pleas'd to veil his Conduct and in such a manner to mingle Light with Obscurity that it should most depend on the Dispositions of the Heart to believe or to rest in Darkness So that those to whom he hides himself ought never to hope for any good till first they do as much as they can possible set themselves in the way of those that have found the Truth But they shall scarce give over counting for nought the Miserable Riches which some would deprive them of they will scarce begin to believe Poverty cannot be an Evil that Disgraces and Oppressions may be lookt upon as Good that nothing is to be shunn'd but offending God and nothing to be sought for but how to please him that all shall be clear to them and if there remains any Obscurity it will appear at least that it is only for those who desire to rest in it For Instance God was pleas'd to send his only Son into the World to save Men and at the same time to be a Stone of stumbling and an Object of contradiction to those who made themselves unworthy of so great a Blessing Could he have done any thing better than what he did to this End He was born of mean Parents he made him spend his Life without having wherein to lay his Head he only gave him the refuse of his People to be his Followers he would not that he should speak of any Sciences nor of any thing esteem'd great amongst Men he made him be thought a Deceiver he caus'd him to fall into the hands of his Enemies to be betray'd by one of his Disciples and forsaken by all the rest he made him tremble at the approach of Death which he sufferr'd publickly and as a Malefactor how could he better disguise him to those who only savour the things of Worldly Greatness and have no Eyes to behold true Wisdom But he also made him Command the Sea the Waves and the Wind yea he had also power over Devils and Death he made him know the inward Thoughts of those that spake with him he pour'd forth his Spirit upon him and put those things in his Mouth as could proceed from no other but God he made him speak the things of Heaven in such a manner as far surpasseth the reach of Men he was desirous to inform them the State of their Heart and how they might be deliver'd from their Miseries he made him live without the least appearance of Sin insomuch as his greatest Enemies had not the least pretext of accusing him he made him foretel his own Death and Resurrection and he raised him up out of the Grave What could there have been fitter to hinder him from being rejected by those who love true Greatness and Wisdom To conclude because all Ages and the whole Universe were concern'd in the same Conditions of Obscurity for some and of Light for others he would have his History and Life writ by none but his Disciples to render it suspicious to those who desir'd to be deceived and that it should be the most undoubted of all Histories that so they might be inexcusable For in a Word not to enter into this vast Field of Dispute if it be not true either the Apostles must be deceived or they must be Cheats and neither the one nor other is to be believ'd how could it be that they were deceiv'd those who said They were Eye Witnesses of the Life of Jesus Christ and also believ'd to be Chosen and endow'd with Gifts to that very End Could they be deceiv'd to know if they themselves healed the Sick if they raised the Dead What other or greater Sign could they have desired to be assur'd of knowing the Truth But if Jesus Christ made them believe during his Life how comes it to pass they were not better advis'd after his Death seeing they believ'd he was truly God that is Master of Life and Death For as for the Disciples of Mahomet who only call'd himself a Prophet it is plain they rested in Ignorance and Error after his Death and he was careful not to promise them to Rise again But it is not so of those of Jesus Christ they are far bolder accordingly they declare If he is not Risen all they did and said is in Vain It is thence they draw their greatest Comfort and Constancy and 't is very unlikely and even impossible but they believ'd at least that they saw him after his Death and they believ'd it with the greatest certainty could be in exposing themselves to all they sufferr'd and by reposing thereon the great Work wherein they had so happy success This being granted how can it be imagin'd they all believ'd so strongly a thing so difficult to be receiv'd and whereof the Eyes only can be the Judges Did they all dream it in one Night for they all declare they see him and we think they were all honest Men. Is it a Ghost that deceiv'd them for the space of Fourty Days or was it some Impostor that made them believe that he was the Man that Dy'd before their Eyes and whom they had laid in the Sepulcher and who afterwards found means to ascend up into Heaven in their sight This would be ridiculous to say and so much the more because 't is plainly seen by what we have left us of theirs that they were not so simple to believe That if Jesus Christ had been but a Common Man he could not have Raised himself from the Dead It would be altogether as Vain to say the Apostles were Deceivers and that after the Death of their Master they agreed amongst themselves to say he was Risen and should think all the World must take their Word for it For though it be said Men are Naturally Lyars it is not so in the Sense it is commonly taken It 's true they are born such inasmuch as they are born Enemies to God who is the Sovereign Truth and that their Heart is bent and prone to Vanity and Falshood which too often they look upon to be Real But else it is certain they Naturally love to speak Truth and it cannot well be otherwise the Natural Inclination tending to speak what one knows or at least what one believes that is what 's True in it self or in regard of him that speaks it Whereas for Lying there must be deliberation and design one must be at the trouble of inventing and it is seen such Men never Lye but for Interest or for Honour and then too because they cannot otherwise attain to it And they take great heed that what they say should seem probable and that the Falshood should not be discover'd especially if the Consequences are dangerous and if any should be found that Lye for Pleasure they never think but of enjoying it in the Moment not grounding any thing that 's Real upon their Lye. So that the Apostles could not possibly have any design of imposing upon Men in what they taught of
nothing wherein it is harder to impose upon them and wherein there is less occasion of Dispute So that when it is demonstrated to them that Christian Religion is inseparably join'd to Deeds the truth of which cannot justly be contested they must and ought submit to what it teacheth or that they abandon all Sincerity and right Reason If Moses for Instance was and that he wrote the Book that is attributed to him then the Jewish Religion is true If the Jewish Religion be True Jesus Christ is the Messias and if Jesus Christ be the Messias all must be believed that he said The Trinity the Incarnation Resurrection Ascension and all the Rest It is by this Divine chain of Truths God conducts Men to the true Faith and that they might shew there is nothing more reasonable than the submission they give to the most incomprehensible Mysteries very far from censuring them of Weakness and Imprudence And as this great Body of Christian Religion is compos'd of a great many different Parts which all tend to the same End and that it has subsisted Six thousand years it cannot but be by a Chain of infinite Truths that every Age has added a new Accumulation of Proofs and that at what Part soever one begins at what Point soever one apply themselves one still finds such a great abundance of Light that 't is impossible not to be convinc'd But one is so much the more obliged to apply themselves exactly to the seeking these Proofs God ordering it so that they should not consist in common Principles and so plain that they should presently be discover'd and that