution ; that till such a time the 
 former should indeed subsist without intermission, but 
 that the latter should endure for ever; and that by this 
 means either the law of Moses or that of the Messias, 
 
S8 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 which is prefigured, should always continue upon earth ; 
 ' and, in fact, there has been such a continuance to our 
 days. Jesus Christ came agreeably to all the circumstances 
 of their predictions: He performed miracles in His own 
 person, and by the hands of His apostles, whom He 
 appointed for the conversion of the Gentile world : and 
 the prophecies being thus once accomplished, the Messias 
 is for ever demonstrated. 
 
 * That religion which alone is contrary to our nature, 
 in our present estate, which declares war against all our 
 pleasures and inclinations, and which, upon a slight and 
 transient view, seems repugnant even to common sense, is 
 that alone which has subsisted from the beginning. 
 
 * It is necessary that the whole current of things should 
 bear a regard to the establishment and the grandeur of 
 religion; that there should be implanted in men sentiments 
 agreeable to its precepts ; and in a word, that it should 
 so visibly be the great object and centre towards which all 
 things tend, that whosoever understands its principles may 
 be thence enabled to give an account, as of human nature 
 in particular, so, in general, of the whole state and order 
 of the world. 
 
 It is upon this very foundation that wicked and profane 
 men are wont to build their blasphemous calumnies against 
 the Christian religion, only because they misunderstand it. 
 They imagine that it consists purely in the adoration of the 
 Divinity, considered as great, powerful, and eternal. This 
 is properly Deism, and stands almost as far removed from 
 
MARKS OF THE TRUE RELIGION. 59 
 
 Christianity as Atheism, which is directly opposite to it. 
 Yet hence they would infer the falsehood of our religion ; 
 because (say they) were it true, God would have manifested 
 Himself under its dispensation by so visible tokens, that it 
 should have been impossible for any man not to know 
 Him. 
 
 But let them conclude what they will against Deism, 
 they will be able to draw no such conclusion to the pre- 
 judice of Christianity; which acknowledges, that since the 
 fall, God does not manifest Himself to us with all the 
 evidence that is possible, and which consists properly in the 
 mystery of a Redeemer, who by sustaining at once the divine 
 and human natures, has recovered men out of the corruption 
 of sin, that He might reconcile them to God in His divine 
 person. 
 
 True religion, therefore, instructs men in these two 
 principles : that there is a God whom they are capable of 
 knowing and enjoying ; and that there are such corruptions 
 in their nature as render them unworthy of Him. There is 
 the same importance in apprehending the one and the 
 other of these points ; and it is alike dangerous for man to 
 know God without the knowledge of his own misery, and to 
 know his own misery without the knowledge of a Redeemer, 
 who may deliver him from it. To apprehend one without 
 the other begets either the pride of philosophers, who knew 
 God, but not their own misery ; or the despair of atheists, 
 who know their own misery, but not the Author of their 
 deliverance. 
 
6o THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 And as it is of equal necessity to man that he should 
 obtain the knowledge of both these principles, so is it 
 equally agreeable to the mercy of God that He should 
 afford the means of such a knowledge. To perform this is 
 the office and the very essence of Christianity. 
 
 Upon this foot let men examine the order and economy 
 of the world, and let them see whether all things do not 
 conspire in establishing these two fundamentals of our 
 religion. 
 
 * If any one knows not himself to be full of pride and 
 ambition, of concupiscence and injustice, of weakness and 
 wretchedness, he is blind beyond dispute. And if any one 
 who knows himself to labour under these defects, at the 
 same time desires not to be rescued from them, what can 
 we say of a man who has thus abandoned his reason ? 
 What remains then, but that we preserve the higheE( 
 veneration for a religion which so well understands the 
 infirmities of mankind, and that we profess the heartiest 
 wishes for the truth of a religion which engageth to heal 
 those infirmities by so happy, so desirable a relief? 
 
III. 
 
 THE TRUE RELIGION PROVED BY THE CONTRARIETIES 
 WHICH ARE DISCOVERABLE IN MAN, AND BY THE 
 DOCTRINE OF ORIGINAL SIN, 
 
 The greatness and the misery of man being alike con- 
 spicuous, it is necessary the true religion should declare 
 that he contains in himself some noble principle of greatness, 
 and, at the same time, some profound source of misery. 
 For the true religion cannot answer its character otherwise 
 than by searching oilr nature to the bottom, so as perfectly 
 to understand all that is great and all that is miserable in it 
 together with the reason of one and of the other. Religion 
 is farther obliged to account for those astonishing con- 
 trarieties which we find within us. If there be but one 
 principle or efficient cause, one author of all things, and 
 himself the end of all things; the true religion must teach 
 us to make him alone the object of our worship and our 
 ove. But since we find ourselves under an inability as well 
 of adoring him whom we know not as of loving any thing 
 but ourselves, the same religion which enjoins us these 
 
62 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 duties ought also to acquaint us with this inabiHty, and to 
 instruct us in its cure. 
 
 Again, in order to the accomplishment of man's happi- 
 ness, it ought to convince us that there is a God, that we 
 are obliged to love Him, that our true felicity consists in our 
 dependence on Him, and our only evil and misfortune in 
 our separation from Him. It ought to inform us that we 
 are full of gross darkness, which hinders us from knowing 
 and loving Him ; and that our duty thus obliging us to love 
 God, and our concupiscence turning our whole affection 
 upon ourselves, we are notoriously unjust. It ought to 
 discover to us the cause of that enmity and opposition 
 which we bear to God and to our own happiness. It ought 
 to teach us the remedies of this infirmity, and the means of 
 obtaining them. Let men compare all the religions of the 
 world in these respects, and let them observe whether any 
 one but the Christian is able to afford them satisfaction. 
 
 Shall it be the religion of those philosophers, who 
 proposed no other good but what they would have us find 
 in our own persons? In this the true and sovereign good ? 
 or have these men discovered the remedy of our evils? 
 Was it a proper method for the cure of man's presumption 
 thus to equal him with God ? On the other hand, have 
 those succeeded • belter in restraining our earthly desires 
 who would bring us down to the level of beasts and present 
 us with sensual gratifications for our real and universal 
 happiness? " Lift up your eyes to God," said those of the 
 former tribe ; " behold Him who has stamped you with His- 
 
THE TRUE RELIGION PROVED. 63 
 
 image and has made you for His worship. You have not 
 only a capacity of being like Him, but wisdom, if you 
 follow its directions, will even render you His peers." 
 While those of the latter h<erd cried, wiih no less earnest- 
 ness, " Cast down your eyes to the ground, base worms as 
 you are, and look on the beasts, your goodly partners and 
 fellows." What, then, is to be the fate of man ? Shall he 
 be equal to God or shall he not be superior to the beasts ? 
 How frightful, how shocking a distance this ! What shall, 
 we be then ? What religion shall instruct us to correct at 
 once our pride and our concupiscence ? What religion 
 shall disclose to us our happiness and our duty, together 
 with the infirmities which stop us in so desired a course ; 
 the proper help of .these infirmities and the means of 
 obtaining this help? Let use hear what answer we receive 
 upon the whole inquiry from the wisdom of God speaking 
 to us in the Christian religion. 
 
 It is in vain, O men, that you seek from yourselves the 
 remedy of your miseries. All your lights extend to no 
 farther discovery than this : that you cannot from your 
 own stores be supplied with happiness or truth. The 
 philosophers, who promised all things, could perform 
 nothing in your behalf; they neither apprehended your 
 true estate nor your real good. What possibility was there 
 of your receiving benefit from their prescriptions, who had 
 not skill enough to understand your disease ? Your chief 
 infirmities are pride, which alienates you from God, and 
 concupiscence, which fastens you down to earth ; and their 
 
64 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 constant employment was to caress and entertain one or 
 the other of these disorders. They who presented God 
 to you as the sole object of your contemplation did but 
 gratify your pride by vainly insinuating that your nature 
 was constituted under a parity with the divine. And as 
 for those who saw the extravagance of such pretensions, 
 what did they but set you upon the other precipice, by 
 tempting you to believe that your nature was of a piece 
 with that of the beasts, and by inclining you to place all 
 your good in sensual delight, the portion of irrational 
 creatures ? These could never be the means of discovering 
 to you the injustice of your proceedings. Do not, there- 
 fore, expect instruction or consolation from men. It was 
 I that first made you to be, and it is I alone which can 
 teach you the knowledge of your own being. You are not 
 now in the estate under which you were formed by my 
 hand. I created man holy, innocent, and perfect ; I re- 
 plenished him with light and understanding ; I communi- 
 cated to him my wonders and my glory. Then it was that 
 the eye of man beheld the majesty of God. He did not then 
 labour under this darkness which blinds him, under this 
 mortality and these miseries which afflict and oppress 
 him. But he was unable to sustain so great degrees of 
 splendour without falling into presumption. He was dis- 
 posed to make himself the centre of his own happiness, 
 and altogether independent from the divine succours. And 
 when he had withdrawn himself from my dominion, and 
 
THE TRUE RELIGION PROVED. 65 
 
 affected an equality with me by presuming to find all his 
 happiness in himself, I abandoned him to his own guid- 
 ance ; and causing a general revolt amongst the creatures 
 that were his subjects, I made them his enemies. Man 
 himself is now become like unto the beasts, and removed 
 to such a distance from me as scarce to retain some 
 scattered rays and confused notices of his Author ; so far 
 have all his discerning powers been either extinguished or 
 disturbed. His senses being never the servants, and very 
 often the masters of his reason, have driven him on the 
 pursuit of unwarrantable pleasures. All the creatures with 
 which he is surrounded either grieve and torment, or tempt 
 and seduce him, thus ever maintaining a sovereignty over 
 him, either as they subdue him by their strength, or as they 
 melt him with their charms, which is the more imperious 
 and more fatal tyranny. 
 
 * Behold the present estate and condition of men. On 
 the one hand they are carried towards the happiness of 
 their primitive nature by a powerful instinct still remaining 
 within them ; and, on the other hand, they are plunged in 
 the miseries of their own blindness and concupiscence, 
 which is now become their second nature. 
 
 * From the principles which I have here laid open to 
 you, you may discern the spring of those wonderful contra- 
 rieties which, while they astonish all men, do no kss 
 distract and divide them. 
 
 * Observe again all the movements of greatness and 
 
 E 
 
C6 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 glory, which the sense of so many miseries is not able to 
 extinguish, and consider whether they can proceed from a 
 less powerful cause than original nature. 
 
 * Know then, proud mortal, what a paradox thou art 
 to thyself. Let thy weak reason be humbled, let thy frail 
 nature compose itself in silence ; learn that man infinitely 
 surpasseth man, and let thy own history, to which thou art 
 thyself an utter stranger, be declared to thee by thy Maker 
 and thy Lord. 
 
 * For, in a word, had man never fallen into corruption, 
 he would proceed in the enjoyment of truth and happiness 
 with an assured delight ; and had man never known any 
 other than this corrupted state, he would, at present, 
 retain no idea of truth and happiness. But so great is 
 our misery — greater than if we had never tasted anything 
 lofty or noble in our condition — that we preserve an idea 
 of happiness, while we are unable to pursue it ; that we 
 discern some faint image of truth, while we possess 
 nothing but lies, being alike incapable of absolute ignorance 
 and of accomplished knowledge. So manifest is it that 
 we once stood in a degree of perfection, from which we 
 are now unhappily fallen. 
 
 * What, then, does this eagerness in coveting and 
 this impotence in acquiring teach us, but that man was 
 originally possessed of a real bliss, of which nothing now 
 remains but the footsteps and empty traces, which he 
 vainly endeavours to replenish with all the abundance 
 that surrounds him, seeking from absent enjoyments the 
 
THE TRUE RELIGIOiV PROVED. 67 
 
 relief which he finds not in such as are present, and which 
 neither the present nor the absent can bestow on him ; 
 because this great gulf, this infinite vacuity, is only to be 
 filled up by an object infinite and immovable. 
 
 * It is most astonishing to reflect that of all mysteries, 
 that which seems to be farthest removed from our dis- 
 covery and apprehension — I mean the transmission of 
 original sin— should yet be so necessary a point of know- 
 ledge, as that without it we must remain utter strangers 
 to ourselves. For it is beyond doubt that nothing appears 
 so shocking to our reason as that the transgression of the 
 first man should derive a guilt on those who, being so 
 vastly distant from the fountain, seem incapable of sharing 
 in the impure tincture. This transfusion is looked upon 
 by us not only as impossible, but as unjust, could we 
 suppose it to be possible. For what can be more re- 
 pugnant to the rules of our miserable justice than to 
 doom to eternal ruin an infant without will or choice for an 
 offence which shows so little probability of affecting him, 
 as to have been committed six thousand years before his 
 existence in the world? Certainly, nothing strikes our 
 judgment with more harshness and violence than such a 
 doctrine. And yet without this incomprehensible mystery 
 we are ourselves incomprehensible to our own mind. The 
 clue which knits together our whole fortune and condition 
 takes its turns and plies in this amazing abyss; insomuch 
 that man will appear no less unconceivable without this 
 mystery, than this mystery appears unconceivable to man. 
 
 E a 
 
68 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. . 
 
 * Original sin is foolishness to men. It is granted to 
 be so : wherefore, reason ought not to be accused as defec- 
 tive in this knowledge, because it pretends not to be such 
 as reason can ever fathom. But then this foolishness is 
 wiser than all the wisdom of men, quod stultum est Dei 
 sapientius est hominibiis : for without this how would it be 
 possible to say what man is ? His whole estate depends on 
 this one imperceptible point. Yet how should he be made 
 acquainted with this by his reason, when it is a thing above 
 his reason, and when reason, instead of introducing him to 
 it, carries him the farther from it, the more it is employed 
 in the search? 
 
 * These two opposite states, of innocence and of 
 corruption, being presented to our view, we cannot but 
 perceive the difference, and applaud the discovery. 
 
 * Let us follow our own motions, and observe our- 
 selves ; and let us see whether we may not trace out the 
 lively characters of these different natures. 
 
 * How surprising is it that so numerous contradictions 
 should be found in one and the same subject ! 
 
 * This double temper and disposition of man is so 
 visible, that there have not been wanting those who 
 imagined him to have two souls ; one single subject appear- 
 ing to them incapable of so great and sudden variety, from 
 an unmeasurable presumption to a dreadful abasement and 
 abjectness of spirit. 
 
 * Thus the several contrarieties which, in appearance, 
 should most alienate men from the knowledge of all religion 
 
THE TRUE RELIGION PROVED. 69 
 
 are those very things which should, indeed, most effectually 
 conduct them to the true. 
 
 For my own part, I cannot but declare that so soon as 
 the Christian religion discovers to me this one principle, 
 that human nature is depraved, and fallen from God, this 
 clears up my sight, and enables me to distinguish through- 
 out the characters of so divine a mystery. For such is 
 the whole frame and disposition of nature, as in all things 
 within and without us, to bespeak the loss of God's more 
 immediate presence, and more favourable communications. 
 
 Without this divine information, what would be left for 
 men to do, but either immoderately to exalt themselves, by 
 the remaining sense of their former grandeur, or no less 
 immoderately to abase themselves, by reflecting on their 
 present infirmity ? For not being in a capacity of absolute 
 truth, it is impossible they should arrive at perfect virtue : 
 some looking on nature as indefectible, others as irrecover- 
 able, they must of necessity fall either into vanity or idle- 
 ness, the two great sources of all vice. For they could not 
 but either abandon themselves through negligence, or cure 
 their negligence by flattering their pride. If they knew the 
 excellency of man, they would be ignorant of his corrup- 
 tion, so as easily to escape the danger of remissness and 
 sloth ; but, at the same time, to lose themselves in haughty 
 conceit. Or, if they were sensible of the infirmity of 
 nature, they should be strangers to its dignity, so as easily 
 to refrain from being transported with presumption ; but, at 
 the same time, to plunge themselves into despair. 
 
70 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 Hence arose the various sects of the Stoics and 
 Epicureans, of the Dogmatists and the Academics, etc. 
 It is the Christian rehgion alone which has been able 
 thoroughly to cure these opposite distempers; not so as 
 to drive the one out by the other, according to the wisdom 
 of the world, but so as to expel them both by the simplicity 
 of the Gospel. For while it exalts the good and pious even 
 to a participation of the divinity itself, it lets them under- 
 stand that, in this their sublime estate, they still retain the 
 fountain of all corruption, which renders them, during their 
 whole life, subject to error and misery, to death and sin. 
 And at the same time it assures the most impious that they 
 are not yet incapable of sharing the grace and blessing of 
 a Redeemer. Thus speaking, not without terror to those 
 whom it justifies, nor without comfort to those whom it 
 condemns, it so wisely tempers hope and fear, in regard 
 to this double capacity of sin and of grace, which is 
 common to all mankind, that it abaseth infinitely more than 
 unassisted reason, yet without despair, and exalts infinitely 
 more than natural pride, yet without puffing up; hereby 
 demonstrating that being alone exempt from error and 
 vice, it can alone challenge the office of instructing and of 
 reforming men. 
 
 * The Christian faith is most surprising in its measures. 
 It enjoins man to acknowledge himself vile, and even 
 abominable, and obliges him, at the sam.e time, to aspire 
 towards a resemblance of his Maker. Were not things thus 
 exactly balanced, either such an exaltation would render 
 
THE TRUE RELIGION PROVED. 71 
 
 him extravagantly vain, or such a debasement would render 
 him horribly abject and dispirited. 
 
 * The mystery of the Incarnation discovers to man the 
 greatness of his danger by the greatness of those methods 
 which he stood in need of for his relief. 
 
 * We find not in the Christian religion either such a 
 state of humiliation as renders us incapable of good, nor 
 such a state of holiness as is perfectly exempt from evil. 
 
 * No doctrine is so justly suited to the condition and 
 to the temper of man as this, which makes him acquainted 
 with his double capacity of receiving and forfeiting grace, 
 as a fence against the double danger to which he is always 
 exposed, of despair and of pride. 
 
 * The philosophers never furnished men with senti- 
 ments agreeable to these two estates. They either inspired 
 a principle of pure grandeur, and this cannot be the true 
 condition of man, or else of mere abjectness, and this con- 
 dition is as ill-proportioned as the former. We ought to 
 preserve a sense of humiliation ; yet not as the character of 
 our nature, but as the effect of our repentance ; not such as 
 should fix us in desperation, but such as should dispose 
 and lead us on to greatness. Nor ought we to be less 
 affected with the motions of grandeur, yet of such as 
 proceeds from grace, not from merit, and such as we arrive 
 at by the discipline of humiliation. 
 
 * No man is so happy as the true Christian, none is so 
 rational, so virtuous, so amiable. With how little vanity 
 does such an one reflect on himself as united to God ? 
 
72 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 With how Httle abjectness does he rank himself with the. 
 worms of the earth ? 
 
 * Who then can withhold his belief or adoration from 
 so divine a guidance and light? For is it not clearer than 
 the day that we see and feel within ourselves indelible 
 characters of excellence? And is it not full as clear that 
 we experience every moment the effects of deplorable base- 
 ness? What else, therefore, does this chaos, this monstrous 
 confusion in our nature, but proclaim the truth of these two 
 estates, and that with a voice so powerful, as is always to 
 be heard and never to be resisted ? 
 
IV. 
 
 IT IS BY NO MEANS INCREDIBLE THAT GOD SHOULD UNITE 
 HIMSELF TO US. 
 
 That which renders men so averse to believing themselves 
 capable of an union with God is nothing else but the 
 thought of their own baseness and misery : yet if this 
 thought of theirs be sir.cere, let them pursue it as far as I 
 have done, and let them confess our baseness to have only 
 this effect, with respect to God, that it hinders us from 
 discovering by our own strength whether His mercy cannot 
 render us capable of an union with Him. For I would 
 gladly be informed whence this creature, which acknow- 
 ledgeth himself so weak and contemptible, should obtain 
 a right of setting bounds to the divine mercy, and of 
 measuring it by such a rule and standard as his own fancy 
 suggests. Man knows so little of the divine essence as to 
 remain ignorant of what he is himself; and yet, disturbed 
 at this imperfect view of his own condition, he boldly pro- 
 nounceth that it is beyond the power of God to qualify him 
 for so subhme a conjunction. But I will ask him whether 
 God requires anything else at his hands but that he should 
 
74 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 know Him, and should love Him; and since he finds him- 
 self in his own nature capable of knowing and of loving, 
 upon what ground he suspects that the divine nature cannot 
 exhibit itself as the object of his knowledge and his love ? 
 For as he certainly knows, at least, that he is somewhat, so 
 he no less certainly loves somewhat. If then he sees any- 
 thing under the present darkness of his understanding, and 
 if amongst the things of this world he can find somewhat 
 which may engage his affection, should God be pleased to 
 impart to him some ray of His essence, why should he not 
 be able to know and to love his divine Benefactor, accord- 
 ing to the measure and proportion in which this honour 
 was vouchsafed? There must therefore, no doubt, be an 
 intolerable presumption in these ways of reasoning, though 
 veiled under an appearance of humility. For our humility 
 can neither be rational nor sincere unless it makes us 
 confess, that not knowing of ourselves even what we our- 
 selves are, we cannot otherwise be instructed in our own 
 condition, than by the assistance and information of Heaven. 
 
V. 
 
 THE SUBMISSION AND USE OF REASON. 
 
 The last process of reason is to discover that there is an 
 infinity of things which utterly surpass its force. And it 
 must be very weak if it arrive not at this discovery. 
 
 * It is fit we should know how to doubt where we 
 ought, to rest assured where we ought, to submit where we 
 ought. He who fails in any one of these respects is un- 
 acquainted with the power of reason. Yet are there many 
 which offend against these three rules ; either by warranting 
 everything for demonstration, because they are unskilled in 
 the nature of demonstrative evidence ; or by doubting of 
 everything, because they know not where they ought to 
 submit ; or by submitting to everything, because they know 
 not where to use their judgment. 
 
 * If we bring down all things to reason our religion 
 will have nothing in it mysterious or supernatural. If we 
 stifle the principles of reason our religion will be absurd 
 and ridiculous. 
 
 * Reason, says St. Austin, would never be for sub- 
 mitting if it did not judge that on some occasions sub' 
 
76 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 mission was its duty. It is but just, therefore, that it should 
 recede where it sees an obligation of receding ; and that it 
 should assert its privileges where, upon good grounds, it 
 supposeth itself not engaged to waive them. 
 
 * Superstition and true piety are things which stand at 
 the greatest distance from each other. To carry piety to 
 the extravagant heights of superstition is indeed to destroy 
 it. Heretical men are wont to reproach us with this super- 
 stitious submission of our faculties. And' we should be 
 guilty of the charge, if we required men to submit in things 
 which are not the proper matter of submission. 
 
 Nothing is so agreeable to reason as the disclaiming of 
 reason in matters of pure faith. And nothing is so repug- 
 nant to reason as the disuse of reason in things that do not 
 concern faith. The extremes are equally dangerous, either 
 wholly to exclude reason or to admit nothing but reason. 
 
 * Faith says many things in which the senses are silent, 
 but nothing which the senses deny. It is always above 
 them, but never contrary to them. 
 
VI. 
 
 FAITH WITHOUT REASONING. 
 
 Might we but see a miracle, say some men, how gladly 
 would we become converts ? They could not speak in this 
 manner did they understand what conversion means. 
 They imagine that nothing else is requisite to this work but 
 the bare acknowledgment of God, and that His adoration 
 and service consists only in the paying Him certain verbal 
 addresses, little different from those which the heathens 
 used towards their idols. True conversion is to abase, and, 
 as it were, to annihilate ourselves before this great and 
 sovereign Being, whom we have so often provoked, and who 
 every moment may, without the least injustice, destroy us. 
 It is to acknowledge that we can do nothing without His 
 aid, and that we have merited nothing from Him but His 
 wrath. It is to know that -there is an invincible opposition 
 between God and ourselves, and that without the benefit of 
 a Mediator there could be no transaction or intercourse 
 between us. 
 
 Never think it strange that illiterate persons should 
 believe without reasoning. God inspires them with the love 
 
78 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 of His justice and wiih the hatred of themselves. It is He 
 that inclines their hearts to believe. No man ever believes 
 with a true and saving faith unless God inclines his heart ; 
 and no man, when God inclines his heart, can refrain from 
 thus believing. Of this David was sensible when he prayed : 
 " Inclina cor raeum, Deus, in testimonia tua." 
 
 * That some men believe without having examined the 
 proofs of religion is because they enjoy a temper and frame 
 of mind altogether pious and holy ; and because what they 
 hear affirmed by our religion is agreeable to such a temper. 
 
 They are sensible that one God is their Maker; they 
 are inclined to love nothing but Him, and to hate nothing 
 but themselves. They are sensible of their own weakness 
 and impotence, that they are of themselves utterly incapable 
 of coming to God, and that, unless He is pleased mercifully 
 to come to them, it is impossible they should maintain any 
 communication with Him. And they hear our religion 
 declaring that God alone ought to be the object of our 
 affection, and ourselves alone of our detestation ; and that, 
 whereas we are by nature corrupt, and under an incapacity 
 of uniting ourselves to God, God has been pleased to 
 become man that He might unite Himself to us. There 
 needs no more to persuade men than this disposition of 
 heart, together with this apprehension of their duty, and of 
 their incapacity for its discharge. 
 
 * Those whom we see commencing real Christians, 
 without the knowledge of prophecies, or of the like evi- 
 dences, do yet judge of their religion no less than the 
 
FAITH WITHOUT REASONING. 79 
 
 masters of that knowledge. They judge of it by the heart 
 as others judge by the understanding. God inclines their 
 heart to faith, and His grace is the most effectual conviction. 
 I confess one of these Christians, who believes without 
 the common methods of proof, is not qualified to convince 
 an infidel, who pretends to want nothing but proof. But 
 those who are skilled in the evidences of religion can with 
 ease demonstrate that such a believer does truly receive his 
 faith from the inspiration of God, though he is unable to 
 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 prove even this of himself. 
 
VII. 
 
 THAT THERE IS MORE ADVANTAGE IN BELIEVING THAN 
 ■IN DISBELIEVING THE DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The main part of this chapter is addressed purely to certain persons 
 who, not being satisfied with the proofs of religion, and much less with 
 the reasons of atheism, remain in a state of suspense between faith and 
 infidelity. The author pretends only to show these men, by their own 
 principles and by the bare light of reason, that it is plainly their 
 interest to believe, and that this is the side which they ought to take, 
 supposing them to be allowed their option. Whence it follows that, 
 till they have obtained sufficient light to guide them to the truth, they 
 are, in the meantime at least, obliged to do everything which may dis- 
 pose them for it, and to disengage themselves from all those impediments 
 which may obstruct its reception, such as are especially the passions 
 and the vain amusements of life. 
 
 Unity joined to infinity increases it not, any more than 
 a foot measure added to an infinite space. Wliat is finite 
 vanishes before that which is infinite, and becomes pure 
 nothing. Thus our understanding in respect of God's ; thus 
 human justice compared with the divine. 
 
 Nay, the disproportion between unity and infinity in 
 general is not so vast as that between man's righteousness 
 and the righteousness of God. 
 
MORE ADVANTAGE IN BELIEVING, ETC. 8t 
 
 * We know that there is an infinite, but we are ignorant 
 of its nature. For instance, we know it to be false that 
 numbers are finite ; there must, therefore, be an infinity in 
 number ; but what this is we know not. It can neither be 
 equal nor unequal^ because unity added to it varies not its 
 condition. Thus we may very well know that there is a 
 God, without comprehending what God is ; and you ought 
 by no means to conclude against the existence of God 
 from your imperfect conceptions of His essence. 
 
 For your conviction I shall not call in the testimony of 
 faith, which gives us so certain an assurance, nor even 
 make use of the ordinary proofs, because these you are 
 unwilling to receive. I shall argue with you only upon 
 your own terms, and I doubt not but, from the method in 
 which you reason every day concerning things of the 
 smallest importance, to make it appear after what manner 
 you ought to reason in the present case, and to which side 
 you ought to incline, in deciding this question of the 
 highest consequence, about the existence of God. You 
 allege, then, that we are incapable of knowing whether God 
 is. Yet this remains certain, that either God is or is not, 
 and that there can be no medium in the case. Which part, 
 then, shall we choose? Reason, say you, is not a proper 
 judge in this point. There is an infinite gulf, or chaos, 
 fixed between us ; we play, as it were, at cross and pile 
 for an uncertainty thus infinitely distant. What will you 
 wager ? Reason can affirm neither the one nor the othes' 
 event ; r?a*on can deny neither the one nor the other. 
 
82 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 Do not be forward, then, in accusing those of error and 
 falsity who have already chosen their side ; for you confess 
 yourself not to know whether they have indeed acted 
 imprudently and made an ill choice. No, you will say, but 
 I shall take the freedom to censure them still, not for 
 making this choice, but for making- any. He that takes 
 cross and he that takes pile are both in the wrong ; the 
 right had been not to wager at all. 
 
 Nay, but there is a necessity of wagering; the thing is 
 placed beyond the indifference of your will; you are 
 embarked in the cause, and by not laying that God is, you, 
 in effect, lay that He is not. AVhich will you take? Let us 
 balance the gain and the loss of sticking to the affirmative. 
 If you gain, you gain all ; if you lose, it is a mere nothing 
 that is lost. Be quick, therefore, and take this side with- 
 out demur. Well, I confess I ought to lay; but may not I 
 lay too much ? Supposing the chance to be the same, you 
 would not refuse to stake one life against two. And in 
 case there were ten for you to win, you must be much 
 more imprudent not to hazard one life against fen at a 
 game where the cast was even. Bill here there is an in- 
 finite number of lives infinitely happy to be won upon an 
 equal throw; and the stake you venture is so petty a thing 
 and of so very short continuance that it would be ridiculous 
 for you to show your good husbandry on this occasion. 
 For you say nothing when you urge that it is uncertain 
 ftheiher you win and that it is certain you must venture, 
 
MORE ADVANTAGE IN BELIEVING, ETC. 83 
 
 and that the infinite distance between the certainty of 
 venturing and the uncertainty of winning makes the finite 
 good, which you certainly expose, equal to the infinite, 
 which you uncertainly pursue. This is all deception ; every 
 gamester stakes what is certain against what is uncertain, 
 and yet his venturing a finite certainty for a finite un- 
 certainty never disparages his reason. Again, it is false that 
 there is an infinite distance between the certainty of what 
 we venture and the uncertainty of what we hope to win. 
 Indeed, the certainty of winning and the certainty of 
 losing are infinitely distant. But as for the uncertainty 
 on the winning hand, it is such as fairly balanceth the 
 certainty of what we venture, according to the usual pro- 
 portion in games of chance. Suppose, therefore, there are as 
 many chances on one side as on the other, the game is even, 
 and thus the certainty of our venture is but equal to the un- 
 certainty of our prize, so far ought we to be from supposing 
 an infinite distance between them. So that on the whole, if 
 we stake a finite where there is a plain equality as to winning 
 or losing, and where that which may be won is infinite, the 
 argument cannot but be of infinite force. We seem here 
 to have a demonstration before us, and if men are not 
 incapable- of all truth they cannot remain insensible of this. 
 I own and confess it ; but still might there not be some 
 means of seeing a little clearer into this matter? Yes, this 
 is to be done by the help of Scripture and by the other 
 infinite proofs of religion. 
 
84 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 Oh, say you, men who may entertain the hope of salva- 
 tion are very happy in this respect ; but is not the fear of 
 hell a very unfortunate counterpoise? 
 
 Which, I beseech you, has most cause to be afraid of 
 hell ; one that is under ignorance whether there be a hell 
 or not, and under certain damnation if there be ; or 
 another who is certainly persuaded that there is a hell, but 
 is encouraged to hope that he shall be delivered from 
 having his part in it? 
 
 A man who is respited (suppose for eight days) from the 
 sentence of death, should he not be inclined to think that 
 there is somewhat more in all this than a mere hit of 
 chance, must have utterly abandoned his senses. But now 
 were we not miserably enslaved by our passions, eight days 
 and an hundred years would, upon this view, appear the 
 same thing. 
 
 What damage are you like to sustain by embracing the 
 affirmative ? Why, you are engaged by this principle to be 
 faithful, honest, humble, grateful, beneficent, hearty, and 
 sincere. It is true you will not bed in possession of base 
 and infamous pleasure, of fading glory, of empty delight. 
 But is not their room to be supplied by more desirable 
 enjoyments ? I tell you, you will be a gainer even in this 
 life; and every step you take in the way to which you are 
 now directed you will discover so much certainty of a 
 future advantage, and so much emptiness and mere nullity 
 in what you hazard, as at length to find that you have 
 
MORE ADVANTAGE IN BELIEVING, ETC. 85 
 
 trafficked for a sure and infinite reversion, and yet, in effect 
 have given nothing for the purchase. 
 
 But, you say. you are so made as to be incapable of 
 believing; at least, therefore, endeavour to understand this 
 your incapacity, and to find what it is that debars you of 
 faith when reason so manifestly invites you to it. Labour, 
 then, in your own conviction, not by increasing the proofs 
 of a Deity, but by diminishing the power of your passions. 
 You are willing to be brought to faith, but you know not 
 the way ; you would be cured of your infidelity, and you 
 desire to be informed of the proper remedies. Learn them 
 from those who were once in your condition, but are at 
 present clear from all scruple and doubt. They are 
 acquainted with the path which you would gladly find ; 
 they have recovered from a disease which you wish to over- 
 come. Observe the method with which they began their 
 cure ; imitate their external actions, if you are, as yet, 
 unable to transcribe their inward dispositions ; banish 
 those amusements which have hitherto entirely possessed 
 you. 
 
 Oh, I should soon bid adieu to these pleasures, say you, 
 were I once but master of faith. And I say, on the other 
 hand, you would soon be master of faith had you once 
 bidden adieu to these pleasures. It is your part to begin. 
 Were it in my power, I would oblige you with the gift 
 of faith. This I am unable to do, and, consequently, 
 to make out the truth of what you suppose ; but you may 
 
86 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 easily abandon your pleasures, and, by consequence, evince 
 the certainty of what I affirm. 
 
 * We must not mistake our own nature, we are body 
 as well as spirit ; and hence it comes to pass that the 
 instrument by which persuasion conveys itself to us is 
 not demonstration only. How few things do we see 
 demonstrated? Rational proof and evidence acts imme 
 diately on the mind ; but custom is the strongest argument. 
 This engages the senses, and they incline the understanding 
 without giving it time for thought. Who has ever yet 
 demonstrated the certainty of to-morrow's light or of 
 our own deaths ? And yet what is more universally 
 believed than both ? It is custom, therefore, which has 
 confirmed us in this judgment ; it is custom which makes 
 so many artisans, soldiers, etc. I confess we ought not 
 to begin with this in the search of truth ; yet we ought 
 to have recourse to it when we have once discovered where 
 truth is, to refresh and invigorate our belief, which decays 
 every moment; for that the regular method and train of 
 arguments should be always present to our minds, the 
 business of life will not permit. We ought to acquire a 
 more easy principle, such as is the habit of believing, which, 
 without violence, without art, without argument, recommends 
 things to our assent, and by some secret charm so inclines 
 all our powers towards any persuasion, as that we naturally 
 fall into it. To be ready to believe any doctrine upon the 
 force of conviction is not sufficient when our senses solicit 
 
MORE ADVANTAGE IN BELIEVING, ETC. 87 
 
 us to embrace the opposite side. These two parts of 
 ourselves should be so regulitej as always to proceed 
 in concert ; the understanding by such arguments and 
 evidences as it is sufficient to have once attained in our 
 whole life ; the senses by custom and by our not suffering 
 them to take a contrary bia« 
 
VIU. 
 
 THE PORTRAIT OF A MAN WHO HAS WEARIED HIMSELF 
 WITH SEARCHING AFTER GOD BY HIS BARE REASON, 
 AND WHO BEGINS TO READ THE SCRIPTURE. 
 
 When I consider the blindness and misery of man, and 
 those amazing contrarieties which discover themselves in 
 his nature ; when I observe the whole creation to be silent, 
 and man to be without comfort, abandoned to himself, and, 
 as it were, strayed into this corner of the universe, neither 
 apprehending by whose means he came hither, nor what 
 is the end of his coming, nor what will befall him at his 
 departure hence, I am struck with the same horror as a 
 person who has been carried in his sleep into a desolate 
 and frightful island, and who awakes without knowing where 
 he is or by what way he may get out and escape. And 
 upon this view I am at a loss to conceive how so miserable 
 an estate can produce anything but despair. I behold other 
 persons near me of the same nature and constitution ; I 
 ask if they are any better informed than myself, and they 
 assure me they are not. Immediately after which I take 
 notice that these unfortunate wanderers, having looked 
 
SEEKING GOD BY BARE REASON. 89 
 
 about them and espied certain objects of pleasure, are 
 contented to seek no farther, but swallow the bait, embrace 
 the charm, and fasten themselves down to the enjoyment. 
 For my own part, I can obtain no satisfaction or repose 
 in the society of persons like myself, labouring under 
 the same weakness and the same distress. I find they 
 will be able to give me no assistance at my death. I 
 shall be obliged to die alone, and, therefore, I ought to 
 proceed in this respect as if I lived alone. Now, in a 
 condition of solitude I would entertain no projects of 
 building ; I would perplex myself with none of the tumul- 
 tuary affairs of life ; I would court the esteem of no person; 
 but would devote myself and my pains to the discovery 
 of truth. 
 
 Hence, reflecting how probable it seems that there may 
 be something else besides that which now presents itself 
 to my eye, I begin to examine whether that supreme and 
 Divine Being, which is so much talked of by all the world, 
 has been pleased to leave any marks or footsteps of Himself. 
 I look round on all sides and see nothing throughout but 
 universal obscurity. Nature offers no consideration but 
 what is the subject of doubt and disquiet. Could I nowhere 
 discern the least token of divinity, I would resolve not 
 to believe at all. Could I in everything trace the image 
 of a Creator, I would rest myself upon a sure and settled 
 belief. But while I see too much to deny and too little 
 to affirm the question with any certainty, my condition 
 renders me an object of pity, and I have a thousand times 
 
go THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 wished that if nature have indeed a Divine Author and 
 supporter, she would present us with the lively draught and 
 uncontested characters of His being; but if the marks 
 which she bears about her are fallacious, she would entirely 
 conceal Him from our view; that she would either say 
 all or say nothing, so as to determine my judgment on 
 either side. Whereas, under my present suspense, being 
 ignorant as well of what I am, as of that which is expected 
 from me, I remain an equal stranger to my condition and 
 my duty. In the meantime, my heart is absolutely bent 
 on the search of real and solid good, such as when found 
 may complete my hopes and regulate my conduct. I 
 should think no price too dear for this acquisition. 
 
 I observe a multitude of religions in all countries and 
 times, but they are such as neither please me with their 
 morals nor move me with their proofs. Thus I would, 
 without distinction, at once reject the relig on of Mahomet 
 or of the Chinese, of ancient Egypt or Rome, upon this 
 single reason, because neither of them being able to 
 produce more signs of truth than another, neither of them 
 affording anything to incline and fix our thought, reason 
 cannot show a greater propension to one mode than to any 
 of the rest. 
 
 But while I am making reflections on this strange and 
 unaccountable variety of manners and of belief in different 
 countries and periods, I find in one little corner of the 
 world a peculiar people, separated from all the nations 
 under heaven, whose registers exceed by many ages the 
 
SEEKING GOD BY BARE REASON. 91 
 
 most ancient stories now on record. I discover a great 
 and numerous race who worship one God and are governed 
 by a law which they affirm themselves to have received 
 from His hand. The sum of what they maintain is this : 
 that they are the only persons whom God has honoured 
 with the communication of His mysteries ; that all other 
 men, having corrupted themselves and merited the divine 
 displeasure, are abandoned to their own sense and imagina- 
 tion, whence arise the endless wanderings and continual 
 alterations amongst them, whether in religion or in civil 
 discipline, while their nation alone has preserved an im- 
 movable establishment ; but that God will not for ever 
 leave the rest of the world under so miserable darkness, 
 that a common Saviour shall at length arrive ; that the 
 sole end of their polity is to prefigure and proclaim His 
 arrival; that they were formed an 1 constituted with express 
 design to be the heralds of His great appearance, and to give 
 warning to all nations that they should unite in the blessed 
 expectation of a Redeemer. 
 
 My adventure amongst this people, as it gives me the 
 greatest surprise, so, it seems to me, deserving the highest 
 regard and attention on account of the many wonderful 
 and singular curiosities discoverable in their frame. 
 
 They are a people composed entirely of brethren ; and 
 whereas all others have been constituted by an assembbge 
 of almost infinite races and bloods, these, though so 
 prodigiously fruitful, have descended all from the same 
 man, whence, being as X)ne flesh and as menibers one of 
 
92 THOUGHTS ON RELIGTON. 
 
 another, they form the most compacted strength of one 
 undivided family. This is most peculiar and distinguishing. 
 
 They are the most ancient people that fall under our 
 knowledge and discovery; a circumstance which, in my 
 judgment, ought to procure them a very particular venera- 
 tion, especially in regard to our present inquiry, because 
 if God has at any time vouchsafed to reveal Himself to 
 mankind, these are the persons from whose hands we are 
 to receive the tradition. 
 