they should be alike seen of all Men. It is rather a heap of Circumstances that every body does not put together or don 't consider after the same manner which yet nevertheless are plain to the most ordinary Capacity when they ever so little open their Eyes and when they are all together produce a certainty if not greater at least more intimate and natural than that we have by speculative and abstracted Demonstrations because the manner of it is more proportion'd to the Mind of Man and that there 's no body but finds the Principles in themselves It is in this design that to give an Essay of the way that one should consider these Deeds which by their certainty do necessarily perswade that of our Religion we will make choice of the particular History of Moses and the Truth of his Books which serve as the Foundation of the Jewish Religion as this doth of the Christian according to St. Paul. I do not think my self bound presently to prove that if there was effectively a Man who lookt on himself to be sent on Gods part and that not desiring he should be believed on his bare Word or by Actions which are known to be but little above those of the power of Man has given for greater Evidence that wonderful Succession of Prodigies which is to be seen in the Pentateuch who was seen to have dispos'd of Life and Death to have Commanded the Elements and made the whole Frame of Nature stoop to his Orders I make no question I say but all the World will confess but this Man does best desérve to be believ'd of what he has writ concerning God in whose Name it was he wrought all these Wonders and that the Religion he Establish'd should be accounted as True and Divine The most obstinate Spirits will as 't were be at a loss under the weight of these Wonders and find no other means to satisfie the Inclination they have to Unbelief but to seek vain Reasons to question the Truth of these Miracles and of the Book which contains them But if they have any remains of Honesty and Sincerity left in them they cannot possibly proceed very far in these Doubtings and they will find them so dissipated by the abundance of Proofs which attend this History that they must be forc'd either to confess it to be true or be reduc'd to the dulness of those who to avoid believing what Religion Commands do rather chuse never to think at all of it For by what Suppositions do they think to shake the certainty of what is writ in these Books and put their Mind in a State of thinking that it all amounts to nothing Let them give all the scope they can to their Imagination and let it feed them with all the Chimera's it can they will never find any thing that has the least shadow of likelihood and which a Judgment never so little solid would not be asham'd to propose Will they say Moses never was and that all that is said of him is only a Fable invented at pleasure But let them consider that it is not Jews and Christians only that have been heard speak of this Moses seeing it is also known that Prophane Historians make mention of him and if that were not so let them also look on all the Histories in the World but as Fables seeing there is not one of them can be Credited if it were permitted to doubt that there was a Man called Moses who brought the Jews out of Aegypt after a long Captivity For all the Reasons whereby Men judge the truth of other Histories do equally appear in that of Moses For Instance we do not doubt but that there was an Alexander and a Cyrus because several Authors have writ of it and that no body ever thought of making any question of it neither has ever any body seriously question'd if there was a Moses It was constantly own'd and believ'd amongst a very Numerous People and by all those that knew them and that had any dealing with them without ever having been deny'd by any body But there is moreover this difference that Moses has particular Proofs and such as are not to be found in others for never was a Book preserv'd with so much Care and Affection as that which contains his History and nevertheless Men had never greater and more powerful Reasons to destroy the Truth of any Book if they could have found any colour for doing it than the Jews had in regard of this seeing that at once they might have freed themselves from a Law that was the most troublesom the most painful terrible and Injurious that could be to be observ'd so that one can see no Motive that should incline them to bear it but the firm perswasion of the Truth of it Incredulity not being able to subsist in this Chimera it must of necessity pass to some other and that for Example one must say That it is true there was a Man call'd Moses and that he was Chief of a great People he brought out of Aegypt but that he was a great Impostor which deceiv'd that People by false Miracles and forged all the Prodigies he Relates in his Book to subject them to the Law which he gave them and by that Law to himself in making them look upon it as come from Heaven and making
had need of my Brothers assistance he presently imbraced it with so much affection that I had no cause to doubt of the greatness of his love to me and mine so that I imputed to the pain of his sickness that coldness with which he receiv'd the diligence I used to divert him and this riddle was not known to me till the very day he died that a Person very considerable for his Quality and Virtue with whom my Brother held a very intimate and pious intercourse told me that amongst other things he observ'd this maxim that he never desir'd any body should love him with delight that 't was a faillure whereon we don 't sufficiently enough examine our selves not being aware of the danger of it not considering that suffering and increasing those delights one took up the heart which belonged to God only that 't was to rob God of the thing which he prised more then all things else We plainly discern'd this principle was deeply engraven in his heart for to think of it the oftner he wrot it on a piece of Paper which lay by it self in these terms It is unjust one should settle their delight on any thing here below although it be done with pleasure and willingly I should deceive those in whom I should create this desire for I am not the happyness of any body and have nothing that might satisfie them am not I ready to dye and so the object of their delight shall soon perish as I should be too blame to make any believe a lye though it were in my power and that any should do it with pleasure and would think to oblige me in it So also I should be too blame if I should make any to love me and if I should draw people to love or delight in me I ought to tell those that are ready to yield to believe a lye that they should not do it whatever benefit should accrue to me by it and also that they should place no delight in me for they ought to spend their life and their care in seeking God and pleasing him This was the manner that he instructed himself and that he so strictly observed that I my self knew not of it but by chance by this may partly be discovered the light which God gave him towards the perfecting of a Christian Conversation He had so great a Zeal for the Glory of God that he could not suffer it to be offended in any thing whatsoever this made him so earnest in the Kings Service that in the troubles at Paris he blamed every body and called the reason that was given for that Rebellion nothing else but meer pretences and said that in a settled Common-wealth as Venice is 't were a great Sin to think of setting up a King and to suppress the Liberty God had given the People but in a State where Monarchy is settled the respect due to it cannot be violated without being guilty of a kind of Sacrilege seeing 't is not only a resemblance of the Power of God but a Participation of that Power to which one cannot resist without the breach of Gods Command and that so one cannot too much exaggerate this Crime besides that 't is always attended with Civil Wars which is the greatest Sin one can commit against his Neighbour and he observ'd this Maxim so punctually that in those times he refused very great Offers to comply with it He would often say he had as great aversion for that Sin as for the Sin of Murder or Robbing on the High-way and that there was nothing more contrary to his Naturè and to which he had less temptation These were his Thoughts towards the King and he was no Friend to those who were of any other mind and what shewed that 't was not out of humour or self-will was that he had an admirable sweetness of Temper for all that offended him in his Person so that he never made any difference betwixt them and others and he so fully forgot those that regarded himself only that unless the particular circumstances of things were repeated he would not remember them And as this was sometimes wondred at he said don't think it strange 't is not of Virtue 't is by meer forgetfulness I don't at all think of it Nevertheless 't is most certain it may hardly be seen that the Offences that only regarded his Person made no great impression on him seeing he so easily forgot them for his Memory was so good that he often said that he never forgot any thing that he had a mind to remember He used this mildness in things most displeasing to him to his last end For a little before his Death being offended in a thing that was very sensible to him by a Person he had done great Kindnesses for and having at that time received a kindness from this Person he thankt him with so many Complements and Civilities as could be yet it could not be through forgetfulness seeing 't was at the same time but it was indeed because he would not think of revenging Injuries done to his own Person These particular Inclinations of his that I have but slightly touched you will see hereunder mentioned in a Paper writ by his own Hand I love Poverty because Jesus Christ lov'd it I love Riches because thereby we have means to relieve those that are in distress I am Faithful and True to all the World. I do not do evil to those that injure me but I wish them to be in the condition I am in wherein they may receive neither good nor evil from any Man. I endeavour to be always True Sincere and Faithful to all Men and I have a tenderness for those God has more nearly related unto me and whether I am alone or in the sight of Men in all my Actions I have God ever in my sight who shall judge me for them and to whom I consecrate them These are my Thoughts and every day I bless my Redeemer who has put them in my mind and that of a weak miserable Creature full of Frailty Haste Pride and Ambition has by his Grace made me a Man free from those Evils to whose Grace I ascribe it there being in me nothing but Misery and Horror Thus it was he employ'd himself that having always before his Eyes the way of God it so conducted him that he never stray'd from it the great light he had together with his great Wisdom did not hinder the sight of that great Meekness which shined through the whole Course of his Life and that made him exactly to observe all things that related to Religion He very much loved the whole Divine Service especially the little hours they being compos'd of the 118. Psalm wherein he found so many admirable things that he was much delighted in repeating them when he discoursed with his friends of the Excellency of this Psalm he was so transported that he seem'd to be above himself and this Meditation made
will not insist upon the Faith by which we certainly know him nor of all the other Proofs which we have seeing you will not submit to them I will deal with you only by your own Principles and I don't doubt by the usual way that you discourse daily of things of the least Moment you will see how you should discourse of this matter and what side you should take in discussing this important Point of the Existence of God. You say we are incapable of knowing if there is a God nevertheless it is certain there is a God or there is not there is no Medium but which side shall we take Reason you say can determine nothing in the case there is an Infinite chaos that separates us at this infinite distance there will a chance happen Cross or Pile what will you lay by Reason you cannot assure one nor the other by Reason you cannot deny neither of both Do not then blame those of falshood that have made a choice for you can't tell if they have done ill or chosen wrong no you will say but I blame them not for having made this choice but for making any choice and as well he that took Cross as he that took Pile have both done ill the best way had been not to have lay'd at all Say you so but there 's a necessity we must lay it is not at our liberty you are imbarqu'd and not to lay God is is to lay he is not which of the two will you bet Let us consider the loss and gain in betting to believe God is if you win you win all if you lose you lose nothing lay then that he is without hesitating Well I must lay but it may be I risque too much let us see seeing there is the like hazard in winning and losing had you but two Lives to win for one you may well lay and were there Ten to be gain'd you would be very unwise not to venture your Life to win ten at a Game where there is no more hazard of losing than winning But here there is an infinite number of Lives infinitly happy to be won with the like hazard of winning as of losing and what you risque is of so little value and short continuance that 't is a meer Folly to spare it in this occasion For it avails nothing to say it is uncertain if one shall win and that 't is sure one does venture and that the infinite distance which is betwixt the certainty of what one lays down and the uncertainty of what one shall win does equal the finite good which one lays down to the infinite good which is uncertain This is not true All Gamsters do venture certain in hopes to win and yet he certainly risques the finite to gain uncertainly the infinite without any contradiction of Reason There is not an infinity of distance betwixt this certainty of what one lays down and the uncertainty of winning that is not true there is indeed infinity betwixt the certainty of gaining and the certainty of losing But the uncertainty of wining is proportion'd to the certainty of what one ventures according to the proportion of the hazards of winning and losing and thence it is that if there be as many hazards of one side as there is of the other the Game is equal and then the certainty of what one plays is equal to the uncertainty of the Game it is so far from being infinitly distant and so our Proposition is in full force when the Finite only is hazarded at a play where there is as much probability of winning as losing and the Infinity to be won this is Demonstration and if Men are capable of admitting Truth they ought to receive this I own I grant it but is there not yet other means of seeing more clearly yes by the Scriptures and by all the other Proofs of Christian Religion which are very many and clear Those who expect to be sav'd you will say are happy in such a State but then they are often terrify'd with the fear of being Damn'd But who is it has more cause to fear Hell either him that thinks there is no Hell and sure to be damn'd if there be one or him that is certainly perswaded there is a Hell and in hope to be preserved from it if there be one Whoever had but eight Days to live and would think the best way was to believe it fell out so by hazard must needs have lost his Senses now were we not sway'd by our Passions eight Days and a hundred Years would be but the same thing What danger can it be to you to resolve on this Course it will make you Faithful Honest Humble Thankful Sincere and Charitable It s true you will not live in filthy Pleasures in Vanity and Fleshly delights But shall I gain nothing else I tell you even in this Life you will be a Gainer and as you proceed in this way you will find so much certainty of profit and so much of emptiness in what you risque that at last you will