 Nor are they only considerable in point of antiquity, 
 but no less singular in their duration from their original to 
 this day. For while the several people of Greece, of Italy, 
 of Sparta, of Athens, and of Rome, together with others 
 which sprang up long after them, have been extinct many 
 ages, these have always subsisted, and in spite of the various 
 designs of many great and powerful princes, who have a 
 thousand times attempted their destruction— as historians 
 testify, and as it is natural to infer from the ordinary 
 changes and revolutions of things — have maintained them- 
 selves during so vast a course of years, and, stretching 
 themselves from the earliest to the latest memory, have 
 caused the annals of their own nation to be co-extended 
 with the history of the world. 
 
 The law by which this people is governed appears in 
 all respects to be the most ancient and most perfect tnat 
 has obtained amongst men, and the only one which was 
 able to endure without change or interruption in a state, as 
 Philo the Jew has demonstrated on many occasions, and 
 
SEEKING GOD BY BARE REASON. 93 
 
 Josephus most admirably in his discourse against Appion, 
 where the same excellent author observes it to have stood 
 so high in respect of antiquity as that the very name of 
 law was not known in other countries till a thousand years 
 after, insomuch that Homer, though obliged to speak of so 
 many different nations, has not once used the word. And 
 as to the perfection of this law we may easily make an 
 estimate of it from the bare reading, by which we shall 
 discern it to have disposed all things with so much 
 wisdom, judgment, and equity, that it is no wonder the 
 famed legislators of Greece and Rome should borrow 
 thence their principal institutions, as we find they did by 
 the laws of the twelve tables, and by other evidence which 
 Josephus has produced at large. 
 
 Yet this law is at the same time severe and rigorous 
 beyond all others, obliging its votaries, the better to secure 
 them in their duty, to a thousand peculiar and painful 
 observances, under a capitdl penalty ; whence we cannot 
 without astonishment reflect that it should for so many ages 
 be preserved inviolable, amongst a rebellious and impatient 
 people such as we know the Jews to have been, while all 
 other states have from time to time changed the body of 
 their laws, though (on the contrary) mild and gentle, and 
 easy to be obeyed. 
 
 The same people are still no less to be admired for 
 their great sincerity : they preserve, with the utmost faith- 
 fulness and zeal, the very book in which Moses has left it 
 recorded that they were ever stubborn and ungrateful 
 
94 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 towards God, and that he foresaw they would be more 
 perverse after his death ; that he therefore calls heaven and 
 earth to witness against them, as to the sufficiency of the 
 warning which he had given them ; that finally, God being 
 incensed by their transgressions, should scatter them 
 through all lands ; and as they had provoked Him to 
 jealousy by serving gods which were no gods, He also 
 should provoke them, by calling a people which were not a 
 people. 
 
 To conclude : I find no reason to suspect the authority 
 of the book which relates all these particulars : for there is 
 the vastest difference imaginable between a book composed 
 by a private hand and dispersed amongst a whole people, 
 and a book of which the people themselves seem to be the 
 joint authors, as well as the common subject. In this 
 case the antiquity of the book and of the people is con- 
 fessedly the same. 
 
 It is no inconsiderable recommendation of these writings 
 that they were composed by authors contemporary to the 
 facts which they record. All histories compiled by persons 
 not equal in age to the actions described are suspicious ; 
 as the books of the Sibyls, of Hermes Trismegistus, and 
 many others, which having for a while passed vi'ith credit 
 in the world, have been detected as forgeries by succeeding 
 times-. Contemporary authors are neither capable of this 
 fraud, nor Hable to tliis censure. 
 
IX. 
 
 THE INJi;STICE AND CORRUPTION OF MAN. 
 
 Man is visibly made for thinking; this is all the merit which 
 he boasts, and all the glory to which he aspires. To think 
 as we ought is the sunn of human duty ; and the true art of 
 thinking is to begin with ourselves, our Author, and our end. 
 And yet what is that which engrosses the thoughts of the 
 whole world ? Not one of these objects ; but the pursuit 
 of pleasure, the improvement of wealth, the increase of 
 honour and esteem ; in fine, the making ourselves kings, 
 without reflecting what it is to be a king, or to be a man. 
 
 * Human thought is a thing naturally excellent and 
 noble : it must have prodigious defaults ere it can be 
 exposed to contempt ; and yet such it has that nothing is, 
 indeed, more ridiculous. How great does it appear in its 
 genuine nature ; how little under its corruption and abuse ! 
 
 * If we believe a God, the duty of loving Him, and not 
 the creatures, will be necessarily inferred. The reasoning 
 of those profane Epicures described in the Book of Wisdom 
 was grounded on the denial of God's existence. Upon this 
 hypothesis they resolved to take their fill of the creatures : 
 
96 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 but had they known the falseness of their principle, they 
 would have concluded quite the contrary. And this is the 
 conclusion of the wise and the good : there is a God ; the 
 creatures, therefore, ought not to engage our study or 
 attract our desire. Everything which incites to an union 
 with the creatures is evil, because it either hinders us from 
 serving God if we already know Him, or from seeking Him if 
 as yet we know Him not. But now we find ourselves to be 
 full of these incitements, and to be wholly made up of 
 concupiscence. We are, therefore, full of evil; and if so, we 
 ought to hate and detest ourselves, together with all that 
 which allures or endears us to anything but to God alone. 
 
 * If at any time we endeavour to fix our thought and 
 attention upon God, how many things do we feel which 
 divert us from Him, and which tempt us to muse of other 
 subjects? All this cometh of evil ; but of such evil as we 
 have the misfortune to bring with us into the world. 
 
 * It is utterly false that we deserve the esteem or 
 aflection of men, and it is injustice so eagerly to covet it. 
 Were we born masters of reason and with some knowledge 
 of ourselves we should not entertain such a desire ; and 
 yet this very desire accompanies our birth. From our very 
 birth, therefore, we are unjust, while every one of us sets 
 up himself as the great mark of all that he acts or thinks. 
 This is contrary to the order of nature. Our inclinations 
 ought to stand towards the public, and this bias towards 
 ourselves is the first spring of all disorder, in war, in politics, 
 in economics, etc 
 
THE INJUSTICE AND CORRUPTION OF MAN. 97 
 
 * As there ought to be a tendency in all the membeis 
 of communities, whether natural or civil, towards promoting 
 the good of their respective bodies, so the communities 
 themselves ought to tend to the welfare of another body, 
 such as is still more general and comprehensive. 
 
 * Whosoever does not detest in his own heart this self 
 love and this instinct which prompts him to affect a pre- 
 eminence above all persons and things is most wretchedly 
 blind, because nothing has a greater repugnancy to justice 
 and truth ; for as it is false that we deserve such a prefe- 
 rence, so is it unjust and, indeed, impossible to arrive at it, 
 because all are ready to put in their claim to the like 
 supremacy. This, then, is a manifest piece of injustice 
 such as attends our birth, such as we are obliged to correct, 
 and yet such as, hummly speaking, is above our correction. 
 
 Nevertheless, of all religions except the Christian, none 
 has informed us either that this is a sin, or that we are born 
 under its power, or that we are bound to strive against 
 it ; none has once thought of prescribing a method for its 
 cure. 
 
 * There is an intestine war in man between the reason 
 and the passions. He might enjoy some sort of repose 
 were he only swayed by reason without passion, or only by 
 passion without reason ; but since he is acted by both he 
 must live in continual disquiet, not being able to maintain 
 the peace with one without entering into hostility with the 
 other ; and hence he is always divided and always at 
 variance with himself. 
 
 G 
 
58 'IHOUCHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 * It is to be looked upon as monstrous and unnatural 
 lo live carelessly while we are under an utter ignorance of 
 ourselves ; it is, however, far more terrible to live wickedly 
 while we are under a religious persuasion and belief. The 
 greatest part of mankind seem to be possessed with one 
 or the other of these infatuations. 
 
THE JEWS. 
 
 Almighty God, intending to show the world that He was 
 able to form a people spiritually good and righteous, and to 
 fill them with eternal glory, was pleased to represent by the 
 goods of nature what He proposed to accomplish in those 
 of grace, that men might learn to acknowledge the invisible 
 effects of His power by their experience of the visible. 
 
 Thus He saved His people from the deluge in the 
 person of Noah, He caused them to spring from Abraham, 
 He redeemed them out of the hands of their enemies and 
 established them in rest and peace. 
 
 The design of Providence in rescuing them from the 
 common ruin, and in deducing their nation from one stock, 
 was not barely to conduct them to a land of plenty ; but as 
 nature is the image and resemblance of grace, so these 
 visible miracles were symbols and pledges of the invisible 
 to be performed in their season. 
 
 * Another cause why it pleased God in so wonderful a 
 manner to institute and train up the Jewish people seems to 
 have been that, having resolved to abridge His faithful 
 
 G 2 
 
loo THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 servants of carnal and perishable enjoyments, He might 
 evince by such a series of miracles that He did not deny 
 for want of power to bestow. 
 
 * This people have been always immersed in gross and 
 earthly conceits ; as that their father Abraham, even in 
 respect of his flesh, was dear to God, and, consequently, 
 all who descended from him ; that for this reason God had 
 multiplied them on the earth, and by giving them special 
 marks of distinction had prevented their mixing with othei 
 nations, had recovered them out of Egypt by many great 
 and wonderful signs performed in their favour, had fed 
 them with manna in the wilderness, had brought them into 
 a fruitful and happy seat, had appointed over them kings of 
 their own race, had raised them a magnificent temple for 
 the offering up of beasts and the purifying themselves by 
 the blood of their sacrifices, and would, in conclusion, send 
 them a victorious Messias who should make them masters of 
 the world. 
 
 * The Jews were accustomed to great and splendid 
 miracles ; and hence, looking on the wonders of the Red 
 Sea and of the promised land only as an abridgment of the 
 mighty things of their Messias, they expected from Him still 
 more illustrious and surprising performances, of which 
 all the acts of Moses should seem but an imperfect speci- 
 men. 
 
 When they were now grown old in carnal errors, Jesus 
 Christ actually came at the time foretold, but not with that 
 outward splendour which had possessed their thought. And 
 
THE JEWS. loi 
 
 hence they apprehended Him not to be the Messias. After 
 His death St. Paul was sent to instruct men that all these 
 things happened in figure, that the Kingdom of God was 
 in the spirit, not in the flesh ; that their enemies were not 
 Babylonians, but their own lusts and passions ; that God 
 delighted not in temples made with hands, but in a pure 
 and humble mind ; that bodily circumcision was unprofit- 
 able, but the circumcision of the heart greatly necessary and 
 important, etc. 
 
 God having not thought fit wholly to disclose these truths 
 to so unworthy a people, and yet designing to foretell them 
 that they might hereafter gain the more easy acceptation 
 and belief, signified the time of their accomplishment in 
 express terras, and sometimes clearly imparted the things 
 themselves, but generally represented them under shades 
 and figures, to the intent that those who loved the re- 
 presentation might fix on it without looking farther ; and 
 that those who loved the reality might be able to discern it 
 through the representation. Agreeably to this design we 
 see the nation dividing itself at the Messiah's appearance. 
 The spiritual part received and embraced Him ; and the 
 larnal part who rejected Him remain His witnesses to this 
 day. 
 
 * The carnal Jews understood neither the greatness nor 
 the humiliation of the Messias foretold by their prophets. 
 They did not know Him in His greatness and exaltation. As 
 when they were assured that He should be David's Lord, 
 though his Son, that He preceded Abraham and had seen 
 
102 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 him, they conceived Him not so great as to have been from 
 all eternity. Nor did they less mistake Him in His humilia- 
 tion and death. " Christ," say they, " abideth for ever, and 
 this man professeth of himself that he shall die." They 
 neither believed Him therefore to be mortal, nor yet to be 
 eternal ; they considered Him with no other regard but to 
 worldly pomp and state. 
 
 * They so much doted on the shadows of good things, 
 and so entirely fixed them as the objects of their hope, that 
 they at last mistook the substance, when appearing at the 
 time and in the manner described by the prophets. 
 
 * Men indisposed to believing are wont to have recourse 
 for shelter to the unbelief of the Jews. If matters, say 
 they, were indeed so clear and notorious, what should 
 hinder those who were the eye-witnesses of them, from 
 being perfectly convinced? Whereas, their infidelity is 
 really one of the foundations of our faith. Had they been 
 indifferent persons, their obstinacy might have increased our 
 aversion, and have given us a better colour for jealousy and 
 distrust. But here is the miracle, that the same people who 
 were so violent lovers of the predictions should be no less 
 violent haters and opposers of the accomplishments ; and 
 that this very hatred and opposition should itself be one of 
 the chief predictions. 
 
 * To procure authority'and reputation to the Messias, 
 it was necessary that certain prophecies should precede His 
 appearance, and should remain in the custody of unsuspected 
 persons, such as were eminent for diligence and fidelity, and 
 
THE JEWS. 103 
 
 above all, for zeal, and such as were remarkably known to 
 the rest of mankind. 
 
 That things might succeed accordingly, God was pleased 
 to make choice of this carnal people, and to give them in 
 charge of the predictions concerning the Messias, which 
 described Him after the manner of a temporal deliverer, and 
 a dispenser of sensible goods, such as their hearts were 
 particularly affected with. Hence, as they received the 
 prophets with the greatest demonstrations of affection and 
 reverence, so they communicated to all nations those books 
 of prophets which foretold the coming of the Mighty One ; 
 assuring them that He would most certainly come, and in 
 the very manner expressed by their records, which they 
 kept open to the view of the whole world. But being 
 finally deceived by the meanness and ignominy of His con- 
 dition here on earth, they became His greatest opposers. So 
 that we have now a people, who of all mankind can be least 
 suspected of partial favour towards us, thus lending their 
 assistance to support our cause, and by the zeal which they 
 show for their law and their prophets, preserving with the 
 most exact fidelity our evidences and their own condem- 
 nation. 
 
 * Those who rejected and crucified our Lord, being 
 ofifended at Him, are .the same people with whom those 
 writings still remain which testify concerning Him, and 
 which affirm that He shall be rejected by them and shall be 
 a rock of offence. Thus has their refusal added an eminent 
 mark to the truth of His credentials; and H? has been 
 
104 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 equally demonstrated for the Messias by the righteous 
 part of the Jewish nation who embraced Him and by 
 the wicked part who despised Him, the one event no 
 less than the other having been long before prophetically 
 declared. 
 
 ■ * The reason why the prophecies were conceived with 
 a double sense, a remote and spiritual, to which this people 
 were strongly averse, under an obvious and carnal, to which 
 they were eagerly inclined, seems to have been this. Had 
 the spiritual sense been entirely disclosed to them, it being 
 such as they were unable to love, to embrace, or even 
 to bear, they would have had very little zeal to preserve 
 their writings and institutions. Or if they could have 
 relished these spiritual promises and had, therefore, kept 
 their books uncorrupted till the time of the Messias, then 
 their evidence must have suffered in its force, as being the 
 testimony of friends. We see, therefore, on the one hand 
 the necessity of concealing the spiritual sense ; yet, on 
 the other hand, should this concealment have been too 
 deep for all light and discovery, the great evidences of the 
 Messias had been suppressed. What expedient, therefore, 
 was applied ? The spiritual sense was, as to the main, 
 disguised under the carnal, yet in some places was expressly 
 delivered witliout the least covert or shade. Again, the 
 time and state of the world were so exactly and with so 
 many circumstances described and de'.errained, that the 
 sun is not clearer at noonday. And there are some 
 passages in which the spiritual import is so apparently 
 
THE JEWS. 105 
 
 taught, that no less degree of blindness than that which 
 the mind suffers when entirely oppressed and enslaved by 
 the body, can withhold us from discerning it. 
 
 See, then, the admirable disposal of Providence. In 
 an infinite number of places the spiritual sense is covered 
 over with another, yet in some, though rarely occurring, it 
 is openly revealed, and this in such a manner as that the 
 passages in which it is suppressed are capable of both 
 senses ; but those in which it is declared can agree only to 
 the spiritual. 
 
 So that this proceeding can by no means be accused as 
 tending to lead men into error, nor could by any, but by 
 a people whose heart was so entirely carnal, have been 
 perverted or misunderstood. 
 
 Thus when good things were promised them in great 
 abundance, what could hinder them from interpreting this 
 promise of true and real goods but their covetousness, 
 which determined their apprehension to earthly riches? 
 Whereas those who placed their only treasure in heaven 
 would have referred the promise to God alone. For there 
 are two principles which divide the wills of men : covetous- 
 ness and charity. It is not, indeed, impossible that 
 covetousness should subsist with faith, or charity with 
 temporal possessions. But here is the difference : the 
 former employs itself in using God and enjoying the world, 
 the latter in using the world and enjoying God. 
 
 Again, the end which we pursue is that which gives 
 names to things, and whatever hinders us in the prosecu- 
 
io6 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 tion of this is said to be at enmity with us. Thus the 
 creatures which are good in themselves do yet become the 
 enemies of good men when they divert them from God, 
 and God Himself is styled an enemy by those whom He 
 opposes in their lusts. 
 
 Hence the appellation of enemy changing its construc- 
 tion according to the different end which men propose, 
 good men by it understood their passions, and carnal men 
 the Babylonians, so that this term was obscure only with 
 respect to the wicked. And it is on this account that Isaiah 
 says : Signa legem in discipidis nieis — " Seal the law among 
 my disciples," and that he tells us : " Christ shall be a 
 stone of stumbling and a rock of offence," though, as 
 our Lord himself declares, " Blessed are those who shall 
 not be offended in him." 
 
 The prophet Hosea evidently declares the same diffe- 
 rence : " Who is wise, and he shall understand these things ; 
 prudent, and he shall know them ? For the ways of the 
 Lord aie right, and the just shall walk in them ; but trans- 
 gressors shall fall therein." 
 
 Yet this Book of the Old Testament, which was in such 
 a manner framed and compiled as that while it enlightened 
 some it no less blinded others, did, nevertheless, demon- 
 strate in the latter the truth which it discovered to the 
 former. For the visible and temporal goods which they 
 received from God were so great and divine as to testify 
 His power of conferring all invisible and spiritual blessings, 
 together with Mie end of all, the Messias. 
 
THE JEWS. 107 
 
 * The time of our Lord's first coming was expressly 
 foretold, but that of His second is not ; because at His 
 first coming He was to appear in a private manner and 
 without any splendid marks of distinction, whereas His 
 second advent shall be surprising, public, illustrious, and 
 visible to His greatest enemies. But though His first 
 appearance was to be thus obscure, discernible only by 
 those who searched the Scriptures, yet were things so 
 providentially disposed that all this contributed to the 
 making Him known. The Jews were His witnesses by 
 receiving Him, because they were the guardians of the 
 prophecies ; and they were no less His witnesses by re- 
 jecting Him, because in this they very signally accom- 
 plished the same prophecies. 
 
 * The Jews were in possession of miracles which they 
 had seen performed, and of prophecies which they had 
 seen fulfilled. Again, the doctrine of their law was com- 
 prised in the love and adoration of one God, and this 
 doctrine was perpetual ; it had, therefore, all the marks of 
 the true religion. And so it really was, for we ought to 
 distinguish between the doctrine of the Jews and the 
 doctrine of the law of the Jews. The doctrine of the 
 Jews could not have been true, though we should suppose 
 it to have had miracles, and prophecies, and perpetuity on 
 its side, because it was deficient in the main principle, the 
 loving and adoring of God alone. 
 
 The Jewish religion ought to be considered very 
 differently in the tradition of holy men and in the tradition 
 
io8 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 of the vulgar. The moral it teaches and the blessedness 
 it proposes are both ridiculous according to the tradition 
 of the vulgar; but they are incomparably great and ex- 
 cellent in the tradition of holy men. Its foundation is 
 wonderful ; it is the most ancient and most authentic 
 book in the world ; and whereas Mahomet, to procure the 
 establishment of his writings, has forbidden them to be 
 read, Moses, to confirm the authority of his, has commanded 
 all the world to read them. 
 
 * The Jewish religion is altogether divine in its 
 authority, in its duration, in its perpetual obligation, in its 
 morality, in its conduct, in its doctrine, in its effects. 
 
 This whole model and pattern was formed with re- 
 semblance to the truth of the Messias ; and the truth of the 
 Messias was discovered and testified by this its model 
 and pattern. 
 
 Under the Jewish economy truth appeared but in 
 figure ; in heaven it is open and without veil. In the 
 Church militant it is so veiled as to be yet discerned by its 
 correspondence to the figure. As the figure was first built 
 upon the truth, so the truth is now distinguishable by the 
 figure. 
 
 * He that takes his estimate of the Jewish religion from 
 the grossness of the Jewish multitude cannot fail of making 
 a very wrong judgment. It is to be sought for in the 
 sacred writings and in the traditions of the prophets, who 
 have given us sufticient assurance that they understood the 
 \m not according to the letter. Our religion in like manner 
 
THE JEWS. 109 
 
 is true and divine in the Gospels, in the preaching of the 
 Apostles, and in the traditions of the Church; but it 
 appears utterly disfigured in those who main:i or corrupt it. 
 
 * The Jews seem to have been of two sorts, according 
 to their diiferent passions and desires, which in some were 
 merely pagan, in others altogether Christian. 
 
 * The Messias, according to the carnal Jews, was to 
 come like a mighty temporal prince. According to carnal 
 Christians, He is come to dispense with our loving God, 
 and to give us sacraments which shall operate without our 
 concurrence. This is no more the religion of Christians 
 than that was properly the religion of Jews. 
 
 * The true votaries of both religions agree in acknow- 
 ledging a Messias who shall inspire them with the love 
 of God, and by that love shall make them triumph over 
 their enemies. 
 
 * The veil which is upon the Scriptures, in respect of 
 the carnal Jews, holds likewise in respect of wicked 
 Christians, and of all those who will not submit to hate 
 and detest themselves. But how well are we disposed 
 for the understanding of the Scriptures, and for the know- 
 ledge of Jesus Christ, when we have once made ourselves 
 the objects of our real aversion and abhorrence ? 
 
 * The carnal Jews fill the middle place between 
 Christians and pagans. The pagans knew not God, and, 
 therefore, loved nothing but the world ; the Jews knew the 
 true God, and still loved nothing but the world ; while we 
 Christians, as we' have received the knowledge of the true 
 
no THOUGHTS ON RELIGIOA. 
 
 God, so we have renounced the love of the world. Jews 
 and pagans love the same world, Christians and Jews know 
 the same God. 
 
 * The Jews are a people visibly framed to be the 
 standing witnesses of the Messias. They preserve the 
 Scripture with the greatest diligence ; they love it with the 
 greatest ardour ; but they are wholly at a loss in appre- 
 hending it. And all this has been expressly foretold, for 
 it is said that the statutes of God should be delivered 
 to them, but as a book that is sealed. 
 
 * So long as there was a succession of prophets to guard 
 the law, the people were entirely negligent as to its custody. 
 But upon the ceasing of the prophets, the zeal of the people 
 supplied their room. And this, amongst others, is a provi- 
 dence too remarkable to be overlooked. 
 
XI. 
 
 MOSES. 
 
 When the creation of the world began now to stand at 
 a remoter distance, God was pleased to provide a con- 
 temporary historian, and to appoint a whole nation for 
 the keepers of his history, as well that this register might 
 be the most authentic in the world, as that all mankind 
 might hence be instructed in a fact which was so necessary 
 for them to know, and yet so impossible otherwise to be 
 known. 
 
 * Moses was a person of very great genius and capacity 
 This is on all hands confessed. Had he, therefore, writter 
 with an intention of deceiving, he would have executed 
 it in such a manner as not to be convicted of the deceit. 
 His conduct we find to be quite different, insomuch that, 
 had he delivered what was fabulous, there was not one Jew 
 but could have detected the imposture. 
 
 Why, for instance, does he make the lives of the first 
 men so vastly long, and so very few generations of them? 
 In a multitude of generations he might have sheltered 
 
112 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 himself from discovery ; but in a few this artifice was 
 impracticable. For it is not the number of years, but of 
 generations, which renders things obscure. 
 
 Truth never decays or is impaired but by the succession 
 and change of men. And yet we find this historian placing 
 the two greatest events that can enter into human thought 
 — the Creation and the Deluge — so cl jse together as even 
 to make them touch, by means of the few generations 
 which he counts between. Insomuch, that at the time 
 of his registering these things, the memory of them could 
 not but be still fresh and lively in the minds of all the 
 Jewish nation. 
 
 * Lamec had a sight of Adam, Sem of Lamec, Abraham 
 of Sem, Jacob of Abraham, and Moses of those who had 
 seen Jacob. Therefore the Creation and the Deluge are 
 indubitably true. This argument must be acknowledged 
 for conclusive by those who apprehend its process. 
 
 * The longevity of the patriarchs, instead of contributing 
 to the decay of past memory, was in the highest degree 
 serviceable to its preservation. For if we are sometimes 
 hindered from being sufficiently expert in the story of our 
 ancestors it is because we have seldom lived in their com- 
 pany, or because they left the world before we arrived at 
 the age of reason. But when human life ran out to such 
 an extent, children enjoyed the means of conversing long 
 with their parents. And what could be the subject of this 
 conversation but the lives and actions of their progenitors, 
 since these comprised the body of universal history, and 
 
MOSES. 113 
 
 since men were as yet unacquainted with arts and sciences 
 which now take up so laige a share in our discourse? 
 It seems evident, therefore, that the keeping exact genea- 
 logies was the peculiar care and almost the whole employ- 
 ment of those earlier times. 
 
XII. 
 
 FIGURES. 
 
 As there are some figures clear and demonstrative, so there 
 are others which seem less natural and which prove nothing 
 but to those who have discovered the same truths by other 
 lights. The latter figures may seem to resemble those 
 invented by some men who build prophecies on the 
 Revelations, expounded according to their own fancy. But 
 here is the difierence : such persons have no infallible 
 predictions to support the doubtful ones which they would 
 introduce. So that they are guilty of the highest injustice 
 while they pretend theirs to be alike well grounded with 
 some of ours ; because they have not others which are 
 incontestable to prove them by, as we have. This is by no 
 means, therefore, a parallel case ; nor ought we to compare 
 and confound things which agree in one respect, when they 
 are so vastly distant in all others. 
 
 * Jesus Christ, prefigured by Joseph, the beloved of 
 his father, and by him sent to visit his brethren, is the 
 innocent person whom his brethren sold for a few pieces 
 of silver, and who, by this means, became their lord and 
 
FIGURES. .115 
 
 saviour, nay, the saviour of strangers and of the whole 
 world; which had not happened but for this plot of 
 destroying him, this act of rejecting him and of exposing 
 him to sale. 
 
 Consider in both examples the same fortune and the 
 same innocence : Joseph in the prison between two 
 criminals, Jesus on the cross between two thieves ; Joseph 
 foretells deliverance to one of his companions and death 
 to the other from the same omens ; Jesus Christ saves one 
 companion and deserts the other after the same crimes ; 
 Joseph could barely foretell, Jesus Christ, by His own 
 action, performs what He had foretold ; Joseph requests the 
 person who should be delivered to be mindful of him in his 
 glory, the person saved by Jesus Christ entreats his deliverer 
 to remember him when He came into His Kingdom. 
 
 * The Jewish synagogue never totally ceased and 
 became extinct, because it was the figure of the Christian 
 Church ; and yet, because it was only the figure, it was 
 suffered to fall into servitude. The figure subsisted till the 
 arrival of the truth ; to the intent that the Church might be 
 always visible, either in the shadow and representation, or 
 in the substance and reality. 
 
XIII. 
 
 THAT THE LAW WAS FIGURATIVE. 
 
 To evince the authority of both Testaments at once, we are 
 only to observe whether that which is prophesied in the one 
 be performed and accomplished in the other. 
 
 * If we would effectually try and examine the prophecies, 
 we ought first of all to be sure that we rightly understand 
 them. For, supposing them to have but one sense, it is 
 certain the Messias cannot yet be come ; but, supposing 
 tbera to have two senses, the Messias is certainly come 
 n the person of Jesus Christ. 
 
 All the question, therefore, is whether they are indeed 
 capable of a double meaning ; whether they are figures or 
 realities, that is, whether we ought not to seek something 
 faither in them than what they immediately present; or 
 whether we ought to acquiesce in that construction which 
 offers itself to us at the first view ? 
 
 If the law and the sacrifices are real it is necessary that 
 they should please God and on no account be displeasing 
 to Him ; if they are figurative it is necessary they should 
 be pleasing and displeasing to God in different regards ; 
 
THAT THE LAW WAS FIGURATIVE. 117 
 
 but now through the whole series of Scripture they are 
 sometimes affirmed to please God, sometimes to displease 
 Him, and, by consequence, they are only figurative. 
 
 * It is said that the law shall be changed, that the 
 sacrifices shall cease, that the people shall continue without 
 a king, without a prince, and without a sacrifice ; that a new 
 covenant shall be established, that a reform shall be made 
 in the law, that the Jews received commandments which 
 were not good, that their sacrifices were abominations, and 
 things which God required not at their hands. 
 
 It is said again that the law shall abide for ever, that 
 the covenant shall be eternal, the sacrifices perpetual, and 
 that the sceptre shall never depart from Judah because it is 
 to continue till the everlasting King shall commence His 
 reign. Do such expressions evince all this to be real ? No. 
 Do they demonstrate it to be figurative? No. They only 
 show that it must be either reality or figure. Bat the 
 former compared with these latter exclude the reality and 
 establish the figure. 
 
 All these passages taken together cannot be applied to 
 the reality, but they may be all applied to the figure, therefore 
 they were spoken in figure, not in reality. 
 
 * Would we know whether the law and the sacrifices 
 are real or figurative, we ought to discover whether the 
 - prophets, in speaking of these things, had their eyes and 
 thoughts entirely fixed on them so as to look no farther 
 than the old covenant, or whether they did not carry their 
 intention to somewhat else of which all this was but the 
 
ii8 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 shadow and semblance, as in a picture we contemplate the 
 thing represented ; and in order to this discovery we need 
 only hear what they say. 
 
 Now when they speak of the covenant as being ever- 
 lasting, is it possible they should mean the same covenant 
 which they elsewhere testify shall be changed ? The like 
 may be observed of the sacrifices, etc. 
 
 * The prophets have expressly said that Israel shall be 
 always beloved of God, and that the law shall be an ordi- 
 nance for ever; but they have likewise said that their words 
 were veiled and their meaning not to be fathomed by their 
 hearers. 
 
 * We may illustrate this whole case by the familiar 
 instance of writing in cyphers. Suppose we intercept a 
 letter of importance in which we discern one plain and 
 obvious meaning, and are told at the same time that the 
 sense is yet so obscured as that we shall even see the 
 words without seeing it, and understand them without 
 understanding it; what are we to judge but that the piece 
 has been penned in cyphers ? and so much the rather, the 
 more apparent contrarieties we meet with in the literal 
 construction. How great esteem and veneration ought we 
 therefore to express for those who decipher this writing to 
 us and bring us acquainted with its secrets, especially if the 
 key which they make use of be easy, agreeable, and natural? 
 This is what was performed by our Lord and His Apostles : 
 they have opened the seal and rent the veil, and rescued 
 the spiritual sense from the literal disguise ; they have 
 
THAT THE LAW WAS FIGURATIVE. ng 
 
 taught us that our enemies are our own carnal affections, 
 and that our Redeemer is to be a spiritual conqueror, that 
 He is to have a first and a second coming, the one in 
 humihty to abase the proud, the other in glory to exalt the 
 humble ; in a word, that Jesus Christ is to be God as well 
 as man. 
 
 * It was our Lord's chief employment to inform men 
 that they were lovers of themselves, that they were sinners 
 and slaves, blind, distempered, and miserable ; that here- 
 upon it was needful he should deliver and heal them, 
 should enlighten, restore, and bless them ; that all this was 
 to be performed by their hating themselves, and by their 
 taking up each his cross and following Him, their Master, 
 to affliction and death. 
 
 * The letter killeth. It was necessary that Christ 
 should suffer, that God should humble Himself, that there 
 should be a circumcision of the heart, a true fast, a true 
 sacrifice, a true temple, a twofold law (as well as a twofold 
 table of the law), a twofold temple, a twofold captivity. 
 This was the. difficult cypher presented to us. 
 
 We have at length been taught by our Lord to unfold 
 the intricacy of these figures ; we have been informed what 
 it is to be truly free, to be a true Israelite; we have been 
 shown the true circumcision, the true bread of heaven, etc. 
 
 * In the promises of the Old Testament every one 
 finds what he chiefly delights to seek, what is most agree- 
 able to his own heart and affections, spiritual goods or 
 temporal, God or the creatures; but with this difference, 
 
I20 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 that they who seek the creatures find them attended with 
 numerous contradictions, with a prohibition to love them, 
 and with a difficult injunction to love and worship God 
 alone ; whereas they who seek God find Him without the 
 least repugnancy, and with a pleasing command to admit no 
 other object of worship or of love. 
 
 * The main sources of verbal contrarieties in Scriptures 
 are the mysteries of a God humbled to the death of the 
 cross ; of a Messias triumphing over death by dying Him- 
 self; of the two natures in Jesus Christ; of His twofold 
 coming; of the two estates and conditions of human 
 n?.ture. 
 
 * As we cannot justly compose a man's character, but 
 by accounting for all the contrarieties in this humour or 
 conduct ; and as it is not enough to pursue a train of agree- 
 able qualities, without giving the resolution of those which 
 appear to be opposite ; so ere we can perfectly understand 
 the sense of an author, it is necessary that all the contrary 
 passages should be reconciled. 
 
 Wherefore in order to a right apprehension of the 
 Scripture, we ought to find out a sense in which all the 
 seemingly opposite places shall agree. Nor is it sufficient 
 to have an interpretation in which many consonant passages 
 shall be united, but we must have one in which the most 
 dissonant shall meet and conspire. 
 
 Every author either has one principal aim and purport, 
 in which all the supposed differences will be found con- 
 sistent, or he has no meaning at all. The latter cannot be 
 
THAT THE LAW WAS FIGURATIVE. 121 
 
 said of the Scriptures and prophecies. They unquestionably 
 abound in good sense. Some one meaning, then, they will 
 afford us, by which die several repugnancies in style may be 
 adjusted and composed. 
 
 Their true sense, therefore, cannot be that which is 
 given them by the Jews. But in Jesus Christ all the various 
 dissonancies are reduced to perfect harmony. 
 
 The Jews had not skill enough to make the abrogation 
 of the royalty and principality, foretold by Hosea, accord 
 with the prophecy of Jacob. 
 
 If we take the law, the sacrifices, and the kingdom, for 
 things really and ultimately designed, we shall not be able 
 to reconcile all the passages of the same author, nor of the 
 same book, nor, many times, of the same chapter. Which 
 sufficiently discovers the intention of the writers. 
 
 * The Jews were not permitted to offer sacrifice, or so 
 much as to eat the tenths, elsewhere than at Jerusalem only, 
 the place which the Lord had chosen. 
 
 * Hosea foretold that the Jews should be without a king, 
 without a prince, without sacrifices, and without images. 
 Wiich prediction we now see fully accomplished ; no 
 sacrifice being legally to be offered but at Jerusalem. 
 
 * Whenever the word of God, which is eternally true, 
 seems to be false in the literal construction, its truth is 
 preserved in the spiritual, " Sit thou on my right hand : " 
 this is false if spoken literally, yet it is spiritually true. 
 Such expressions as these describe God after the manner of 
 men. And this in particular only implies that the same 
 
122 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 honour which men intend in setting others at their right 
 hand, God will also confer, in the exaltation of the Messias. 
 It is, therefore, a note of the divine intention, but affects not 
 the precise manner of the execution. 
 
 Thus again, when it is said to the Israelites, God has 
 received the odour of your incense, and will give you in 
 recompense a fertile and plentiful land, the meaning is no 
 more than this, That the same affection which men, delighted 
 with your perfumes, would express by rewarding you with a 
 fruitful land, the same will God express towards you in His 
 blessings ; because you also entertain the like grateful dis- 
 position towards God, as a man does towards his 
 superiors, when he thus presents them with sweet odours. 
 
 The sole aim and intention of the whole Scripture is 
 charity. All that tends not to this end is merely figure. 
 For since there can be but one point and ultimate scope, 
 whatever is not directed thither in express terms must, at 
 least, be couched under such as are ambiguous. 
 
 God, in compassion to our weakness, which variety alone 
 can please, has so varied this one precept of charity as to 
 conduct us every way to our real interest and welfare. For 
 one thing alone being strictly necessary, and yet our hearts 
 being set on divers things, God has provided for the satis- 
 faction of both these inclinations together, by giving us such 
 a diversity as still leads us forward to the one thing 
 necessary. 
 
 * The Rabbins take the breasts of His spouse for figure ; 
 
THAT THE LAW WAS FIGURATIVE. 123 
 
 as they do everything which has not a tendency to the sole 
 mark of their expectation, worldly and carnal goods. 
 
 * There are, and always have been, men who rightly 
 apprehend that the only enemy of human nature is concu- 
 piscence, which turns us away from God ; and that God 
 Himself, not a fruitful land, is our only good and happiness. 
 Those who fancy the good of man to consist in gratifying 
 the flesh, and his evil in the disappointment ot sensual . 
 desire, let them wallow in their pleasures, let them die in 
 their enjoyments. But as for those who seek God with 
 their whole heart, whom nothing can grieve but the being 
 deprived of the light of His countenance, who have no desire 
 but to enjoy His favour, no enemies but such as divert or 
 withhold them from Him, and whose greatest affliction is to 
 see themselves encompassed and even subdued by such 
 enemies, let them be comforted. For them there is a 
 deliverer, for them there is a God ! 
 
 A Messias was promised, who should rescue men from 
 their enemies. A Messias is come ; but to rescue men 
 from no other enemies than their sins. 
 
 * When David says that the Messias shall deliver the 
 people from their enemies, this, by a carnal expositor, may 
 be applied to the Egyptians. And then I confess I am at 
 a loss to show him how the prophecy has been fulfilled. 
 Yet it maybe likewise applied to men's iniquities; since 
 these, and not the Egyptians, are to be looked on as real 
 enemiv... 
 
124 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 Bat if in other places he declares, as he doss (together 
 with Isaiah and others), that the Messias shall deliver His 
 people from their sins, the ambiguity is taken off, and 
 the double sense of enemies reduced to the single meaning 
 of iniquities. For if th^se latter were chiefly in his thought, 
 he might well express them by borrowing the name of the 
 former ; but if his mind was wholly bent on the former, it was 
 impossible he should signify them under the appellation of 
 the latter. 
 
 Moses, David, and Isaiah all speak of this victory in the 
 same terms. Must we not, therefore, acknowledge that 
 these terms have the same sense ; and that Moses and 
 David had but one intention, while both speak of 
 men's enemies, and the latter visibly alludes to men's 
 sins? 
 
 Daniel, in his ninth chapter, prays that the people may be 
 delivered from the captivity of their enemies ; but his eye 
 was plainly fixed on their transgressions. And to show that 
 it was so, he proceeds to relate the sending of Gabriel to 
 him, with an assurance that his prayer was heard; and that 
 after the seventy weeks the people should obtain deliverance 
 from their iniquity, that transgressions should then have an 
 end, and the Redeemer, the most holy, should bring in (not 
 legal, but) everlasting righteousness. 
 
 When we are once let into these secrets, it is impossible 
 for us not to discern and apprehend them. Let us read 
 the books of the Old Testament by this light. Let us see 
 
THAT THE LAW WAS FIGURATIVE. 125 
 
 whether Abraham's lineage and descent were the real 
 causes of his being styled the Friend of God ? Whether the 
 promised land was the true seat of rest ? Neither of these 
 can be afifirraed; therefore both were symbolical. In a 
 word, let us examine all the legal ceremonies, and all the 
 precepts which are not of charity, and we shall find them 
 composing one general imagCj one uninterrupted allegory 
 and prefiguration. 
 
XIV. 
 
 JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 The infinite distance that there is between body and spirit 
 does but imperfectly represent to us the distance between 
 spirit and charity, which being altogether supernatural, may 
 be said to be infinitely more infinite. 
 
 All the splendour of outward greatness casts no 
 lustre towards the eyes of those who are engaged in the 
 pursuits of wit. 
 
 The greatness of wit and parts is wholly undiscernible 
 to the rich, to kings, and conquerors, and to all the great 
 ones of the world. 
 
 The greatness of that wisdom which cometh from above 
 is alike imperceptible to the worldly and to the witty. These 
 are three orders of quite different kinds. 
 
 Great geniuses have their kingdom and splendour, their 
 victory and glory ; and want not carnal greatness, because it 
 has no relation to the grandeur which they pursue. This 
 grandeur does not, indeed, strike the eyes, but it is enough 
 that it casts a distinguishable radiancy on the soul. 
 
 The saints likewise have their empire, their lustre, their 
 
JESUS CHRIST. 127 
 
 greatness, and their triumphs ; ana want not the pomp of 
 honour, or the pride of genius, for these things are quite 
 out of their sphere and order, and such as neither increase 
 nor diminish the grandeur to which they aspire. These 
 truly great ones are equally invisible to bodily eyes and to 
 curious and subtle wits ; but they are manifested to God 
 and angels, and are not ambitious of other spectators. 
 
 Archimedes would have gained the same esteem, without 
 his relation to the royal blood of Sicily. It is true he won 
 no battles ; but he has left to all the world the benefit of 
 his admirable inventions. Oh, how great, how bright 
 does he appear to the eyes of the mind ! 
 
 Jesus Christ, without worldly riches, without the ex- 
 terior productions of science, was infinitely great in His 
 sublime order of holiness. He neither published inventions 
 nor possessed kingdoms; but He was humble, patient, pure 
 before God, terrible to evil spirits, and without spot o sin. 
 Oh, with what illustrious pomp, with what transcendent 
 magnificence did He come attended, to such as beheld with 
 the eyes of the heart, and with those faculties which are the 
 judges and discerners of true wisdom ! 
 
 It had been needless for Archimedes, though of princely 
 descent, to have acted the prince in his book of geometry. 
 
 It had been needless for our Lord Jesus Christ to have 
 assumed the state of an earthly king, for the illustration of 
 His kingdom of holiness. But how great, how excellent 
 did He appear in the brightness of His proper order ! 
 
 It is most unreasonable to be scandalised at the mean 
 
128 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 condition of our Lord, as if it were opposed in the same 
 order and kind to the greatness which He came to display. 
 Let us consider this greatness in His life, in His sufferings, 
 in His solitude, in His death, in the choice of His attendants, 
 in their act of forsaking Him, in the privacy of His resur- 
 rection, and in all the other parts of His history ; we shall 
 find it so truly raised and noble, as to leave no ground for 
 our being offended at a meanness which was quite of another 
 order. 
 
 But there are some who can admire only the greatness 
 of this world ; as if there were no proper greatness in wit. 
 And others who are charmed only with greatness of wit, as 
 if there were not still a more noble, a more sublime greatness 
 in wisdom. 
 
 The whole system of bodies, the firmament, the stars, 
 the earth, and the kingdoms of it are not fit to be opposed 
 in value to the lowest mind or spirit; because spirit is en- 
 dued with the knowledge and apprehension of all this ; 
 whereas body is utterly stupid and insensible. Again, the 
 whole united systems of bodies and spirits are not compar- 
 able to the least motion of charity ; because this is still of 
 an order infinitely more exalted and divine. 
 
 From all body together, we are not able to extract one 
 thought. This is impossible, and quite of another order. 
 Again, all body and spirit are unable to produce one spark 
 of charity. This is likewise impossible, and of an order 
 above nature. 
 
 * Jesus Christ lived in so much obscurity (as to what 
 
ySSUS CHRIST. 129 
 
 the world terras obscure) that the pagan historians, who 
 were wont to record only persons of eminence and things 
 of importance, have scarce afforded Him a slender 
 notice. 
 
 * Who amongst men was ever arrayed with so much 
 splendour as our Lord? The whole Jewish nation pro- 
 phesied of Him before His coming ; the Gentile world 
 adored Him at His coming. Both Jews and Gentiles 
 regarded Hira as their common centre, their expecta- 
 tion and desire. And yet who had ever so little enjoy- 
 ment of so abundant glory? Of thirty-three years, thirty 
 He spent in privacy and at a distance from the world. 
 During the three which remained He was censured for an 
 impostor, He was rejected by the priests and rulers of His 
 nation, despised by His kinsmen and friends ; and, in con- 
 clusion, He suffered a shameful death, betrayed by one of 
 His attendants, abjured by another and deserted by all. 
 
 What share then can He be supposed to have borne in 
 all this splendour ? Never person was in greater glory ; 
 never person was in deeper disgrace. His whole splendour, 
 therefore, was designed for our sakes, and to render Him 
 discernible to us ; but not the least ray was reflected back 
 upon Himself. 
 
 Our Lord discourseth of the sublimest subjects in a 
 phrase so plain and natural as if it had not been deeply 
 considered, but withal so pure and exact as to show that it 
 proceeded from the greatest depth of thought. The join- 
 ing of this accuracy with this simplicity is admirable. 
 
 I 
 
130 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 * Who made the evangelists acquainted with the per- 
 fections and qualities of a soul truly heroic, that they should 
 be able to paint it after so inimitable a manner in the person 
 of Jesus Christ? What is the reason that they describe 
 Him weak and desponding in His agony ? Did they want 
 sliill or colours to represent a patient and constant death ? 
 No, certainly ; for St. Luke has drawn that of St. Stephen 
 with more bravery than that of our Lord. It was, therefore, 
 wise and just to make Him capable of fear while the 
 necessity of death remained at a distance, but fearless when 
 it arrived. And here again is the remarkable difference ; 
 when He appears dejected, the affliction is such as proceeds 
 from Himself; but when afflicted by men. He is all courage 
 and resolution. 
 
 * Before the birth of Jesus Christ the Gospel speaks 
 little of the virgin-state of His holy mother, that there 
 might be no part of sacred history but what should directly 
 bear a reference to her Son. 
 
 * The Old and New Testament equally regard Jesus 
 Christ, the former as its hope and expectation, the latter 
 as its author and example, both as their common centre 
 and aim. 
 
 * The prophets had the gift of foretel'ing, but never 
 were foretold themselves ; the saints which followed were 
 foetold, but had not the power of foretelling ; our Lord, as 
 He was the great subject of prophecies, so He was Himself 
 the chief of prophets. 
 
JESUS CHRIST. izi 
 
 Jesus Christ for all mankind, Moses for a single 
 nation. 
 
 * The Jews were blessed in Abraham ( " I will bless 
 them that bless thee ") ; but all the nations of the earth are 
 blessed in Abraham's seed ("a light to lighten the Gen- 
 tiles," etc.). He has not done so to any nation, says David, 
 speaking of the law. He has done so to all nations, may 
 we say, speaking of the Gospel. 
 
 . Thus is it the sole prerogative of Jesus Christ to be an 
 universal benefit and blessing. The sacraments and service 
 of the Church have an effect only on actual believers, the 
 sacrifice of our Lord on the cross extends its meritorious 
 influence to the whole world. 
 
 * Let us then stretch out our arms to embrace our 
 merciful Deliverer, who, having been promised four thou- 
 sand years before, came at length to suffer and to die for 
 us at the time and with the circumstances of the promise ; 
 and waiting by His gracious assistance till we shall die in 
 peace, through the hope of being eternally united to Him, 
 let us in the meanwhile live with comfort, whether amongst 
 the good things which He so bountifully gives us to enjoy, 
 or amongst the evil things which He shall please to bring 
 on us for our soul's health, and which, by His own example. 
 He has taught us to sustain. 
 
 1 2 
 
XV. 
 
 THE EVIDENCES OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE PROPHECIES. 
 
 The noblest evidences of our Lord are the prophecies 
 which preceded Him ; and, accordingly, it has pleased God 
 to exercise a peculiar care in this behalf. For the full 
 accomplishment of them, being a perpetual miracle which 
 reacheth from the beginning to the end of the Church, 
 sixteen hundred years together, God raised up a succession 
 of prophets, and during the space of four hundred years 
 after He dispersed these prophecies, together with the Jews 
 that kept them, through all regions of the world. See the 
 wonderful preparation to our Lord's appearance ! As His 
 gospel was to be embraced and believed by all nations, 
 there was a necessity not only of prophecies to gain it this 
 belief, but likewise of diffusing these prophecies to the same 
 extent with human race. 
 
 * Supposing one single man to have left a book of pre- 
 dictions concerning Jesus Christ as to the time and manner 
 of His coming, and supposing Him to have come agreeably 
 to these predictions, the argument would be of almost 
 infinite force ; yet here the evidence is stronger beyond all 
 
THE EVIDENCES OF JESUS CHRIST. 133 
 
 comparison ; a succession of men for the space of four 
 thousand years follow one another, without interruption or 
 variation, in foretelling the same great event. A whole 
 ' people are the harbingers of the Messias, and such a people 
 as subsisted four thousand years to testify in a general body 
 their assured hope and expectation, from which no severity 
 of threats or persecutions could oblige them to depart. 
 This is a case which challengeth in a far more transcendent 
 degree our assent and wonder. 
 
 * The time of our Lord's appearance was signified by 
 the state of the Jews, by the condition of the heathen 
 world, by the comparison between the two Temples, and 
 even by the precise number of years which should intervene. 
 
 * The prophets having given various marks of the 
 Messias who was to come, it seemed necessary that these 
 marks should all concur at the same period ; thus it was 
 necessary that the fourth monarchy should be established 
 ere the expiration of Daniel's seventy weeks, that the 
 sceptre should then depart from Judah, and that the 
 Messias should then immediately appear; in pursuit of 
 which predictions our Lord appeared at this juncture and 
 demonstrated His claim to the style and character of the 
 Messias. 
 
 * It is foretold that under the fourth monarchy, before 
 the destruction of the second Temple, before the dominion 
 of the Jews was taken away, and in the seventieth of 
 Daniel's weeks, the heathens should be led into the know- 
 ledge of the only true God, worshipped by the Jews ; that 
 
134 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 those who sincerely feared and loved Him should be de- 
 livered from their enemies, and should be replenished with 
 higher degrees of His fear and love. 
 
 We see the event answer in all points. During the 
 time of the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the 
 second Temple, etc., the pagans in multitudes adored the 
 true God, and embraced a hfe altogether spiritual and 
 angelic; women consecrated to religion their virginity 
 and their life ; men voluntarily renounced all the pleasures 
 and enjoyments of sense. That which Plato was unable to 
 effect upon a few persons, and those the wisest and best 
 instructed of his time, a secret force by the help only of a 
 few words now wrought upon thousands of ignorant, un- 
 educated men. 
 
 What means this prodigious change? It is no other 
 than was foretold so many ages since : " effundam spiritum 
 meum super omnem carnem.''^ The whole world, 
 which lay enslaved to lust and unbelief, was now surprisingly 
 inflamed with the fire of charity. Princes resigned their 
 crowns; the rich abandoned their possessions; the daughters, 
 with an astonishing courage, contended for the prize of 
 martyrdom ; the sons forsook their parents and habitations, 
 to embrace the solitude of deserts. Whence springs this 
 unknown and invisible force ? The Messias is arrived, be- 
 hold the effects and the tokens of His coming. 
 
 For two thousand years together the God of the Jews 
 remained unknov/n to an infinite variety of nations over- 
 » Joel ii. 28. 
 
THE EVIDENCES OF JESUS CHRIST. 135 
 
 spread with paganism. Yet, at the precise time foretold, 
 the pagans in all nations adore this only true God. The 
 idol temples are everywhere destroyed. Kings themselves 
 submit their sceptres to the Cross. What new thing is this ? 
 It is the Spirit of God poured out upon all the earth. 
 
 It was testified that the Messias should come to establish 
 a new covenant with His people ;i such as might make 
 them forget their departure out of Egypt, in comparison 
 with this great deliverance. That He would put His law and 
 His fear into their hearts ;^ both which rested before in 
 externals only. 
 
 That the Jews should reject our Lord ; and should 
 themselves be rejected of God,' the beloved vine bringing 
 forth only wild grapes. That the chosen people should 
 prove disloyal, ungrateful, and incredulous. "Populusnon 
 credens et contradicens."* That God should strike them 
 . with blindness j^ and that, like blind men, they should 
 stumble at noonday. 
 
 That the Church should be narrow in its beginning,^ and 
 should afterwards diffuse itself to a prodigious extent. 
 
 That idolatry should then be extirpatedJ That the 
 Messias should vanquish and expel the false deities, and 
 reduce men to the worship of the true God. 
 
 That the idol temples should be cast down ; and that in 
 all places of the world ^ men should offer to God a pure 
 
 ^ Jer. xxiii. 7. ' Deut. xxvii. 28, 2t» 
 
 " Isai. li. 7 ; Jer. xxxii. 40, * Ezelc. xvii. 
 
 ' Isai. V. 2, 3, 4. ? Ezek. xxx. 13. 
 
 * Isai. Ixv. ii. ' Mai. i. ij. 
 
ij6 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 and holy and living sacrifice in the room of the slain 
 beasts. 
 
 That the Messias should instruct men in the true and 
 perfect way. 
 
 That He should reign over the Jews and Gentiles. 
 
 No person before or since our Lord has been known to 
 teach anything which bears the least affinity to these pre- 
 dictions. 
 
 * After so many messengers sent to notify His coming, 
 the Messias was pleased Himself to appear with all the 
 assured evidences of the person, and all the concurring 
 circumstances of the time. He came to inform men that 
 they had properly no other enemies than themselves, or 
 than those passions which separated them from God ; that 
 His office was to set them free from these enemies, to 
 strengthen them with His grace ; to unite them all in one 
 holy Church ; to reconcile Jews and Gentiles by destroying 
 the superstition of the former and the idolatry of the 
 latter. 
 
 What the prophets have farther intimated, My Apostles 
 (might He say) shall shortly accomplish. The Jews are on 
 the point of being rejected, and the desolation of Jerusalem 
 draws nigh. The Gentiles shall soon be admitted to the 
 knowledge of the true God ; and these My Apostles shall be 
 their introducers, when you shall have first extinguished youi 
 title by slaying the heir of the vineyard. 
 
 And the issue of all this was that the Apostles accord- 
 ingly pronounced the sentence of rejection on the Jews, and 
 
THE EVIDENCES OF JESUS CHRIST. 137 
 
 declared the glad tidings of acceptance and salvation to the 
 Gentiles. 
 
 And yet, through the power of natural concupiscence 
 \yas this most divine undertaking opposed by the united 
 force of all mankind. This King of Jews and Gentiles was 
 denied, was oppressed, by both equally conspiring against 
 His life. Whatever is wont to style itself great in the world 
 attacked this religion in its very infancy, the learned, the 
 wise, and the princes of the earth. The first persecuted it 
 with their pen ; the second with their tongue ; the last with 
 their sword. But in spite of all opposition, within how 
 little a space do we behold our Lord reigning victoriously 
 over His enemies of every kind, and destroying as well the 
 Jewish as the Gentile worship, each in its chief seat and 
 metropolis, Jerusalem and Rome, planting in one of them 
 the first, in the other the greatest of Churches ? 
 
 Persons of mean endowments, and of no authority or 
 strength, such as were the Apostles and primitive Christians, 
 bore up against all the powers of the earth ; overcamt the 
 learned, the wise, and the mighty ; gave a total subversion 
 to the idol worship which had so firmly established itself in 
 the world. And all this was brought to pass by the sole 
 virtue and influence of that divine word which foretold our 
 Lord's appearance. 
 
 * The Jews in putting to death Jesus Christ, whom they 
 believed not to be the Messias, gave Him the final mark 
 and assurance of the Messias's character. The more they 
 persisted indenying Him, they still became the more infallible 
 
138 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 witnesses of His truth. For to disown and to slay Him was 
 but to join their own testimony to that of the prophecies 
 which they fulfilled. 
 
 * Who is so ignorant as not to distinguish and acknow- 
 ledge our Lord, after the numerous prophetical tokens and 
 circumstances of His history ? For it was expressly declared : 
 
 That He should have one special messenger and fore- 
 runner.i 
 
 That He should be born an infant.' 
 
 That His birthplace should be the city of Bethlehem ; 
 that He should spring from the tribe of Judah, and house 
 of David ; that He should exhibit Himself more especially 
 at Jerusalem. 2 
 
 That He should veil the eyes of the wise and learned, 
 and preach the gospel to the poor ; that He should restore 
 sight to the blind, health to the diseased, and light to those 
 who languished under darkness.* 
 
 That He should teach the true and perfect way, and 
 should be the great instructor of the Gentiles.^ 
 
 That He should offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins 
 of the whole world. ^ 
 
 That He should be the chief corner-stone, elect and 
 precious. '' 
 
 That He should, at the same time, be a stone of 
 stumbling, and rock of offence.* 
 
 ' Mai. iii. I. * Isai. vi. 8, 29. ' Isai. xxviii.- 16. 
 
 ^ Isai. ix. 6. ° Isai. xlii. 5. ' Isai. viii. 14. 
 
 • Mich. V. 2. ' Isai. liii. 
 
THE EVIDENCES OF JESUS CHRIST. 139 
 
 That the Jews should fall upon this rock.^ 
 
 That this stone should be rejected by the builders,' 
 should be made by God the head of the corner, ^ should 
 grow into a great mountain and fill the whole earth.* 
 
 That the Messias should be disowned, rejected, be- 
 trayed, sold, buffeted, derided, afflicted by a thousand 
 different methods \^ that they should give Him gall to eat, 
 should pierce His hands and His feet, should strike Him on 
 the face, should kill Him, and cast lots upon His vesture.® 
 
 That He should rise again the third day from the dead.^ 
 
 That He should ascend into heaven and sit at the right 
 hand of God.^ 
 
 That kings should arm themselves to oppose His 
 authority.^ 
 
 That sitting at the right hand of the Father He should 
 triumph over all His enemies. i" 
 
 That the kings of the earth should fall down before 
 Him, and all nations do Him homage and service.^^ 
 
 That the Jews should still remain. ^^ 
 
 That they should remain in a wandering and desolate 
 condition, without princes, without sacrifices, without altars, 
 without prophets ; ever hoping for safety, and ever disap- 
 pointed of their hope.^^ 
 
 * It was necessary, according to the prophetical de- 
 
 ' Isa.i. viii. 15. ' Zach. xi. 12. ' Psal. ii. z. 
 
 ' Psal. cxviii. ' Psal. Ixix, 21 ; xxii. 17, 18. 1° Psal. ex, i, 
 
 8 Ibid. ' Psal. xvi. 10. '^ Isai. Ix. 10. 
 
 * Dan. ii. 35. * Hos. vi. 3 ; Psal. ex. 2. '^ Jer. xxxi. 36. 
 
 •^ Hos. iii. 4 ; Amos, Isaiah. 
 
I40 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 scriptions, that the Messias, by His own strength, should 
 gather to Himself a numerous people, elect, sacred, and 
 peculiar -, should govern and support them, should lead 
 them into a place of rest and of holiness, shjuld present 
 them blameless before God, should make them temples of 
 the divine presence, should deliver them from the wrath of 
 God and restore them to His favour, should rescue them 
 from the tyranny of sin which so visibly reigned over 
 Adam's posterity ; thart He should give laws to His people, 
 and should grave these laws in their hearts and write them 
 in their minds ; that He should be at once a holy priest 
 and a spotless sacrifice; and that while He offered to God 
 bread and wine He should no less offer His own body and 
 blood. Each of these particulars have we seen exactly 
 performed by Jesus Christ. 
 
 Again, it was foretold that He should come as a mighty 
 deliverer that He should bruise Satan's head, and should 
 redeem His people from their sins, " ab omnibus iniqui- 
 tatibus." That there should be a new and an eternal 
 covenant, and another priesthood for ever, after the order 
 of Melchisedec; that the Messias should be powerful, 
 mighty, and glorious, and yet so weak, so miserable, and 
 so contemptible as not to be distinguished or credited, but 
 rejected and slain ; that the people who thus rejected Him 
 should be no more a people ; that the Gentiles should re- 
 ceive Him and trust in Him; that He should remove from 
 the hill of Sion and reign in the chief seats of idolatrous 
 
THE EVIDENCES OF JESUS CHRIST. 141 
 
 worship, and that the Jews should nevertheless continue 
 for ever. Lastly, that He should arise out of Judah, and 
 at the precise time, when the sceptre was departed from 
 them. 
 
 * The prophets have interwoven particular prophecies 
 with those concerning the Messias, that neither the pro- 
 phecies concerning the Messias should be without their 
 proof, nor the particular prophecies without their fruit. 
 
 * " Non habemus regem, nisi Csesarem," said the Jews. 
 Therefore Jesus Christ was the Messias, because their 
 sceptre was departed to a stranger, and because they would 
 admit of no other king. 
 
 * Daniel's seventy weeks are rendered disputable, as to 
 their beginning, by the terms of the prophecy ; and as to 
 their end, by the difference of chronologists. And yet all 
 this variety, taken together, amounts to no more than the 
 space of two hundred years. 
 
 * The same prophecies which represent our I,ord as 
 under poverty and contempt, describe Him likewise as the 
 prince and master of the world .^ 
 
 Those prophecies which express the time of our Lord's 
 coming describe Him as upon earth, and in the condition 
 of a sufferer ; not as in the clouds, and in the majesty of a 
 judge ; and those which represent Him in glory and judging 
 the nations, give not the least mark whereby to determine 
 the season of His appearance. 
 
 > Isai. liii. ; Zach. ix. 9, 
 
142 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 * When the Scriptures speak of the Messias as great, 
 and triumphant, and glorious, it is evident they are to be 
 understood of His coming to judge the world, not to 
 redeem it.^ 
 
 ' Isai. Ixv. 15, :6. 
 
XVI. 
 
 DIVERS PROOFS OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 In refusing to give credit to the Apostles, it is necessary we 
 should suppose one of these two things : either that they 
 were deceived themselves, or that they had an intention of 
 deceiving others. As to the first, it seems next to 
 impossible that men should be abused into a belief of a 
 person's rising from the dead. And as for the other, the 
 supposition of their being impostors is loaded with 
 absurdities of every kind. Let us be at the pains of 
 examining its process. We are, then, to conceive these 
 twelve men, after the death of their Master, combining to 
 delude the whole world with a report of His resurrection. 
 As they could not embark in this design without bringing 
 upon their heads all the opposition of united strength and 
 power, so the heart of man has a strange inclination 
 towards lightness and change, towards closing with the 
 bribes of promises and rewards. Now should so much as 
 any one of them have been drawn from his resolution by 
 these charms, or have been shaken by prisons, by tortures, 
 or by death itself, all had been undone beyond recovery. 
 
144 THOUGHTS ON RELIGIOA. 
 
 This consideration, if pursued, cannot fail of appearing with 
 great weight and advantage. 
 
 * While their Lord continued amongst them, His 
 presence might encourage and support them ; but after- 
 wards, what could possibly engage them to proceed, except 
 His real appearance and return? 
 
 * The style of the Gospel is admirable in a thousand 
 different views , and in this amongst others, that we meet 
 there with no invectives, on the part of the historians, 
 against Judas, or Pilate, nor against any of the enemies, or 
 the very murderers of their Lord. 
 
 Had the modesty and temper of the evangelical writers 
 been affected, like the many strokes of art which Wd 
 admire in vulgar history ; and had they designed it only to 
 be taken notice of, either they could not have forborne to 
 give some insinuation of it themselves; or, at least, they 
 would have procured friends who should observe it to their 
 advantage and honour. But as they acted without any 
 manner of affectation, ?,nd with altogether disinterested 
 motions, they never took care to' provide any person who 
 should make these reflections in their favour. This, I 
 believe, is what no man has hitherto remarked, and yet 
 what seems an admirable evidence of the great simplicity 
 used in this whole affair. 
 
 * As our Lord performed miracles in person, and His 
 Apostles after Him, so many others were wrought by the 
 holy men in the first ages of Christianity ; because the 
 prophecies being in some measure still imperfect till they 
 
DIVERS PROOFS OF JESUS CHRIST. 145 
 
 should receive an accomplishment from their hands, their 
 miracles were the only sufficient testimony of their com- 
 mission. It was foretold that the Messias should convert 
 the Gentiles. But now the Gentiles could not be converted 
 to the Messias without beholding this final effect of the 
 prophecies concerning Him. Before, therefore, that He 
 died and rose again, and that the Gentiles were converted 
 through His name, all was not yet fulfilled. So that a constant 
 series of miracles was necessary during this period. But in 
 our days there is no need of miraculous performances to 
 evince the truth of our Christian faith ; inasmuch as the full 
 completion of the prophecies is a standing and perpetual 
 miracle. 
 
 * Another signal confirmation of our faith is the present 
 condition of the Jews. It is astonishing to see this people, 
 during so vast a course of years, never extinguished, and yet 
 ever miserable, it being alike necessary to the demonstration 
 of the Messias, both that they should subsist to be His 
 witnesses, and should be miserable as having been His 
 crucifiers. And though to subsist and to be miserable are 
 contrarieties ungrateful to nature, yet they fail not to 
 maintain their subsistence under all the power of their 
 misery. 
 
 But were they not reduced to almost the same extremities 
 during their captive estate? No. The sceptre and regal 
 line was not in the least interrupted by their captivity in 
 Babylon ; because their happy return was expressly promised 
 and determined. When Nabuchodonosor carried away the 
 
146 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 people, for fear they should imagine the sceptre to have then 
 departed from Judah, they were beforehand assured that 
 they should sojourn but a few years, and at the end of them 
 should certainly be re-established. They were never without 
 the comfort of their prophets or the presence of their kings. 
 But the second ruin of their city and polity is without 
 promise of a restoration ; without prophets, without kings, 
 without comfort or hopes : the sceptre being now for ever 
 departed from them. 
 
 To be detained in an enemy's country, with an assurance 
 of being delivered after seventy years, can scarce be looked 
 on as a state of captivity in respect of a whole people. But 
 their present dispersion and banishment into strange lands 
 is not only without assurance, but without the least hope of 
 recovery and restitution. 
 
 * We find it a solemn promise of God to them that, 
 though they should be scattered to the corners of the earth, 
 yet upon their perseverance in His law He would gather them 
 again. They are now in the highest manner constant to 
 their worship and tenacious of their rites, and yet remain 
 dispersed and distressed. It follows, therefore, of necessity, 
 that the Messias is come, and that the old law, which 
 contained these promises, has been disannulled by the 
 establishment of the new. 
 
 * Had the Jews been entirely converted by our Lord, 
 we should have none but suspected witnesses ; had they 
 been entirely destroyed, we should have no witnesses 
 at all. 
 
DIVERS PROOFS OF JESUS CHRIST. 147 
 
 * As the Jews rejected Christ, hut not universally, so 
 spiritual men now embrace Him, but not carnal. And this 
 is so far from diminishing or impairing His glory, that it is 
 the last stroke which perfects and adorns it. 
 
 * The only argument of the Jews which we find insisted 
 on in their writings — the Talmud and the Rabbins — is that 
 Jesus Christ did not appear as a mighty prince and con- 
 queror, did not subdue the nations by the force and terror 
 of arms. Jesus Christ, say they, suffered and died ; He 
 overcame not the Gentiles by martial power ; He loaded us 
 not with their spoils ; He neither enlarged our dominions 
 nor increased our stores. And is this all they have to 
 allege ? This is what we have especially to boast. It is in 
 this that He appears so peculiarly amiable to my eyes. I 
 would not wish for a Messias of their description and 
 character. 
 
 * How lovely a sight is it to bthold, with the eye of 
 faith, Darius, Cyrus, and Alexander, the Romans, Pompey, 
 and Herod, all ignorantly conspiring to advance the 
 triumohs of th" Cross? 
 
XVII 
 
 AGAINST MAHOMET. 
 
 The Mahometan religion has for its foundation the Alcoran, 
 and its compiler Mahomet. But now as for this great 
 prophet who was to be the last expectation of mankind, 
 where do we find him once foretold ? Or what token has 
 he to show which any man might not as well produce who 
 should please to assume the pretensions of prophecy ? 
 What miracles does he himself tell us that he wrought? 
 What mysteries does he teach, even according to his own 
 report and tradition ? What morality has he established ? 
 What felicity has he proposed ? 
 
 * Mahomet brings not with him the least authority or 
 credentials. His reasons, therefore, ought to be the most 
 cogent in the world, as having nothing to support them but 
 thti/ own proper force. 
 
 * Suppose two persons should both of them deliver 
 things in appearance of a low and mean character, but so 
 that the discourses of the one should have a twofold sense 
 understood by his friends and followers, while those of the 
 
AGAINST MAHOMET. 149 
 
 oiher had but one meaning only ; a stranger who had not 
 been admitted into the secret, hearing them speak in this 
 manner, would be inclined to pass the same judgment on 
 both. But if afterwards in the remaining part of their con- 
 versation, the one should disclose sublime and angelic 
 truths, the other should persist in uttering things base and 
 vulgar, and even foolish and impertinent, he must conclude 
 that the one spoke mysteriously and not the other ; the 
 one having evidenced that he is incapable of absurdity, and 
 capable of being mysterious ; the other that he is incapable 
 of mystery, but very capable of being absurd. 
 
 * It is not by the obscurer parts of Mahomet's doctrine, 
 and those which bear an appearance of some hidden mean- 
 ing, that I would have persons judge of the author; but by 
 those things which are clear and express, as his Paradise, and 
 the like. It is in these that he is most peculiarly ridiculous. 
 No such imputation can pass on the Holy Scriptures. They 
 too, it must be confessed, have their obscurities ; but then 
 their plainer doctrines are admirably just and true; and the 
 prophecies they allege are such as have been notoriously 
 accomplished. The case, therefore, is as dififerent as can be 
 conceived ; nor ought we to compare and confound things 
 which resemble each other only in obscurity, not in their 
 clear and open parts ; for the latter, when excellent and 
 divine, should engage us to reverence the obscurities with 
 which they are attended. 
 
 * The Alcoran says Matthew was a good man. Hence 
 I argue that Mahomet was a false prophet, either in calling 
 
lio THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 wicked men good, or in disbelieving these good men as to 
 what they report of Jesus Christ. 
 
 * What Mahomet did, lies within any man's reach. He 
 was authorised by no miracle, he was countenanced by no 
 prediction. But what was performed by Jesus Christ 
 is absolutely above the power and the imitation of 
 man. 
 
 * Mahomet established himself by killing ; Jesus Christ, 
 by commanding us to lay down our lives. Mahomet, by 
 forbidding his law to be read ; Jesus Christ, by engaging us 
 to search and read. In a word, the two designs are in all 
 respects so directly opposite that Mahomet took the way, 
 in human probability, to succeed ; Jesus Christ, humanly 
 speaking, to be disappointed. And hence, instead of so 
 irrational a conclusion as that because Mahomet succeeded, 
 Jesus Christ might, in like manner, have succeeded before, 
 we ought by the rule of contraries to infer that since 
 Mahomet has succeeded, Christianity must inevitably have 
 perished had it not been founded and supported by a power 
 altogether divine. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 TOR WHAT REASONS Wli MAY PRESUME IT HAS PLEASED 
 GOD TO HIDE HIMSELF FROM SOME, AND TO DISCLOSE 
 HIMSELF TO OTHERS. 
 
 It has been the gracious purpose of God to redeem man- 
 kind, and to open a door of salvation to those who 
 diligently seek Him. But men have shown themselves so 
 unworthy of this design that He justly denies to some, on 
 account of their obstinacy, what He grants to others by a 
 mercy which is not their due. Were it His pleasure to 
 overbear the stubbornness of the most hardened unbelievers 
 He could easily effect it by discovering Himself so manifestly 
 to them, as to set the truth of His existence beyond the 
 possibility of their disputes. And it is in this manner that 
 He will appear at the last day ; with such amazing terrors 
 and such a convulsion of all nature that the most blind 
 shall behold and shall confess Him. 
 
 But this is not the way which He has chosen for His 
 first and milder coming ; because, so many persons having 
 rendered themselves thus unworthy of His mercy, He has 
 left them deprived of a happiness which they vouchsafed 
 
153 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 not to desire. It had not therefore been consistent with 
 His justice to assume an appearance every way great and 
 divine, and capable of working in all men an absolute and 
 undistinguished conviction. Nor, on the other hand, would 
 it have seemed more equitable to have used so much 
 privacy and concealment as not to be discoverable by 
 sincere inquirers. So that intending no less to reveal Him- 
 self to those who sought Him with their whole heart, than to 
 hide Himself from those who were alike industrious to fly 
 and avoid Him, He has so tempered the knowledge of Him- 
 self as to exhibit bright and visible indications to those 
 who seek Him, and to turn the pillar of a cloud 
 towards those who seek Him not. 
 
 * There is a due proportion of light for those who, 
 above all things, wish that they may see ; and a proper 
 mixture of shade for those who are of a contrary dis- 
 position. 
 
 There is enough brightness to illuminate the elect, and 
 enough obscurity to humble them. 
 
 There is obicurity enough to blind the reprobates, and 
 brigliiness enough to condemn them, and to render them 
 without excuse. 
 
 Did the world subsist purely to inform men of the being 
 of God, His divinity would shine through it with irresis- 
 tible and uncontested rays. But inasmuch as it subsists 
 only by Jesus Christ and for Jesiis Christ, and to inform 
 men of their corruption and redemption, we read these two 
 lessons in every part of its frame. For all the objects 
 
REASONS WHY GOD HIDES HIMSELF. 153 
 
 which we can survey are such as denote neither the 
 total exclusion nor the manifest presence of God ; or they 
 denote the presence of a God ^vho hides Himself. The 
 face of nature bears this universal character and language. 
 
 * Had men never been honoured with the appearance 
 of God, this eternal privation might have been the subject 
 of dispute, and as well have been interpreted of His utter 
 absence from the world, as of human incapacity to enjoy 
 His presence. But by affording some, though not continual 
 appearances, He has taken away all ground of doubt and 
 debate. If He has appeared once, He exists for ever. So 
 that we are obliged jointly to conclude from the whole, the 
 being of God, and the unworthiness of man. 
 
 * It seems to be the divine intention to perfect the will 
 rather than the understanding. But now a convincing light 
 and a perfect brightness, while it assisted the understanding, 
 would forestall and defeat the will. 
 
 * Were there no intermixture of darkness, man would 
 not be sensible of his disease ; and were there no degree of 
 light, man would despair of a remedy. So that not only 
 the divine justice but human interest and advantage seem 
 concerned that God should discover Himself in part, and 
 conceal Himself in part ; it being alike dangerous for 
 us to know God, without apprehending our own misery, 
 and to know our own misery without the apprehension 
 of God. 
 
 * Everything instructs man in his own condition ; but 
 then this maxim ought rightly to be understood. For it is 
 
154 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 neither true that God altogether discovers Himself, nor 
 that He remains altogether concealed. But these are most 
 consistent truths, that He hides Himself from those who 
 tempt Him, and discloses Himself to those who seek Him. 
 For men, though unworthy of God, yet at the same time 
 are capable of God. They are unworthy of Him by their 
 corruption ; and they are capable of Him by their original 
 perfection. 
 
 * There is no object upon earth which does not speak 
 and proclaim either divine mercy or human misery ; either 
 the impotence of man unassisted by God, or the power of 
 man with God's concurrence and aid. 
 
 * The whole universe teaches man either that he is 
 distempered and lapstd, or that he is recovered and 
 redeemed. Everything informs him either of his greatness. 
 or of his misery. The just dereliction of God we may read 
 in the pagans, His merciful favour and protection in the 
 ancient Jews. 
 
 * All things work together for good to the elect, even 
 the obscurities of Scripture, which these honour and 
 reverence on account of that divine clearness and beauty 
 which they understand. And all things work together for 
 evil to the reprobates, even the divine clearness and beauty 
 of Scripture, which these blaspheme on account of the 
 obscurities which they understand not. 
 
 * Had the design of our Lord's coming been the work 
 of justification only, the whole series of Scripture and 
 disposition of things would have been directed towards 
 
REASONS IF/-/V GOD HIDES HIMSELF. 155 
 
 this end, and it had been then the easiest task in the world 
 to convince an unbeliever. But since He came, as Isaiah 
 prophetically speaks, " in sanctificationem et in scandalum," 
 perverse infidelity is above our strength to conquer, and 
 our art to cure. But then this disappointment cannot be 
 made an exception against our own belief, because we 
 affirm that in all the conduct and methods of divine grace, 
 there is no conviction for opiniative, obstinate spirits, and 
 such as do not sincerely seek the truth. 
 
 * Jesus Christ is come, that those who see not may 
 see, and that those who see may be made blind. He is 
 come to heal the sick, and to give over the sound ; to call 
 sinners to repentance and justification, and to leave those 
 in the'ir sins who trusted in themselves that they were 
 saints ; to fill the hungry with good things, and to send the 
 rich empty away. 
 
 * It was to render the Messias alike the subject of 
 knowledge to the good, and of error to the wicked, that it 
 pleased God so to dispose the predictions concerning Him. 
 For had the manner of His appearance been expressly 
 foretold, there would not have been obscurity enough to 
 mislead the worst of men. On the other hand, had the 
 time been signified obscurely, the best of men would have 
 wanted evidence and light. For instance, the integrity of 
 their heart could never have assisted them in expounding 
 a single Q for the numeral of six hundred years. The 
 time, therefore, was declared in positive words ; but the 
 manner wrapt up in shade and figure. 
 
156 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 By this means the wicked, apprehending the promised 
 goods to be temporal, deceived themselves, notwithstanding 
 the clear indications of the time ; while the righteous 
 avoided this danger of mistake. For the construction of 
 the promised goods depended on the heart, which is wont 
 to apply the name of good to the object of its love, 
 whereas the construction of the promised time has no 
 dependence on the heart or affections. And thus the plain 
 discovery of the time, and the obscure description of the 
 goods or happiness expected, could be the cause of error 
 only to the wicked. 
 
 * What was the design of that opposition in the marks 
 of the Messiap, that by His hand the sceptre should be 
 eternally fixed in Judah, and that at His coming the sceptre 
 should be taken from Judah ? 
 
 To evince, " that seeing, they should not see, and under- 
 standing, they should not understand." Nothing could have 
 been disposed with more admirable justice and wisdom. 
 
 * Instead of complaining that God is so far removed 
 from our search, we ought to give Hira thanks that He is so 
 obvious to our discovery. Nor ought we less to thank Him 
 that He still hides Himself from the wise and the lofty, 
 from those who are unworthy to knoiv so pure and holy a 
 God. 
 
 * The genealogy of our Lord in the Old Testament is 
 intermixed with so many things of little consequence, that 
 there seems to be some difficulty in discerning it. Had 
 
REASONS WHY GOD HIDES HIMSELF. 157 
 
 Moses kept no other register but that of the pedigree of 
 Jesus Christ, the series must have been visible ; and even 
 now, upon a closer inspection, we may be able to trace it in 
 Thamar, Ruth, etc. 
 
 * Those things in the Gospels which have the greatest 
 appearance of weakness or error, are of peculiar force and 
 weight with discerning judges ; for instance, the different 
 genealogies of St. Matthew and St. Luke, it being manifest 
 that this could not be done by confederacy. 
 
 * Let men, therefore, reproach us no more with the 
 want of perfect light ; for we profess ourselves to want it. 
 But let them own the power and truth of religion in its very 
 obscurity, in that mixture of darkness which surrounds us, 
 and that indifference which we find in ourselves towards the 
 knowledge of our duty. 
 
 * Were there but one religion in the world, the dis- 
 coveries of the divine nature might seem too free and open, 
 and with too little distinction ; and so likewise, if there were 
 martyrs in no religion but the true. 
 
 * Jesus Christ, to leave the impious in their blindness, 
 never expressly told them that He was not of Nazareth, or 
 that He was not the son of Joseph. 
 
 * As our Lord remained unknown amongst men, so 
 truth remains amongst vulgar opinions, undistinguished as 
 to external appearance. In like manner the holy Eucharist 
 differs not outwardly from common bread. 
 
 * If the mercy of God be so abundant as to afford us 
 
158 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 all saving knowledge, even while He hides Himself, what 
 immense light may we expect when He shall please to 
 unveil His perfections? 
 
 * We can understand nothing of the works of God, if 
 we do not settle this as a principle, that He blinds and 
 infatuates some, while He inspires and illuminates others. 
 
XIX. 
 
 THAT THE TRUE PROFESSORS 01'' JUDAISM AND OF CHRIS- 
 TIANITY HAVE EVER BEEN OF ONE AND THE SAME 
 RELIGION. 
 
 The Jewish religion seems, at first view, to consist, as to 
 its very essence, in the paternity of Abraham, in the rite of 
 circumcision, in sacrifices, in ceremonies, in the ark, in the 
 Temple at Jerusalem, or, briefly, in the law and the cove- 
 nant of Moses, 
 
 But we offer to maintain that it consisted in none of 
 these, but purely in the love of God ; and that, besides 
 this, nothing ever obtained the divine approbation and 
 Jicceptance. 
 
 That God bore no manner of regard to Israel after the 
 esh, to those who proceeded out of the loins of Abraham. 
 
 That the Jews, if they transgressed, were to be punished 
 after the manner of strangers. "And it shall be, that if 
 you do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other 
 gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against 
 you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations 
 
i6o THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye 
 perish." 1 
 
 That strangers, if they loved God, were to be received 
 by Him on the same terms with the Jews. 
 
 That those who were Jews in truth and reality ascribed 
 all their merit and pretensions not to Abraham, but to 
 God : " Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham 
 be ignorant of us, and Israel knoweth us not ; thou art 
 our father and our redeemer." ^ 
 
 Moses himself assured his nation that God was no 
 accepter of persons. "The Lord your God," says he, 
 "regardeth not persons, nor taketh rewards."^ 
 
 We affirm that the circumcision enjoined was that of 
 the heart : " Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your 
 heart, and be no more stiff-necked. For the Lord your 
 God is a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, who regardeth 
 not persons,"* etc. 
 
 That God particularly promised to bestow on them this 
 grace of spiritual circumcision : " And the Lord thy God 
 will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart." ^ 
 
 That the uncircumcised in heart shall be judged of 
 God : " For God will judge all the nations which are un- 
 circumcised; and all the people of Israel, because they are 
 uncircumcised in heart." * 
 
 ' Deul. viii. ig, 20. * Teut. x. 16, 17 ; ]ix. iv. 4. 
 
 " Tsai. Ixiii. 16. ' Deut. xxx. 6. 
 
 2 DeuL. X. 17. ^ Jer. ix. 25, 26. 
 
TRUE PROFESSORS. j6t 
 
 We say that circumcisioa was purely a figure, instituted 
 to distinguish the people of the Jews from all other 
 nations.^ And this was the reason that they used it not 
 in the wilderness, because there was then no danger of 
 their mixing with strangers ; as also that since the ap- 
 pearance of our Lord it is become altogether unnecessary. 
 
 That the love of God is everywhere principally com 
 manded and enforced : " I call heaven and earth to record 
 this day against you, that I have set before you life and 
 death, blessing and cursing ; therefore choose life, that 
 both thou and thy seed may live ; that thou mayst love the 
 Lord thy God, and that thou mayst obey his voice, and 
 that thou mayst cleave unto him ; for he is thy life," ^ etc. 
 