find you have betted for a thing certain and infinite and that you have given nothing for obtaining it But you say you are so made that you cannot believe Learn at least your own inabillity to believe seeing your Reason tells you you should and yet have not power to do it strive therefore to overcome your self not by desiring more Proofs on Gods part but by diminishing your own Passions You would walk in Faith and do not know the way you would be heal'd of your infidellity and seek not the Remedies inform your self of those that have been in your State and that now are free from Doubts they know the way you would willingly go in and are cured of the Evil you would be freed from follow the Course they took follow their outward Examples if you cannot as yet enjoy their inward Dispositions lay aside those delays wherewith you have been hinder'd I should soon have quitted these Pleasures you will say if I had but Faith and I tell you you would soon have Faith if you would forsake these Pleasures Now 't is your part to begin If it were in my power I would give you Faith but I cannot and by consequence am not able to prove the truth of what you say but you may easily quit these Pleasures and try if what I say be true 3. * Let us not be ignorant of our selves we are Flesh as well as Spirit and thence it is that the instrument which perswadeth is not the only Demostration How few things be there that is demonstrated Proofs do only convince the Understanding Custom gives us the strongest Evidence it inclines the Senses which insensibly draws the understanding after it unawares Who ever demonstrated that to morrow it would be Day and that we shall Dye and yet what is there more universally believ'd therefore it is Custom perswades us hereunto it is that makes so many Turks and
taliter omni Nationi said David speaking of the Law But speaking of Jesus Christ it must be said fecit taliter omni Nationi Also it appertains to Jesus Christ to be Universal The Church offers Sacrifice but for Believers only Jesus Christ offered that of the Cross for all 13. * Let us then spread forth our Arms to our Redemer who having been promis'd Four thousand years at last came and suffer'd and dyed for us upon Earth in the time and in all the Circumstances as were foretold And waiting through Grace to dye in peace and hope of being Eternally united to him let us in the mean time live with comfort whether it be in enjoying the good things he shall be pleas'd to give us or in bearing the Evil things he is pleas'd to send on us for our good and that he has taught us to suffer by his Example §. XV. Jesus Christ prov'd by Prophesies 1. THe greatest Proofs of Jesus Christ are the Prophesies it is also what God most of all provided for the success that fulfill'd them is a Miracle that subsisting from the first begining continues to the end of the World. God raised up Prophets for the space of Sixteen hundred years and for Four hundred years after he dispersed these Prophesies with the Jews that carry'd them into all parts of the World see here the preparation of the birth of Jesus Christ whose Gospel being to be believed all the World over it was not only requisite there should be Prophesies that it might be believed but also that these Prophesies should be divulg'd through all the World that it might be believ'd by all Men. 2. * If any one Man should have writ a Book of Predictions of Jesus Christ for the time and manner and that Jesus Christ should come in the manner as was Prophesi'd it would shew a very great clearness But herein is more here is a Succession of Men for the space of Four thousand years that constantly and without any variation come one after another and foretell the same Event A whole Nation affirm it and which subsist Four thousand Years and that in a whole body give Testimony of the assurances they have of it from whence they cannot be diverted for any threats or punishments can be inflicted on them this is very considerable 3. * The time is foretold by the State of the â—ewish People by the State of the Gentiles by the State of the Temple by the number of Years 4. * The Prophets having given divers Signs that were to happen at the coming of the Messias it was requisite all these marks should be fulfill'd at the time and so it was necessary the Fourth Monarchy should succeed when Daniels seventy Weeks were accomplish'd that the Scepter should then depart from Judah and that the Messias should come And then did Jesus Christ appear who called himself the Messias 5. * It is foretold that in the Fourth Monarchy before the destruction of the second Temple before the power of the Jews was taken away and in Daniel's Seventieth Week the Gentiles should be instructed and brought to the knowledg of the same God ador'd by the Jews that those that lov'd him should be deliver'd from their Enemies and fill'd with his Fear and Love. And it hapned that in the Fourth Monarchy before the destruction of the Temple c. the Gentiles in great multitudes Worshipped the true God and lived Angelical Lives Virgins consecrated their Lives to God renouncing their Pleasures What Plato could not perswade a few chosen Men to do a secret Virtue perswades a Hundred thousand ignorant Persons to do by the help of very few words What 's the meaning of all this It is what was Prophesi'd so long time before hand Effundam spiritum meum super omnem carnem All Men wallowed in Lust and Infidelity all the World became warm with Charity Princes renounce their greatness the Rich forsake their Riches Virgins suffer Martyrdom Children quit their Fathers Houses to live in Deserts Whence proceeds this Courage It is because the Messias is come these are the effects and marks of his coming For the space of Two thousand Years the God of the Jews was unknown to the infinite numbers of Gentiles and in the time foretold infinite numbers of Gentiles Adore this only true God. Idol Temples are destroy'd whole Kingdoms submit to the Cross What 's all this It is the Spirit of God that is powr'd forth on the whole Earth 6. * It is foretold the Messias should come and Establish a new Covenant that should make that of Egypt be forgotten that he would write his Law not on outward Tables but in the Heart that he would put his Fear which was but exteriour in the inward part of the Heart That the Jews should refuse Jesus Christ and that they should be forsaken of God because the chosen Vine yielded nothing but sower Grapes That the chosen People should be unbelieving ingrateful populum non credentem contradicâ—â—tem That God would strike them with blindness and that they should grope at Noon Day like the Blind That the Church should be little in the beginning but should increase afterwards It is Prophesi'd that in those days Idolatry should be destroy'd that the Messias should cause the Idols to fall and should bring Men to the true Worship of God. That the Temples of Idols should be destroy'd and that throughout the World they should offer him a pure Service and not Beasts That he should teach Men the perfect way That he should be King of Jews and Gentiles And there never came any Man before nor since that taught near so much as this 7. * So many Persons having foretold this coming Jesus Christ came saying Behold me this is the time He came telling Men they had no greater Enemies then themselves that 't is their Lusts that keep them from God that he came to deliver them and to give them his Grace to chuse to himself out of all Mankind a Holy Church that he came to bring into this Church Jews and Gentiles that he came to destroy the Idols of the one and the Superstition of the others What the Prophets foretold should come to pass I tell you my Apostles shall accomplish The Jews are on the point of being forsaken Jerusalem shall soon be destroy'd the Gentiles shall know the true God and my Apostles shall instruct them in the Worship of God when ye have slain the Heir of the Vineyard Afterwards his Apostles said to the Jews You are forsaken and to the Gentiles You shall enter into the knowledge of God. Unto this all Men have aversion by the Natural opposition of their Concupiscence This King of Jews and Gentiles is supressed by the one and the other and both conspire his Death All the Powers of the World conspire together against this Religion in its Infancy the Wise the Learned the Kings of the Earth some write others