 It was declared that the Jews, for want of this love of 
 God, should be abandoned to their sins, and the Gentiles 
 admitted in their stead : " I will hide my face from them, 
 I will see what their end shall be ; for they are a very fro- 
 ward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have 
 moved me to jealousy with that which is not God, they 
 have provoked me to anger with their vanities ; and I will 
 move them to jealousy with those which are not a people, I 
 will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation."^ 
 
 That temporal goods are false and vain, and that the 
 only true and lasting good is the divine acceptance and 
 favour.* 
 
 That the feasts of the Jews were displeasing to God.* 
 
 1 Gen. xvii. i. '^ Deut. xxx. 19, 20. 
 
 • Deut. xxxii, 20, 21 ; Isai. Ixv. * Ps. xxiii, 28. ' Amos v. 2, 
 
 L 
 
i62 THOUGHTS ON kELIGlOlS!. 
 
 That their sacrifices ^ were no less dis?greeable. And 
 not only those of the wicked, bat even of the good, as 
 appears from the fiftieth Psalm ; where before the discourse 
 is peculiarly addressed to the wicked by those words, 
 " Peccatori autem dixit Deus," it is declared absolutely that 
 God has no regard to the flesh or the blood of beasts. 
 
 That the offerings of the Gentiles should be received by 
 God, and that He should withdraw His acceptance from the 
 offerings of the Jevvs.^ 
 
 That God would make a new covenant by the Messias;' 
 and that the old covenant should be disannulled. 
 
 That the old things should be universally forgotten, and 
 should pass away.* 
 
 That the ark of the covenant should come no more to 
 mind.* 
 
 That the Temple should be given up and destroyed."^ 
 
 That the legal sacrifices should be abolished, and sacri- 
 fices of a purer kind established in their room.' 
 
 That the Aaronical order of priesthood should be 
 dissolved, and the order of Melchisedec introduced by tl e 
 Messias.^ 
 
 That this latter priesthood should be an ordinance for 
 ever.° 
 
 That Jerusalem should be reprobated ; and a new name 
 given to the elect people.^" 
 
 ' Isai. Ixvii. ; Jer. vi. 20. - Mai. i. ii ; i Kings xv. 22; II03. vi. 6. 
 
 ' Jev. xxxi. 31. ^ Jer. vii. 12, 13, 14. » Ps. ex. 
 
 ■• Lsai. xliii. iS, 19. '' Mai. i. 10. '" Isai Ixv. 
 
 » Jer. iii. 6. •' Ps. ex. 
 
TRUE PROFESSORS. 163 
 
 That this new name should be more excellent than that 
 of the Jews, and of eternal duration.^ 
 
 That the Jews should remain without prophets, without 
 kings, without sacrifices, and without an altar ;- and should, 
 nevertheless, subsist as a distinct people. 
 
 ' Isai. Ivi. 5. ' Hos. iii. 4. 
 
XX. 
 
 THAT GOD IS NOT KNOWN TO ADVANTAGE, BUT THROUGH 
 JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 The greatest part of those who attempt to demonstrate tlie 
 truth of the Divine Being to the ungodly and profane, com- 
 monly begin with the works of nature ; and in this method 
 they very rarely succeed. I would not seem to impair the 
 validity of these proofs, which have been consecrated by 
 ihe Holy Scripture itself. They have, indeed, an undeniable 
 agreement with the principles of sound reason ; but are 
 very often not so well suited and proportioned to that 
 disposition of spirit which is peculiar to the persons here 
 described. 
 
 For we must observe that discourses of this kind are 
 not ordinarily addressed to men whose hearts abound with 
 a lively faith, and who immediately discern the whole 
 system of things to be no other than the workmanship of 
 that God whom they adore. To these " the heavens declare 
 the glory of God," and all nature speaks in behalf of its 
 Author. But as for those in whom this light is extinct, and 
 in whom we endeavour to revive it, persons who are 
 
GOD KNOWN THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. 165 
 
 destitute of faith and charity, and who behold nothing but 
 clouds and darkness on the whole face of nature, it seems 
 not the most probable method of their comersion to offer 
 them nothing more, on a subject of the last importance, 
 than the course of the moon or planets, or than such 
 arguments as they every day hear, and every day despise. 
 The hardness and obstinacy of their temper has rendered 
 them deaf to this voice of nature, which sounds continually 
 in their ears; and experience informs us that instead of our 
 gaining them by such a process, there is nothing which, on 
 the contrary, is so great a discouragement, and so apt to 
 make them despair of ever finding the truth, as when we 
 undertake to convince them by this way of reasoning, and 
 pretend to tell them that truth shines so bright in these 
 views as to become really irresistible. 
 
 The Holy Scripture, which knows so much better than 
 we the things which belong to God, never speaks of them in 
 this manner. It informs us, indeed, that the beauty of the 
 creature leads to the knowledge of the Creator ; but it does 
 by no means assure us that the creatures produce this effect 
 indifferently in all persons. On the contrary, it declares, 
 that whenever they appear thus convincing, it is not by 
 their own force, but by means of that light which God 
 diffuseth into the hearts of those to whom He is pleased to 
 discover Himself by their means and intervention : " Quod 
 notum est Dei manifestum est in illis ; Deus enim illis 
 manifestavit." It teacheth, in general, that our God is a 
 God who hideth Himself, " Verfe tu es Deus absconditus;" 
 
i66 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 and that since the corruption of human nature, He has left 
 men under such a blindness as they can only be delivered 
 from by Jesus Christ ; without whom we are cut ofif from all 
 communication with the Divinity : " Nemo novit Patrem 
 nisi Filius, aut cui voluerit Filius revelare." 
 
 The Scripture gives us a farther evidence of this truth, 
 when it so often testifies that God is found by those who 
 seek Him ; for it could never speak thus of a clear and 
 certain light, such as gives not men the trouble of searching 
 after it, but freely diffuseth itself around, and prevents the 
 observation of the beholders. 
 
 * The metaphysical proofs of God are so very intricate, 
 and so far removed from the common reasonings of men, 
 that they strike with little force ; or, at best, the impression 
 continues but a short space, and men, the very next hour, 
 fall back into their old jealousies, and their perpetual fear 
 and suspicion of being deceived : " Quod curiositate cog- 
 noverant superbia amiserunt." 
 
 Again, all the arguments of this abstracted kind are able 
 to lead us no farther than to a speculative knowledge of 
 God ; and to know Him only thus, is, in effect, not to know 
 Him at all. 
 
 The God of Christians is not barely the supreme and 
 infallible Author of geometrical truths, or of the elementary 
 order, and the disposition of nature ; this is the divinity 
 of philosophers and pagans. Nor barely the providential 
 disposer of the lives and fortunes of men, so as to crown 
 His worshippers with a long and happy series of years • 
 
COD KXOWN THROUGH Jl-.SUS CHRIST. 167 
 
 tliis was the portion of the Jews. But the God of Abraham 
 and of Isaac, the God of Christians, is a God of love and 
 consolation; a God who possesseth the hearts and souls of 
 His servants ; gives them an inward feeling of their own 
 misery, and of His infinite mercy; unites Himself to their 
 spirit, replenishing it with humility and joy, with affiance 
 and love ; and renders them incapable of any prospect, any 
 aim, but Himself. 
 
 The God of Christians is a God v\ho makes the soul 
 perceive and know that He is her only good, and that she 
 can find peace and repose in Him alone ; no delight, no 
 joy, but in His love ; and who, at the same time, inspires 
 her with an abhorrence of those obstacles and impediments 
 which withhold her from loving Him with all her strength. 
 As her two principal hindrances, self-love and concu- 
 piscence, are grievous and insupportable to her, so it is 
 this gracious God who makes her know and feel that she 
 has these fatal distempers rooted in her constitution, and 
 that His hand alone can expel or subdue them. 
 
 This is to know God as a Christian. But to know Him 
 after this manner, we must, at the same time, know our 
 own misery and unworihiness, together with the need we 
 have of a Mediator, in order to our approaching His 
 presence, or uniting ourselves to Him. We ought by no 
 means to separate these parts of knowledge; because each 
 alone is not only unprofitable, but dangerous. The know- 
 ledge of God, without the knowledge of our own misery, is 
 the nurse of pride. The knowledge of our own misery. 
 
i68 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 without the knowledge of Jesus Christ, is the mother of 
 despair. But the true knowledge of Jesus Christ exempts 
 us alike from pride and from despair ; by giving us, at 
 once, a sight not only of God and of our misery, but also 
 of the mercy of God in the relief of our misery. 
 
 We may know God without knowing our own miseries , 
 or we may know our own miseries without knowing God ; 
 or we may know both without knowing the means of obtain- 
 ing from God the relief of our miseries. But we cannot know 
 Jesus Christ without the knowledge of God, of our miseries, 
 and of their cure. Inasmuch as Jesus Christ is not only 
 God, but He is God under this character, the healer and 
 repairer of our miseries. 
 
 Thus all they who seek God without Jesus Christ can 
 never meet with such light in their inquiries as may afford 
 them true satisfaction, or solid use. For either they advance 
 not so far as to know that there is a God ; or if they do, yet 
 they arrive hereby but at an unprofitable knowledge, because 
 they frame to themselves a method of communicating with 
 God ; without a mediator, as without a mediator they were 
 capable of knowing Him. So that they unavoidably fall 
 either into atheism or deism, things which the Christian 
 religion does almost equally detest and abhor. 
 
 We ought therefore wholly to direct our inquiries to the 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ, because it is by Him alone that 
 we can pretend to know God in such a manner as shall be 
 really advantageous to us. 
 
 He alone is the true God to us 7imi, that is, to miserable 
 
GOD KNOWN THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. 169 
 
 and sinful creatures. He is our chief centre and supreme 
 object in respect of all that we can wish, and all that we can 
 understand. Whoever knows not Him, knows nothing 
 either in the order of the world or in his own nature and 
 condition. For as we know God only by Jesus Christ, so 
 it is by Him alone that we know ourselves. 
 
 Without Jesus Christ man is, of necessity, to be con- 
 sidered as lying in vice and misery ; with Jesus Christ 
 man appears as released from vice, and redeemed from 
 misery. In Him consists all our happiness, and all our 
 virtue, our life and light, our hope and assurance. Out 
 of Him there is no prospect but of sins and miseries, of 
 darkness and despair ; nothing to be beheld by us but 
 obscurity and confusion in the divine nature, and in our 
 own. 
 
XXI. 
 
 THE STRANGE CONTRARIETIES DISCOVERABLE IN' HUMAN 
 NATURE, WITH REGARD TO TRUTH AND HAPPINESS, 
 AND MANY OTHER THINGS. 
 
 Nothing can be more astonishing in the nature of man 
 than the contrarieties which we there observe, with regard 
 to all things. He is made for the knowledge of truth. 
 This is what he most ardently desires, and most eagerly 
 pursues ; yet when he endeavours to lay hold on it, he is 
 so dazzled and confounded as never to be secure of actual 
 possession. Hence the two sects of the Pyrrhonians and 
 the Dogmatists took their rise ; of which the one would 
 utterly deprive men of all truth, the other would infallibly 
 ensure their inquiries after it. But each with so improbable 
 reasons as only to increase our confusion and perplexity, 
 while we are guided by no other lights than those which we 
 find in* our own bosom. 
 
 The principal arguments of the Pyrrhonians, or Sceptics, 
 are as follow. If we accept faith and revelation, we can 
 have no other certainty as to the truth of principles, than 
 that we naturally feel and perceive them within ourselves. 
 
CONTRARIETIES IN HUMAN NATURE. 171 
 
 But now this inward perception is no convictive evidence of 
 their truth ; because, since without faith we have no 
 assurance whether we were made by a good God, or by some 
 evil daemon ; nay, whether we have not existed from 
 eternity or been tire offspring of chance. It may be 
 doubted whether these principles within us are true or 
 false, or uncertain in correspondence to our original. 
 Indeed, it is by faith alone which we can distinguish 
 whether we are asleep or awake ; because in our sleep we 
 as strongly fancy ourselves to be waking as when we really 
 are so. We imagine that we see space, figure, and motion. 
 We perceive the time pass away ; we measure it as it 
 runs. In fine, we act, to all intents, as in oiir most wake- 
 ful hours. Since, then, by our own confession, one-half 
 of our life is spent in sleep, during which, whatever we 
 may suppose, we have really no idea of truth, all that 
 then passeth within us being mere illusion, who can 
 tell but that the other moiety of our life, in which we fancy 
 ourselves to be awake, is rio more than a second sleep, 
 little differing from the former ; and that we only rouse 
 ourselves from our sleep by day when we enter into that 
 at night ; as it is usual with us to dream that we dream, 
 by heaping one fantastic image upon another? 
 
 I waive the discourse of the same sect against the 
 impressions of custom, education, manners, and climates, 
 with other the- like prejudices, which they observe to 
 govern the greatest part of mankind, who are wont to 
 reason on no other than these false foundations. 
 
172 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 The main fort of the Dogmatists is this, that, would we 
 but speak honestly and sincerely, there is no man who can 
 doubt of natural principles. We are capable of truth, say 
 they, not only by reasoning, but by perception, and by a 
 bright and lively act of immediate intelligence. It is by this 
 latter way that we arrive at the knowledge of first principles ; 
 which the forces of reason would attack in vain, as here 
 acting beyond the province and commission. The sceptics 
 who labour to bring all things to their own standard, are 
 under a continual disappointment. We may be very well 
 assured of our being awake, though very unable to demon- 
 strate it by reason. This inability shows, indeed, the 
 feebleness of our rational powers, but not the general 
 incertitude of our knowledge. We apprehend with no less 
 confidence that there are such things in the world as space, 
 time, motion, number, and matter, than the most regular 
 and demonstrative conclusions. Nay, it is upon this cer- 
 tainty of perception and intellection, that reason ought to 
 fix itself, and to found the whole method of its process. I 
 perceive that there are three dimensions in space, and that 
 number is infinite ; hence my reason demonstrates that 
 there are no two square numbers assignable, one of which 
 shall exactly double the other. We apprehend principles, 
 and we conclude propositions ; and both with the like 
 assurance, though by different ways. Nor is it less ridiculous 
 for reason to demand of these perceptive and intellective 
 faculties, a proof of their maxims ere it consents to them, 
 than it would be for the said faculties to demand of reason 
 
CONTRARIETIES IN HUMAN NATURE. 173 
 
 a clear perception and intuition of all the problems it de- 
 monstrates. This defect, therefore, may serve to the 
 humbling of reason, which pretends to be the judge of all 
 things, but not to the shaking off certainty, as if reason 
 were alone able to inform our judgment. On the contrary, 
 it were to be wished that we had less occasion for rational 
 deductions ; and that we knew all things by instinct and 
 immediate view. But nature has denied us this favour, and 
 allows us but few notices of so easy a kind, leaving us to 
 work out the rest by laborious consequences and a continued 
 series of argument. 
 
 We see here a universal war proclaimed amongst man- 
 kind. We must of necessity list ourselves on one side or 
 on the other; for he that pretends to stand neuter is most 
 effectually of the Pyrrhonian party ; this neutrality con- 
 stitutes the very essence of Pyrrhonism ; and he that is 
 not against the sceptics must be, in a superlative manner, for 
 them. What shall a man do under these circumstances ? 
 Shall he question everything ? shall he doubt whether he is 
 awake, whether another pinches him or burns him ? Shall 
 he doubt whether he doubts? Shall hs doubt whether he 
 exists ? It seems impossible to come to this, and therefore, 
 I believe, there never was a finished sceptic, a Pyrrhonian 
 in perfection. There is a secret force in nature which 
 sustains the weakness of reason, and hinders it from losing 
 itself in such a degree of extravagance. Well, but shall a 
 man join himself to the opposite faction ? Shall he boast 
 that he is in sure possession of truth, when, if we press him 
 
174 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 never so little, he can produce no title, and must be obliged 
 to quit his hold ? 
 
 What measures can suppress or compose this embroil- 
 ment? The Pyrrhonians, we see, are confounded by nature, 
 and the Dogmatists by reason. To what a distracting misery 
 will that man, therefore, be reduced, who shall seek the 
 knowledge of his own condition, by the bare light and 
 guidance of his own powers ; it being alike impossible 
 for him to avoid both these sects, and to repose himself in 
 either ! 
 
 Such is the portrait of man with regard to truth. Let 
 us now behold him in respect of felicity, which he prosecutes 
 with so much warmth through his whole course of action. 
 For all desire to be happy. This general rule is without 
 e.xcep'.ion. Whatever variety there may be in the means 
 employed, there is but one end universally pursued. The 
 reason why one man embraceth the hazard of war, and why 
 another declines it, is but the same desire, attended in each 
 with a different intermediate view. This is the sole motive 
 to every action of every person ; and even of such as most 
 unnaturally become their own executioners. 
 
 And yet, after the course of so many ages, no person 
 without faith has ever arrived at this point, towards which 
 all continually tend. The whole world is busy in com- 
 plaining : princes and subjects, nobles and commons, old 
 and young, the strong and the feeble, the learned and the 
 ignorant, the healthy and the diseased, of all countries, all 
 times, all ages, and all conditions. 
 
CONl^RARlEriES IN HUMAN NATURE. 175 
 
 So long, so constant, so regular and uniform a proof 
 ought fully to convince us of the disability we lie under 
 towards the acquisition of happiness by our own strength. 
 But example will not serve for our instruction in this case ; 
 because there being no resemblance so exact as not to 
 admit some nicer difference, we are hence disposed to think 
 that our expectation is not so liable to be deceived on one 
 occasion as on another. Thus the present never satisfying 
 us, the future decoys and lures us on, till from one mis- 
 fortune to another it leads us into death, the sum and 
 perfection of eternal complicated misery. 
 
 This is next to a miracle, that there should not be any 
 one thing in nature which has not been some time fixed as 
 the last end and happiness of man ; neither stars, nor 
 elements, nor plants, nor animals, nor insects, nor diseases, 
 nor war, nor vice, nor sin. Man being fallen from his 
 natural estate, there is no object so extravagant as not to be 
 capable of attracting his desire. Ever since the time that 
 he lost his real good, everything cheats him with the appear- 
 ance of it; even his own destruction, though the greatest 
 contradiction to reason and nature at once. 
 
 Some have st ught after felicity in honour and authority, 
 others in curiosity and knowledge, and a third tribe in the 
 pleasures and enjoyments of sense. These three leading 
 desires have constituted as many factions ; and those whom 
 we compliment with the name of philosophers, have really 
 done nothing else but resigned themselves up to one of the 
 there. Such amongst them as made the nearest approaches 
 
176 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 to truth and happiness well considered that it was necessary 
 the universal good which all desire, and in which each man 
 ought to be allowed his portion, should not consist in any of 
 the private blessings of this world, which can be properly 
 enjoyed but by one alone, and which, if divided, do more 
 grieve and afflict each possessor, for the want of the part 
 which he has not, than they oblige and gratify him with the 
 part which he has. They rightly apprehended that the true 
 good ought to be such as all may possess at once, without 
 diminution, and without contention ; and such as no man 
 can be deprived of against his will. They apprehended 
 this ; but they were unable to attain and execute it ; and 
 instead of a solid substantial happiness, took up at last with 
 the empty shadow of a fantastic virtue. 
 
 Our instinct suggests to us that we ought to seek our 
 happiness within ourselves. Oar passions hurry us abroad, 
 even when there are no objects to engage and incite them. 
 The things without are themselves our tempters, and charm 
 and attract us, while we think of nothing less. Therefore 
 the wisest philosophers might weary themselves with crying. 
 Keep within yourselves, and your felicity is in your own gift 
 and power. The generality never gave them credit ; and 
 those who were so easy as to believe them, became only the 
 more unsatisfied and the more ridiculous. For is there any- 
 thing so vain as the Stoics' happiness, or so groundless as 
 the reasons on which they build it ? 
 
 They conclude that what has been done once, may be 
 done always ; and that because the desire of glory has 
 
CONTRARIETIES IN HUMAN NATURE. 177 
 
 Fometimes spurred on its votaries to great and worthy actions, 
 all others may use it with the same success. But these are 
 the motions of fever and frenzy, which sound health and 
 judgment can never imitate. 
 
 The civil war between reason and passion has occasioned 
 two opposite projects for the restoring of peace to mankind : 
 the one, of those who were for renouncing their passions, 
 and becoming gods; the other, of those who were for 
 renouncing their reason, and becoming beasts. But neither 
 the one nor the other could take effect. Reason ever con- 
 tinues to accuse the baseness and injustice of the passions, 
 ^ and to disturb the repose of those who abandon themselves 
 to their dominion. And, on the contrary, the passions 
 remain lively and vigorous in the hearts of those who 
 talk the most of their extirpation. 
 
 This is the just account of human nature and human 
 strength, in respect of truth and happiness. We have an 
 idea of truth, not to be effaced by all the wiles of the 
 sceptic ; we have an incapacity of argument, not to be 
 rectified by all the power of the dogmatist. We wish for 
 truth, and find nothing in ourselves bat uncertainty. We seek 
 after happiness, and are presented with nothing but misery. 
 Our double aim is in effect a double torture ; while we are 
 alike unable to compass either, and to relinquish either. 
 These desires seem to have been left in us, partly as a 
 punishment of our fall, and partly as an indication and 
 remembrance whence we are fallen. 
 
 * If man was not made for God, why is God alone 
 
 M 
 
178 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 sufficient for human happiness? If man was made for God, 
 why is the human will in all things repugnant to the 
 divine ? 
 
 * Man is at a loss where to fix himself, and how to 
 recover his rank in the world. He is unquestionably out 
 of his way ; he feels within himself the small remains of 
 his once happy state, which he is now unable to retrieve. 
 And yet this is what he daily courts and follows after, always 
 with solicitude and never with success ; encompassed with 
 darkness, which he can neither escape nor penetrate. 
 
 Hence arose the grand contention amongst the philo- 
 sophers, some of whom endeavoured to raise and exalt 
 man by displaying his greatness ; others to depress and 
 abase him by representing his misery. And what seems 
 more strange is, that each party borrowed from the other 
 the ground of their own opinion. For the misery of man 
 may be inferred from his greatness, as his greatness is de- 
 ducible from his misery. Thus the one sect with more 
 evidence demonstrated his misery in that they derived it 
 from his greatness ; and the other more strongly concluded 
 his greatness, because they founded it on his misery. 
 ^Vhatever was offered to justify his greatness in behalf of 
 one tribe, served only to evince his misery in behalf of the 
 other; it being more miserable to have fallen from the 
 greater height. And the same proportion holds vice versa. 
 So that in this endless circle of dispute, each helped to 
 advance his adversary's cause ; for it is certain that the more 
 degrees of light men enjoy, the more degrees they are able 
 
CONTRARIETIES IN HUMAN NATURE. i;9 
 
 to discern of misery and of greatness. In a word, man 
 knows himself to be miserable. He is therefore exceedingly 
 miserable, because he knows that he is so. But he like- 
 wise appears to be eminently great, from this very act of 
 knowing himself to be miserable. 
 
 What a chimsera then is man ! What a surprising 
 novelty ! What a confused chaos ! What a subject of 
 contradiction ! A professed judge of all things, and yet a 
 feeble worm of the earth ; the great depositary and guardian 
 of truth, and yet a mere huddle of uncertainty ; the glory 
 and the scandal of the universe. If he is too aspiring and 
 lofty, we can lower and humble him ; if too mean and little, 
 we can raise and swell him. To conclude. We can bait 
 him with repugnancies and contradictions, till at length he 
 apprehends himself to be a monster, even beyond appre- 
 hension. 
 
XXII. 
 
 THE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF MAN, 
 
 The first thing which offers itself to man, when reflecting 
 on himself, is his body, or such a certain portion of matter 
 allotted and appropriated to him. And yet to understand 
 what this portion is, he must be obliged to compare it with 
 all things that are above or below him, ere he can determine 
 and adjust its bounds. Let him not therefore content 
 himself with the sight of those objects which immediately 
 surround hira. Let him contemplate all nature, in its 
 height of perfection and fulness of majesty. Let him 
 consider the great body of the sun, set up as an eternal 
 lamp to enlighten the universe. Let him suppose the earth 
 to be only a point, in respect of the vast circuit which this 
 luminary describes. And, for his greater astonishment, let 
 hira observe that even this vast circuit is but a point itself 
 compared with the firmament and the orb of the fixed stars. 
 If his sight be limited here, let his imagination, at least, 
 pass beyond. He may sooner exhaust the power of con- 
 ceiving than nature can want a new store to furnish out his 
 conceptions. The whole extent of visible things is but one 
 
THE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF MAN. i8i 
 
 line or stroke in the ample bosom of nature. No idea can 
 reach the immeasurable compass of her space. We may 
 grow as big as we please with notion ; but we shall bring 
 forth mere atoms, instead of real and solid discoveries. 
 This is an infinite sphere, the centre of which is everywhere, 
 and the circumference nowhere. In a word, it is the 
 greatest amongst all the sensible marks and characters of 
 the almighty power of God. And let our imagination lose 
 itself in this reflection. 
 
 If a man can recover himself from such a prospect, let 
 him consider what he himself is if compared with the whole 
 expansion of being. Let him conclude that he is acciden- 
 tally strayed into this blind corner of nature; and from 
 what he finds of his present dungeon, let him learn to set 
 the proper value on the earth, on kingdoms, on cities, and 
 on himself. 
 
 What is man with regard to this infinity about him ? 
 Who can fix his distance or comprehend his proportion ? 
 But to show him another prodigy no less astonishing, let 
 him turn his thoughts on the smallest of those things 
 which fall within his knowledge. Let a mite, for instance, 
 in the contemptible minuteness of its body, present him 
 with parts incomparably more minute; with jointed legs, 
 with veins in those legs, blood in those veins, humours 
 in that blood, drops in those humours, vapours in those 
 drops. Let him still apply all his force, and strain his 
 utmost conception, to divide the least of those particulars 
 which we have mentioned ; and when he has gone as far 
 
IS2 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 as his mind can reach, let the concluding atom be the 
 subject of our discourse. He will probably suppose that 
 this is the remotest extreme, the last diminutive in nature ; 
 but even in this, where he finds himself obliged to stop, 
 I shall undertake still to open before him a new abyss 
 of wonders. Let him conceive me delineating to him on 
 the surface of this imperceptible atom, not only the visible 
 world, but whatsoever he is able to comprehend of the 
 immensity of all things. Let him here behold an infinity 
 of worlds, each with its firmament, its planets, its earth, 
 under the same proportions as in the natural system. Let 
 him still imagine every such earth to be stored with all 
 living things, and even with his mites ; and let him consider 
 that it is possible each of these mites may again present 
 him with such a painted world as he admired in the first, 
 and that the show may still be repeated without end and 
 without rest. 
 
 Let him again lose himself in these wonders, no less 
 surprising for their minuteness than the former for their 
 vastness and extent. And who will not be confounded to 
 reflect that our body, which before was judged impercep- 
 tible in respect of the world, which world is itself im- 
 perceptible in the bosom of universal being, should now 
 become a colossus, a world, or rather an universality of 
 being, in respect of that exquisite diminution at which 
 at our last refinement of thought we may by this artifice 
 arrive, 
 
 He that shall take this survey of his own nature will, 
 
THE GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF MAN. 183 
 
 no doubt, be under the greatest consternation to find 
 himself hanging, as it were, in his material scale, between 
 the two vast abysses of infinite and nothing, from which 
 he is equally removed. He will tremble at the sight of 
 so many prodigies, and, turning his curiosity into ad- 
 miration, will, I believe, be more inclined silently to 
 contemplate them than presumptuously to search their 
 depths. 
 
 For what is man amongst the natures which encompass 
 him ? In one view he appears as unity to infinity, in 
 another as all to nothing ; and must therefore be the 
 medium between these extremes ; alike distant fiom that 
 nothing whence he was taken, and from that infinity in which 
 he is swallowed up. 
 
 His understanding holds the same rank in the order of 
 beings, as his body in the material system ; and all the 
 knowledge he can reach is only to discern somewhat of the 
 middle of things, under an eternal despair of comprehend- 
 ing either their beginning or their end. All things arise 
 from nothing, and proceed to infinity. Who can keep pace 
 with these steps ? Who can follow such an amazing pro- 
 gress ? None but the Author of these wonders is able to 
 explain or understand them. 
 
 This middle state and condition is common to all our 
 faculties. Our senses can bear no extremes : too much 
 noise, or too much light, are equally fatal, and make us 
 either deaf or blind ; too great distance, or too great near- 
 ness, do alike hinder a prospect ; too much prolixity, or 
 
1 84 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 too much brevity, darken and perplex a discourse ; too 
 intense a pleasure becomes incommodious; too uniform a 
 symphony has no power to affect and move ; our body is 
 utterly indisposed for the last degrees of heat and cold. 
 Qualities in excess are enemies to our nature ; we don't 
 properly fee/ hnt suffer them. The weakness of childhood 
 and old age alike incapacitate the mind ; too much or too 
 little food disturbs it in its actions ; too much or too 
 little study renders it extravagant and unruly. Things in 
 extreme are of no use or account, with respect to our 
 nature ; and our nature is of as little with respect to theirs ; 
 either we shun and avoid t/iem, or they miss and escape ?is. 
 
 This is our real estate, and it is this which fixeth and 
 confines all our attainments within certain limits, which we 
 can never pass, being equally unable either to know all 
 things, or to remain ignorant of all things We are placed 
 here in a vast and uncertain medium, ever floating between 
 ignorance and knowledge, and if we endeavour to step 
 beyond our bounds, the object which we would seize doth, 
 with a violent shock, wrest itself (as it were) from our held, 
 and vanisheth by an eternal flight, which no force may 
 control or stay. 
 
 This is the true condition of nature, and yet the most 
 opposite to our inclination. We are inflamed with a desire 
 of piercing through all things, and of building a tower, the 
 top of which shall reach even to infinity. But our feeble 
 edifice cracks and falls; the earth opens, without bottom, 
 under us, and buries our devices in its gulf. 
 
XXIII. 
 
 THE GREATNESS OF MAN. 
 
 I CAN easily conceive a man without hands and without 
 feet ; and I could conceive him too without a head, if I 
 did not learn from experience that it is by the help of this 
 he thinks. It is thought, therefore, which constitutes the 
 essence of man, and without which he is altogether un- 
 conceivable. 
 
 * What is that which has a sense of pleasure in our 
 frame? Is it our hand, is it our arm, is it the flesh, is it 
 the blood ? Do we not find it absolutely necessary to have 
 recourse to somewhat of an immaterial nature for this 
 service? 
 
 * Man has such a stock of real greatness, that he is 
 great even in knowing himself to be miserable. A tree is 
 no more sensible of misery than of felicity. It is true, the 
 knowing himself to be miserable is an addition to man's 
 misery ; but then it is no less a demonstration of his great- 
 ness. Thus his greatness is shown by his miseries, as by 
 its ruins. They are the miseries of a mighty statesman in 
 disgrace, of a prince dispossessed and dethroned, 
 
1 86 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 * What man ever thought himself unhappy in not being 
 a king, except a deposed king? Did Paulus ^milius ap- 
 prehend any unhappiness in not being consul ? The 
 whole world esteemed him happy in having gone through 
 that office, which in its design and institution was but 
 temporary. But Perseus was looked on as so extremely 
 miserable in not being a king (because, according to the 
 nature of royalty, he should have been ever so), that it was 
 thought strange he should support himself even in life. 
 Who is there that complains of his misfortune in having 
 but one mouth ? Who is there that would not reckon 
 himself most unfortunate in having but one eye? No man 
 can bring himself to lament that he has not three eyes; 
 and yet every man is almost inconsolably afflicted with the 
 loss of one. 
 
 * We have so great an idea of the human soul in any 
 person, that we cannot bear the thought of wanting its regard 
 and esteem ; and it is this united esteem which composeth 
 all the happiness of man. 
 
 If the false glory which men pursue is on the one side a 
 proof of their misery, it is on the other side an attestation of 
 their excellence. For whatever degree of riches, health, and 
 other benefits men enjoy, they are still dissatisfied, unless 
 they find themselves in the good opinion of their own kind. 
 Human reason challengeth so much esteem and reverence 
 from us that under the most advantageous circumstances of 
 life we think ourselves unhappy, if we are not placed to an 
 equal advantage in men's judgments. This we look on as 
 
THE GREATNESS OF MAN. 187 
 
 the fairest post that can be attained. Nothing is able to 
 divert us from so passionate a desire ; and it is the most 
 Indelible character in the heart of man ; insomuch that 
 those who think so most contemptuously of mankind as to 
 make the very beasts their equals, do yet contradict their 
 own hypothesis by the motions which they feel in our own 
 souls. Nature, which is stronger than all their reason, 
 convinceth them more powerfully of man's greatness, than 
 reason can persuade them of his meanness. 
 
 * Man is a reed, and the weakest reed in nature; but then 
 he is a thinking reed. There is no occasion that the whole 
 universe should arm itself for his defeat ; a vapour, a drop 
 of water is sufficient to despatch him. And yet should the 
 world oppress and cru-h him with ruin, he would still be 
 more noble than that by which he fell, because he would be 
 sensible of his fate, while the universe would be insensible 
 of its victory. 
 
 Thus our whole worth and perfection consists in thought. 
 It is hence we are to raise ourselves, and not from the empty 
 ideas of space and duration. Let us study the art of think- 
 ing well. This is the rule of life and the fountain of 
 morals. 
 
 * It is dangerous to inform man how near he stands to 
 the beasts, without showing him at the same time how 
 infinitely he shines above them. Again, it is dangerous to 
 let him see his excellence, without making him acquainted 
 with his infirmity. And the greatest danger of all is to 
 leave him in utter ignorance of one and of the other. But 
 
1 88 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 to have a just representatioa of both is his greatest interest 
 and happiness. 
 
 * Let man be allowed to know his own value. Let him 
 love himself because he has a nature capable of good ; but 
 let him not be in love with the weaknesses and diseases of 
 that nature. Let him hate and despise himself because this 
 capacity within him is altogether empty and void ; but let 
 him not hence entertain a dislike of so natural, so noble a 
 capacity. Let him hate his being, and let him love it too ; 
 because he is framed for the possession of truth (and con- 
 sequently of happiness) and yet can find no truth that is 
 permanent or satisfactory. I would therefore move him to 
 entertain a desire, at least, of finding it, and to yield him- 
 self disengaged and ready to follow where he shall find it. 
 And because I am not insensible how much the light of 
 human knowledge is obscured by human passion, I would 
 prescribe to him, above all things, the detestation of his 
 own concupiscence, which is so fatal a bias on his judg- 
 ment ; so that it may neither blind him while he is making 
 liis choice, nor divert or obstruct him from pursuing what 
 he has chosen. 
 
XXIV. 
 
 THE VANITY OF MAN. 
 
 We are not satisfied with that life which we possess in 
 ourselves, and in our own proper being ; we are fond of 
 leading an imaginary life in the ideas of others. And it is 
 hence that we are so eager and forward to show ourselves to 
 the world. We labour indefatigably to retain, improve, and 
 adorn this fictitious being, while we stupidly neglect the 
 true. And if we happen to be masters of any noble endow- 
 ment, of tranquillity, generosity, or fidelity of mind, we press 
 with all our vigour to make them known, that we may 
 transfer and ingraft these excellencies on that fantastic 
 existence. Nay, we had rather part with them, than not 
 apply them to so vain a use ; and would gladly commence 
 cowards to purchase the reputation of valour. A great in- 
 dication this of the meanness and even nullity of our genuine 
 being, not to rest satisfied in it without its shadow, and 
 very often to renounce the former for the latter ; as he who 
 would not die to preserve his honour, shall become despi- 
 cably infamous by the refusal. 
 
 * There is so much sweetness and so many charms in 
 
igo THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 glory, that join it to what we will, even to death itself, it fails 
 not to appear beautiful and lovely. 
 
 * Our pride is alone a counterpoise to all our miseries ; 
 because it either conceals them, or glories in their dis- 
 covery. 
 
 * Pride has so natural a possession of us, in the midst 
 of our misery and error, that we can lose even our lives 
 with joy, upon the terms of being celebrated for the act. 
 
 * Vanity has taken so firm hold in the heart of man, 
 that a porter, a hodman, a turnspit, can talk greatly of 
 himself, and is for having his admirers. Philosophers do 
 but refine upon the same ambition. Those who write of 
 the contempt of glory, do yet desire the glory of writing 
 well ; and those who read their compositions, would not 
 lose the glory of having them read. Perhaps I myself, 
 who am now making these reflections, am now sensible 
 of this glory ; and perhaps my reader is not proof against 
 the charm. 
 
 * In spite of all the numerous miseries with which we 
 are encompassed, which seize us, and hold us by the throat, 
 we have still a secret and insuperable instinct which bears 
 us up. 
 
 * We are so presumptuous as that we desire to bt 
 known to all the world ; and even to those who are not to 
 come into the world until we have left it. And, at the 
 same time, we are so little and vain, as that the 
 esteem of five or six persons about us is enough to content 
 and amuse us. 
 
THE VANITY OF MAN. 191 
 
 * The most important thing in life is the choice of a 
 profession ; and yet this is a thing purely in the disposal of 
 chance. It is mere custom which makes upholsterers, 
 masons, soldiers, etc. He's an excellent upholsterer, says 
 one ; and oh, what fools are the red-coats ! Another cries, 
 there is nothing brave and great but the wars ; and all are 
 changelings that don't follow the camp. On the bare 
 strength of hearing some arts commjnded and others con- 
 demned in our infancy, we proceed to choose for ourselves ; 
 for we naturally love what is laudable, and hate what is 
 contemptible. These words never fail to operate upon our 
 minds; and all the fault is in the application. Some 
 nations consist wholly of mechanics ; in others soldiery is 
 the universal profession. Nature can never be thus 
 uniform. It is custom, therefore, which produceth this 
 effect, and which gains the ascendant over nature. Yet 
 sometimes again nature will prevail, and will keep men 
 under the power of instinct, in spite of all the opposition of 
 custom, whether good or bid. 
 
 * Curiosity is little better than mere vanity. For the 
 most part we desire to know things purely that we may talk 
 of them. Few would undertake so dangerous voyages and 
 travels for the bare pleasure of entertaining their sight, if 
 they were bound to secrecy at their return, or for ever 
 cloistered from conversation. 
 
 * We never think of raising a name and repute in places 
 through which we only pass ; but where we fix our resi- 
 dence for anytime, there we eagerly admit and industriously 
 
192 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 pursue this thought. What time is requisite for the purpose ? 
 such as bears a proportion to our short and miserable 
 life. 
 
 * A little matter comforts us, because a less is able to 
 grieve and afflict us. 
 
 * We can never keep close to the present. We antici- 
 pate the time to come, as too slow, in order to the making 
 it mend its pace ; or we call back the time that is past, as 
 too swift, in order to the stopping its flight. Such is our 
 folly, that we ramble through those times in which we have 
 no concern, and utterly forget that on which our whole 
 fortune and interest depends ; such our vanity, that we 
 dream of those which are not, and let that which alone 
 subsists pass by us without notice or reflection. The 
 reason of all which is this : because the present generally 
 gives us some uneasiness, we are willing to hide it from our 
 sight as being grievous to us ; but if it happen to be 
 agreeable, we are in no less pain to see it slide so fast 
 away. Hence we tack the future to it to strengthen and 
 support it, and pretend to dispose of things not in our 
 power for a time at which we have no assurance ever to 
 arrive. 
 
 Let a man exarame his own thoughts, and he will always 
 Snd them employed about the time past, or to come. We 
 scarce bestow a glance upon the present, or, if we do, it is 
 only that we may borrow light from hence to manage and 
 direct the future. The present is never the mark of our 
 designs. We use both past and present as our means an^" 
 
THE VANITY OF MAN. 193 
 
 instruments, but the future only as our object and aim. 
 Thus we never live, but we ever hope to live ; and under 
 this continual disposition and preparation to happiness, it is 
 certain we can never be actually happy, if our hopes are 
 terminated with the scene of this life. 
 
 * Our fancy so much enlargeth and swells this temporal 
 duration by reflecting perpetually on it, and so far extenuates 
 and contracts our eternal state by seldom taking it into 
 thought, that we make a nothing of eternity, and an eternity 
 of nothing. And the springs of this whole proceeding are 
 so vigorous in us that all our reason is too weak to suppress 
 or overrule them. 
 
 * Cromwell seemed to have laid a fair train for the ruin 
 of all Christendom. The royal family had been destroyed, 
 and his own confirmed for ever in their usurpation, but 
 for the little gravel stone which fell down into his ureter. 
 Rome itself began to tremble under him. But this petty 
 grain, which elsewhere had been contemptible, lighting on 
 such a part, occasioned the death of the usurper, the fall 
 of his family, and the restoration of the king. 
 
XXV. 
 
 THE WEAKNESS OF MAN. 
 
 There is nothing which more astonishes me than that the 
 whole world should not be astonished at their own infirmity, 
 Men proceed seriously to action, and every one follows the 
 way of life he has embraced, not as if it were really good 
 in being the mode, but as if each man were exactly 
 acquainted with the measures of reason and justice. 
 
 We are disappointed every moment, and by a very 
 pleasant humility we imagine that the fault is in ourselves, 
 and not in the art which we all profess to understand. It is 
 fit there should be many persons of this complexion in the 
 world, to demonstrate that man is capable of the most 
 extravagant opinions, because he is capable of believing 
 that the weakness he feels is not general and inevitable, 
 but that he is naturally endued with true judgment and 
 infallible wisdom. 
 
 * The weakness of human reason appears more evi- 
 dently in those who are insensible of it, than in such as 
 know and confess it. 
 
 * While we are too young, our judgment is in immaturity ; 
 
THE WEAKNESS OF MAN. 195 
 
 and when we are too old, it is in decay. If we think too 
 little of a thing, or too much, our head turns giddy, and we 
 are at a loss to find out our way to truth. 
 
 He that views his own work, just as it comes out ot 
 his hands, is too much prepossessed in its favour ; and he 
 that lets it lie too long unsurveyed, forgets the niceness ot 
 its contexture and the model by which it was wrought. 
 
 There is but one precise point which is the true place 
 of showing a picture ; all others are either too near or too 
 distant, or too high, or too low. Perspective assigns this 
 point in the art of painting ; but who has skill enough to fix 
 it in truth and morals ? 
 
 * That mistress of mistake, which we call fancy or 
 opinion, is therefore the greater cheat, because she does 
 not cheat constantly and by rule. Always to lie, would be 
 always to tell the truth ; whereas being deceitful only for 
 the most part, she gives us no marks of her character, 
 but stamps truth and falsehood with the very same im- 
 pression. 
 
 This proud princess and potentate, the sworn enemy of 
 reason, so ambitious to rule and domineer, has, that she 
 may show her absolute power over the world, established in 
 man a second nature. She has her rich and her poor, 
 her happy and her miserable, her sick and her sound, 
 her fools and her wise j and nothing grieves us so much 
 as to see that she fills her votaries with a satisfaction 
 more large and entire than reason pretends to give. The 
 imaginary wise men feel another sort of complacency 
 
 N 2 
 
196 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 within themselves than the masters of true wisdom can 
 regularly find. Those look on the world with an air of 
 authority, and discourse with assurance and confidence, 
 while these never express themselves without diffidence and 
 concern. And that gaiety of countenance often gives the 
 former such an advantage in the minds of their hearers that 
 when they meet with judges of their own standard, they 
 seldom fail to please. Opinion cannot, indeed, make a 
 fool wise, but it makes him contented, and so triumphs over 
 reason, which seems only to render its friends and followers 
 more sensibly miserable. This punisheth us with infamy, 
 while that rewards us with glory. 
 
 What dispenses reputation, what procures veneration 
 and regard to persons and things, but opinion ? How in- 
 sufficient are all the treasures of the world to delight or 
 satisfy without its approbation and consent ? 
 
 Opinion is the universal disposer of things ; this makes 
 beauty, and justice, and happiness ; and these make all that 
 is excellent upon earth. I would gladly see an Italian 
 piece of which I know only the title, but such a title as is 
 worth many whole books ; it is " Delia Opinione Regina 
 del Mundo'': Of Opinion, the Queen of the World. If it 
 has nothing in it worse than this title, I subscribe to it 
 heartily, unseen. 
 
 There is scarce anything, just or unjust, which does not 
 change its nature upon changing its climate. Three degrees 
 of elevation in the pole may ruin the whole profession of 
 
THE WEAKNESS OF MAN. 197 
 
 law. A meridian on the globe, or a few years' prepossession, 
 decides the most important truths. Maxims and first 
 principles are subject to revolutions and we are to go to 
 chronology for the epochas of right and wrong. A very 
 humoursome justice this, which is bounded by a river or a 
 mountain : Orthodoxy on one side of the Pyrenees may be 
 Heresy on the other. 
 
 * The art of overturning kingdoms is to reverse es- 
 tablished customs, by searching them to the quick, and 
 then censuring them as originally defective in authority 
 and justice. We ought (say these critics in policy) to go 
 back to the primitive and fundamental laws, which un- 
 righteous custom has destroyed. When men are at this 
 play, the state is sure to lose all. Nothing can keep its 
 weight in so false a balance. Yet the multitude lend a 
 willing ear to such discourses ; they are glad to shake off 
 the yoke, and the great ones raise themselves not only 
 upon their ruin, but upon the ruin of those curious refiners 
 who were the first engines of the mischief. But then 
 there is another fault quite opposite to this, when we think 
 everything to be done with justice, that is not done with- 
 out example. 
 
 * Set the greatest philosopher in the world upon a 
 plank, but somewhat broader than the space which he 
 usually takes up in walking, and let there be a precipice 
 underneath, his reason may demonstrate him to be safe, 
 but his fancy will deny the argument. This is a venture, 
 
igS THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 the very thought of which few can bear without sweating 
 or turning pale. I need not run through all instances of 
 the same kind. Every one knows the sight of a cat or 
 rat, or the crashing of a coal, will throw some persons 
 into a fit, and put their reason quite beside its guard ! 
 
 * Look upon that venerable magistrate, whose age and 
 ability commands the reverence of the whole nation. 
 Would you not suppose that he governs himself by the 
 purest and sublimest wisdom, and judgeth of things ac- 
 cording to their real nature, without being moved by those 
 trifling accidents and circumstances, which disorder only 
 weak and little people ? But behold him entering the 
 court ; see him placed on the bench, and prepared with 
 exemplary gravity for a formal hearing : let one of the 
 council have an untunable voice, or a singular aspect, let 
 him have been ill-treated by his barber, or disobliged by 
 the roads and weather, and I will wager against the counte- 
 nance of your chief justice. 
 
 * The soul of the greatest man living is not so free 
 and independent, but that it is subject to disturbance at 
 the least noise about him. You need not let off a cannon 
 to break his train of thought ; the creaking of a weather- 
 cock, or of a pulley, will do it effectually. Do not be sur- 
 prised that you hear him argue a little incoherently at 
 present. He has a fly buzzing at his ears, and that is 
 enough to make him a stranger to good counsel. Would 
 you have him rightly apprised of the truth, you must take 
 
THE WEAKNESS OF MAN. 199 
 
 off this untoward animal, which holds his reason' at bay, 
 and discomposeth that sovereign understanding which 
 gives laws to towns and kingdoms. 
 
 * Diseases are another principle of error. They im- 
 pair our judgment and our senses. And if those which 
 are most violent produce a very visible change, those 
 which have less strength do yet leave a proportionable 
 impression. 
 
 Again, interest must be acknowledged to have a 
 singular art in agreeably putting out our eyes. Affection 
 or dislike quite invert the rules of justice, A counsellor 
 retained with a large fee grows clear-sighted to admiration, 
 and finds the cause immediately improve upon his hands. 
 iTet I have known the men, who through a contrary fantas- 
 ticalness of spirit have, to avoid these partial and selfish 
 regards, been drawn into the highest injustice by a most 
 unreasonable counterpoise. The sure way to ruin the fairest 
 concern depending before them, was to get recommended 
 by some of their nearest relations. 
 
 * Truth and justice are things so nice and subtle, that 
 our instruments are not fine enough to touch or take hold 
 of them with any exactness. In both cases they either 
 miss the point utterly, or fall foul upon it, and then 
 settle at a venture, seldom so near to the right as to the 
 wrong. 
 
 * A veneration for antiquity does not only abuse and 
 enslave our mind \ the charms of novelty have the same 
 
20O THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 ascendant over us. And hence arise all the disputes 
 amongst men, who charge each other either with sticking 
 to the false impressions of their childhood, or with running 
 at all adventures into every new hypothesis and fancy. 
 
 Who is the man that keeps the just medium between 
 these extremes ? Let him appear and make good his pre- 
 tensions. There is no principle, how natural soever it may 
 seem, and though even sucked in with our first milk, but 
 may be made to pass for a false impression, either of educa- 
 tion or of sense ; because, says one, you have been wont 
 ever since your infancy to suppose a vessel empty when you 
 saw nothing in it, hence you come to believe the possibility 
 of a vacuum. Why, this is only a strong delusion of your 
 senses, strengthened by custom, which science and demon- 
 stration ought to correct. By your leave, says the other, 
 you have been positively told in the schools that a vacuum 
 was impossible, and thus your senses were corrupted, which 
 easily and naturally allowed it before this ill impression. 
 This, therefore, you ought to deface by returning to your 
 primitive nature. And now we have heard both sides, 
 where shall we fix the cheat, in our senses, or in our 
 education ? 
 
 * The whole employment of men's lives is to improve 
 their fortunes ; and yet the title by which they hold all, if 
 traced to its origin, is no more than the pure fancy of the 
 legislators ; but their possession is still more precarious than 
 their right, and at the mercy of a thousand accidents. Nor 
 
THE WEAKNESS OF MAA. 201 
 
 are the treasures of the mind better ensured, while a 
 fall or a fit of sickness may bankrupt the ablest under- 
 standing. 
 
 * So that, abstracting from a state of grace, man is 
 nothing but the continual subject of indelible and insuper- 
 able errors. He can purchase no certain information ; every- 
 thing in the world abuseth his curiosity. His two criterions 
 of truth, reason and sense — besides that they are not always 
 faithful to themselves — are wont reciprocally to mock and 
 delude each other. Our senses beguile our reason with 
 false appearances ; and our reason has likewise its false 
 consequences, wherewith to return and revenge the cheat. 
 The passions discompose the senses, and strike upon them 
 the wrong way. They lie, and forge, and misrepresent, with 
 a sort of vicious emulation. 
 
 * What are all our natural principles but principles of 
 custom, derived from parents to children, as fear and flight 
 to the beasts of game ? 
 
 A different custom will produce a different natural 
 principle. This experience testifies ; and if there are some 
 dictates of nature impregnable against custom, there are 
 likewise some impressions of custom which nature cannot 
 overrule. This depends wholly on the temper and consti- 
 tution of particular men. 
 
 Parents discover a jealousy lest the natural duty and 
 affection of their children should be defaced. What a sort 
 of nature is this, which we suppose capable of defacement? 
 
202 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 We must at least allow custom to be another nature which 
 can thus destroy the former ; and where is the impropriety 
 in styling custom natural ? or why may not nature itself be 
 conceived as a primary custom, no less than custom as a 
 secondary nature ? 
 
XXVI. 
 
 THE MISERY OF MAN. 
 
 There is nothing more capable of letting us into the 
 knowledge of human misery than an inquiry after the real 
 cause of that perpetual hurry and confusion in which we 
 pass our lives. 
 
 The soul is sent into the body to be a sojourner of a 
 few days. She knows that this is but a stop till she may 
 embark for eternity ; and that a small space is allowed her 
 to prepare for the voyage. The main part of this space 
 is ravished from her by the necessities of nature ; and but 
 a slender pittance left to her own disposal. And yet this 
 moment which remains does so strangely oppress and 
 perplex her, that she only studies how to lose it. She feels 
 an intolerable burthen in being obliged to live with herself, 
 and think of herself; and therefore, her principal care is to 
 forget herself, and to let this short and precious moment 
 pass away without reflection, by amusing herself with 
 things which prevent her notice of its speed. 
 
 This is the ground of all the tumultuary business, of all 
 the trifling diversions amongst men ; in which our general 
 
204 THOUGHTS ON RELIGTON. 
 
 aim is to make the time pass off our hands without feeling 
 it, or rather without feeling ourselves ; and, by getting rid 
 of this small portion of life, to avoid that inward disgust and 
 bitterness which we should not fail to meet with if we found 
 leisure to descend into our own breasts. For it is un- 
 deniably certain that the soul of man is here incapable of 
 rest and satisfaction. And this obliges her to expand her- 
 self every way, and to seek how she may lose the thoughts 
 of her own proper being in a settled application to the 
 things about her. Her very happiness consists in this for- 
 getfulness ; and to make her exquisitely miserable, nothing 
 more is required but the engaging her to look into herself, 
 and to dwell at home. 
 
 We charge persons from their very infancy with the care 
 of their own fortunes and honours, and no less of their 
 estates and dignities belonging to their kindred and friends. 
 We burthen them with the study of languages, of exer- 
 cises, and of arts. We enter them in business, and 
 persuade them that they can never be truly blessed un- 
 less by their industry and caution they in some measure 
 secure the interest and glory of themselves, their families 
 and their dependents ; and that unavoidable unhappiness is 
 entailed upon the failure of any one particular in this kind. 
 Thus we teach them to wear out their strength, and to rob 
 themselves of their rest. A strange method (you will say) 
 of making them happy ! What could be done with more 
 effect towards the ensuring them in misery? Would you 
 know what ? Why, only to release them from these cares, 
 
THE MISERY OF MAN. 205 
 
 and to take off these burthens. For then their eyes and 
 their thoughts must be turned inward, and that is the only 
 hardship which they esteem insupportable. Hence, if they 
 gain any relaxation from their labours, we find them eager 
 to throw it away upon some sport or diversion which takes up 
 their whole activity, and pleasantly robs them of them- 
 selves. 
 
 It is for this reason that when I have set myself to 
 consider the various agitations of human life, the toil and 
 danger to which we expose ourselves in the court, in the 
 camp, in the pursuits of ambition, which give birth to so 
 much passion and contention, to so many desperate and 
 fatal adventures, I have often said that the universal cause 
 of men's misfortunes was their not being able to live quietly 
 in a chamber. A person who has enough for the uses of 
 this world, did he know the art of dwelling with himself, 
 would never quit that repose and security for a voyage or a 
 siege ; nor would take so much pains to hazard his life, had 
 he no other aim than barely to live. 
 
 But upon stricter examination I found that this aversion 
 to home, this roving and restless disposition, proceeded 
 from a cause no less powerful than universal ;_ from the 
 nitive unhappiness of our frail and mortal state, which is 
 incapable of all comfort, if we have nothing to divert our 
 thoughts, and to call us out of ourselves. 
 
 I speak of those alone who survey their own nature, 
 without the views of faith and religion. It is indeed one 
 of the miracles of Christianitiij that by reconciling man to 
 
2o6 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 God, it restores him to his own good opinion ; that ii makes 
 him able to bear the sight of himself; and in some cases 
 renders solitude and silence more agreeable than all the 
 intercourse and action of mankind. Nor is it by fixing 
 man in his own person that it produceth these wonderful 
 effects ; it is by carrying him to God, and by supporting 
 him under the sense of his miseries with the hopes of an 
 assured and complete deliverance in a better life. 
 
 But for those who do not act above the principles of 
 mere nature, it is impossible they should, without falling 
 into an incurable chagrin and discontent, undergo the 
 lingering torment of leisure. Man who loves nothing but 
 his own person, hates nothing so much as to be confined to 
 his own conversation. He seeks nothing but himself, and 
 yet flies and avoids nothing more than himself; because 
 when he is obliged to look within, he does not see himself 
 such as he could wish ;• discovering only a hidden store of 
 inevitable miseries, and a mighty void of all real and solid 
 good which it is beyond his ability to replenish. 
 
 Let a man choose his own condition, let him embellish 
 it with all the goods and all the satisfactions he can possess 
 or desire; yet, if in the midst of this glory and pride he is 
 without business, and without diversion, and has time to 
 contemplate on his fortunes, his spirits must unavoidably 
 sink beneath the languishing felicity. He will of necessity 
 torment himself with the prospect of what is to come ; and 
 he that boasted to have brought home all the ingredients of 
 
THE MISERY OF MAN. 207 
 
 happiness, must again be sent abroad, or condemned to 
 domestic misery. 
 
 Is majesty itself so truly great and sufficient as to 
 support those whom it adorns and encircles, under the bare 
 thought of their own grandeur ? Is it necessary that this 
 thought should be here likewise diverted as in the common 
 herd of men ? A vulgar person will be abundantly happy 
 if he may ease himself of his secret troubles, by applying all 
 his care to excel in the perfection of dancing. But dare we 
 say this of a king ? Or will he be more charmed with so 
 vain and petty amusements than with the contemplation of 
 his royal dignity and estate? What nobler, what more 
 sublime object than himself to engage and to satisfy his 
 spirit? Might it not seem an envious lessening of his 
 content to interrupt his princely thought with the care 
 of measuring his steps by an air of music, or of exactly 
 ordering a ball, instead of leaving him to survey the glories 
 of his throne, and to rejoice in the excellence of his power ? 
 Let us presume to make the experiment. Let us suppose a 
 prince in solitude without any entertainment of sense, any 
 engagement of mind, any relief of conversation ; and we 
 shall find that a prince with his eyes upon himself is a man 
 full of miseries, and who feels them with as quick and 
 piercing a resentment as the lowest among his slaves. And 
 therefore, it has been a standing maxim to banish these 
 intruding and importunate reflections from court, and to 
 keep about the royal person those who shall constantly 
 
2o8 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 purvey for the amusement of their master, by laying a 
 train of divertisements to succeed after business, and by 
 watching his hours of leisure, to pour in immediately a fresh 
 supply of mirth and sport, that no vacancy may be left in 
 life ; that is, the court abounds with men who have a 
 wonderful activity in taking care that His Majesty shall not 
 be alone, well knowing that solitude is but another name 
 for misery, and that the supreme pitch of worldly great- 
 ness is too nice and weak to bear the examination of a 
 thought. 
 
 The principal thing which supports men under great 
 employments, otherwise so full of toil and trouble, is that 
 by this means they are called off from the penance of self- 
 reflection. 
 
 For pray consider, what is it else to be a superintendent, 
 a chancellor, a prime-president, but to have a number of 
 persons flocking about them from all sides, who shall 
 secure them, every hour in the day, from giving audience 
 to their own mind ? If they chance to fall into disgrace, 
 and to be banished to their country seat, though they want 
 neither fortune nor retinue, yet they seldom fail to com- 
 mence unhappy ; because they are no longer entertained 
 with such a variety of new faces, and a succession of new 
 business, as may make anything rather than themselves the 
 subject of their meditation. 
 
 Whence comes it to pass that men are transported 
 to such a degree with gaming, hunting, or other diversions, 
 which seem to have taken an absolute possession of their 
 
THE MISERY OF MAN. 209 
 
 souls ? Not because there is any real and intrinsic good 
 to be obtained by these pursuits ; not because they imagine 
 that true happiness is to be found in the money which they 
 win at play, or in the beast which they run down in the 
 chase. For should you present them beforehand with both 
 these, to save their trouble, they would be unanimous in 
 rejecting the proposal. It is not the gentle and easy part 
 which they are fond of, such as may give them leisure and 
 space for thought ; but it is the heat and the hurry, which 
 divert them from the mortification of thinking. 
 
 On this account it is that men are so much in love with 
 the noise and tumult of the world, that a prison is a seat 
 of horror, and that few persons can bear the punishment 
 of being confined to themselves. 
 
 We have seen the utmost that human invention can do 
 in projecting for human happiness. Those who content 
 themselves barely with demonstrating the vanity and 
 littleness of common diversions are indeed acquainted 
 with one part of our miseries ; for a considerable part 
 it is to be thus capable of taking pleasure in things so 
 base and insignificant. But they apprehend not the cause 
 and principle which renders these miseries even necessary 
 to us, so long as we remain uncured of that inward and 
 natural infirmity of not being able to bear the sight of 
 our own condition. The hare which men buy in the 
 market cannot screen them from this view ; but the field 
 and the chase afford an approved relief. And, therefore 
 when we reproach them with their low and ignoble aim, 
 
 o 
 
210 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 and observe to them how little satisfaction there is in 
 that which they follow with so much contention and 
 ardour, did they answer upon mature judgaient, they would 
 acknowledge the equity of our censure, and would in- 
 genuously declare that they proposed nothing in these 
 pursuits but the bare violence of the motion, such as 
 might keep them strangers to the secrets of their soul ; 
 and that therefore they made choice of objects which, 
 how worthless soever in reality, yet were of an engaging 
 and attractive nature, and able to engross the activity 
 of all their powers. And the reason why they do not 
 answer in this manner is the want of this acquaintance 
 with their own bosom. A gentleman believes with all 
 sincerity that there is somewhat great and noble in hunting, 
 and will be sure to tell you that it is a royal sport. You 
 may hear the like defence and encomium of any other 
 exercise or employment which men affect or pursue. They 
 imagine that there must needs be somewhat real and solid 
 in the objects themselves. They are persuaded that could 
 they but gain such a point they should then repose 
 themselves with content and pleasure ; and are under 
 an insensibility of the insatiable nature of this desire. 
 They believe themselves to be heartily engaged in the 
 attainment of rest, while they are indeed employed in 
 nothing else but the search of continual and successive 
 drudgery. 
 
 Men have a secret instinct prompting them to seek 
 employment or recreation, which proceeds from no other 
 
THE MISERY OF AfAX. 211 
 
 cause but the sense of their inward pain and never-ceasing 
 torment. They have another secret instinct, a relic of their 
 primitive nature, which assures them that the sum of their 
 happiness consists in ease and repose. And upon these 
 two opposite instincts they form one confused design, 
 lurking in the recesses of their soul, which engages them 
 to prosecute the latter by the intervention of the former, 
 and constantly to persuade themselves ' that the satisfaction 
 they have hitherto wanted will infallibly attend them if, 
 by surmounting certain difficulties which they now look 
 in the face, they may open a sa''e passage to peace and 
 tranquillity. 
 
 Thus our life runs out. We seek rest, by encountering 
 such particular impediments, which if we are able to re- 
 move, the consequence is that the rest which we have 
 obtained becomes itself a grievance. For we are rumi- 
 nating every moment, either on the miseries we feel, or 
 on those we fear. And even when we seem on all sides 
 to be placed under shelter, the affections which are so 
 naturally rooted in us fail not to regret their lost dominion, 
 and to diffuse their melancholic poison through the soul. 
 
 And therefore, when Cineas so gravely admonished 
 Pyrrhus (who proposed to enjoy himself with his friends, 
 after he should have conquered a good part of the world) 
 that he would do much better to anticipate his own happi- 
 ness, by taking immediate possession of this ease and 
 quiet, without pursuing it through so much fatigue, the 
 counsel he gave was indeed full of difficulty, and scarce 
 
 o 2 
 
212 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 more rational than the project of that young ambitious 
 prince. Both the one and the other opinion supposed 
 that which is false : that a man can rest satisfied with 
 himself, and his present possessions, without filling up the 
 void space in his heart with imaginary expectations. 
 Pyrrhus must inevitably have been unhappy, either without 
 or with the conquest of the world ; and perhaps that soft 
 and peaceful life which his minister advised him to era- 
 brace, was less capable of giving him satisfaction than the 
 heat and tumult of so many expeditions and so many 
 battles which he was then forming and fighting in his 
 mind. 
 
 Man therefore must be confessed to be so very un- 
 fortunate, as that without any external cause of trouble 
 he would ever regret and bemoan the very condition of 
 his own nature, and yet to be at the same time so very 
 fantastical, as that while he is full of a thousand inward 
 and essential subjects of grief, the least outward trifle is 
 sufficient to divert him. Insomuch that upon impartial 
 consideration, his case seems more to be lamented in 
 that he is capable of receiving pleasure from things so low 
 and frivolous, than in that he is so immoderately afflicted 
 with his own real miseries, and his diversion appears 
 infinitely less reasonable than his disquiet. 
 
 * Whence is it, think ye, that this gentleman, who has 
 lately buried his only son, and who this very morning was 
 so full of law and lamentation, at present seems to have 
 quite forgotten his part ? Do not be surprised ; the business 
 
THE MISERY OF MA.\. 213 
 
 is, that our friend is wholly taken up with looking what 
 way the stag will turn, which his dogs have been in chase 
 of some hours. Such an accident is enough to put a man 
 beside his chagrin, though groaning under the heaviest 
 calamity of life. As long as you can engage him in some 
 divertisement, so long you make him happy ; but it is with 
 a false and imaginary happiness, not arising from the 
 possession of any real and solid good but from a levity of 
 spirit by which he loses the memory of his substantial woes, 
 amidst the entertainments of mean and ridiculous objects 
 unworthy of his application, more unworthy of his love. It 
 is the joy of a man in a fever, or a frenzy, resulting not 
 from the regular motion but from the distemper and dis- 
 composure of his mind. It is a mere sport of folly and 
 delusion. Nor is there anything more surprising in human 
 life, than to observe the insignificancy of those things 
 which divert and please us. It is true, by thus keeping our 
 mind always employed, they shield it from the consideration 
 of real evils ; but then they make it utterly cheat itself, by 
 doting on a fantastic object of delight. 
 
 What do you take to be the aim and motive of those 
 youths, whom you see engaged at tennis with such force of 
 body and application of mind ? Why, the pleasure of boasting 
 to-morrow that they won so many sets of such a notable 
 gamester. This is the real spring of so much action and 
 toil. And it is but the very same which disposes others to 
 drudge and sweat in their closets, for the sake of informing 
 the learned world that they have reiolved a question in 
 
. 214 THOUGHTS ON nELIGION. 
 
 algebra hitherto reputed inexplicable. Many thousands 
 more expose themselves to the greatest of dangers for the 
 glory of taking a town ; in my judgment, no less ridiculously. 
 To conclude. There are not wanting those who kill 
 themselves purely with reading and observing all this 
 application of others ; not that they may grow wiser by it, 
 but that they may have the credit of apprehending its 
 vanity. And these last are the most exquisitely foolish, 
 because they are so willingly and wittingly ; whereas it is 
 reasonable to suppose of the rest, that were they alike 
 sensible of their folly, they would want no admonition to 
 desert it. 
 
 * A man, that by gaming every day for some little 
 stake, passelh away his Hfe without uneasiness or melan- 
 chol)', would yet be rendered unhappy should you give him 
 every morning the sum which he could possibly win all 
 day, upon condiiion to forbear. It will be said, perhaps, 
 that it is the amusement of the play which he seeks, and 
 not the gain. Yet if he plays for nothing his gaiety is over, 
 and the spleen recovers full possession. Bare amusement, 
 therefore, is not what he proposeth ; a languishing amuse- 
 ment without heat or passion would but dispirit and fatigue 
 him ; he must be allowed to raise and chaff himself by 
 proposing a happiness in the gaining of that which he would 
 despise if given him not to venture, and by creating a 
 fictitious object, which shall excite and employ his desire, 
 his anger, his hope, and his fear. 
 
 So that thrse diversions of men, which are found to 
 
THE MISERY OF MAN. 215 
 
 constitute their happiness, are not only mean and vile, but 
 they are false and deceitful ; that is, we are in love with 
 mere airy shapes and phantoms, such as must be incapable 
 of possessing the heart of man, had he not lost the taste 
 and perception of real good, and were he not filled with 
 baseness, and levity, and pride, together with an infinite 
 number of other vices, such as can no way relieve us under 
 our present miseries, but by creating others, which are still 
 " more dangerous, in being more substantial. For these are 
 the things which chiefly bar us from our own thoughts, and 
 which teach us to give new wings to our time, and yet to 
 remain insensible of its flight. Without these we should 
 indeed be under a continued weariness and perplexity, yet 
 such as might prompt us to seek out a better method for 
 its cure. Whereas these, which we call our diversions, do 
 but amuse and beguile us ; and, in conclusion, lead us down 
 blindfold into our grave. 
 
 Mankind, having no infallible remedy against ignorance, 
 misery, and death, imagine that some respite, some shelter, 
 may at least be found by agreeing to banish them from 
 their meditation. This is the only comfort they have been 
 able to invent under their numerous calamities. But a most 
 miserable comfort it proves, because it does not tend to the 
 removal of these evils, but only to the concealment of them 
 for a short season ; and because, in thus concealing them, 
 it hinders us from applying such means as should remove 
 them. Thus, by a strange revolution in the nature of man, 
 that grief and inward disquiet, which he dreads as the 
 
2(6 rn OUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 greatest of sensible evils, is in one respect his greatest good, 
 because it might contribute more than all things besides to 
 the putting him in a successful method of recovery. On 
 the other hand his recreation, which he seems to prize as 
 his sovereign good, is indeed his greatest evil, because it is 
 of all things the most effectual in making him negligent 
 under his distemper. And both the one and the other 
 are admirable proofs, as of man's misery and corruption, so 
 of his greatness and dignity. For the reason why he grows 
 sick and weary of every object, and engages in such a 
 multitude of pursuits, is because he still retains the idea of 
 his lost happiness ; which not finding within himself, he 
 seeks it through the whole circle of external things ; but 
 always seeks without success, because it is indeed to be 
 found not in ourselves, nor in the creatures, but in God 
 alone. 
 
XXVII. 
 
 THOUGHTS UPON MIRACLES. 
 
 We are to judge of doctrines by miracles, and of miracles 
 by doctrines. They are the test and standard of each 
 other, yet without the least repugnancy or difficulty. 
 
 * Some miracles are certain and infallible evidences of 
 truth, others are not. We ought to have a settled rule 
 whereby to distinguish them, or they must prove wholly 
 useless to us. But they are so far from being of no use, as 
 to be of absolute and fundamental necessity. 
 
 Our rule therefore must be such as shall not impair the 
 strength afforded by true miracles to the true religion, 
 which is the principal end of miracles. 
 
 * Were there no miracles ever joined to falsehood and 
 error, they would be immediately convictive, without search 
 or trial. But, as the case is otherwise, had we no rule to 
 search and try them by, they would be utterly ineffectual, 
 and we should lose the chief ground and motive of 
 our faith. 
 
 Moses has established one rule, when the miracle 
 
2i8 THOUGH IS ON RELIGION. 
 
 performed shall lead men to idolatry ;i and our Lord has 
 established, another: 2 there is no man, says He, which shall 
 do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil 
 of me. Whence it follows, that whoever declares openly 
 against Jesus Christ cannot perform miracles in His name, 
 and miracles not performed in the name of Christ are to be 
 rejected without credit or dependence. We see then the 
 two only just exceptions against miracles ; that in the Old 
 Testament, when they turn us from God ; and that 
 in the New, when they turn us from Jesus Christ. 
 
 So that immediately upon the sight of a miracle, we 
 ought either to yield and submit to it, or to have some very 
 extraordinary token in bar to its pretensions ; that is, we 
 ought to be certain whether the person who performs it 
 denies the only true God, or our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 * Every religion is false which, as to its faith, does not 
 prescribe the worship of one God, as the great author and 
 fountain of all things ; and which, as to its morals, does not 
 prescribe the love of one God as the great object and end 
 of all things. 
 
 Every religion, at this day, which does not acknowledge 
 the Lord Jesus Christ is notoriously false, and even miracles 
 are insufficient for its attestation. 
 
 * The Jews had a doctrine delivered by God, as we have 
 a doctrine delivered by Jesus Christ ; and in like manner, 
 confirmed by miracles. They had also an express pro- 
 hibition against crediting those who should even work 
 
 » Deut. >ii. 1, 2, 3. ■' Mark ix. 38. 
 
Thoughts upon mh^acles. 219 
 
 miracles in confirmation of a contrary doctrine, together 
 with an order to apply tliemselves to the chief priests, to be 
 concluded by their judgment. So that whatsoever reasons 
 we have at present to refuse our assent to the workers of 
 miracles, the same they may seem to have had, with regard 
 to our Lord and His Apostles. 
 
 And yet most certain it is, that they were highly culpable 
 in this respect ; for our Lord Himself declares that His 
 miracles rendered them without excuse. " Si opera non 
 fecissem in eis quje nemo alius fecit, peccatum non habe- 
 rent" (If I had not done amongst them the works which 
 none other man did, they had not had sin)i. 
 
 The consequence is, that He judged His miracles to be 
 infallible evidences of His doctrine, and the Jews to be under 
 a necessary obligation of believing Him. And, indeed. His 
 miracles especially rendered the incredulity of the Jews 
 wilful and criminal. For the testimonies drawn purely 
 from Scripture did not, before our Lord's death, amount to 
 a demonstration. For instance, Moses had said, " A prophet 
 shall the Lord your God raise ye up," etc., but this did by 
 no means evince Jesus Christ to be that prophet, and 
 therefore left the main question undecided ; yet this, with 
 other the like passages, was sufficient to raise a presumption 
 that He might possibly be the Messias, or that prophet, 
 which presumption, with the reinforcement of His miracles, 
 ought to have confirmed the Jews in an opinion that He was 
 really so. 
 
 ^ John XV. 24. 
 
220 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 The prophecies alone did not point out our Lord with 
 the utmost certainty during His life. So that, during this 
 space, if His miracles had not been decisive proofs, a man 
 would have been excusable in disbelieving Him. It is clear, 
 then, that miracles performed are a sufficient evidence, 
 when we have no contrary argument from doctrines 
 delivered ; and that they ought, in this case, to be relied 
 upon with assurance and satisfaction. 
 
 It was from our Lord's miracles that Nicodemus con- 
 cluded the divinity of His doctrine : " Scimus quia a Deo 
 venisti magister ; nemo enim potest h»c signa facere quae 
 tu facis, nisi fuerit Deus cum eo.''^ He did not judge of 
 the miracles by the doctrine; but of the doctrine by the 
 miracles. 
 
 If, therefore, a doctrine should even be suspicious (as 
 that of our Lord might possibly be to Nicodemus, because 
 it seemed to destroy the traditions of the Pharisees), yet if 
 there are plain and undeniable miracles on the same side, 
 the authority of a miracle ought to overbalance any diffi- 
 culty that can arise from a doctrine. The reason of which 
 is founded upon this immovable principle, that God cannot 
 lead men into error. 
 
 There seems to be a reciprocal right (if we may so 
 speak) between God and man. " Come now and let us 
 reason together," says God by Isaiah ; ~ and again by the 
 same prophet, " What could I have done more to my vine- 
 yard that I have not done to it ? " ^ 
 
 John iii. 2. ^ Isai. i. i8. ^ Isai. v. \. 
 
THOUGHTS UPON MIRACLES. 221 
 
 God has this right with regard to men, that they should 
 embrace the religion which He is pleased to send them. 
 And men, by the divine favour, seem to have this right in 
 respect of God, that He should not lead them into error. 
 
 But now they would unavoidably be led into error, if a 
 worker of miracles should publish a false doctrine, unless 
 either the doctrine itself visibly appeared to be false, or 
 unless a worker of much greater miracles had given them 
 an express caution against these which should follow. 
 
 Let us put the case of a d vision in the Church ; and 
 let us suppose the Arians (who pretended to build upon the 
 authority of Scripture no less than the Catholics) to have 
 performed miracles, and the Catholics none. Here men 
 must have laid under a necessity of being deceived ; for as 
 a man who shall pretend to reveal to us the mysteries of 
 God is not worthy to be credited on his own private testi- 
 mony, so a man who, to justify his divine commission, 
 shall raise the dead, foretell future events, remove mountains, 
 or expel diseases by human means incurable, merits such a 
 credit as cannot without the guilt of impiety be denied 
 him, provided that he be not convicted of falsehood by 
 some other person, who shall perform still greater miracles. 
 
 But is not God said to tempt and prove us, and 
 may He not tempt us by miracles wrought in the defence of 
 error ? 
 
 I answer, to tempt and to lead into error are very 
 different things. The former is consistent with the divine 
 perfections ; the latter not. To tempt is only to present 
 
222 THOUGHTS ON RELIGTON. 
 
 ihe occasiin, which imposes no necessity on our belief. To 
 lead into error is to put a man under a necessity of em- 
 bracing that which is false. This is what God cannot do, 
 and yet what must be done by Him, should He, while the 
 question of doctrine remains obscure, lend a miracle to 
 strengthen the wrong side. 
 
 Hence we may conclude it to be impossible that a 
 person who conceals the false part of his doctrine, and 
 publishes that only which is true, pretending an exact 
 conformity to God and the Church, should work a miracle 
 in order to the passing his erroneous opinions insensibly 
 upon the world. And more impossible it is that God, who 
 knows the heart, should vouchsafe the power of miracles to 
 such a deceiver. 
 
 * There is a wide distance between the not being for 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, and the pretending to be so. Some 
 persons of the former character may possibly be permitted 
 to work miracles, but none of the latter; because it is plain 
 of those, that they work them against the truth, but not of 
 these ; and consequently the miracles of the former are 
 more clearly discerned, and more easily condemned. 
 
 Miracles, therefore, are a standing test of all things 
 which admit of doubt, between pagans and Jews, Jews 
 and Christians, heretics and Catholics, between- the three 
 Crosses, between the accuser and the accused. 
 
 This is what has been seen and exemplified in all the 
 combats of the champions of truth against those of error ; 
 of Abel against Cain ; of Moses against the magicians ; of 
 
THOUGHTS UPON MIRACLES. 223 
 
 Elias against the false prophets; of our Lord against the 
 Pharisees; of St. Paul against Bar- Jesus ; of the Apostles 
 against the exorcists ; of Christians against infidels ; of 
 Catholics against heretics. And this is what shall be seen 
 in the final contention of Elias and Enoch against Anti- 
 christ. In the trial by miracle truth will always prevail. 
 
 To conclude : through the whole process of the cause 
 of God, and of the true religion, no one miracle has been 
 peifprraed on the side of error, but what has been vastly 
 overbalanced by much greater miracles on the side of 
 truth. 
 
 Wherefore this rule evinceth the obligation which the 
 Jews had to believe in Jesus Christ. Our Lord's person 
 was indeed suspected by thein ; but then the puwer of 
 His miracles was infinitely more apparent than the sus- 
 picions against His person. 
 
 * In the history of our Lord, when many believed on 
 Him, having seen the miracles which He did, we find others 
 disbelieving Him on account of the prophecies which speci- 
 fied Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Messias ; whereas 
 they supposed our Lord to have been born in Nazareth. 
 But here they ought to have inquired more diligently 
 whether He who performed these mighty works was not 
 indeed born in Bethlehem ; for His miracles being con- 
 victive, this pretended opposition of His doctrine to the 
 Scriptures, and this obscurity as to His original, might con- 
 tribute to their blindness, but cannot be alleged in their 
 excuse. 
 
224 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 * Our Lord, by curing him that was born blind, and 
 performing other miracles on the Sabbath day, strengthened 
 the infatuation of the Pharisees, who pretended to judge 
 of His miracles by His doctrine. 
 
 But by the rule which obligeth us to the belief of Jesus 
 Christ, by the same we are obliged not to believe Anti- 
 christ. 
 
 Jesus Christ spake neither against Moses nor against 
 God. Antichrist and the false prophets, which are foretold 
 both in the Old and New Testament, shall speak openly 
 against God, and against Jesus Christ. God will never 
 permit those who are even secretly His enemies to perform 
 miracles openly in His name. 
 
 * Moses prophesied of Jesus Christ, and commanded 
 that He should be heard and obeyed. Jesus Christ has 
 prophesied of Antichrist, and forbidden us to follow or 
 regard him. 
 
 The miracles of Jesus Christ were not foretold by Anti- 
 christ, but the miracles of Antichrist are foretold by Jesus 
 Christ. Wherefore, if Jesus Christ had not been the 
 Messias, He had properly led men into error ; into which 
 no man can with reason be led by the miracles of Anti- 
 christ. And hence the miracles of the latter cannot, in the 
 least, prejudice the miracles of the former ; as none will 
 say that our Lord, when He warned us against those of 
 Antichrist, did conceive that He should hereby impair the 
 authority of His o«n. 
 
 * We can have no possible reason to believe in Anti- 
 
THOUGHTS UPON MIRACLES. 225 
 
 Christ which we have not to believe in Jesus ; but we have 
 infinite reasons to believe in Jesus wi-iich we cannot 
 possibly have to believe in Antichrist. 
 
 * As miracles were the instruments of founding and 
 establishing the Church, so shall they be the instruments of 
 preserving it to the coming of Antichrist, and the con- 
 summation of all things. 
 
 Wherefore God, to secure this evidence to His Church, 
 has either confounded all false miracles, or has foretold 
 them as such ; and, as well by one means as the other, has 
 not only raised Himself above that which is supernatural in 
 respect of us, but in some sort has raised us up above it too. 
 
 For miracles are of so prodigious a force and influence 
 that notwithstanding all the conviction which we have of 
 the divine existence and perfections, it is still necessary 
 that God should warn us not to credit them when they 
 make against Himself; without which caution they might 
 be able to perplex and mislead us. 
 
 So that the several passages in Deuteronomy xiii. pro- 
 hibiting all belief or attention to those who should work 
 miracles, in order to pervert men from the worship of the 
 true God ; as also that caution in St. Mark,i " There shall 
 arise false Christs and false prophets, who shall do many 
 notable signs, so as to seduce, if possible, the very elect," 
 with many texts of the like import, are so far from lessening 
 the authority of true miracles, that they are the highest 
 confirmation of their force and efficacy. 
 1 Mark xiii. 22. 
 
226 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 * The ground of disbelieving true miracles is the want 
 of charity. " Ye believe not," says our Lord to the Jews, 
 "because ye are not of my sheep. ''^ The ground of believing 
 false miracles is the want of the same charity. " Eo quid 
 charitatem veritatis non receperunt, ut salvi fierent, ideo 
 mittet illis Deus operationem erroris, ut credant men- 
 dacio."^ 
 
 * AVhen I am considering what may be the reason that 
 men afford credit to so many cheats in physic, and even 
 put their lives into their hands, it appears to me to be 
 no other than this, that there are such things in the world 
 as true and real medicines ; because otherwise it would 
 be impossible that these which are false and feigned should 
 so much abound or be so much depended on. For were 
 there no such things, and were all distempers indeed 
 incurable, either no person would be so extravagant as 
 to think himself master of these remedies, or -much less 
 would so many others be deluded by his pretensions. As 
 if a man should give out that he has an infallible antido'.e 
 against dying ; it is not likely his practice should grow 
 considerable till he could produce a visible instance of 
 its success. Eut inasmuch as there is certainly a great 
 number of remedies which have been approved by the 
 knowledge and experience of the wisest men, this gives 
 a ply to human behef; and because the thing cannot 
 be denied in gensral, on account of particular effects, the 
 multitude being unable to distinguish which of these 
 
 1 John X. 25, * Thcss. ii. lo. 
 
THOUGHTS UPON MIRACLES. 227 
 
 particular effects are true, swallows them all in gross. 
 As the reason why men ascribe so many false effects to 
 the moon, is because she has indeed some real influences, 
 as in the ebbing and flowing of the sea. 
 