And they do not afford us any comfort in our Miseries but in procuring us a more real and effective Misery for it is what doth more effectively hinder us of thinking of our selves and that makes us insensibly lose our time If 't were not for it we should be weary and this weariness would incline us to seek some more solid means to get out of it But Divertisements cheat us amuse us and unawares makes us be surpriz'd by Death 4. * Men not being able to shun Death Misery Ignorance have bethought themselves of becoming happy by never thinking of these things It is all they could invent to comfort themselves against so many Evils but 't is but a miserable consolation because it don't reach so far as to cure the Sore but to hide it only for a little time and by hiding it makes one neglect to get it truly healed So that by a strange subversion of the Nature of Man he finds Weariness which is the most sensible Evil to him is in some sort his greatest Good because it may contribute more than any thing else in making him seek his true cure and that Play which he looks upon as his chiefest Good is indeed his greatest Evil because it hinders him more than any thing to seek the Remedy of his Miseries both the one and the other is an evident Proof of the Misery and Corruption of Man and in the same time of his Grandeur because Man is not wearied with all things and don 't seek these various Occupations but because he hath the Idea of the Happiness he has lost the which not finding in himself he in vain seeks it in outward things without ever being able to content himself because it is not to be had in us nor in the Creatures but in God only §. XXVII Of Miracles 1. VVE must judg of Doctrine by Miracles we must judg of Miracles by Doctrine The Doctrine discerns the Miracles and the Miracles discern the Doctrine all this is true but this doth not contradict each other 2. * There are Miracles that are certain Proofs of the Truth and there are some that are not certain Proofs of the Truth there must be some Mark to distinguish and to know them otherwise they would be of no use now they are not unuseful and on the contrary they are Foundations The Rule then that is given us must be such as that it must not destroy the Proof that true Miracles give of the Truth which is the chief end of Miracles 3. * Were there no Miracles joyn'd to Error there would be Certainty were there no Rule for discerning them Miracles would not be necessary and there would be no Reason to believe Moses gave one but 't was when the Miracle induced to Idolatry and Jesus Christ one Him saith he that doth Miracles in my Name cannot easily speak evil of Me. Whence it follows that whosoever declares himself openly against Jesus Christ cannot work Miracles in his Name If he does any 't is not in the Name of Jesus Christ and should not be regarded See here the occasions of Exclusion of the belief of Miracles marked there need no other Marks of exclusion be instanc'd when they turn you from God in the Old Testament when from Jesus Christ in the New Testament When therefore you see a Miracle one must submit or have very great evidences against it One must see if him that works it denies God or Jesus Christ 4. * That Religion is false that in its Faith doth not Adore one God as Author of all things and that in their Morals do not love only God. Any Religion that loves not Jesus Christ is notoriously false and Miracles cannot any way be profitable to it 5. * The Jews had a Doctrine of God as we have one of Jesus Christ it was confirm'd by Miracles and were forbidden to believe any that wrought Miracles and taught any Doctrine contrary to it also they were commanded to have Recourse to the High Priests and to obey them so that it appears that the Reasons that we have to refuse believing those that do Miracles they had the same in regard of Jesus Christ and his Apostles Nevertheless it is certain they were very guilty for refusing to believe them for their Miracles because Jesus Christ saith they had not been guilty if they had not seen his Miracles Si opera non fecissem in eis quae nemo alius fecit peccatum non haberent It follows then that he judged his Miracles were assured Proofs of what he taught and that the Jews were obliged to believe him And indeed it was the Miracles that render'd the Jews guilty of unbelief for the Proofs that could be taken from the Scriptures during the Life of Jesus Christ would not have been sufficiently clear for instance we find Moses said That a Prophet should arise but that was not enough to prove Jesus Christ was that Prophet and that was the Question these passages did shew that he might be the Messias and that with his Miracles were sufficient to prove that he was so effectively 6. * Prophesies alone could not prove Jesus Christ during his Life and so one had not been culpable for not believing in him before his Death had not the Miracles put all out of doubt therefore Miracles do suffice when one finds the Doctrine is not contrary and one ought to acquiesce 7. * Jesus Christ proved he was the Messias in verifying his Doctrine and Mission rather by his Miracles than by the Scripture and the Prophets It was by Miracles that Nicodemus confessed his Doctrine was of God Scimus quia à Deo venisti Magister nemo enim potest haec signa facere quae tu facis nisi fuerit Deus cum eo He don't Judg of Miracles by the Doctrine but of the Doctrine by Miracles So that if the Doctrine were doubtful as that of Christ might be to Nicodemus because it seem'd to destroy the Tradition of the Pharisees if there be Miracles clear and evident of the same side the evidence of the Miracle must turn the Scale against what there may be of difficulty in the Doctrine the which is grounded on this immutable Principle That God cannot command an Error There is a reciprocal Duty betwixt God and Men. Accuse me saith God in Isaiah What should I have done to my Vineyard that I have not done Men are bound to God to receive the Religion he sends them God is bound to Men not to lead them into Error Now they would be led into Error if the workers of Miracles taught them a false Doctrine that appeared not visibly false to the light of common Sense and that if one that had wrought greater Miracles had not before given warning not to believe them If there had been a Schism in the Church and that the Arians for Example who said they were grounded on the Scriptures as well as the Catholicks had wrought Miracles and
numbers of Stars there are but a Thousand twenty and two say some we know them 60. * The knowledg of outward things will not afford us any Consolation in times of Affliction for the not knowing of Moral things but the knowledg of well living will always comfort us for the not knowing of exteriour things 61. * Man is of such a Temper that by often telling him he is a Sot he believes it and by often saying so to himself he believes it of himself for Man frames an inward Conversation to himself which it behoves him to order aright Corrumpunt bonos more 's colloquia prava One must be as silent as they can and commune only with God and so one shall the better imprint it on ones self 62. * What difference is there betwixt a Carthusian and a Soldier as to Obedience They are alike Obedient and suffer both alike in their painful Exercises But the Soldier hopes always to become free and never attains to it for even Captains and Princes are always Slaves and depending on others yet they always hope to be independant and labour to attain to it whereas the Carthusian makes a Vow never to be independant They differ not in the perpetual Service they both have promis'd but in the hope that the one has always and that the other has never 63. * The Will would never be satisfied if it had all that is desired but one is presently satisfied when one renounces it In complying with the Will one shall never be at quiet not complying with it one shall always be at peace 64. * The true and only Virtue is to hate ones self for one deserves hatred by reason of Lust and we should seek a Being truly amiable to love it But as we cannot love that which is without us we must love a Being that is in us Now there is only the Universal Being that is such The Kingdom of Heaven is in us the Universal Good is in us and is not us 65. * It is not just any thing should fasten to us although it be done willingly and with Pleasure We should deceive those that we should perswade to it for we are not the scope of any body neither have we wherewithal to content them Are we not ready to dye and so the Object of their hopes vanisheth As we should be to blame should we make a Lye be believ'd although we should cunningly insinuate it and that it should be believ'd with Pleasure and that therein we were obliged so also we are to blame if we make our selves be loved and if we incourage Persons to fasten themselves to us we should give warning to those that are ready to believe Lyes that they should not do so what ever benefit we might lose in not doing it So also we should warn them that they should not place any delight on us for they ought rather spend their Life in seeking God and pleasing him 66. * It is to be superstitious to place ones hope in Formalities and Ceremonies but 't is to be proud not to submit to them 67. * All Religions and all Sects in the World have had natural Reason for a guide Christians only have been constrain'd to take their Rules out of themselves and to be instructed by those which Jesus Christ left to the Antients to be transmitted to us There are some Persons that think much to submit to this Rule they would have Liberty to follow their own Imaginations as other People have done It is in vain that we cry to them as the Prophet did formerly to the Jews Go inform your self of the good old way and walk in it they answer as the Jews We will not walk in it we will be like other Nations and follow the imagination of our own Hearts 68. * There are three means of believing Reason Custom and Inspiration Christian Religion which only hath Reason doth not receive as her Children those that believe without Inspiration not that she excludes Reason and Custom on the contrary the Minds of Me must be prepared to see the Proofs by Reason and to be confirmed therein by Custom But she requires that one submits by Humiliation to Inspiration which only can work the true saving effect ne evacuetur Crux Christi 69. * Men never do evil so freely and fully as when it is done through a false Principle of Conscience 70. * The Jews who were called to Conquer Kings and Nations have been the Servants of Sin and Christians whose calling was to serve and obey are the free Children 71. * Is it courage for a dying Man to go in his Agony and Weakness to dare an Omnipotent and Eternal God. 72. * I readily give Credit to Histories the witnesses whereof are ready to justifie their Works by loss of Life 73. * True Fear proceeds from Faith false Fear comes from Doubting True Fear carries us to Hope because it proceeds from Faith and that one hopes in that God one believes Bad Fear carries to Dispair because one fears the God in whom one does not believe some fear to lose him others fear to find him 74. * Solomon and Job have best known the Misery and Happiness of Man and have best describ'd it one of them the Happiest and the other the most Wretched of Men the one knowing the Vanity of all Pleasures and the other the Reallity of all Evils by experience 75. * The Pagans spake ill of Israel and the Prophet also and so far was it that the Israelites had cause to say to him you speak like the Pagans that he insists chiefly in that the Pagans spake like him 76. * God don't expect we should submit our Faith to him without Reason and bring us under by Tyranny neither doth he also intend to give us a Reason for every thing and to reconcile these contrarieties he means to shew us plain marks of Divinity that shall convince us what he is and get himself Authority by the Wonders and Proofs which we cannot deny that afterwards without scruple we may believe the things he teaches us when we find no other reason to refuse them but that we cannot by our selves know whether they be or not 77. * There are but three sorts of Men some that serve God having found him others that employ themselves in seeking having not yet found him and others that live without seeking or having found him The first are Reasonable and Happy the last are Fools and Miserable those of the middle sort are Miserable and Reasonable 78. * Men often take the imagination for their Heart and they think they are presently converted as soon as they do but think of being converted 79. * Reason moves always with a slow pace and with so many Motives and different Principles that commonly it strays or grows stupid for want of seeing them all together It is not so of the Understanding it is quick of Motion and always ready to act It is
't is to thee it appertains as a Tribute I owe unto thee for thy Image is stamped upon it Thou didst there ingrave it Lord at the instant of my Baptism which is my second Birth but 't is quite blotted out the Idea of the World is so ingraven in it that thine cannot be seen Thou alone hadst power to make my Soul and thou only art able to renew it thou only wert able to stamp thine Image upon it thou only art able to restore it and to renew thy decayed Image that is to say Jesus Christ my Saviour who is thy Image and the Character of thy Glory V. O my God how happy is the Heart that can love so charming an Object that don't dishonour it but in whom 't is so safe to trust I find I cannot love the World without displeasing thee without hurting and dishonouring my self and nevertheless the World is the Object of my delight O my God how happy is that Soul of whom thou art the delight because it can willingly love thee not only without scruple but also with pleasure How firm and durable is her Happiness seeing her expectation shall not be frustrated because thou shalt never be destroy'd and that because neither Death nor Life shall ever separate her from the Object of her delight and that the same moment that shall plunge the wicked with their Idols into common Misery shall unite the Righteous with thee in a common Glory and as the one shall be destroyed with the perishable Objects which they delighted in so the others shall abide for ever in the Object that Eternally subsists of himself whereunto they were strictly united O how happy are those that with free Liberty and full bent of their Will do freely and perfectly love that which they are necessarily obliged unto VI. Accomplish O my God the good Desires thou art pleas'd to give me be thou the End as thou art the Beginning Crown thy own Gifts for I confess they are from thee Yes my God and very far from thinking there is any Merit in my Prayers that should oblige thee of necessity to grant them I most humbly confess that having given my Heart to the Creatures which thou madest only for thy self and not for the World nor for me I can expect no Grace but meerly from thy Mercy seeing there is nothing in me might invite thee to it and that all the natural Motions of my Heart being inclin'd to the Creatures or to my self cannot but displease thee I therefore give thee Thanks my God for the good Motions thou givest me and even for that which thou givest me that I give thee Thanks VII Touch my Heart with Repentance of my Sins seeing that without this inward Grief the outward Evils thou layest on my Body will be a farther occasion of making me transgress make me fully understand that bodily Pains are nothing else