 In the same manner, and with the like evidence, I 
 conclude that there could never have been so many 
 pretended miracles, reveLilions, lots, etc., but on account 
 of others which were real; nor so many false religions, but 
 with regard to one which is the true. For were there 
 nothing in this whole matter, it had been impossible for 
 some to have entertained such conceits, and more im- 
 possible for others to credit what these should have 
 conceived. But because there had been very signal events 
 of the like nature, which were undoubtedly genuine, and 
 acknowledged as such by the wisest and greatest amongst 
 men, it was this impression which rendered the whole 
 woild so capable of admitting those that -^at spurious. 
 And, therefore, instead of arguing from the false miracles 
 against the true, we ought, on the contrary, to infer these 
 from those, and to assure ourselves that forgery and 
 falsehood are the shadows which have ever followed trutli 
 and reality. And all this depends upon one natural 
 principle, that the soul of man having been once brought 
 to such a tendency and inclination by that which is just 
 and solid, becomes ever after susceptible of what is specious 
 and counterfeit. 
 
 * We are commanded to hear the Church, but not 
 to hearken to miracles ; because the latter action is natural, 
 
 P 2 
 
228 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 and therefore wanted not an additional precept, which the 
 former, being more arbitrary, seemed to require. 
 
 * There are so very few to whom God makes Himself 
 known by these amazing strokes of His power, that men are 
 in the highest manner obliged to make use of so extra- 
 ordinary occasions. For the reason why He is pleased 
 thus to come out of the awful retirements of His nature is 
 only that He may increase our faith, and may engage us to 
 serve Him still with the more ardour as we know Him with 
 the more certainty. 
 
 * Should God continually reveal Himself to men by 
 visible discoveries, faith would cease to be a virtue ; and 
 should He afford them no such discoverieSj it would almost 
 cease to be. And therefore we find that as for the most 
 part He dwells in secret, so He discloses Himself on some 
 rare occisions when He would more strictly engage men 
 in His service. This wonderful mystery, imjpenetrable to 
 any mortal eye, under which God is pleased to shade His 
 glories, may excite us powerfully to a love of solitude and 
 silence, and of retirement from the view of the world. 
 Before the incarnation God remained hidden in the 
 recesses of His divinity, and after it He became, in some 
 respects, more hidden by putting on the veil of our 
 humanity. It had been easier to have known Him while 
 invisible than when He conversed in a visible shape ; and 
 at length, designing to accomplish the promise which He 
 made to His Apostles of continuuig widi the Church till His 
 second coming, He chose a concealment more strange and 
 
THOUGHTS UPON MIRACLES. 229 
 
 obscure than either of the former under the species of the 
 Eucharist. It is this sacrament which St. John, in his 
 Apocalypse, calls the hidden manna, and to which Isaiah 
 perhaps alluded when he cried out, by his prophetic spirit, 
 "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself." This is the last 
 mysterious covering which He will assume. The veil of 
 the divine essence has been penetrated by many heathens 
 and infidels, of whom St. Paul testifies that they were led 
 into the knowledge of the invisible God by the contempla- 
 tion of visible nature. Many heretical Christians have 
 known Him through the robe of His humanity, and have 
 worshipped Jesus Christ as God and man. But for us, 
 we ought especially to esteem ourselves happy in that it has 
 pleased God to enlighten us to such a degree as to be able 
 to discern Him under the species of bread and wine. 
 
 We may add to these considerations the secret of God's 
 holy Spirit, as concealed in the Scriptures. For whereas 
 there are two entire senses, a literal and a mystical, the 
 Jews resting in the former never so much as think that 
 there is another, nor apply themselves to search after it. 
 In the same manner wicked and impious persons, beholding 
 the variety of natural effects, referred them to nature only 
 without confessing the Author of both. So likewise the 
 Jews, observing only the human nature in Christj did not 
 seek for another. "We thought not that it was he," says 
 Isaiah, in their name. There is nothing in the world but 
 what covers and contains some mystery. The whole 
 creation is but the veil of the Creator. Christians ought, 
 
^3° THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 in every appearance, to see and acknowledge Hitn. 
 Temporal afflictions overshadow those eternal goods to 
 which they lea 1 ; temporal enjoyments cover and disguise 
 these eternal evils which they procure. Let us pray God 
 that He would grant us the power of knowing Him in all 
 things ; and let us render Him infinite thanks, that being 
 in every object hidden from so many others, He should 
 vouchsafe under every object and by every muf'iod to 
 disclose Himself to us. 
 
XXVIII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 
 
 Libertines and ungodly men who devote themselves 
 blindly to their own passions without either knowing God, 
 or giving themselves the trouble to search after Him, do 
 yet verify by this their conduct one of those foundations of 
 our faith which they particularly oppose, that the present 
 state of human nature is a state of corruption. Again, the 
 Jews, who with so obstinate a spirit resist the evidences of 
 Christianity, confirm in like manner the other great founda- 
 tion of our faith, which they principally endeavour to 
 destroy, that Jesus Christ is the true Messias, that He came 
 to redeem mankind, and to retrieve us from the misery and 
 corruption into which we were fallen. And this, as well by 
 the estate to which we see them at present reduced, and 
 which was foretold in their own prophecies, as by these 
 prophecies themselves, which are still in their hands, and 
 which with the utmost caution they preserve inviolable, as 
 containing the proper marks and character of their Messias. 
 Thus may the chief evidences, both of the corruption of 
 human nature and of the redemption by Jesus Christ, 
 
232 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 which are the two leading articles established by the 
 Christian faith, be drawn from the libertines who cast off 
 the care of all religion^ and from the Jews who are 
 irreconcilable enemies to the true. 
 
 * The dignity of man, under his primitive innocence, 
 consisted in governing and using the creatures ; but, under 
 his present corruption, it consists in retiring from them, or 
 in submitting to them, and to his own necessities and 
 infirmities. 
 
 * There are a great number of truths in faith and in 
 morals which have an appearance of utter repugnancy, and 
 which, nevertheless, in a wonderful order, do all happily 
 consist and conspire with each other. 
 
 The ground of all heresy is the denial of some of these 
 truths-; and the source of all the objections made by 
 heretics against the Catholic Church is the ignorance of 
 some of these truths which she constantly maintains. 
 
 It happens, for the most part, that heretical men, not 
 being able to conceive the union and harmony of two 
 seemingly opposite truths, and supposing that the admission 
 of the one implies the exclusion of the other, the one they 
 embrace, and the other, by the same principle, they reject. 
 
 The Nestorians supposed two persons in Jesus Christ 
 on account of His two natures ; and the Eutychians, on the 
 contrary, but one nature, on account of His single person. 
 The Catholics preserve the right judgment by joining 
 together both truths, of the two natures and of the one 
 person 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 233 
 
 So that the shortest way to prevent heresies is expressly 
 to teach all truths ; and the surest method of confuting 
 heresies is to show in what they consist, and upon what 
 mistaken hypothesis they proceed. 
 
 * Grace and nature will ever maintain their contention 
 in the world. There will be always Pelagians, and there 
 ■will be always Catholics ; because the first birth constitutes 
 the one, and the second birth the other. 
 
 * It is the Church, which together with Jesus Christ, 
 to whom she is inseparably united, merits the conversion of 
 all those who are in error. And those, at length, approve 
 themselves the truest converts who labour for the safety 
 of their mother, from whom they first derived their own. 
 
 * The body can no more live without the head, than 
 the head without the body. He that separates from the 
 one or the other is no longer of the body, nor a member 
 of Jesus Christ. All virtues, all austerity, all good works, 
 and even martyrdom itself, are of no worth out of the 
 Church, and out of communion with the Head of the 
 Church. 
 
 * This shall be one amongst the horrors and confusions 
 of the wicked in another life, to see themselves condemned 
 by their own reason, by which they pretended to condemn 
 the Christian religion. 
 
 * We ought to judge what is good or evil by the will of 
 God, which is always just and always infallible, and not by 
 our own will, which is so biassed with prejudice, and so 
 blinded with error. 
 
23-t THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 * Our Lord in His Gospel has given this amongst 
 other marks of those who should believe in His name, that 
 they shall speak with new tongues. And indeed the re- 
 novation of thoughts and desires naturally causeth that of 
 speech. These new productions, which cannot be dis- 
 pleasing to God, as the old man cannot possibly please 
 Him, are very different from the novelties of the world, 
 because the latter, how fresh and fair soever, are subject to 
 age and decay ; whereas the former (the fruits of the new- 
 spirit), the longer they continue the more they still improve 
 in freshness and beauty. "Our old man perisheth," says St. 
 Paul, "and our new man is renewed day by day;" nor shall 
 we be completely new till our renovation in eternity, when 
 we shall, without ceasing, sing David's new song — the song 
 inspired by the new spirit of charity. 
 
 * When St. Peter and the other Apostles consulted 
 about the abolishment of circumcision, where the point in 
 debate was the acting contrary to the law of God, they did 
 not refer themselves to the prophets, but considered barely 
 the gift of the Holy Ghost poured out on persons uncircum- 
 cised. They judged it more certain that God approved of 
 those whom He filled with His Spirit, than that He required 
 in all instances an exact and literal observation of the law. 
 They knew the very end of the law to be no other than the 
 spirit, and concluded that since men were capable of the 
 latter without circumcision, they wanted not the preparation 
 of the former. 
 
 * Two plain laws might be more effectual in regulating 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 235 
 
 the whole Christian community than all political institutions, 
 the love of God, and of our neighbour. 
 
 * Religion has somewhat in it which is adapted and 
 proportioned to geniuses of every size. The. generality of 
 men look no farther than its present condition and settle- 
 ment in the world. And the nature of Christianity is such, 
 that its very establishment is an invincible argument of its 
 trutn. The learned and knowing are able to trace it up to 
 the beginning of the world. The angels still proceed to a 
 nobler height, and contemplate the original plan in the mind 
 of the divine Author. 
 
 * Those whom God has inspired with the grace of 
 religion in their hearts and affections are most entirely 
 convinced, and most completely blessed. But as for those 
 who have not yet attained it, we have no way of recom- 
 mending it to them but by reason and argument ; waiting 
 till God skall please to imprint an inward feeling of it on 
 their hearts ; without which, all faith, as it is only the 
 conviction of the understanding, is unprofitable to salvation. 
 
 * God Almighty, to reserve to Himself the sole right of 
 instructing us, and to render the difficulties of our own 
 being unintelligible to us, has laid the knot so high, or, to 
 speak more properly, so low, that we cannot reach to untie 
 it. So that it is not by the exercise and agitation, but by 
 the bare su'^mission and acquiescence of our reason that we 
 are made capable of truly knowing ourselves. 
 
 * Libertines, who make a profession of being wholly 
 guided by reason, ought certainly to be fortitied with the 
 
236 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 greatest strength ot reason. Let us hear, then, what they 
 have to offer. " Do not you observe," say they, " that beasts 
 live and die hke men; and Turks like Christians? Have 
 not the followers ol Mahomet their ceremonies, their 
 prophet.s; their doctor.^, their saints, their religious orders, 
 as we," etc. ? Bat is anything of this contrary lo 
 Scripture? Or, saith not the Scripture the same also? If 
 you are fairly resolved to ease yourselves of all trouble m 
 the knowledge of truth, I confess here is enough to keep 
 you in suspense and indifference. But if you desire with 
 your whole heart to know it, here is by no means enough ; 
 you ought to go to the bottom, and to inquire with the 
 greatest strictness into each particular. The difficulties you 
 allege might be sufficient to unsettle a vain question of 
 philosophy ; but here the subject of debate is all your 
 interest and happiness. And yet, after som.e slight re- 
 flections of this nature, men are contented to amuse them- 
 selves, etc. . . . 
 
 * What can be more shocking than to feel all our 
 possessions continually sliding through our hands, and yet 
 to acquiesce in this wretched poverty, and to entertain no 
 desire of securing a more fixed and durable treasure ! 
 
 * There are two contrary suppositions which ought to 
 engage us in quite different methods of life : one, that it is 
 possible for us to abide here for ever ; the other, that it is 
 certain we cannot remain here long, and uncertain whether 
 we shall not be removed hence the next hour. The last of 
 these suppositions belongs manifestly to our case. 
 
CHRISTIAN TIIOUCIITS. 237 
 
 * You lie under an indispensable obligation to make 
 gradual advances in the search of truth. For if you go out 
 of the world without having paid a due veneration to its 
 Author you are lost for ever. " But," say you, " had He 
 designed that I should pay Him this veneration. He would 
 not have failed to leave me some undoubted tokens of His 
 will." Why, He has really left them ; but you are careless 
 of seeking them. At least, therefore, be so rational as to 
 think it worth your pains to seek them. 
 
 * An atheist ought to offer nothing but what is per- 
 fectly clear and evident. But a man must have lost all 
 his senses before he can affirm it to be perfectly clear and 
 evident that the soul is mortal. I freely disown the 
 necessity of diving into Coperniciis's system ; but I main- 
 tain that it concerns us more than our life is worth to 
 inquire whether the soul is mortal or immortal. 
 
 * Who can do otherwise than admire and embrace a 
 religion which contains the complete knowledge of such 
 truths as we still know the more surely according to the 
 greater proportions of our capacity and light ? 
 
 * A person discovering the proofs of the Christian 
 religion is like an heir finding the deeds and evidences of 
 his estate. Shall he officiously condemn them as counter- 
 feit, or cast them aside without examination ? 
 
 * I see no greater difficulty that there is in the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead or the conception of the Virgin, than in the 
 creation of the world. Is not the reproduction of human 
 bodies as easy as the first production ? Or supposing us to 
 
2 38 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 be ignorant of the natural method of generation, should we 
 think it more strange to see a child from a woman only, 
 than from a man and a woman ? 
 
 * There is a great difference between peace of con- 
 science and assurance of conscience. The former may be 
 obtained by the sincere search of truth ; the latter only by 
 truth itself when actually possessed. 
 
 * There are two maxims of faith equally fixed and 
 unalterable : the one, that man in his state of creation (or 
 in that of grace), is raised above all visible nature, made 
 lilce unto God, and a partaker of the Divinity; the other, 
 that man in his state of corruption and sin is fallen from 
 this pitch of greatness into a resemblance with the beasts. 
 These two propositions are alike firm and certain. The 
 holy Scripture bears a positive testimony to both, for in 
 some places we read, "My delight is with the sons of men," i 
 " 1 will pour out my spirit upon all flesh,"- " I have said ye 
 are gods,''^ etc. ; but in others, " All flesh is grass,"* " Man is 
 like unto the beasts that perish, "^ " I said in my heart, con- 
 cerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might 
 manifest them, and that they themselves are beasts."" 
 
 * To disengage ourselves from our native infirmities 
 is always painful and grievous. We feel not our chain, 
 says St. Austin, while we voluntarily follow our leader. 
 But when we begin to resist and to draw back, it is then we 
 become sufferers; it is then our chain stretclies itself, and 
 
 1 Prov. viii 31. ^ Psalm Ixxxii. 6. " Psalm xlix. 12. 
 
 - Joel ii. 18. ' Isai. xl. 6. * Ecdes. iii. iS. 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 239 
 
 endures the utmost violence. And this chain is our body, 
 which death alone can break. Our Lord observed that 
 before the coming of St. John Baptist the kingdom of 
 heaven suffered violence, and the violent took it by force. 
 Before we are touched from on high we have nothing but 
 the weight of our own concupiscence, which naturally bears 
 us down to the earth. But when God is pleased to draw 
 us up towards Himself, these two contrary efforts make that 
 violence which we are speaking of, and which God alone is 
 able to overcome. But we can do all things (in the words 
 of an ancient Fatbei^) with Him, without whom we can do 
 nothing. We should therefore prepare ourselves with the 
 greatest resolution to suffer this warfare during our life ; 
 because we are not here permitted to hope for peace. 
 Jesus Christ came to bring not peace but a sword. Yet 
 ought we to acknowledge that, as the Scripture says, the 
 wisdom of men is foolishness with God, so this war may be 
 termed a peace with God, how uneasy soever it may seem 
 to men ; and oj such a peace may our Lord be styled the 
 Author and Prince. Yet the perfection of this peace cannot 
 be attained till the destruction and dissolution of the body. 
 And it is hence that we may be allowed to wish for death ; 
 yet so as courageously to sustain and suffer life for the love 
 of Him who suffered b.oth life and death on our behalf, and 
 who, in the Apostle's phrase, " is able to do for us abundantly 
 .above what we can ask or think. 
 
 We should strive to bring ourselves to such a temper as 
 
HO THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 not to be troubled at any occurrence, but to take every 
 event for the best. I apprehend this to be a necessary duty, 
 and the neglect of it to be properly a sin. For the reason 
 why we term anything sinful, is taken from its repugnancy 
 to the will of God. If, then, the very essence of sin con- 
 sists in cherishing a will which we know to be contrary to 
 that of God, it seems clear to me that when He is pleased 
 to discover His will to us by events, we are unjustly reputed 
 sinners if we conform not ourselves by a ready com- 
 pliance and submission. 
 
 * When truth is deserted and persecuted, this seems 
 to be the time that the service which we yield to God in 
 its defence is peculiarly acceptable. He permits us to 
 judge of grace by the comparisons of nature. And as a 
 prince dethroned by his own subjects retains a most 
 tender affection for those who continue faithful to him in 
 the public revolt, so we may presume to conceive that 
 God will evtr regard those with a peculiar goodness who 
 maintain the purity of religion when it is, on all sides, 
 attacked or oppressed. But here is the difference between 
 the kings of the earth and the King of Kings : that the 
 princes of this world do not make their subjects loyal, but 
 find them so ; whereas God never finds men otherwise than 
 disloyal and unfaithful, without the succours of His grace, 
 and is therefore Himself the author of all their constancy 
 and truth. So that while temporal monarchs are wont to 
 own an obligation to those who persist resolutely in their 
 allegiance and duty, those, on the contrary, who persevere 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 241 
 
 in the service ot' God, are under infinite obligations to Him 
 for the very power of their perseverance. 
 
 * Not the most rigorous austerities of body, nor the 
 most profound exercises of mind, are able to support the 
 pains and grievances of both, but only the good affections 
 of the heart and spirit. For, in short, the two great in- 
 struments of sanctification are pains and pleasures. St. 
 Paul informs us that "All those who will live godly in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ " must suffer persecution. Now this 
 ought to comfort as many as feel these disquiets and 
 encounter these difficulties in a course of holy living, 
 because, being assured that the path to heaven, which they 
 seek, is full of them, they have reason to rejoice at their 
 finding so many marks of the true way. So that these 
 pains are not without their pleasures, by which alone they 
 can be balanced or countervailed. For as those who 
 forsake God to return to the world do it because they find 
 more complacency in earthly delights than in the satisfac- 
 tion of being united to the divine nature, and because 
 this fatal charm, drawing them after it as its captives, 
 obliges them to relinquish their first love, and renders 
 them, as TertuUian speaks, '■' the penitents of the devil," 
 in like manner, there would be none found who should 
 abandon the enjoyments of the world to embrace the 
 cross of Jesus Christ, did they not feel a more real sweet- 
 ness in contempt, in poverty, in nakedness, and in the 
 scorn and rejection of men, than all the delicacies and 
 pleasures of sin. And, therefore, as the same Father 
 
 Q 
 
242 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 observes, "We injure the Christian life if we suppose it to 
 be a life of sadness and sorro'.v. Because we never quit 
 our engagements to any one pleasure without being invited 
 and bribed by a greater," "Pray without ceasing," says 
 St. Paul; "in everything give thanks, rejoice, evermore.'' 
 It is the joy of finding God which is the spring of our 
 sorrow for having forsaken Him, and of our whole change 
 in life and action. He that has found a treasure in the 
 field (according to the parable of our Lord) is so transported 
 as to go "and sell all that he has, and buy that field." 
 Worldly men have their share of sorrow, but then they are 
 utterly excluded from true joy — that which the world can 
 neither give nor take away. On the other hand, the saints 
 in heaven possess their joy without sorrowing. And good 
 men on earth partake of the same joy, not without a 
 mixture and allay of sorrow, for having followed other joys, 
 and for fear of losing the former in the latter, which 
 incessantly solicit and engage their affections. We should, 
 therefore, with unintermitted pains and care, endeavour to 
 preserve this sorrow ever fresh and lively in our breasts, as 
 that alone which can secure and moderate our joy; and as 
 oft as we find ourselves carried too far towards the one, to 
 sway and incline ourselves tov/ards the other, that we may 
 maintain the balance, and keep ourselves upright. It is 
 agreeable to the advice of Scripture that we should re- 
 member our rejoicings \n the day of affliction, and our 
 afflictions in the days of rejoicing, till the promise which 
 our Lord has given us of making His joy perfect in us 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 243 
 
 be happily accomplished. In the meanwhile, let us not 
 suffer ourselves to be swallowed up of overmuch sorrow, 
 nor imagine that piety consists in bitterness without con- 
 solation. True piety, which receives not its completion 
 but in heaven, is yet so full of satisfaction and delight as 
 to -overflow its beginning, its progress, and its crown. It is 
 a light so resplendent as to dart some rays of brightness 
 through its whole compass and sphere. If, in its rise 
 especially, it be shaded with some intermixture of grief, 
 this proceeds from the persons, not from the virtue, and 
 must be looked on, not as the firot-fruits of that piety which 
 is now forming in us, but as the relics of that impiety 
 which is not yet destroyed. Could we root out the impiety, 
 the joy would flourish and thrive. Let us therefore 
 ascribe the origin of our sadness not to religion, but to 
 ourselves ; and let us seek our comfort in our own 
 correction. 
 
 * What is past ought to give us no uneasiness, except 
 that of repentance for our faults. And what is to come 
 ought much less to affect us, because with regard to us and 
 our concerns it is not, and perhaps will never be. The 
 present is the only time which is properly ours ; and this 
 we ought to use in conformity to the will of Him that gives 
 it. Here, therefore, our thoughts and studies should 
 principally be engaged. Yet the world is generally of so 
 restless a disposition that men scarce ever fix upon the 
 present, nor think of the minutes which they are now 
 living, but of ttiose which they are to live. Thus we are 
 
 Q 2 
 
244 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 always in the disposition of life, but never in the act. Our 
 Lord has cautioned us that our forecast should not extend 
 beyond the compass of a day. These are the limits which 
 we ought to observe, as for the sake of our spiritual wel- 
 fare, so even for that of our natural quiet and repose. 
 
 * The reformation of ourselves is often more effectually 
 assisted by the sight of evil than by the example of good. 
 The art of profiting by evil must be of admirable use, 
 because the occasions of it are so frequent and numerous ; 
 whereas the subjects of virtuous imitation are so few in 
 number and do so rarely occur. 
 
 * In the thirteenth chapter of St. Mark our Lord 
 discourses at large to His disciples about His second 
 coming. And as whatever happens to the Church happens 
 likewise in some manner and proportion to every Christian, 
 so is it certain that this whole chapter describes as well the 
 state of each regenerated person, and the destruction of the 
 old man in him, as the state of the universe, which shall 
 be destroyed to give way to the new heavens and the new 
 earth, according to the word of Scripture. The prediction 
 concerning the ruin of the Temple when forsaken by God 
 (which is the figure of the rejected and reprobate body 
 of sin dwelling in every one of us), and the expression 
 of " not leaving one stone upon another," teach us that we 
 ought to leave no affection of the old man unmortlfied 
 or unremoved. And those wars and tumults, those con- 
 tentions, civil and domestic, are so lively a representation 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 245 
 
 of the inward troubles which men feel at their conversion, 
 that no colours could have painted them to more advantage. 
 
 * The Holy Spirit resides invisibly in the remains 
 of those who are departed in the grace of God till He shall 
 appear visibly in them at the resurrection. And it is hence 
 that the relics of the saints become worthy of regard. For 
 God will never leave or forsake those that are truly His, not 
 even in the grave, where their bodies, which are dead to the 
 eyes of men, do now more properly live in the sight of 
 God ; being delivered from that sin which ever dwelt 
 in them during this life, as to the root, though not ever 
 as to the fruits and effects. And this root of bitterness, 
 which is inseparable from their bodies before their decease, 
 makes those bodies so long incapable of honour as being 
 till then more worthy of hatred and reproach. Death 
 alone can entirely suppress that unhappy root, and is, 
 upon this consideration, to be chosen rather than life. 
 
 * At the final judgment the elect shall be ignorant 
 of their own virtues and the reprobate of their own crimes. 
 Both shall join in that part of the answer, " Lord, when 
 saw we thee an hungry ? " etc. 
 
 * Jesus Christ refused the testimony, not only of evil 
 spirits, but even of such men as had not a lawful calling 
 and express commission for that purpose ; being satisfied 
 with the witness of God and of St. John Baptist. 
 
 * When I have been going to set down my thought, 
 it has sometimes escaped nj^ in the very writing. But 
 
246 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 this accident, reminding me of my weakness, which I am 
 continually inclined to forget, is a lesson as instructive 
 to me as the lost thought could have proved ; because 
 the whole aim of my study is to discover my own 
 feebleness, and vanity, and nothingness. 
 
 * Montaigne is a writer most grossly faulty. He 
 abounds in lewd and incident expressions. Let this pass 
 for nothing. But then his thoughts on self-murder and 
 on death are such as we cannot read without horror. 
 He insinuates an idle ind fference as to the affair of our 
 salvation, without care of repentance, and yet without 
 fear of danger. Indeed, his work not being composed 
 on a design purely religious, he was not obliged to give 
 men express admonitions to piety, but he was indispensably 
 obliged not to discourage them from it. Were we able 
 to apologise for his libertine thoughts on all other subjects, 
 yet it would be impossible to allege any sort of excuse 
 for his pagan reflections upon death. P'or a man must 
 have utterly abandoned all goodness if he desire not at 
 least to die like a Christian; and yet a death of indolence 
 and inconsideration is the wish that runs through Mon- 
 taigne's whole performance. 
 
 * That which deceives us in our comparisons between 
 the examples of the ancient Church and the practice of 
 the modein is that we are wont, for the most part, to 
 consider Athanasius, Teresa, and other holy persons as 
 they are now crowned with* glory. At present, indeed, 
 when time has cleared up the event, their condition is 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 247 
 
 such as we describe it in our mind. But when that great 
 saint was persecuted, it was a mere man who bore the 
 name of Athanasius; and when that pious virgin prayed, 
 she differed not from the religious sisters of her order. 
 " Elias was a man of like passions as we are," says St. James, 
 to wean us from that false idea which prompts us to excuse 
 ourselves from the patterns of holy men, as disproportioned 
 to our estate and degree. They were saints, we cry, and 
 not men of our imperfect character and unexalted virtue. 
 
 * In dealing with those who have at present an aversion 
 to religion, we ought to begin with showing them that 
 it is by no means contrary to reason ; in the next place, 
 we should convince them that it is great and venerable, 
 and inspire them with reverence towards it ; after this, 
 we should describe it as highly charming and lovely, to 
 engage their wishes for its truth; and then we may proceed 
 to demonstrate by irrefragable proofs that it is true ; we 
 may evince its antiquity and holiness from its awful majesty 
 and sublime elevation ; and lastly, may make it appear 
 to be truly amiable, in that it promiselh our only good 
 and happiness. 
 
 * We shall sometimes find one single expression of 
 David or of Moses (as for instance, that of the latter, " God 
 will circumcise the foreskin of your hearts ") which shall oe 
 sufficient to settle their character, and to manifest the Spirit 
 by which they wrote. Supposing all their ether discourses 
 to be ambiguous, and to leave a doubt whether they spake 
 by the measures of philosophy or by those of inspiration 
 
248 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 one word of this kind is sufficient to determine all the 
 rest. Here the cloud must vanish, though all should have 
 seemed obscure before. 
 
 * Should a man happen to err in supposing the Chris- 
 tian religion to be true, he could be no loser by the mistake. 
 But how irrecoverable is his loss, how inexpressible his 
 danger, who should err in supposing it to be false ! 
 
 * The most easy rules of living with respect to the 
 world, are the most difficult with respect to God, and so 
 vice versa. The duties of religion are the greatest pains 
 of a life which is merely secular, and the greatest pleasures 
 of a life which is holy and divine. Nothing is so natural 
 and agreeable whilst we live in conformity to the world, as 
 to be possessed of high dignities and ample revenues ; 
 nothing is so laborious and difficult while we live according 
 to the will of God, as to possess these advantages without 
 an irregular teste and unwarrant.ible satisfaction. 
 
 The Old Testament exhibits to us the figures of our 
 future happiness, the New prescribes to us the means of 
 attaining it. The figure; were those of pleasure and joy ; 
 the means are those of jadness and repentance. And yet 
 under the former, the Paschal lamb was eaten with bitter 
 herbs, " cum amaritU'Jinibus," to teach us that there is no 
 arriving at true joy but by holy sorrow. 
 
 * The word Galilee happening to be thrown out by the 
 Jewish rabble before Pilate in their cry against our Lord, 
 occasioned the sending him to Herod, in which the 
 mystery of His being judged by Jews and Gentiles re- 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 241) 
 
 ceived its completion. Thus a mere accident, in appear- 
 ance, procured the completion of the prophecy. 
 
 * Two persons coming from confession, one of them 
 told me that he was full of joy and satisfaction ; the other, 
 that he was full of trouble and fear. Upon which I 
 remember myself to have passed this reflection, that these 
 two men put together would make one good one, and 
 that each was so far defective, in that he had not the 
 sentiments of the other. 
 
 * We could not but feel a very peculiar pleasure in 
 being tossed by a tempest, while the vessel was infallibly 
 secured from sinking. Such a vessel is the Church, such 
 tempests are its persecutions. 
 
 * As the two great sources of all sin are pride and 
 negligence, so God has been pleased to disclose two of 
 His attributes for their cure. His mercy and His justice. 
 The office and effect of His justice is to abase and 
 moitify our pride, and the office and effect of His mercy 
 is to prevail on our negligence, and excite us to good 
 works. "The goodness of God leadeth to repentance." 
 And, " let us repent " (say the Ninevites) " and see if He will 
 not have mercy on us." Thus the consideration of the 
 divine mercy is so far from being an encouragement to 
 sloth and remissness, that it is the greatest spur to industry 
 and action ; and instead of saying, " If our God were 
 not a merciful God we ought to bend our utmost endea- 
 vours towards the fulfilling His commands," it is rational 
 to say, " Because we serve a God of mercy and pity, there- 
 
250 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 fore we ought to labour with all our strength to yield Him 
 an acceptable service." 
 
 * The history of the Church ought emphatically to be 
 styled the history of truth. 
 
 * All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the 
 lust of the eyes, or the pride of life : " Libido sentiendi, 
 libido sciendi, libido dominandi." Miserable is that ac- 
 cursed earth which these three rivers of fire do not refresh, 
 but burn ! Happy those who remain upon these rivers 
 in immovable safety, without being overwhelmed or carried 
 away with the stream ; not standing erect, but sitting on 
 a sure and humble seat, whence they rise not till the day- 
 spring from on high, when, having rested in peace, they 
 stretch forth their hands to Him who will lift them up, 
 and cause them to stand upright in the porches of the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, where they shall be for ever secure 
 from the assaults of pride ! And yet are these happy 
 saints at present in tears, not to see all these perishable 
 things vanishing and passing away, but at the remembrance 
 of their dear country, the Jerusalem which is above, after 
 which they sigh incessantly, while the days of their 
 pilgrimage are prolonged. 
 
 * A miracle, says the sceptic, would confirm my 
 wavering belief. Men talk after this manner about things 
 at a distance. But those reasons, which being viewed afar 
 off seem the boundaries of our sight, do yet cease to bound 
 it upon our approach. We discover still a new scene 
 beyond ; and no prospect can stop the endless activity of 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 251 
 
 our spirit. There is no general rule, we cry, without an 
 exception ; and no truth so bright and solid as not to have 
 in some part the disadvantage of a fliw. If principles be 
 not absolutely universal, we have sufficient pretence to apply 
 the exception to the case before us ; and by this means we 
 evade all the force of conviction. 
 
 * Charity is no figurative precept. To say that Jesus 
 Christ, who came to take away the figure and to establish 
 the truth, came to introduce a figurative chanty and to 
 remove the true and real, which was before in possession, is 
 a doctrine not to be entertained or endured. 
 
 * The heart has its arguments and motives, with which 
 the reason is not acquainted. We feel this in a thousand 
 instances. It is the heart, and not the reason, which has 
 properly the perception of God : God sensible to the heart, 
 is the most compendious description of true and perfect 
 faith. 
 
 * In the time of affliction, the knowledge of external 
 things will never comfort us under the ignorance of morality, 
 but the knowledge of morality will always comfort us under 
 the ignorance of external things. 
 
 * The nature of man is so framed, that not only by 
 often hearing himself called a fool, he b.'lieves it ; but by 
 often calling himself a fool, he enters into the same opinion. 
 Every person holds an inward and secret conversation with 
 his own breast, and such as it highly concerns him well to 
 regulate, because even in this sense, evil communications 
 corrupt good manners. To study silence as much as 
 
252 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 possible, and to converse with God alone, is the true art 
 of persuasion in respect of ourselves. 
 
 * Where is the difference between a soldier and a 
 Carthusian, as to the point of obedience ? They are equally 
 under duty, and engaged in labours equally painful and 
 grievous. But then the soldier all along hopes to be his 
 own master, and though he never compasses his aim 
 (because captains, and even princes, are always slavish and 
 depending), yet he still wishes for liberty, and useth his 
 whole endeavour to attain it. Whereas the Carthusian, on 
 the contrary, makes a solemn vow never to be at his own 
 disposal and direction. The necessity of perpetual servi- 
 tude is the same in both persons; only, the one ever 
 desires what the other has for ever renounced. 
 
 * Our own will, though it should obtain its largest wish, 
 would always keep us in uneasiness. But the very instant 
 that we abandon our own will, we grow easy. We can 
 never be satisfied with it, nor. ever dissatisfied with- 
 out it. 
 
 * It is very unjust that persons should build so much 
 on our familiarity, though they do it with real inclination 
 and delight. We deceive all those whom we encourage in 
 such a dependence. Because we are not, at last, the 
 persons they suppose, and can by no means be able to 
 satisfy their expectations. Do not we stand on the brink 
 of the grave ? and must not the object of which they are so 
 much enamoured, be lost and buried with us ? As it 
 would not cease to be criminal in us to propagate a falsity, 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 253 
 
 though we might recommend it with eloquence, and others 
 embrace it with pleasure, so are we in the like degree 
 blamable, if we labour to charm men's affections, and to 
 draw them into an undue confidence and reliance. We 
 ought to caution persons whom we find disposed to 
 credit a fiction, whatever advantage we might reap by 
 their mistake. In the same manner ought we to warn 
 those who are courting our favour, against engaging them- 
 selves in so vain a patronage and protection. Because 
 their whole life ought really to be spent either in seeking 
 after God or in studying to please Him. 
 
 * To trust in forms and ceremonies is superstition ; but 
 not to comply with them is pride. 
 
 * All other sects and religions in the world are left to 
 the guidance of mere natural reason. Christians alone 
 are obliged not to take their rules of acting from themselves, 
 but to gain the knowledge of those which were delivered by 
 Jesus Christ to His Church, to be transmitted to them. 
 There are certain persons who are aggrieved at this 
 restraint. They desire to have the liberty of following 
 their own imaginations, like the rest of the world. It is in 
 vain that we cry to them as the prophets to the ancient 
 Jews, " Enter into the congregation, inform yourselves of 
 the laws of your fathers, and follow their steps." They are 
 ready to answer us as the same Jews, " We will not go; but 
 we will certainly do according to the thoughts of our own 
 heart, like the nations round about us." 
 
 * There arp ihree means of believing: by inspiration, 
 
254 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 by reason, and by custom. Christianity, which is the only 
 rational institution, does yet admit none for its sons who 
 do not believe by inspiration. Nor does it injure reason 
 or custom, or debar them of .their proper force; on the 
 contrary, it directs us to open our mind by the proofs of 
 the former, and to confirm our mind by the authority of the 
 latter. But then it chiefly engages us to offer ourselves, 
 with all humility, to the succours of inspired grace, which 
 alone can produce the true and salutary effect : " Ne 
 evacuetur crux Christi." 
 
 * A man never does evil with so much complacency, so 
 full purpose and resolution, as when he does it upon a 
 mistaken principle of conscience. 
 
 * The Jews, who were called to subdue nations and 
 princes, were themselves the captives and slaves of sin. 
 Christians, whose vocation was to be servants and subjects, 
 are, in the event, the only freemen and the only sons. 
 
 * Shall we call it courage in a dying man that he dares, 
 under his weakness and agony, affront an omnipotent and 
 eternal God ? 
 
 * I would never dispute the credit of a history after the 
 author had sealed it with his own blood. 
 
 * There is a virtuous fear which is the effect of faith ; 
 and there is a vicious fear which is the product of doubt. 
 The former leads to hope, as relying on God, in whom we 
 believe ; the latter inclines to despair, as not relying on 
 God, in whom we do not believe. Persons of the one 
 
CHRISTIAN THOUGHTS. 255 
 
 character fear to lose God ; persons of the other character 
 fear to find Him. 
 
 * Solomon and Job judged the best and spake the 
 truest of human misery ; the former the most happy, the 
 latter the most unfortunate of mankind ; the one acquainted 
 by long experience with the vanity of pleasure, the other 
 with the reality of affliction and pain. 
 
 * God does not exact from us that we should blindly 
 submit our faith to Him without all reason, nor intends to 
 awe and control us by mere force. Yet He thinks not 
 himself obliged to render us a reason of all things. And to 
 reconcile these seeming contrarieties, He is pleased clearly 
 to discover to us the divine marks of His own nature, and 
 to procure Himself authority by such wonders and evidences 
 as we are not able to resist ; after which He requires that 
 we should, in all other cases, believe without delay what- 
 ever He proposes to us as true, when we find no other 
 reason to reject it, but because we are, of ourselves, unable 
 to discern whether it be true or no. 
 
 * The whole world may be divided into these three 
 ranks and orders of men : those who, having found God, 
 resign themselves up to His service ; those who, having 
 not yet found Him, do indefatigably search after Him ; and 
 lastly, those who have neither found Him, nor are inclined 
 to seek Him. The first are happy and wise ; the third are 
 unhappy and fools; the second must be owned to be wise, 
 as they own themselves to be unhappy. 
 
2S6 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 * Reason proceeds so slowly, and upon so many 
 maxims and views, which it must always keep present 
 before it, that every moment it either stumbles or goes 
 astray for want of seeing all things at once. The case is 
 quite otherwise with sense. This, as it acts in an instant, 
 so it is always prepared for action. When our reason, 
 therefore, has brought us acquainted with the truth, we 
 should endeavour to imprint our faith on the inward sense 
 of our heart, without which it will be ever wavering and 
 uncertain, 
 
 It belongs equally to the perfection of Almighty God, 
 that He be infinitely just and infinitely merciful. Yet His 
 justice and severity towards the wicked is still less amazing 
 than His mercy and goodness towards the elect. 
 
XXIX. 
 
 MORAL THOUGHTS. 
 
 Knowledge has two extremities, which meet and touch 
 each other. The first of them is pure natural ignorance, 
 such as attends every man at his birth. The other is the 
 perfection attained by great souls, who having run through 
 the circle of all that mankind can know, find at length that 
 :hey know nothing, and are contented to return to that 
 ignorance from which they set out. Ignorance that thus 
 knows itself, is a wise and learned ignorance. Those 
 persons who lie between these extremities, who have got 
 beyond natural ignorance, but cannot arrive at that 
 ignorance which is the effect of wisdom, have a tincture of 
 science which swells them with vanity and sufficiency. 
 These are the men that trouble the world, and that make 
 the falsest judgments of all things in it. The vulgar, and 
 the truly knowing, compose the ordinary train of men ; 
 those of the middle character despise all, and, in return, ai 2 
 despised by all. 
 
 * The multitude have a professed veneration for persons 
 
258 IrlOUGHTS ON RELIGION 
 
 of birth and quality. The half-learned as professedly con- 
 temn them ; alleging that the advanta e of a noble birth 
 is the merit of fortune, and not of the man. The truly 
 learned respect and honour them ; not upon the motives of 
 the vulgar, but upon a higher view. Persons of much 
 zeal and little knowledge do again despise them, as 
 judging, not by either of these considerations, but by the 
 maxims of religion. But men of an advanced and 
 finished piety are still wont to treat them with esteem and 
 reverence, upon a superior principle and a larger degree of 
 illumination. Thus there is a succession of opinions, 
 for or against, according to the different measures and pro- 
 portions of knowledge and light. 
 
 * The soul loves the hand; and the hand, if endued 
 with will and choice, ought to love itself in the same 
 proportion in which it is loved by the soul. All love 
 beyond this standard would be partial and unjust. 
 
 * "Qui adhjeret Domino unus spiritus est." A Christian 
 loves himself as a member of that body of which Jesus 
 Christ is the head ; and he loves Jesus Christ as the head 
 of that body of which he is himself a member. Both these 
 motions centre and conspire in the same affection. If the 
 fee or the hands were endued with a separate will, they 
 could never preserve their natural order and employment, < 
 otherwise than by submitting this private will to that general 
 and superior will which has the government of the whole 
 body. Without such a resignation they would have a 
 liberty only of confusion and ruin ; whereas in serving 
 
MORAL THOUGHTS. 259 
 
 the good of the body, they most effectually consult their 
 own. 
 