but the Punishment and Figure both together of the Evils of the Soul. But Lord grant that they may also prove the Remedy in making me consider in the Punishments I feel those which I did not feel in my Soul although I was sick and over-run with Ulcers For Lord the greatest of these Evils is this insensibleness and extream weakness that had deprived the Soul of all Sense and feeling of its own Miseries Make me to feel them sharply and that the residue of my Life may be a continual Repentance for the Offences which I have committed VIII Lord though my Life past has been exempt from heinous Crimes from which thou hast put from me all occasions yet it has been very odious in thy sight by my continual negligence in thy Service by the ill use of thy Holy Sacraments by dispising thy Holy Word and Motions of thy Spirit by the Sloath and unprofitableness of my Thoughts and Words by the loss of my time which thou gavest me only to adore and serve thee and seek in all my Businesses the means to please thee and to be sorrowful for the Sins are daily committed and which the best Men are subject unto so that their Life should be a continual course of Repentance without which they are in danger of falling from their Righteousness So O my God I have always been contrary to thee IX Yea Lord even to this Day I have been deaf unto thy Holy Inspirations I have despised thy Oracles I have judged contrary to what thou judgest I have opposed the Holy Maxims which thou didst bring into the World from the bosom of thine Everlasting Father and according to which thou wilt Judge the World. Thou sayest Blessed are those that weep and Woe be to those that laugh but I have said Wretched are they that are sorrowful and Happy are those that rejoice I have said Happy are those that enjoy a large Fortune and a glorious Reputation and full State of Health and wherefore have I esteemed them Happy but only because these advantages should give them the greater opportunity with ease to enjoy the things of this World that is to say to displease thee Yea Lord I confess I have accounted Health a Blessing not because 't is a Means the better of serving thee to spend the more Days and Nights in thy Service and to do good to Neighbours but because by means thereof I could with the greater Freedom and Liberty give my self up to the enjoyment of the abundance of the things of this Life and the better enjoy the dangerous Pleasures of Sin do me the favour Lord to rectifie my depraved Reason and to conform my Thoughts unto thine Let me count my self Happy in Affliction and that in my being unable to act outwardly thou mayest in such manner purifie my Thoughts that they may no longer oppose thy Will that so I may feel thee within me because I cannot seek thee outwardly by reason of my weakness For Lord thy Kingdom is within thy Children and I shall find it within me if I there find thy Spirit and thy Will. X. But Lord what shall I do to prevail with thee to shed forth thy Spirit on this miserable Clay all that I am is odious unto thee and I can find nothing in me that may be acceptable in thy sight I see nothing in me Lord but only my Sorrows that have any resemblance with thine consider therefore O Lord the Evils that I suffer and those that hang over my Head. Look with an Eye of pity on the Wounds that thy hand has made in me O my Saviour thou didst love thy suffering in Death O God who becamest Man only to suffer more than any Man for the Salvation of Men O God who wast not Incarnate till after the Sin of Man and that tookest not a Body but therein to suffer all the Evils that our Sins deserved O God who so lovest the Bodies that suffer that thou didst choose for thy self the Body the most loaden with suffering that ever was in the World accept my Body not for
Being of God in his Works is Eternal and Indelible and the feeling of it can't be resisted unless the Faculties of Knowing and Feeling are quite lost It 's true this Sense is but weak and feeble but yet inasmuch as it knows its own weakness it subsists and may be restor'd and soon or late it shall be if it sincerely owns it and laments it and a Man shall find in his Heart those Foot-steps of God that it in vain should seek after in the dead Works of Nature seeing it could never inform him neither what this God is nor what 't is he requires of him This is properly what was Monsieur Pascall â—s Design he would bring Men home to their Heart and would make them begin rightly to know themselves All other ways though good yet he thought was not so suitable and fit as this to their Nature whereas this appear'd to him to be agreeable to their Heart and Mind and so much the fitter to make them capable of knowing God and believing in him that they incline them to desire his Existence and in making their chiefest Happiness consist in it and all their Comfort to depend of not doubting it It is this which is the chief scope of his Fragments and of several things which were laid aside as being too imperfect and which only intimated the Method he intended to follow But besides this it is known by a Discourse he made one day in Presence of some Friends which contain'd as 't were the Model of the Work which he design'd He spake almost Two Hours and though those who were present are Persons who admire not all they hear as every body would own if I nam'd them yet they freely confess they were Transported at the weight of his Expressions That this transient Essay as little as 't was gave them an Idea of the greatest Design any Man could be capable of and also of a Profound Wisdom and Knowledge of what is most Mysterious in the Holy Scriptures it discover'd to them several things that till then had not been taken notice of in the World and what they discern'd of Monsieur Pascall's deep Knowledge in that little time made them not question in the least but that he was very fit to perform so great an undertaking and Moreover that if he did not finish it it would scarce ever be compleated Whether it be of what was Real and on their part and his there was also added something of that Union of Mind and Spirit which animates and gives new vigour or it was one of those Happy Moments wherein the most able do surpass themselves and wherein there is such deep Impressions made that all Monsieur Pascall then said to them is still fresh in their Mind and 't is of one of them Eight Years after that we were inform'd what shall be now related Having declar'd to them what he thought of the Proofs which are commonly alledged and shew'd how much those which are drawn from the Works of God are disproportion'd to the Natural State of the Heart of Man and how little Mens Brains are capable of Meta-physical Disputes he shew'd plainly that it was only Moral and Historical Proofs and certain natural Notions and things of Experience that are most suitable to the Understanding of Man and he shewed that it was only upon Proofs of this Nature that those things are grounded which are most certainly believed and received in the World And in effect that there is a City called Rome That there has been a Mahomet That 't is true London was burnt are things would be hard to Demonstrate nevertheless it were a madness to doubt of or to fear hazarding ones Life upon the Truth of them were there any thing to be got by it The way whereby we attain these sorts of assurances are no less certain than if we were Geometricians and should nó less incourage us to Act and 't is only hereupon that we ground almost all we do Monsieur Pascall undertook to shew that the Christian Religion was as evidently true as any thing that is undoubtedly believ'd amongst Men. According to his design of directing them to know themselves he began by a Description of Man which though 't was but very compendious yet it contain'd all that ever was best said on that Subject besides what he added of his own which was much more than is usually mention'd Never did those who most of all debased Man so fully display his Infirmity and