 * Concupiscence and violence are the sources of all 
 our actions, merely human. From the former arise those 
 which are voluntary ; and those which are involuntary from 
 the latter. 
 
 * Whence comes it to pass that we have so much 
 patience with those who are maimed in body, and so little 
 with those who are defective in mind ? It is because the 
 cripple acknowledges that we have the use of our legs, 
 whereas the fool obstinately maintains that we are the 
 persons who halt in understanding. Without this difference 
 jn the case, neither object would move our resentment, but 
 both our compassion. 
 
 Epictetus proposes a question of the like nature : why 
 we should not be touched when a man tells us, without any 
 ground, that we have the headache, and yet should fly into 
 a passion when we are taxed, perhaps falsely, with using a 
 weak argument, or making a wrong choice. Now the 
 reason is certainly this : because we are well assured that 
 we have not the headache, or are not lame ; but we are by 
 no means so well assured of the rectitude of our judgment 
 or will. For having in the latter case no evidence but 
 that we behold the thing before us with our whole light 
 when another, with as full a light, sees the direct contrary, 
 this startles and confounds us, especially when we hear the 
 generality of men exploding our mistake ; for then we must 
 prefer our own parts to those of so many thousands who 
 
 R 2 
 
26o THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 join in the censure, which is a point not to be compassed 
 without the utmost difficulty and reluctance. But men can 
 never thus contradict each other in the reports of their 
 outward senses. 
 
 * The vulgar have many good notions ; as for instance, 
 that hunting and diversion are preferable to the study of 
 poetry. This the half-learned expose as ridiculous, and 
 triumph over the vulgar upon the occasion. Yet in regard 
 to some other notions, as that it is necessary men should 
 be distinguished by external circumstances, as birth, fortune, 
 and the like, the vulgar, and these pretenders to learning, 
 concur in their censure. Because this distinction, for 
 instance, though founded upon good reason, yet is not 
 founded upon reasons which they are capable of penetra- 
 ting, and therefore is condemned as unjust, while consistent 
 wiih the most perfect justice. 
 
 * It is a great advantage of quality that a man at 
 eighteen or twenty shall be allowed the same esteem and 
 deference which another purchaseth by his merit at fifty. 
 Here are thirty years gained at a stroke. 
 
 * There are a sort of men who, to demonstrate the 
 great injustice of our disregard, never fail to urge precedents 
 of such and such great persons, who prize them after an 
 extraordinary manner. The answer I would give to this 
 argument is : do but produce the merit which gained you 
 the esteem of these admirers, and I am ready to add myself 
 to the number. 
 
 * The designs which we have most at heart are very 
 
. MORAL THOUGHTS. 261 
 
 often groundless and impertinent. As for instance, our 
 concealing the narrowness of our fortune. This policy is a 
 mere nothing, which our imagination swells to a mountain. 
 Another turn of imagination would make us as free to 
 discover our circumstances, as we are now industrious to 
 disguise them. 
 
 * There are some vices which are retainers to us, not 
 immediately, but by the intervention of others, and which, 
 like branches, fall of course upon our removing the 
 trunk. 
 
 * Reason, when it is on the side of ill-nature, displays 
 all its force and compass, and gains a lustre from the pride 
 and fierceness of the passion. Austerity of life and 
 manners, when it has proved unsuccessful in the search of 
 true good, and lets us loose again to follow nature, grows 
 violent upon changing to the extreme. 
 
 * To be capable of receiving pleasure only from sport 
 is but a mean pretension to happiness, because all satis- 
 faction of this kind is external and foreign, and consequently 
 dependent; and therefore liable to be disturbed by a 
 thousand accidents, which are the sources of inevitable 
 trouble. 
 
 * The world is full of good maxims ; all the fault lies in 
 the application. For example, that a man ought to expose 
 his life for the sake of the public, is an universal and 
 undoubted principle, and we see all are ready to practise 
 it in the cause of their country, but few in the cause of 
 their religion. 
 
262 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 A man does not pass in the world to have any know- 
 ledge of poesy, or of the mathematics, unless he puts out 
 the sign of a poet, or of a mathematician. But persons of 
 true sense and judgment are never for posting up their 
 perfections ; nor will they allow any difference between the 
 trade of a poet and that of an embroiderer. They desire 
 not the title of professors, but will, upon occasion, discover 
 the ability of judges. You must not presume to guess at 
 their talent. They are not for leading the discourse, but 
 are prepared to fall in with every subject of the company. 
 You can never discern in them any one endowment rather 
 than another, but by the necessity of using it ; and it is 
 equally their character that you would not esteem them 
 fine speakers while it was improper to play the orator, and 
 yet would allow them all the praises of eloquence when 
 eloquence was in season. It is therefore a false com 
 mendation to extol a man at his first entrance into company 
 as excellent in the art of verse, and it is a bad token, as 
 well as a poor compliment, never to apply to him but 
 when the debate is about some certain lines in a poet. We 
 are made up of wants, and love those only who can fill 
 them. Such an one is an admirable mathematician, they 
 cry; but my business is not to be done by diagrams. 
 Such an one is master of the art of war; but I am resolved 
 to keep the peace with my neighbours. The man we wish 
 for must be one of a general character, of sound prudence 
 and sincere probity, who can accommodate himself to all 
 our necessities, and assist us in every affair of life. 
 
MORAL THOUGHTS. 263 
 
 * While we continue in good health, we can by no 
 means apprehend how we should be able to bear the 
 severity of a distemper. Yet when we are sick we cheer- 
 fully take whatever is prescribed, and grow resolute upon 
 our misfortune. We then no longer covet these oppor- 
 tunities of walking and diversion which we enjoyed in 
 health, but which are incompatible with the necessities of 
 our disease. Nature ever supplies us with a new set of 
 passions and desires agreeable to our present estate. It is 
 not our nature, therefore, but our vain fear which troubles 
 us, by joining to the condition in which we are, the passions 
 of that condition in which we are not. 
 
 * Discourses of humility afford matter of presumption 
 to the proud, no less than of submission to the meek. A 
 dogmatist shall conclude positively from the reasonings of 
 a sceptic. Few persons who talk of any virtue, or quality, 
 are inwardly acquainted and affected with it. We are all 
 full of doubling, deceit, and contradiction. AVe love to 
 wear a disguise, even within, and are afraid of being detected 
 by ourselves. 
 
 * It is but a mean character of a man, that he says a 
 great many fine things. 
 
 * Self is mean and scandalous ; and therefore they who 
 take no care to remove it, but content themselves barely 
 with concealing it, are still the proper objects of our 
 hatred. By no means, say you ; for to carry it, as we 
 do, fairly and obligingly to all the world, can never put us 
 out of men's good affections. Your reply would be reason- 
 
204 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 able, if we hated nothing in self besides the uneasiness and 
 distaste which it gives us. Bat if we hate it because it is 
 unjust, and because it presumes to be the centre of all 
 things, we shall ever persist in hating it. Upon the whole 
 matter, self has two very ill qualities : it is unjust in its 
 own nature, because it desires to be set up for the universal 
 mark and aim ; and it is incommodious to others, because 
 it designs to oppress and enslave them ; for self is a 
 common enemy, and aspires to be absolute tyrant of the 
 world. You take away its inconvenience, by keeping it 
 private, but not its injustice; and therefore cannot render 
 it amiable to those who hate it on the latter score. You 
 can only make it agreeable to those who are likewise 
 unjust, and that it does not openly oppose them ; but you 
 will still be no less unjust, and must be content to have no 
 friends, or favours, but those of your own complexion. 
 
 * I do not admire a man who possesseth any one virtue 
 in its utmost perfection, if he does not at the same time 
 possess the opposite virtue in an equal degree. This was 
 the accomplished character of Epaminondas, that he had 
 the greatest valour, in conjunction with the greatest 
 humanit)'. To appear otherwise is not to rise, but fall. 
 A .xan never shows true greatness in being fixed at one end 
 of the line, but he shows it to admiration, if he toucheth 
 both extremities at once, and fills and illustrates all 
 between. Perhaps the soul may still reside in a single 
 point, and by such acts as these may shoot itself by a 
 sudden glance from oqe boundary to the other, Yet thi§ 
 
MORAL THOUGHTS. 265 
 
 is enough to demonstrate the agility of the soal, if not its 
 compass aud reach. 
 
 * Were our condition really happy, we should have no 
 occasion to divert ourselves from reflecting on it. 
 
 * When I began my studies, I spent a considerable 
 time in the pursuit of remoter knowledge ; and the small 
 number of those with whom I could converse in this way 
 discouraged me from proceeding farther. When I after- 
 wards applied myself to study man, I discovered that those 
 abstracted sciences are by no means the proper entertain- 
 ments of his nature, and that I had strayed farther from 
 my proper condition by sounding their depths, than others 
 by remaining ignorant of them, whose neglect I could 
 therefore easily forgive. I hoped at least to find more 
 companions in my new inquiry ; because this was the 
 proper employment and exercise of mankind. Bat I was 
 again disappointed, and found, on the whole matter, that 
 those few who study geometry are still more than those 
 who study themselves. 
 
 * When all moves equally, nothing seems to move, as 
 in a vessel under sail. When all run by consent into vice, 
 none appears to do so. He that stops first views, as from 
 a fixed point, the extravagance which transports the 
 rest. 
 
 * If we would reprove with success, and effectually show 
 another that he is in the wrong, we ought to observe which 
 way he looks on the object (because, that way, it is generally 
 guch as he apprehends it J, and to acktiowledge that he is so 
 
266 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 far in the right. He will be satisfied with this method, as 
 intimating that he was not mistaken, but only wanted to 
 have surveyed the thing on all sides. The former imputa- 
 tion is apt to work on our shame and resentment ; but the 
 latter gives us no disturbance. The reason of which possibly 
 may be that the understanding, as well as the sense, can 
 never be deceived in that part of a thing which it actually 
 has under its view. 
 
 * A man's virtue is not to be measured by some 
 extraordinary efforts and sallies, but by a constant and 
 uniform series of action. 
 
 * The great ones and the little ones ol' the world have 
 all the same accidents, the same passions and follies. But 
 as the former are at the top of the wheel, so the latter are 
 nearer its centre, and therefore less agitated by the common 
 motion and revolution. 
 
 * We are for the most part more easily persuaded by 
 reasons of our own finding out, than by any which owe 
 their original to the wit of others. 
 
 * Though a man should have no interest to serve in 
 what he reports, yet we must not absolutely, and in all 
 cases, conclude hence that he speaks the truth ; because 
 there are some who lie for lying's sake. 
 
 * The example of Alexander's continence has not made 
 so many converts to chastity, as that of his drunkenness 
 has to intemperance. Men apprehend no shame in being 
 less perfect than he, and judge it very excusable to be more 
 defective. We are apt to think ourselves much above the 
 
MORAL THOUGHTS. 267 
 
 corruptions of the vulgar, when we fall into the vices of 
 these great and renowned persons; not considering that 
 their vices do really bring them down to the vulgar level. 
 We are proud of joining ourselves to them, by the same 
 common term which joins them to the multitude. How 
 lofty soever their condition may be, there is some hold or 
 other about them by which they are linked to the rest of 
 mankind. They do not hang in the air, or subsist abso- 
 lutely separate from human society. If they are above us, 
 it is because their head is higher; their feet are always as 
 low as ours. They all touch the same line and tread the 
 same ground ; and in this respect are not superior to us, 
 nor to children, nor even to beasts. 
 
 * It is the combat that pleaseih us, and not the victory. 
 We love to see beasts fighting; but not the conqueror 
 feeding on the vanquished. The only thing we wish is to 
 behold the issue of the day ; and when that once appears, 
 we are satisfied with the prospect. 
 
 It is thus in our diversions, and it is thus in our re- 
 searches of knowledge. We are amused with the contending 
 opinions, but very little gratified with the decisive truth. 
 For truth itself ceaseth to be agreeable, unless it spring 
 from the midst of contention. The case is the same with 
 our passions ; the struggle of any two amongst them 
 entertains us with delight, but the mastery of either turns 
 into savageness. We do not seek the things themselves (in 
 respect of any objects whatsoever), but we seek the change 
 and variety that is to be met with in pursuing them. This 
 
268 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 reason discovers itself on the stage; where we alike con- 
 demn a continued scene of ease and softness without 
 terror ; of extreme misery without hope ; or of brutal love 
 without decency and humanity. 
 
 * We do not teach men to be honest, while we teach 
 them all besides ; and yet they pretend to this more than 
 to all. Thus they chiefly value themselves upon knowing 
 that which is the only thing they never learnt. 
 
 * What a senseless project it was in Montaigne to give 
 such a picture of himself, and that not by chance and 
 against his ordinary maxims (as all men have their failings), 
 but upon professed principles, and with his main intention ! 
 For to say foolish things through accident or weakness 
 is a common misfortune ; but to say them with full design, 
 especially those of so very gross a character, is insupportably 
 absurd. 
 
 * Men of irregular lives are wont to boast that they 
 exactly follow nature, and that those who walk by rule 
 and order are the persons who really deviate from her ; 
 as men in a ship fancy those to move who stand on the 
 shore. Both sides affirm the very same of each other, and 
 we must be placed at some one precise point ere we can 
 judge between them. The distance of the vessel from the 
 haven is a clear decision of the latter controversy; but 
 who can ever find the like mark to determine the former? 
 
 * To lament the case of the unfortunate is by no means 
 a check upon our natural concupiscence, which may still 
 reign with full power (hough it gives us leave to show this 
 
MORAL THOUGHTS. -69 
 
 expression of humanity, and to acquire the reputation of 
 pity and tenderness. Whence we are to infer that such 
 a reputation can be of no considerable value. 
 
 * Would any have thought that a man who enjoyed 
 the friendship of the Kings of England and Poland and 
 the Queen of Sweden should at length have wanted a 
 safe retreat, a shelter and asylum in the world ? 
 
 * As objects have different qualities, so has the soul 
 different inclinations. Nothing presents itself with the 
 same constant face to the affections ; and the affections 
 apply themselves to nothing after the samfe constant 
 manner. Hence it comes to pass that the same thing 
 which excites our laughter may, upon the very next view, 
 provoke our tears. 
 
 * We are of so unhappy a frame that we can take 
 pleasure in no enjoyment, but upon condition of being 
 as much displeased if anything chance to render it less 
 successful to us, as a thousand accidents may and do 
 every hour. He that has found out the secret of delighting 
 himself in good, without disturbing himself with the fear 
 of the opposite evil, seems to have hit on the point ol 
 true happiness. 
 
 * There are different classes and orders of men — as 
 the valiant, the sparkiih, the witty, and the pious — who 
 ought respectively to keep within their own sphere, and 
 not to invade that of their neighbours. Yet how often 
 do we find them at variance, and see the soldier and 
 the beau idly banging one another for the mastery, 
 
2/0 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 whereas they really belong to a different empire ! Their 
 fault is that they do not understand themselves, and 
 therefore set up for universal dominion. But nothing 
 can obtain such a dominion, not even force itself, which, 
 while it tyranniseth over external actions, has not the 
 least comnaand over the realms of learning and wit. 
 
 * " Ferox gens nullam esse vitam nisi in armis putat." 
 These men would have chosen death rather than peace. 
 There are others who would choose death rather than war. 
 Any opinion which has taken so deep and so natural a 
 root gains an easy preference to life itself 
 
 * How difficult is it for me to propose any matter 
 to the judgment of another without corrupting his judgment 
 by my manner of proposing it I I cannot intimate that 
 it is easy and agreeable, or that it is difficult and obscure, 
 but I shall very probably impose either a favourable or 
 sinister bias on the conceptions of my friend. I ought 
 to give no such intimation of my own sentiments. For 
 then he will pronounce of the thing as it really is, according 
 as its present condition, and those circumstances which are 
 not of my adding, shall represent it. And yet perhaps 
 my very silence, in this case, may have the same ill effect, 
 according to the turn and construction which my friend 
 shall be in the humour to give it, or according to what he 
 may gather from my air and look, or from the tone of 
 my voice in proposing the question. So easy is it to justle 
 reason out of its natural seat, or rather, so infirm and 
 tottering a seat has nature given it. 
 
MORAL THOUGHTS. 271 
 
 * The Platonists, and even the Stoics, while they 
 beheved that God alone was an object so worthy as to 
 justify our love, did yet desire themselves to be beloved 
 and admired by men. They had no manner of sense 
 of their natural corruption. Had they been really disposed 
 to the love and adoration of God, and felt the most 
 ravishing joy from so divine an exercise, they might fairly 
 have called themselves as good and great as they had 
 pleased. But if they found their hearts under an utter 
 aversion and repugnancy to these duties ; if they had no 
 manner of inclination but to establish themselves in the 
 opinion of men ; and if their whole perfection consisted 
 in being able, without force, to make others propose a 
 happiness in loving and esteeming them, such a perfection 
 ought to be abhorred. For this was their case : they 
 possessed, in some degree, the knowledge of God, and 
 yet courted only the love of men. They were desirous 
 that men should place their hope and confidence in theai, 
 and should make them the sole objects of their choice and 
 delight. 
 
 * How wisely has it been ordained, to distinguish men 
 rather by the exterior show than by the interior endow- 
 ments ! Here is another person and I disputing the way. 
 Who shall have the preference in this case ? Why, the 
 better man of the two. But I am as good a man as he, 
 so that if no expedient be found, he must beat me, or 
 I must beat him. Well, but all this while he has four 
 footmen at his back, and I have but one. This is a 
 
272 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 visible advantage ; we need only teli noses to discover 
 it. It is my part therefore to yield, and I am a block- 
 head if I contest ths point. See here an easy method of 
 pea,ce, the great safeguard and supreme happiness of this 
 wo rid ! 
 
 * Time puts the surest end to troubles and complaints. 
 Because the world continually changeth, and persons and 
 things become indifferent. Neither the aggriever, nor 
 the party aggrieved, are long in the same circumstances. 
 
 . It is as if we should have personally affronted and ex- 
 asperated those of a certain nation, and should be able 
 to visit that nation again, two generations hence. We 
 should find the same French (for instance), but not the 
 same men. 
 
 * It is infallibly certain that the soul is either mortal 
 or immortal. This ought to make an entire change in 
 morality. And yet so fatal was the blindness of the 
 philosophers, that they framed their whole moral system 
 without the least dependence on such an inquiry. 
 
 * The .'ast act of hfe is always bloody and tragical, 
 how pleasantly soever the comedy may have run through 
 all the rest. A little earth, cast upon our cold head, fot 
 ever determines our hopes and our condition 
 
XXX. 
 
 THOUGHTS UPON DEATH : REING AN EXTRACT FROM A 
 LETTER OF M. PASCAL'S, OCCASIONED EY THE DEATH 
 OF HIS FATHER. 
 
 When we are under affliclion and trouble for the death 
 of a person who was dear to us, or for any misfortune 
 which we are capable of suffering, we ought not to seek 
 our consolation in ourselves, or in others, or in any part 
 of the creation, but in God alone. And the reason seems 
 to be evident ; inasmuch as no created being is the first 
 cause and mover of those accidents which the world calls 
 evil. Since, therefore, they are all to be referred to God 
 as their real Author and sovereign Disposer, it is visibly 
 our duty to repair to this original source, and to expect 
 thence the only methods of solid comfort. If we observe 
 these directions ; if we look on the death, for instance, 
 which we are lamenting, not as the effect of mere chance, 
 nor as a fatal necessity of nature, nor as the sport of 
 those elements and particles which constitute our frame 
 (for God never abandons His servants to so capricious 
 events), but as the indispensable and inevitable, the most 
 
 s 
 
274 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 . holy, and most just, effect of a providential decree, now 
 executed in its time; if we consider that whatever has 
 now happened was from everlasting present to God, and 
 preordained by His wisdom; if, I say, by a noble trans- 
 port of divine grace, we survey the accident which is 
 before us, not in itself and abstractedly from its Author, 
 but out of itself and in its supreme Author's will, as its 
 true cause, with respect both to the matter and the manner; 
 we shall adore in humble silence His unsearchable judg- 
 ments. His impenetrable secrets ; we shall reverence the 
 holiness of His decrees, we shall bless the guidance of 
 His providence ; and uniting our will to the will of God 
 Himself, we shall choose with Him, in Him, and for Him, 
 the very same events which He, in us, and for us, has 
 chosen from all eternity. 
 
 * There can be no cornfort but in truth. It is most 
 certain that Socrates and Seneca have nothing which may 
 persuade and convince, may ease and relieve us, on these 
 occasions. They were both under the original error 
 which blindeth mankind. They looked on death as really 
 natural to us ; and all the discourses which they have 
 built on this false foundation have so much vanity, and 
 so little solidity, as to serve for no other use but to 
 demonstrate the general weakness of human race, since 
 the most elevated productions of the wisest amongst men 
 are evidently so childish and contemptible. 
 
 It is not so that we learn Jesus Christ ; it is not thus 
 that we read the canonical books of Scripture. It is here 
 
THOUGHTS UPON DEATH. 275 
 
 alone tliat we succeed in our search of truth ; and truth 
 is no less infallibly joined to comfort, than it is infallibly 
 separated from error. Let us then take a view of death, 
 by those lights which the Holy Spirit has given us. And 
 by those we have the advantage of discovering that death 
 is no other than a punishment imposed on man to ex- 
 piate the guilt, and necessary to man to dissolve the power 
 of his sins ; that it is this alone which can deliver the 
 mind from the concupiscence of the flesh, some degree 
 of which does ever adhere to good men in this world. 
 We are hence instructed that Jesus Christ came into the 
 world as a victim and propitiation, and as such offered 
 Himself to God ; that His birth. His life, His death, His 
 resurrection. His ascension. His session at the right hand 
 of the Father, and His presence in the Holy Eucharist, 
 all belong to one and the same sacrifice ; to conclude, 
 we are informed, that what was accomplished in Jesus 
 Christ must be accomplished also in His members. 
 
 Let us then consider life as a sacrifice; and. let the 
 accidents of life make no other impression on us than 
 as, in proportion, the accomplishment of this sacrifice is 
 either interrupted or promoted by them. Let us style 
 nothing ill but what turns the sacrifice of God into the 
 sacrifice of the devil; and let us honour all such things 
 with the name of God, as render that which was a 
 sacrifice to the devil in Adam, a sacrifice to God in Jesus 
 Christ. Let us examine the notion of death by this rule 
 and principle. 
 
276 THOUGHTS ON RELIG/OA. 
 
 In order to which design, it is necessary to have re- 
 course to the person of Jesus Christ : for as God regards 
 not men but through Him as a mediator, so neither ought 
 we to regard ourselves, or others, but with respect to the 
 same mediation. 
 
 If we look not through this medium, we shall discern 
 nothing but either real pains or detestable pleasures; but 
 if we see all things as in Jesus Christ, all will conspire 
 for our consolation, satisfaction, and edification. 
 
 Let us reflect on death as in Jesus Christ, not as 
 without Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ it is dread- 
 ful, it is detestable, it" is the terror of nature. In Jesus 
 Christ it is fair and amiable, it is good and holy, it is 
 the joy of the saints. All events being rendered sweet 
 in Jesus Christ, death itself has a share in the influence. 
 To sanctify death and sufferings to us, was the reason 
 for which He suffered and died ; who, as He was God and 
 man in one person, comprised, at once, whatever was 
 great and illustrious, whatever was humble and obscure; 
 that He might sanctify all things in Himself, sin only 
 excepted, and might be the standing model of all characters 
 and conditions. 
 
 Would we know what death is, what it is in Jesus 
 Christ, we must examine the regard which it bears to His 
 continual, uninterrupted sacrifice. 4nd we may observe, 
 that in sacrifices the principal part is the death of the 
 victim. The oblation and sanctification which precede are 
 indeed the dispositions, but death is still the completion ; 
 
THOUGHTS UPON DEATH. 277 
 
 in which, by renouncing its very life and being, the creature 
 pays to God the utmost homage of which it is capable, 
 thus humbling, and as it were annihilating itself, before the 
 eyes of His majesty, and adoring His supreme existence, 
 who alone essentially exists. There was indeed another 
 part to be performed after the death of the sacrifice, 
 without which it was vain and ineffectual, namely, the 
 acceptance of it by God. This is meant by the Scrip'ure 
 expression, "odoratus est Deus odorem suavitatis." But 
 this, though it crowned the sacrifice, was rather an action 
 of God towards the creature, than of the creature towards 
 God; and did not hinder, but that the last act of the 
 creature was still determined by its death. 
 
 We find each of these circumstances fulfilled in our 
 Lord, upon His coming into the world. "Through the 
 eternal Spirit, he offered himself up to God." * " When he 
 Cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offerings 
 thou would not; then said I, lo I come to do thy will, 
 O God. Thy law is within my heart."- We have here His 
 oblation, and His sanctification immediately followed. 
 His sacrifice continued through His life, and was finished 
 by His death. It was needful for Him "to suffer these 
 things, and to enter into his glory."* "Though he was a 
 son, yet learnt he obedience by the things which he 
 suffered." * " In the days of his flesh, when he had offered 
 up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears 
 
 ' Ileb. ix. 14 ; x. 5, 7. " Luke xxiv. 26. 
 
 = Psal. xl. < Heb. v. 8. 
 
278 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 unto him that was able to save him from death, hf,. was 
 heatd in that he feared." ^ Finally, God raised Him again 
 by His glorious power (of which the fire which fell from 
 heaven on the sacrifices was a type), to burn and consume, 
 as it were, His mortal body, and to exalt and restore; Him 
 to a life of glory. 
 
 The sacrifice of Jesus Christ being thus perfected, as to 
 the action, by His death, and as to the subject, by His 
 resurrection (when the image of the body of sin was 
 absorbed in glory), He had performed all that was on His 
 part ; and there remained nothing but that the sacrifice 
 should be accepted of God, and that, as incense, it should 
 ascend, and carry up its odour to the throne of the Divine 
 majesty. In pursuance of which our Lord was perfectly 
 offered, lifted up and received at ■ God's throne, at His 
 ascension; which He effected partly by His own proper force, 
 and partly by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, with which 
 He was every way encompassed and replenished. He was 
 carried up as the odour of the sacrifices by the air which 
 supported it; the former of v.'hich prefigured Himself, and 
 the latter represented the Holy Spirit. And the Acts of 
 the Apostles expressly report that He was received into 
 heaven, to give us an assurance that this holy sacrifice, 
 accomplished on earth, was received and accepted " in the 
 bosom of His Father." 
 
 Let us then not be sorry as Gentiles without hope, for 
 our departed Christian friends. Our loss of them is not to 
 ' Heb. V. 7. 
 
THOUGHTS UPON DEATH. Tj^ 
 
 be dated from the hour of their death. To speak properly, . 
 we then lost them when they were admitted into the Church 
 by baptism. Ever since that admission, they were not ours, 
 but God's; their life was devoted and consecrated to God, 
 their actions bore no regard to the things of this world, but 
 for the sake of God. By their death they are at length 
 entirely disengaged from sin ; and it is at this mornent that 
 they are accepted by God, and that their sacrifice receives 
 its accomplishment and crown. 
 
 They have now performed what they vowed ; they have 
 finished the work which God gave them to do ; they have 
 discharged that which was the only end of their creation. 
 The will of God is perfected in them, and their will is 
 swallowed up in the divine. What therefore God has 
 joined together let not us put asunder; but by a right 
 understanding and true judgment, let us suppress, or at 
 least moderate the sentiments of corrupt and mistaken 
 nature, which exhibits nothing but false images, and whose 
 illusions disturb the sanctity of those thoughts which from 
 the instruction of Christian truth we ought to have derived. 
 Let us form our ideas of human dissolution, not on 
 the pagan, but on the Christian model ; that is, let them, 
 as St. Paul enjoins, be built on hope, the especial gift and 
 privilege of Christians. Let us look on the remains of a 
 deceased friend, not as a noisome and infectious carcase, 
 according to the fallacious portrait of nature, but ac- 
 cording to the assurance of faith, as the eternal and 
 inviolable temple of the Holy Ghost, 
 
28o THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 For we know that the bodies of the faithful are in- 
 habited by the Spirit of God until the resurrection, which 
 shall be performed by the power of the same Spirit residing 
 in them for that design. This is the sense of the ancient 
 Fathers. And it is for this reason that we pay honour even 
 to the relics of the saints. Nor was it on any other principle 
 that the earlier Christians were wont to put the Holy 
 Eucharist into the mouths of the deceased, because knowing 
 them still to be the temples of the Holy Ghost, they thought 
 them to be still worthy of an union with this holy Sacrament. 
 But the Church has since altered the custom ; not because 
 she denies the bodies of good men to be pure and sacred, 
 but because she judges that the Eucharist, which is the 
 bread of life and of the living, ought not to be imparted 
 to the dead. 
 
 Let us not consider the faithful who are departed in the 
 grace of God as having ceased to live, which is the false 
 suggestion of nature, but as now beginning to live, which 
 is the infallible testimony of truth. Let us look on their 
 souls not as annihilated and lost, but as quickened and 
 enlivened, and united to the Sovereign Life. And, by 
 attending to these sound doctrines, let us correct the 
 prejudices of error which are so firmly rooted in our mind, 
 and the apprehensions of fear which are so strongly im- 
 printed on our sense. 
 
 * God created man under a double passion, one for 
 his Creator, the other for himself; but on this condition, 
 that the love of his Creator should be infinite, that is. 
 
THOUGHTS UPON DEATH. 281 
 
 should have no other end but God ; and that the love of 
 himself should be finite, with a constant regard and reserve 
 to his Creator. 
 
 Man, in this estate, not only loved himself without 
 sin ; bjit had sinned, could he possibly have ceased to love 
 himself. 
 
 By the entrance of sin into the world, man was deprived 
 of the former of these affections j and his soul, which was 
 still great and still capable even of an infinite passion, 
 retaining only the latter, this immediately diffused itself, 
 and overflowed all the mighty space which had been 
 evacuated by the love of God. And thus we came to love 
 only ourselves, and to love ourselves infinitely, that is, to 
 love all things with respect only to ourselves. 
 
 Behold the origin of self-love. It was natural to 
 Adam ; it was, during his innocence, regular and just ; 
 but became immoderate and criminal upon his fall. 
 
 Behold the genuine source of this love, together with 
 the unhappy cause of its viciousness and excess ! 
 
 The same will hold true of our desire of dominion, of our 
 aversion to business, and of many the like natural motions. 
 And this whole doctrine may be easily applied to our 
 present subject. The fear of death, to Adam in innocence, 
 was not only natural, but just, because human life being 
 then not disagreeable to God, ought to have been agreeable 
 to man ; and death, for the same reason, ought to have been 
 an object of horror, as threatening to cut off a life which was 
 conformable to the divine will. But upon man's transgression. 
 
282 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 his life was debased and corrupted ; his soul and body 
 were set at variance one with another, and both with God. 
 
 When this fatal change had infected and impaired the 
 holiness of life, the love of life continued still ; and the 
 fear of death remaining with no less vigour, that which was 
 just in Adam was rendered unjust in us. 
 
 This is a true account of the fear of death ; whence it 
 sprang, and by what means it was tainted and vitiated. 
 
 Let us then clear up the darkness and error of nature 
 by the light of faith. The fear of death was once good and 
 commendable ; but it was so only in Paradise, where could 
 it have prevailed, it must have destroyed a life altogether 
 holy and virtuous. It was therefore just to hate it, while 
 it could not arrive without separating a holy soul from a 
 holy body ; but it is no less just to love it, while it 
 releaseth a soul which is righteous from a body which is 
 impure. It was reasonable to decline it, when it must 
 have dissolved the peace and agreement between soul and 
 body, but by no means when it composes the struggle and 
 contention, otherwise endless and irreconcilable. In a 
 word, while it must have punished a guiltless body, by 
 taking away its liberty of serving and honouring God ; while 
 it must have divided the soul from a body perfectly subject 
 and universally compliant to its will ; while it must have 
 put an end to all the happiness which man is capable of 
 receiving ; it might with justice, so long, have been 
 dreaded, and even abhorred. But now, when it ends a 
 life ever stained with some degrees of impurity ; when it 
 
THOUGHTS UPON DEATH. 283 
 
 takes away from the body the liberty of sinning ; when it 
 rescues and delivers the soul from a powerful rebel, which 
 was continually opposing the measures of its safety and 
 bliss, it would be highly injurious to maintain the same 
 opinion. 
 
 Let us not abandon the love of life, which attends our 
 nature, because we receive it from God. But then let us 
 apply it to such a life only as God gave it us for, and not 
 to a quite different object. 
 
 While we admit and embrace that love which Adam 
 had for his life of innocence, and which even our Lord 
 Jesus Christ retained for His, let us be resolute in hating 
 such a life as is contrary to that which was loved by Jesus 
 Christ. And let us be concerned at such a death only as 
 affected our Lord Himself with some sort of apprehensions, 
 a death happening to a body pure and spotless in the sight 
 of God ; but let us not fear a death which punishes a 
 sinful and purges an impure body, and which therefore 
 ought to inspire us with quite opposite sentiments, were we 
 in any degree possessed of those noble endowments, faith, 
 hope, and charity. 
 
 It is one of the most acknowledged principles of 
 Christianity, that whatever happened to Jesus Christ is 
 likewise to be transacted in the soul and in the body of 
 every Christian. So that as our Lord suffered in this life of 
 infirmity and mortality, as He was raised to a new life, and 
 at length carried up into the heavens, where He now sits at 
 God's right hand, in the same manner both the soul and 
 
284 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 body are to suffer and die, to be raised again, and to ascend 
 into heaven. 
 
 All these particulars are accomplished in the soul during 
 this life, though not in the body. 
 
 The soul suffers and dies to sin, in repentance and 
 baptism. The soul is raised to a new life in the Sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper. The soul relinquisheth this earth 
 and soars towards heaven in leadmg a heavenly life on 
 earth, which is St. Paul's meaning when he says, " Conver- 
 satio nostra in coelis est." 
 
 The like changes are not accomplished in the body 
 during this present life, but shall be accomplished after it. 
 
 For at our decease the body dies to this mortal life ; at 
 the judgment it shall rise to a new life ; after the judg- 
 ment it shall be exalted to heaven, and there reside for 
 ever. 
 
 Thus the very same things happen to soul and body, 
 though at different periods; and the revolutions of the body 
 do not take place till those of the soul are completed, that 
 is, not till after death. Insomuch that dedth, which is the 
 end and crown of the soul's happiness, is but the first 
 beginning, or prelude of happiness to the body. 
 
 Behold the admirable conduct of divine wisdom in 
 man's salvation ! Upon which subject St. Austin informs 
 us, that God has been pleased to dispose things in this 
 manner, lest, if the final death and resurrection of the 
 human body should be performed in baptism, men would 
 yield themselves obedient to the Gospel on no other motive 
 
THOUGHTS UPON DEATH. 285 
 
 but the love and desire of life. Whereas the glory of faith 
 shines out in its chief magnitude and brightness, while we 
 pursue and press towards immortality through the vale and 
 shadow of death. 
 
 * It is not reasonable that we should continue absolutely 
 unmoved and unaffected at the misfortunes and evils which 
 befall us, like angels, who have no sentiments or inclinations 
 of our nature; nor is there more reason that we should 
 sorrow without hope, like heathens, who have no feeling, 
 no apprehension of grace. But reason and justice allow 
 that we should mourn like Christians, and be comforted 
 like Christians, and that the consolations of grace should 
 overcome the affections of nature, so that grace may not 
 only dwell in us, but may be victorious and triumphant in 
 us; that by our thus hallowing the name of our Father, His 
 will may become ours, His grace may rule and reign over 
 our nature; that our afflictions may be the matter and 
 subject of a sacrifice which His grace will perfect in us to 
 His glory; and that these particular sacrifices may be so 
 many assurances of the entire and universal sacrifice, in 
 which our whole nature shall be purified and perfected, by 
 the power of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Thus shall we make advantage of our own infirmities, 
 while they furnish matter for this whole burnt-offering. 
 And to profit by faiUngs and imperfections is the great ain" 
 of Christians, who know that "all things work together" for 
 the elect. 
 
 If we observe these things with a closer view, and as 
 
2S6 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 they really are in themselves, we shall not fail to draw from 
 them great improvements of edification. For it being most 
 certain that the death of the body is but the type and image 
 of that of the soul, if we have reason to hope for the 
 salvation of our friends, while we lament their decease, 
 though we may not be able to stop the current of our 
 sadness and displeasure, yet we cannot but reap the benefit 
 of this lesson, that since bodily death is so terrible as to 
 create these disorders in us, the death of the soul is a 
 subject which ought to give us far more inconsolable regret. 
 God having been pleased to deliver to the first those for 
 whom we mourn, we may believe that He has graciously 
 rescued them from the second. Let us contemplate the 
 greatness of our happiness, in the greatness of our misery; 
 and then even the excesses of our grief can be but the just 
 standard of our joy. 
 
 One of the most solid and useful charities towards the 
 dead, is to perform that which they would enjoin us 
 were they still in the world ; and to put ourselves, for 
 their sakes, into that condition which they wish us in at 
 present. 
 
 By this means we shall make them, in some sort, revive 
 in ourselves, while it is by their counsels and instructions 
 that we Hve and act. And as the authors of heresies are 
 punished in another life for the sins to which they have 
 moved their followers, in whom their poison still operatei 
 after their death, so good men are recompensed in a better 
 state, not only for their own virtues, but for the virtues of 
 
THOUGHTS UPON DEATH. 287 
 
 those whom they have engaged by their precepts, and 
 influenced by their examples. 
 
 * Man is undoubtedly too weak to form a solid judg- 
 ment of futurities. Let us trust in God, and not fatigue 
 ourselves with indiscreet and unwarrantable apprehensions. 
 Let us depend on the divine assistance for the conduct 
 and issue of our lives, and let us not yield ourselves up to 
 disconsolateness and despair. 
 
 St. Austin observes that there is in every man a serpent, 
 an Eve, and an Adam. Our senses and natural affections 
 are the serpent, our concupiscence is the Eve, and the 
 Adam is our reason. 
 
 Nature continually tempts and allures us, concupiscence 
 ever wisheth and covets, but sin is never finished, unless 
 reason authorise it by its consent. 
 
 Let us leave our serpent and our Eve to carry on our 
 solicitations, if we may not entirely expel them. But let 
 us pray God so to fortify our Adam by His grace, that we 
 may yield ourselves to be governed only by Jesus Christ, 
 and that He may reign in us triumphantly for ever. 
 
XXXI. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 
 
 The greater degree of parts and sagacity any one is master 
 of, the more originals he will discern in the characters ot 
 mankind. Persons of ordinary endowments are utter 
 strangers to this difference amongst men. 
 
 * A man may have good sense, and yet not be able to 
 apply it alike successfully to all subjects, for there are those 
 who judge exactly within one certain order of things, and 
 yet are quite lost and confounded in another. Some are 
 excellent in drawing consequences from a few principles, 
 others from many. Some, for instance, have an admirable 
 understanding of hydrostatics, where the principles are few, 
 but the consequences so fine and delicate as not to be 
 reached without the greatest penetration. And these 
 persons would perhaps be no extraordinary geometricians, 
 because the principles of geometry are vastly numerous ; 
 and because a genius may be so formed as with ease to 
 search a few principles to the bottom, and yet not to com- 
 prehend things with the same accuracy where the principles 
 are diffused to a larger compass. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 289 
 
 I'here are two sorts of geniuses, therefore, the one 
 disposed for a deep and vigorous penetration intj the 
 consequences of principles, and this is a genius properly 
 true and just; the other fit to comprehend a great number 
 of principles without confusion, and this is the genius for 
 geometry. The one consists in the force and exactness, 
 the other in the extent and capacity of thought. Nor is 
 this distinction without ground, because a genius may be 
 vigorous and yet contracted ; or it may have, on the con- 
 trary, a great reach and little strength. 
 
 There seems to be a wide difference between a genius 
 for the mathematics and a genius for business or policy. 
 In those sciences the principles are gross and palpable, yet 
 so far removed from vulgar use that a man is at a loss to 
 turn his head that way for want of practice ; but upon the 
 least application he sees them all at their full, and must 
 have a very untoward judgment if he draws wrong inferences 
 from principles which are too big to be overlooked, and 
 too distinct to be confounded. 
 
 But in business and policy, the principles are taken 
 from daily custom, and from the actions of the whole 
 world. There is no need here of giving our head a new 
 ply, or of committing violence on ourselves. The only 
 point is to have a good discernment ; but then it ought to 
 be very good, because these principles are so numerous 
 and so independent, that it is hardly possible but some of 
 them should escape us. And yet the omission of any one 
 principle breaks the whole thread, and betrays us into 
 
 T 
 
290 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 error. A man in this case must be clear and capacious, 
 that he may comprehend the whole set of principles, and 
 he must likewise be just and solid, that from known 
 principles he may not deduce false conclusions. 
 
 Every geometrician would, therefore, be a man of 
 business if he were not too short-sighted, for he seldom 
 argues wrong when he is thoroughly acquainted with his 
 principles. And every man of business might be a 
 geometrician, if he could once turn his thought to the less 
 obvious principles of geometry. 
 
 The reason, then, why some persons of management 
 and subtlety are not equally qualified to excel in roathe 
 matics, is because they cannot bend the whole stress of 
 their mind to principles which He so far out of the road : 
 and the reason why some persons admirably successful in 
 the study of the mathematics are less happy in civil 
 business, is because they are purblind in the things which 
 lie just before them. For these latter having been accus- 
 tomed to principles which are full and distinct, and having 
 never reasoned, even from these principles, till they have 
 viewed them a considerable time, and have handled them 
 after their own way, they cannot but lose themselves in 
 matters of political address. Here the principles will not 
 submit to be thus treated and managed ; they are not to 
 be discerned without difficulty ; the mind rather feels than 
 sees them ; and it would require almost an infinite labour 
 to work a perception of them in those who have it not by 
 tlieir own natural sagacity. These things are so nice and 
 
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 291 
 
 so numerous that a man must have the clearest and finest 
 understanding to apprehend them ; and, if apprehended, 
 it is very seldom that they can be so regularly demonstrated 
 as the subject of geometry,-because no one can pretend to 
 have so firm a hold of their principles and necessary founda- 
 tions, this being a task next to impossible. We must see 
 them at one immediate view, without the train and progress 
 of reason ; at least, the intuitive knowledge of them must 
 be extended to such a degree ere the rational can proceed. 
 Thus it rarely happens that either of these geniuses can 
 advance any steps in the province of the other. The 
 masters of geometry sometimes make themselves ridiculous 
 by endeavouring to confine the subjects of business to their 
 own method, and by retaining the way of definitions and 
 maxims, a process which this kind of reasoning will not bear. 
 Not but that the mind does the very same thing which they 
 propose to do by their rules ; but then the mind does it 
 silently and naturally, without art or show, and in a way above 
 the capacity of most men to conceive, and of all to express. 
 
 On the other side, the politic heads, having been used 
 to judge of things in the way of intuition, are so amazed 
 when we offer them problems which they apprehend 
 nothing of, and such as they cannot enter into, but through 
 a series of definitions and barren maxims, that they find them 
 soon disheartened, and inclined to give over the pursuit. 
 But then it is certain, between both, that a false genius will 
 neither make a geometry professor nor a privy counsellor. 
 
 Men who have a genius only for mathematics will be 
 
 T - 
 
292 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 true and exact in thinking, provided all things are exp'ained 
 to them in their own formal manner ; otherwise their 
 judgment will be erroneous and insupportable, because 
 they never proceed right, but upon principles of which they 
 have a perfect view. Again, those who have a genius only 
 for business are seldom patient enough to descend into the 
 first principles of speculative and abstracted things, which 
 they have not encountered in common life and action. 
 
 * It is easier to die without the thought of death, than 
 to think of death without the apprehension of danger. 
 
 * It often happens that in the proof of certain common 
 rules, we make use of such examples as might reciprocally 
 have been proved by the same rules. Nor is the former 
 method without its use ; because being ever wont to suppose 
 that the obscurity lies on the side of the thing to be 
 proved, we there discover more light and evidence in 
 the examples. So that if we would illustrate a general 
 truth, we instance in a particular case ; and if we would 
 decide a particular case, we begin with the general truth. 
 We ever fancy somewhat of doubt and difficulty in the sub- 
 ject of the question, and somewhat clear and convictive in 
 the medium by which we would evince it. We propose the 
 former under the notion of its being obscure, and we applj 
 the latter under the notion of its being perspicuous, and 
 thus assist our understanding either way in gaining its point, 
 
 * We ordinarily presume that all men have the same 
 apprehension and sense of the same object when presented 
 to them ; but we presume thus much upon a precarious 
 
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 293 
 
 title, and without real proof. I know very well that men 
 apply the same words to the same occasions ; as when two 
 persons look on the snow, both the one and the other 
 expresseth the appearance of this object by the same term 
 of white. From this conformity of speech we draw a strong 
 conjecture for the like conformity of idea, which, though 
 highly probable, yet is not absolutely demonstrative. 
 
 * All our reasonings turn at last upon a submission to 
 sense. Now our fancy is like our sense in one respect, 
 and unlike it in another : like, because it cannot reason ; 
 and yet unlike, because it is false and treacherous. And 
 hence it comes to pass that these two powers, though 
 opposite to each other, are so hard to be distinguished. A 
 man pretends that my sense is fancy, and that his fancy is 
 sense, and I am even with him, by showing myself the 
 same favour. There is need of a rule in this case ; and 
 reason indeed offers us one, but such as is pliable eithei 
 way, and so leaves us, in effect, without any rule at all. 
 
 * Those who judge of any work by rule are in respect 
 of others, like a man who has a watch, when the rest of the 
 company have not. One friend says we have been two hours 
 together, another affirms it to have been but three-quarters of 
 an hour since we met. Here I privately look upon ray watch, 
 and tell one that he is melancholy, and the other that he is 
 merry, because we have been together precisely an hour and 
 a half; and I despise those that tell me time passeth as I 
 please to make it, and pretend that I judge of it by 
 my fancy, not knowing that I judge of it by my watch. 
 
294 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 * There are men in the world who are good speakers 
 and ill writers. The reason of which seems to be that the 
 place, the company, etc., warms and ripens them, and 
 draws more out of their genius than it could produce 
 without such an actuating heat. 
 
 * There is nothing which does more mischief than our 
 unhappy custom of following the exception instead of the 
 rule. We ought severely to hold to the rule, and resolutely 
 to oppose the exception. And yet because there will be 
 always some allowable exceptions, this severity ought to be 
 tempered with justice. 
 
 * It seems, in one sense, not absurd to affirm that the 
 whole world is under a delusion. For though people's 
 opinions may really and in themselves be sound, yet they 
 are not sound in their heads ; because they generally 
 mistake, by fancying truth to be where it is not, and by 
 pointing to the wrong place. 
 
 * Those who have a genius for inventions are but few, 
 those who have none are vastly the more numerous, and, 
 by consequence, the stronger side. And we find the latter 
 commonly making use of this advantage of number and 
 strength, in denying the authors of rare discoveries the 
 glory which they seek and deserve by their labours ; 
 who, if in spite of ingratitude they vigorously maintain 
 their title to applause, and express a contempt of the 
 unskilful and partial multitude, all they get by their 
 obstinacy is to be exposed for enthusiasts and visionaries. 
 A mau ought, therefore, to be very cautious of assuming 
 
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 295 
 
 to himself this honour, how considerable soever in merit, 
 and ought to rest satisfied with the approbation of those few 
 who know how to set a true value on him and his studies. 
 
 * The understanding naturally believes, and the will 
 naturally loves ; so that if either of them be not directed 
 to true objects, it must necessarily take up with false. 
 
 * Many things which are true have been contradicted ; 
 many which are false pass without contradiction. To be 
 contradicted is no more a mark of falsehood than not 
 to be contradicted is a mark of truth. 
 
 * Caesar was too old, in my opinion, to amuse himself 
 with projecting the conquest of the world. Such an imagina- 
 tion was excusable in Alexander, a prince full of youth and 
 fire, and not easy to be checked in his hopes. But Caesar 
 ought to have been more grave. 
 
 * All the world sees that men venture for uncer- 
 tainties ; in voyages, in war, etc. But all the world does 
 not see the particular rule by which men proceed, and 
 which demonstrates that they ought thus to venture. 
 Montaigne knew it to be true in fact, that men have a 
 natural disgust for formal fools, and that custom governs 
 all things ; but he could not have given a reason for 
 either of these truths. Those who see not the causes of 
 things, but the bare effects, are, in regard to those who 
 see the causes, like those who have eyes in regard to 
 those that have none. For effects are, in a manner, the 
 objects of outward sense ; but causes are discernible only 
 by the understanding, And though it is the understanding 
 
296 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 likewise which takes cognisance of effects, yet this act of 
 the understanding bears no more proportion to that nobler 
 act which distinguishes the causes, than the bodily eye to 
 the eye of the mind. 
 
 * The sense we have of the falseness of those pleasures 
 which are present, and the ignorance we are under as to 
 the vanity of those pleasures which are absent, are the 
 two great sources of all our levity and inconstancy. 
 
 * If we dreamed the same thing every night, it might 
 perhaps affect us no less than the objects which we en- 
 counter by day. And if an artisan should be sure of 
 dreaming as often as he went to bed that he was a king, 
 I think he w-ould be as happy as a king who should dream 
 constantly, for the same space, that he was an artisan. 
 Should we every night dream that we were pursued 
 by our enemies, so as continually to lie under the fright 
 of these troublesome phantoms, or that we were engaged 
 in a succession of labour, as in travelling or the like, we 
 should suffer almost as much as if the things were real ; 
 and should be as much afraid of sleeping as we are now 
 afraid of being awake, when we apprehend ourselves to 
 be entering upon these misfortunes or difficulties. And 
 
 he consequence of the reality could scarce be more fatal 
 than that of the imagination. But because our dreams 
 tre ever varying from themselves, what they present us 
 with strikes us more faintly than what we behold with 
 open eyes, which is for the most part uniform, equal, 
 and consistent. Not but that this latter way has also its 
 
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 297 
 
 changes, though not with such frequency, or so great 
 abruptness, but in the manner of an easy journey. And 
 hence came the phrase of our being " in a dream " : for life 
 is indeed but a dream, though of a less inconstant and 
 irregular kind. 
 
 * Kings and princes sometimes retire for their diver- 
 sion. To be always on the throne would be a wearisome 
 slavery. Greatness must upon occasion be abstained from, 
 to preserve and refresh the taste of it. 
 
 * It is surprising to consider there are men in the 
 world who, having bid defiance to all the laws of God 
 and nature, do yet constitute laws amongst themselves, 
 to which they pay the exactest obedience ; as for instance, 
 thieves, etc. 
 
 * Those mighty efforts and sallies to which the mind 
 sometimes attains, are things which it cannot keep pos- 
 session of; it wins them by a vigorous flight, and loseth 
 them by as sudden a fall. 
 
 * Provided we know the ruling passion in any man, 
 we assure ourselves of being able to please hira. And 
 yet every man has his peculiar fancy and humour, con- 
 trary to his real good, even in the idea which he forms 
 of good; and this diversity breaks and disconcerts the 
 measures of those who are studious of winning upon the 
 affections of others. 
 
 * By the means which we corrupt our judgment, by 
 the same we corrupt our sense. Now both our sense and 
 judgment are chiefly formed upon conversation ; so that 
 
29? THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 good or ill company may make or mar them. It is 
 therefore of the greatest importance to choose our company 
 well, that we may confirm and not debauch our powers ; and 
 yet it is hardly possible to make this good choice, unless 
 they are already confirmed and not debauched. Thus 
 the whole matter runs in a circle, which, without a very 
 particular happiness, we shall never get out of. 
 
 * We naturally suppose ourselves more capable of 
 diving to the centre of things, than of embracing the 
 circumference. The visible extent of the world plainly 
 surpasseth us and our faculties. But because we our- 
 selves do likewise surpass, with a great disproportion, 
 the minuter parts of nature, we fancy that these must 
 necessarily fall under the command of our mind. And 
 yet it requires the same (that is, an infinite) perfection 
 and capacity to descend to nothing, as to extend to all. 
 And I am persuaded that if a man could penetrate into 
 the first elements of things, he might, by the same strength, 
 arrive at the comprehension of infinity. Each labour 
 depends on the other ; each conducts to the other. These 
 vast extremities, the farther they reach, the more surely 
 they meet and touch, reuniting at length in God, and 
 in God alone. 
 
 * If a man did but begin with the study of himself, 
 he would soon find how incapable he was of proceeding 
 farther. For what possibility is there that the part should 
 contain the whole ? It seems, however, more reasonable 
 that we should at least aspire to the knowledge of the 
 
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 299 
 
 other parts, to which we bear some proportion and re- 
 semblance. But then the parts of the world are so nicely 
 interwoven, so exquisitely linked and entased one within 
 the other, that I look upon it as impossible to understand 
 one without another, or even without all. 
 
 To instance in ourselves, Man has really some de- 
 pendence on everything that he knows. He has need of 
 place, to contain hiin; of time, to lengthen out his duration; 
 of elements, to compose his frame; of motion, to pre- 
 serve his life; of heat and food, for nourishment; of air, 
 for respiration. He sees the light which shines upon 
 him, he feels the bodies which encircle him ; in short, he 
 contracts an alliance with the whole world. 
 
 In order, therefore, to an exact knowledge of man, we 
 must know whence it comes to pass that air, for example, 
 should be necessary for his subsistence ; and to apprehend 
 the nature of air, we should know by what particular means 
 it has such an influence on the life of man. 
 
 Again, flame cannot subsist without air ; therefore the 
 philosophy of the one depends on that of the other. 
 
 All things then being in different regards, effects and 
 causes, dependents and assistants, near and remote, holding 
 communication with each other by a natural though 
 imperceptible line, which unites the most distant in place 
 and most repugnant in kind, I see no possibility either 
 of knowing the parts without the whole, or of knowing 
 the whole without a distinct apprehension of the parts. 
 
 And what seems to fix and complete our utter . inability 
 
300 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 for the knowledge of things is that they are all in their 
 own nature simple, whereas we are composed of two 
 opposite natures, spirit and body. For it is impossible 
 that our reasoning part should be other than spiritual. 
 And as for the extravagance of those who will allow 
 themselves to consist of nothing but body, this excludes 
 them still more forcibly from all acquaintance with the 
 objects about them, it being a most unconceivable paradox 
 to affirm that matter is capable of reflection or thought. 
 
 It is this composition of body and spirit which has 
 made the philosophers almost universally confound the 
 ideas of things, ascribing to body the properties of spirit, 
 and to spirit the affections of body. Thus they tell us, 
 with good assurance, that bodies have a tendency down- 
 wards ; that they aspire to their proper centre ; that they 
 shun their own destruction ; that they avoid a vacuum ; 
 that they have their peculiar inclinations, sympathies, and 
 antipathies ; all which belong purely to spirit. But on the 
 other hand, if spirits are the subject of their discourse, they 
 consider these as circumscribed in place, as endued with 
 local motion, etc., which ought in justice to be apphed 
 to body only. 
 
 Instead of receiving into our mind the true and genuine 
 ideas of things, we strike a tincture of our own compound 
 being on all the simple objects which we contemplate. 
 
 While we make no scruple to compose the whole world 
 of spirit and body, might it not seem natural to infer that 
 we really apprehend this composition? And yet this is 
 
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 301 
 
 what, of all things, we are most at a loss to apprehend. 
 Every man is to himself the most prodigious object in 
 the extent of nature ; for as he knows little of body, and 
 less of spirit, so he knows least of all how body should 
 be united to spirit. This is the very complication of all his 
 difficulties ; and yet this is no other than his own proper 
 being. " Modus quo corporibus adhaeret spiritus compre- 
 hend! ab hominibus non potest : et hoc tamen homo est." 
 
 * In natural things (the knowledge of which is noi 
 necessary to us), since there are many which exceed our 
 discovery, it may perhaps be not amiss that there should 
 be some universal error to bound and fix the pursuits of 
 men. Such, for instance, as the vulgar opinion concerning 
 the moon, which ascribes to her the change of seasons and 
 the progress of distempers. For it seems to be one of the 
 principal infelicities of mankind to entertain a restless 
 curiosity for things which it is impossible they should 
 understand. And I question whether it would not be 
 a less evil, with regard to things of this kind, to lie under 
 an invincible mistake than to indulge an unprofitable 
 inquiry. 
 
 * " This dog is mine," says the poor child ; " this is my 
 place, in the sun." From so petty a beginning may we 
 trace the tyranny and usurpation of the whole earth. 
 
 * The judgment and understanding have their proper 
 method, which is by principles and demonstrations. Th& 
 heart and affections have a method altogether different. 
 A man would expose himself very remarkably who should 
 
302 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 go about to engage our love by laying down, in a philo- 
 sophical order, the springs and causes of that passion. 
 
 Our blessed Lord and St. Paul have oftener used the 
 method of the heart, which is that of charity, than the other 
 of reason and judgment; because the principal design of 
 their disccurses was not so much to inform as to excite and 
 inflame. St. Austin takes the same way, which chiefly 
 consists in such lively digressions upon every point, as may 
 illustrate the main end and keep it ever in view. 
 
 * The common idea which we form of Plato or 
 Aristotle represents them in their garb of professors, and 
 as persons of composed seriousness and immovable gravity, 
 whereas they were really honest gentlemen who could 
 laugh and jest with a friend as well as ourselves. And 
 it was in this vein of mirth and humour that they framed 
 their laws and systems of polity. The time they spent 
 upon these projects was the most unphilosophical part 
 of their whole life. When they pleased to be philosophers 
 in earnest, they had no other care or thought than l^ow 
 to live with privacy and tranquillity. 
 
 * There are some writers who always love to put a 
 mask upon the face of nature. There is no such person 
 with them as a king, but a " grand or august monarch " ; no 
 such place as Paris, but " the metropolis and capital of a 
 mighty kingdom." 
 
 * When in perusing a piece we find some words often 
 repeated, yet such as we cannot change for others without a 
 manifest disadvantage, we ought by all means to let them 
 
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. 303 
 
 stand. For this is a true mark of their propriety, and it 
 was only our envy that made us critics, which was so blind 
 as not to see that the repetition was elegant on this occasion, 
 there being no general rule in the case. 
 
 * Those who bring in forced words to preserve the 
 antithesis, are like those who make false windows to 
 preserve the symmetry. Their rule is, not to speak good 
 sense, but good point and turn. 
 
 * There is a first model of agreeableness and beauty, 
 which consists in a certain relation between our own nature, 
 such as it is, whether weak or strong, and the thing with which 
 we are affected. Whatever is formed upon this model takes 
 and delights us ; it is all the same in building, in singing, 
 in speaking, in verse, in prose, ih women, in birds, in rivers, 
 in trees, in chambers, in dresses. Whatever differs from 
 this model is always displeasing to persons of a true relish 
 and discernment. 
 
 *■ As we talk of beauties in poetry, so we ought to talk of 
 beauties in geometry, and beauties in physic ; and yet we 
 never use these phrases. The reason of which is, because 
 we have an adequate idea of the objects of geometry and 
 physic ; but we understand not wherein that agreeableness 
 consists which makes the object of poetry. We are at a 
 loss to know the real model and standard of nature which 
 ought to measure such compositions, and for want of this 
 knowledge we invent a set of extravagant metaphors, such 
 as the Golden Age, the Wonder of our Times, the Fatal 
 Laurel, the Lovely Star, etc., and we stamp this jargon with 
 
304 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 the name of poetical beauties. But now if we were to imagine 
 a woman dressed by the same pattern, we should have a 
 certain airy damsel bedecked with plates of looking-glass 
 and tinsel chains. And a nymph thus attired would be 
 much fitter to engage our laughter than our love. Because 
 we better apprehend what is just and decent in the habit of 
 a woman than in the ornaments of a poem. But they who 
 had not the like gift of discernment might still admire the 
 lady in this antic equipage, and many a village of good 
 note would infallibly worship her for the Queen. Whence 
 some persons of wit have styled the sonnets and stanzas 
 composed after this fantastical manner, the Queens of the 
 May. 
 
 * When a just and natural discourse points out some 
 particular passion or effect, we feel in our breasts the 
 truth of what we read (because it was really there before, 
 though without our notice), and we find ourselves disposed 
 to love the person who has caused us thus to feel it, for 
 he seems to have given us a specimen, not of his goods, 
 but of our own ; and this civility entitles him to our affection, 
 besides that such an affinity and resemblance of thought 
 fails not to beget a kindness and endearment of soul. 
 
 * All true eloquence must be composed of what is 
 agreeable and what is real ; but then, even the agreeable 
 part ought, in its kind, to be likewise real. 
 
 Ordinary judges, when in reading they meet with a 
 natural and proper style, are quite astonished, because they 
 looked for an author, and they find a man. But those 
 who have the happiness of a true taste are no less surprised 
 
MISCELLANEOUS THDUGHTS. 305 
 
 when looking for a man they find an author. " Plus 
 poetic^ quam humane locutus est." We are very large in 
 our compliments to nature, if we pretend that she is able to 
 speak of all subjects, and even of divinity. 
 
 * In composition we ought never to draw off the mind 
 from one thing to another, unless it be purely for the sake 
 of refreshment, and then it must be at such time when 
 refreshment is exactly proper and seasonable, and at no 
 other. For he that goes about to divert his reader without 
 occasion, does but weary and disgust him. Men are too 
 nice and fastidious to bear an unnecessary ofificiousness, so 
 hard it is to obtain anything from them but upon the fund 
 of pleasure ; a coin which fails not to purchase all that this 
 world affords.' 
 
 * Mankind have indeed a natural love for bitterness and 
 severity, yet for such as is by no means exercised against 
 those who are afflicted with ill fortune, but against those 
 who are proud and insolent under good ; and we shall 
 find ourselves in a mistake if we pass any other judg- 
 ment on this matter. 
 
 * Martial's epigram upon the poor one-eyed men is 
 even good for nothing, because it affords not the least 
 consolation, nor serves for any other use than to give an 
 edge to the vain-glory of the author. But an author can 
 never be of value, when he proposeth himself as the sole 
 end of his writing. " Ambitiosa recidet ornamenta." We 
 should study to please those who have a sense of tender- 
 ness and compassion, not those who are barbarous and 
 inhuman. 
 
A PRAYER OF M. PASCAL, 
 
 COMPOSED IN SICKNESS. 
 
 I. 
 
 Lord, whose Spirit is so good and gracious in all things, 
 and who art so infinitely merciful, that not the prosperities 
 a'one, but even the distresses which happen to Thy 
 chosen are the effects of Thy mercy, grant that I may 
 not bring a pagan mind to my present afflictions ; but 
 that, like a true Christian, I may in all events acknowledge 
 Thy justice and Thy providence. For the altering of my 
 condition can no way affect or influence Thine. Thou art 
 ever immutable, though I am ever subject to change. Thou 
 art the same God, no less in afflicting and punishing 
 than in the midst of Thy indulgences and plentiful 
 consolations. 
 
 II. 
 Thou gavest me health to be spent in serving Thee ; and 
 
 1 perverted it to a use altogether profane. Now Thou ' 
 hast sent a sickness for my correction. Oh, suffer me not to 
 use this likewise, as a means of provoking Thee by my 
 impatience. I abused Thy gift of health, and Thou hast 
 justly punished me for my neglect. Oh, keep me from 
 
PR A YER IN SICKNESS. 307 
 
 abusing Thy very punishment. And because the corruolion 
 of my nature is such that it renders Thy favours pernicious 
 to me, grant, O God, that Thy all-powerful grace may render 
 Thy chastisements wholesome and beneficial. If I had a 
 heart filled with affection for the world while I enjoyed 
 any degree of strength and vigour, destroy that vigour for 
 my soul's health, and, whether by weakening my body or 
 by inflaming and exalting my charity, render me incapable 
 of delighting in the world, that my delight may be only in 
 Thy Name. 
 
 III. 
 
 God, before whom I shall be obliged to give an exact 
 account of my actions at the end of my life, and the end of 
 the world; O God, who permittest the world, and all 
 things in it, to subsist only for the probation of the good 
 and for the punishment of the wicked ; O God, who 
 leavest hardened sinners to enjoy the world with a delicious 
 but criminal use ; O God, who appointest our body to die, 
 and who, at the hour of death, removest our soul from all 
 that it doted upon here ; O God, who at the last moment 
 of my life wilt forcibly separate me from all things that 
 have engaged my thoughts, and taken up my heart ; O 
 God, who wilt consume the heavens and ihe earth at the 
 last day, and all the creatures they contain, to convince 
 men that nothing subsists but by Thy hand, and that 
 nothing besides Thee deserves our love, because besides 
 Thee nothing is fixed and permanent; O God, who wilt 
 destroy all these vain idols, all these fatal objects of our 
 
 u 2 
 
3o8 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 affections ; I praise Thee, O God, and I will bless Thee 
 while I have my being, for that Thou hast been pleased, of 
 Thy favour towards me, already to anticipate the dreadfal 
 day, by already destroying all things to my taste and thought, 
 under this weakness which I suffer from Thy providence. I 
 praise Thee that Thou hast given me this divorce from 
 the sweetness of health, and from the pleasures of the 
 world, and that Thou hast, for my advantage, in some sort 
 consumed tliese vain idols, which Thou wilt effectually 
 consume, for the confusion of the wicked, in the day of 
 Thy wrath. Grant, O Lord, that I may judge myself after 
 this seeming destruction which Thou hast made in my 
 behalf; so that after the final destruction which Thou wilt 
 make of my life, and of the world, I may escape when 
 judged by Thee. I know, O Lord, that at the instant of 
 my death I shall find myself entirely separated from the 
 world, stripped naked of all things, standing alone before 
 Thee, to answer to Thy justice concerning all the motions 
 of my thoughts and spirit ; grant that I may look on myself 
 as dead already, separated from the world, stripped of all 
 the objects of my passion, placed alone in Thy presence to 
 implore Thy mercy for the conversion of my heart ; and 
 that I may gather hence matter of exceeding comfort, that 
 Thou shouldest be pleased first to send this image and 
 appearance of death as the subject of Thy mercy, before 
 Thou sendest a real dissolution to exercise Thy justice. As 
 Thou seemest to have prevented the time of my death, so 
 let me prevent the rigour of Thy sentence ; and let me so 
 
PRA YER IN SICKNESS. 309 
 
 examine myself before' Thy judgment, that in Thy judg- 
 ment I may find mercy. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Grant, O Lord, that I may, with an obedient silence, 
 adore the methods of Thy divine wisdom in the disposals 
 of my life, that Thy rod may comfort me, and that having 
 lived in the bitterness of my sins while I enjoyed the good 
 things of my peaceable condition, I may taste the heavenly 
 sweetness of Thy grace during these salutary evils with 
 which Thou hast afflicted me. But I am sensible, O my 
 God, that my heart is so hardened, so full of worldly ideas, 
 engagements, solicitudes, and disquiets, that neither health, 
 nor sickness, nor discourses, nor books (not even Thy 
 sacred Word and Gospel), nor Thy most holy mysteries, 
 nor alms, nor fastings, nor mortifications, nor miracles, nor 
 the use of Thy Sacraments, nor the sacrifice of Thy precious 
 body, nor all my endeavours, nor the endeavours of the 
 whole world together, can effect anything towards the 
 beginning of my conversion, if Thou blessest not all these 
 means with the extraordinary succours of Thy grace. I 
 address unto Thee, Almighty Lord, to entreat from Thy 
 bounty a gift which the joint concurrence of created things 
 can never procure or bestow. I should not have the 
 boldness to direct my cries to Thee, were there besides 
 any that could hear and could relieve them. But, my 
 God, since the conversion which I now beg of Thy 
 grace is a work exceeding all the powers of nature, to 
 whom can I apply but to the Almighty Master of my 
 
310 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 heart and of nature itself? To whom, O Lord, should I 
 cry ; to whom should I flee for succour unless unto 
 Thee? Nothing that is not God can fix my confidence 
 or fill my desires. It is God alone whom I ask and seek ; 
 it is Thou alone, O my God, whom I implore for the 
 obtaining of Thyself. O Lord, open my heart, enter this 
 rebellious place, possessed by my vices and my sins. They 
 at present hold it in subjection ; do Thou enter, as into the 
 strong man's house ; but first bind the strong and power- 
 ful enemy who is master of it, and then spoil it of the 
 treasures which it now conceals. Rescue and retrieve my 
 affections which the world has robbed me of; spoil Thou 
 the world of this treasure ; or rather resume it as Thy 
 own, for to Thee it is but a just tribute, because Thy 
 own image is stamped upon it. The treasure was of 
 Thy forming, at the moment of my baptism, my second 
 birth ; but it is wholly impaired and defaced ; the image 
 of the world is graven so strongly upon it that Thine is 
 no more discernible there. Thou alone wast able at first 
 to create my soul ; Thou alone art able to create it 
 anew. Thou alone couldst imprint on it Thy image ; 
 Thou alone canst revive and refresh that defaced image ; 
 even Jesus Christ, the express image of Thy substance. 
 
 V. 
 
 O MY God, how happy is the soul which can love so 
 charming an object ; where the affection is so honourable, 
 the alliance so full of benefit and safety I I perceive I 
 
PRAYER IN SICKNESS. 311 
 
 cannot be enamoured of the world without incurring Thy 
 displeasure, without prejudicing and even degrading my- 
 self; and yet the world is still the mark of my desire. 
 O my God, ho'.v happy are the souls which have fixed their 
 desire on Thee, because this is an affection to which they 
 may give themselves whofly up, not only without scruple, 
 but with commendation ! How firm and lasting is their 
 happiness whose expectation can never be defeated, because 
 Thou failest not, and because neither life nor death can 
 separate them from this divine object of delight ! For 
 the same moment which shall involve the wicked, together 
 with their idols, in 9. common ruin, shall unite the just to 
 Thee in a common glory ; while as the former perish with 
 the perishing objects to which they had ensnared their 
 affections, the latter subsist eternally in that eternal and 
 self-subsisting object to which they were so familiarly allied. 
 Oh, the happiness of those who, with an absolute choice 
 and preference, and with an invincible bent of inclination, 
 are able to love perfectly and freely what they are engaged 
 to love out of duty and necessity ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 Perfect, O my God, the good motions Thou hast wrought 
 in me. Be Thou their end, as Thou art their beginning. 
 Crown Thy own gifts, for Thy gifts I acknowledge them to 
 be. I acknowledge them, O God, and am so far from 
 presu;iiing on any such merit in my prayers as should 
 oblige Thee to a necessary grant, that I likewise most 
 
312 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 humbly acknowledge that, having given up to the creatures 
 this heart which Thou formedst purely for Thy own service, 
 not for the world nor for myself, I can expect no means of 
 favour but from Thy mercy ; because I have nothing in me 
 that can engage Thy assistance, and because all the natural 
 movements of my heart, being directed either towards the 
 creatures or towards myself, can have no force with regard to 
 Thee, but that of incensing and provoking Thee. I thank 
 Thee, therefore, O my God, for the good motions Thou hast 
 inspired, and for this amongst the rest, the grace of thanking 
 Thee for them. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Stkike my heart with true repentance for my faults ; 
 because without this pain and grief of mind the evils with 
 which Thou hast stricken my body will only procure to me 
 a new occasion of sin. Make me rightly to understand 
 that the evils of the body are nothing else but the punish- 
 ment, and at the same time the figure and resemblance of 
 those which happen to the soul; but, O Lord, make them 
 prove likewise their remedy by making me consider, in the 
 bodily pains I feel, those in my soul, which I feel not, 
 though my soul as well as body is overspread with sickness 
 and sores. For my greatest evil of soul is this insensibility 
 and this extreme weakness, which disables it from all 
 apprehension of its own miseries. Give me a lively sense 
 of these miseries, my past offences, and grant that the 
 residue of my life may be one continued penitence to wash 
 away their stain. 
 
PRAYER IN SICKNESS. 313 
 
 VIII. 
 
 O Lord, although my life has been hitherto free from 
 more grievous crimes — the occasions of which Thou hast 
 been pleased in mercy to remove — yet it must needs have 
 been exceedingly hateful to Thee by reason of my habitual 
 neglect, my abuse of Thy most holy Sacrament, my con- 
 tempt of Thy Word and inspirations, by the idleness and 
 unprofitableness of all my actions and thoughts, and by 
 the entire loss of all that time which Thou hast given me 
 for no other employment bat of worshipping Thee, of 
 seeking in all my business and applications the means of 
 doing Thy pleasure and of becoming truly penitent for 
 my daily trespasses, such as are common even to good 
 men, and therefore such as require that their whole life 
 should be one act of repentance, without which they are in 
 danger of falling from their goodness. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Hitherto, O Lord, I have ever been deaf to Thy inspira- 
 tions, I have despised Thy oracles, I have judged contrary 
 to what Thou judgest, I have crossed those holy maxims 
 which Thou broughtest into the world from the bosom of 
 the eternal Father, and according to which Thou wilt judge 
 the world at Thy second coming. Thou hast said. Blessed 
 are those that mourn, and woe unto those who have 
 received their consolation. My language was directly 
 opposite : Woe unto those that mourn, happy those who 
 abound in consolations and enjoyments, those who possess 
 
314 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 a plentiful fortune, a glorious name, an uninterrupted 
 health, and unbroken vigour. And for what reason could 
 I make these advantages the standards of happiness, but 
 because they furnished their owners with a more large 
 capacity of enjoying the creatures, that is, of offending 
 Thee. Thus for health in particular, I confess, O Lord, 
 that I esteemed it a good, not because it supplied more 
 easy means of profiting in a course of holiness, of ex- 
 hausting more cares and more watchings in Thy service, or 
 in the assistance of my neighbours ; but because under its 
 protection I might abandon myself with less restraii t to the 
 delicacies of life, and receive a quicker relish of pernicious 
 and fatal pleasures. Grant, O Lord, that I may reform my 
 corrupted reason, and rectify my sentiments by Thine; that 
 I may judge myself happy in afflictions, and that under 
 this my disability as to external actions. Thou mayst so 
 purify my thoughts and intention as to reconcile them to 
 Thy own; that I may thus find Thee within myself, while 
 my weakness incapacitates me from seeking Thee without. 
 For, O Lord, Thy kingdom is in the hearts of the faithful ; 
 nor shall my heart be debarred from perceiving and 
 enjoying it in itselfj if it may be first replenished with Thy 
 Spirit and with Thy wisdom. 
 
 X. 
 
 But, O Lord, by what means shall I engage Thee to pour 
 down Thy Spirit upon this miserable soul ? All that I have, 
 all that I am, is odious to Thee; nor can I discover in 
 
PRAYER IN SICKNESS. 315 
 
 myself the least foundation of union and agreement. I see 
 nothing, O Lord, but my sufferings, which have a re- 
 semblance with Thine. Look therefore on the evils I now 
 labour under, and those which threaten me with their 
 approach. Behold with an eye of pity the wounds which 
 Thy hand has made. O my Saviour, who lovedst Thy own 
 sufferings, even to death ; O God, who for no other cause 
 becamest man, but that Thou mightest suffer more than 
 mere man could undergo for human salvation; O God, 
 who wast therefore incarnate since the fall of man by sin, 
 and didst therefore assume our body that Thou mightest 
 feel all the evils which sin had deserved ; O God, who so 
 lovest bodies exercised with suffering":, as to have chosen 
 for Thyself a body loaded with the most grievous sufferings 
 this world can exhibit, be pleased favourably to accept of 
 my body, not for its own sake, nor ibr all that it contains, 
 for all deserves Thy wrath; but on account of the evils it 
 endures, which alone can deserve Thy love. May my 
 sufferings be pleasing to Thee, and my afflictions invite 
 Thee to visit me. But to complete the preparation for Thy 
 reception and stay, grant, O my Saviour, that as my body 
 has this in common with Thine, to suffer for sin, so my 
 mind may have this likewise in common with Thy mind, to 
 be sorrowful for sin ; and that thus I may suffer with Thee 
 and like Thee, both in my body and in my mind, for my 
 numberless transgressions. 
 
3i6 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 xr. 
 Grant me, O Lord, the grace of joining Thy consolations 
 to my sufferings, that I may suffer like a Christian. I pray 
 not to be exempted from pain, for this is the glorious 
 recompense of saints ; but I pray that I may not be 
 abandoned to the pains of nature without the comforts of 
 Thy Spirit, for this is the curse of Jews and pagans. I pray 
 not to enjoy a perfect fulness of comfort, without any allay 
 of sufferings, for this is the noble prerogative of a life of 
 glory ; neither pray I for a perfect fulness of sufferings, 
 without any mixture of comfort, for that is a state of Jewish 
 darkness and misery ; but I pray, O Lord, that I may feel 
 at once both the pains of nature for my sins, and the 
 consolations of grace by Thy Spirit, for that is the true state 
 of Christianity. Oh, may I never feel pain without comfort, 
 but may I so feel them together as at length to feel Thy 
 comforts only without my pains ; for so, O Lord, Thou didst 
 leave the whole world to languish under natural sufferings 
 until the coming of Thy Son ; but now Thou comfortest 
 and sweetenest the sufferings of Thy servants by His grace, 
 and fillest Thy saints with pure beatitudes in His glory. 
 These are the three wonderful steps by which Thou hast 
 been pleased to guide and exalt the works of Thy provi- 
 dence : Thou hast raised me from the first, oh, conduct me 
 to the second, that I may attain the third 1 Thy grace, O 
 Lord, is sufficient for me. 
 
PRAYER IN SICKi\k.SS. :5i7 
 
 XII. 
 
 Suffer me not, O Lord, to continue under such an 
 estrangement from Thee, as to be able to reflect on Thy 
 soul, which was sorrowful, even to death ; Thy body, which 
 was oppressed and overcome by death for my sins ; with- 
 out rejoicing if I may be counted worthy to suffer in my 
 body and in my soul. For what can be more shameful, 
 and yet what is more usual with Christians, and even with 
 myself, than while Thou in Thy agony didst sweat drops of 
 blood for the expiation of our offences, we make it our 
 whole study to live in delicacy and ease ; that Christians, 
 who profess a dependence on Thee ; that those who, at 
 their baptism, renounced the world to become Thy 
 followers; that those who, in the face of the Church, have 
 engaged themselves by a solemn oath to live and die in 
 Thy service; that those who pretend a belief that the 
 world persecuted and crucified Thee; that those who 
 acknowledge Thee to have been exposed to the wrath of 
 God, and to the cruelty of men, to purchase their re- 
 demption ; that those who make a daily confession of all 
 this; who consider Thy body as the sacrifice which was 
 offered for their salvation ; who look on the pleasures and 
 sins of the world as the only cause of Thy sufferings, and 
 the world itself as Thy murderer, should yet seek to 
 gratify their bodies with the same pleasures and sins in 
 the same world ; and that those who could not without 
 horror behold a person caressing the murderer of his 
 father, by whose voluntary death the son is ransomed and 
 
3i8 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 lives, should be able to find delight and complacency, as 
 I have done, in the world, which I know to be the 
 murderer of Him whom I own for my Father and my 
 God, who was delivered for my releasement and safety, 
 and who in His own person sustained the punishment due 
 to my sins ? It was most just, O Lord, that Thou shouldst 
 interrupt so criminal a joy as this with which I solaced 
 myself under the very shadow of death. 
 
 xin. 
 Take from me, O Lord, that sorrow which the love of 
 myself may raise in me from my sufferings, and from my 
 unsuccessful hopes and designs in this world, while 
 insensible and regardless of Thy glory. Create in me a 
 sorrow resembling Thy own. Let my pains be, in some 
 measure, serviceable towards the appeasing of Thy wrath ; 
 let them prove the happy occasion of my conversion and 
 my salvation. Let me not hereafter wish for health or life, 
 but with the prospect of spending both in Thee, with Thee, 
 and for Thee. I pray not that Thou wouldst give me 
 either health or sickness, life or death ; but that Thou 
 wouldst dispose of my health, my sickness, my life, and 
 my death, for Thy glory, and for my own eternal welfare, 
 for th& use of the Church, and the benefit of Thy faithful 
 servants, into the number of whom 1 hope to be admitted 
 by Thy grace. Thou alone knowest what is expedient 
 for me ; Thou art my Sovereign Mas'.er and Lord ; guide 
 and govern me at Thy pleasure. Give me, or take from 
 
FRA YER IN SICKNESS. 319 
 
 me, as shall seem best to Thy providence ; but in all things 
 conform my will to Thine, and grant that with a humble 
 and perfect submission, and a holy confidence, I may 
 dispose myself to receive the orders of Thy eternal wisdom, 
 and may equally reverence and adore the most different 
 events which Thou shalt please to accomplish in me. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Let me with a constant evenness and uniformity of spirit 
 embrace all Thy disposals, for as much as we know not 
 what we ought to ask, and cannot wish one event rather 
 than another without presumption, and without making 
 ourselves the judges and the sponsors of that train of future 
 things which Thy wisdom has so justly concealed from our 
 view. I know, O Lord, my whole knowledge may be 
 reduced to this one point, that it is good to obey Thee 
 and evil to offend Thee. After this, I know not what is 
 the best or the worst amongst all things. I know not 
 which is more profitable for me, health or sickness, riches 
 or poverty, any condition, any circumstances of this world. 
 For such a judgment surpasseth the force and sagacity 
 of men, and lies hidden amongst the secrets of Thy 
 providence, which I reverence and adore, but will nevei 
 attempt to trace or penetrate. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Grant, O Lord, that in every condition I may conform 
 myself to Thy will, and in my present sickness glorify Thee 
 
320 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 by my pains. Without these it is impossible I should 
 attain to Thy glory, since Thou Thyself wast not "made 
 perfect" but "through sufferings." It was by the marks of 
 Thy sufferings that Thou wast known to Thy disciples ; 
 and it is by their sufferings that Thou knowest who are 
 Thy disciples. Receive me into that blessed company, 
 by means of these evils which I endure in body and mind 
 for my past transgressions. And because no sacrifice 
 is acceptable to the Father unless presented by Thee, 
 unite my will to Thine, and my torments to those which 
 Thou didst not disdain to undergo. Let my sufferings 
 be interpreted as Thine own. Unite me to Thyself, 
 replenish me with Thyself and with Thy Holy Spirit. Enter 
 into my heart and soul, there to sustain my afflictions, and 
 continue to endure in me what is behind of Thy passion, 
 which Thou still sufferest in Thy members till the perfect 
 fulness and consummation of Thy body. So that being 
 inspired and acted by Thee, it may be no longer I who 
 live or suffer, but Thou, O my Saviour, who livest and 
 sufferest in me; and that having thus borne some share 
 in Thy sufferings, Thou mayst admit me to some par- 
 ticipation of those glories which Thou hast acquired by 
 them, and in which, with the Father and the Holy Ghost. 
 Thou livest and reignest for ever. Amen. 
 
 THE END.