Ignorance And never was his Grandeur and Privileges more fully represented by those who have most striven to exalt him What is seen in these Fragments touching the Illusion of the Imagination Pride Envy Vanity Self-love the Error of Pagans the Blindness of Atheists c. and also what is therein seen of the Inclination of Man of seeking the chief Good the Sense of Misery the Love of Truth all this shews plainly to what pitch he had study'd and known the Nature of Man and would have known and study'd it much better had God given him time to have perfected his intended Work. Let every one Examin themselves seriously on what they shall find in this Collection and and let them put themseves in a State of one Monsieur Pascall supposes to have some Sense and that he should fansy to convince and overcome thereby to reduce by little and little to the knowledge of the Truth Doubtless one shall find that 't is impossible but in the End he will be amaz'd at what he shall discover in himself and will look on himself as a Monstrous Composition of strange Contradictions That this Love of Truth which cannot be defac'd out of his Mind together with so great an incapacity of knowing it cannot but surprize him That this Pride born with him and which is cherisht in the height of his Misery must needs astonish him That this slow Voice in the midst of all Enjoyments which tells him something is still wanting though he can't tell well what 't is does deject him And to conclude that those involuntary Motions of the Heart which he dislikes and which he can scarce resist when he is at the best and those that give him some disquiet if he do but look into himself how Prophane soever he be must needs abate ones height and make him question if a Nature so full of Contrarieties double and single all at once as he finds his can possible be a Production of hazard or come such out of the Hands of its Creator Although a Man in this State be very far from knowing God however 't is certain that nothing is fitter to perswade him that there may be something else besides what he knows and this unknown thing may be of consequence to be sought for if there be no Created thing that is able to shew it him And one cannot deny but those who are set in this Disposition were otherwise capable of being touch'd with other Proofs of God and that they received
been hitherto said might occasion any Grief for the Death of Monsieur Pascall to his Friends who only knowing to what Degree he understood Prophecies how able he was to explain and shew their meaning and with what ease and facility he made them be understood at large are also best sensible of the publick loss of so great a Man. I very well know these scatter'd glimmering Lights which are to be seen in this Treatise of his Thoughts will give but an imperfect view of the Volume he would have made it may be but very few will believe me But those who know it are bound to give this Testimony to the Truth and to his Memory I can therefore boldly affirm that those who diligently hearkned to him in the occasion above mentioned were as it were Transported when they heard him speak of what he had gather'd from the Prophets and Prophecies He began by shewing the obscurity which seemed therein was so order'd on purpose that we have been warn'd of it and that 't is said in sundry places that they shall not be understood by the Wicked and that they shall be clear to those that are upright of Heart That the Scripture has two Senses that 't is made to enlighten some and to darken others That this is visible in it almost throughout and that 't is also express'd in it in plain Terms Also to speak truly It is the Foundation of this great Work of the Scripture and those who rightly comprehend it find no difficulty in any thing whatsoever On the contrary it is this very thing that causes it to shew the Superiour Spirit wherewith all those which have any part therein have been Inspired seeing that had they combin'd all together and that afterwards they had changed they could never have contriv'd any thing better that nothing but obscurity should appear to those that only sought therein to increase their own Ignorance and afford much Light to those who seek for and desire it Had God been pleased to have Created all Men in Glory and Happiness as he might have done then it had not been necessary but he was not pleas'd to do so It is our Duty to take whatever he is pleased to afford us and the rather because deserving nothing of him but his Anger it becomes not condemn'd Persons to complain of the Conditions of their Pardon But what renders us very guilty and admirably vindicates the Justice of God is That the Gross and Carnal Sense wherein the Jews remain'd is unintelligible in several places and has so little Coherence that one must already be blind to be blinded by it and that on the contrary every part of the true Sense has such a reference and inseparable relation to each other that one must also be blind not to see it But besides this obscurity such as 't is in some places can't hinder but with a Moderate Spirit and a little Sincerity one may receive as much Light as is needful Let us fansy this Man that Monsieur Pascall would lead as 't were by the hand and doubtless we shall perceive that his Clouds dissipated as he proceeded in the study of the Old Testament and well considering all he saw and judging of what at first seemed difficult by what he found afterwards more clear all this great Mystery presently unfolds it self and appears open and clear to him He perceives in the first place that when there is mention of the fall of Adam it is said to the Serpent that the Seed of the Woman shall bruise his Head and he therein finds the first Draughts and a Promise of a Redeemer expected by the Jews he after observes that this same thing which was so obscurely promis'd and scarce taken notice of goes on manifesting it self so far till at length it gets the Victory and becomes the Center whereto all does tend for soon after he finds this same promise more clearly and fully made to Abraham and reiterated again to Jacob with assurance that all Nations of the World shall be bless'd in their Posterity of whom this Redeemer should be born Moreover he finds the whole Jewish Nation fully perswaded of this Hope and expecting this great King from the Tribe of Judah who was to load them with Riches and make them Conquerors over all their Enemies David comes after and writes the admirable Work of his Psalms pointing at this Messias and incessantly hoped and waited for his appearing Then come the Prophets who unanimously declare That God is going to accomplish what he had promis'd That his People are shortly to be freed from their Sins and that those which lay in Darkness should see Light. It also appears clearly to him That Heaven and Earth was to assist to the production of this Extraordinary Person One of the Prophets cry'd Let the Dew descend from Heaven and let the Righteous fall as the Rain from the Clouds Let the Earth open and let her conceive and bring forth the Saviour Thereupon they admire the Names given this Man Eternal King Prince of Peace Father Everlasting God He observes also that the Conquest of Cyrus of Alexander of the Romans and all the other great things done in the World serv'd only to put the Universe in the State 't was said it should be in at his coming To conclude he sees the Jews scatter'd over the Face of the Earth carrying with them the Books which contain the Promises made to Mankind as 't were to put into their Hands so many assurances of the share they had therein What then could he infer from all this but that this promis'd Redeemer cannot be the Conqueror expected by the Jews to have been only for them That the Riches he was to bestow and the Enemies he was to destroy could not be Temporal Riches and Enemies and that only a meer winner of Battels being but an unfit Object for such great Preparations it could be no other but God only could perform it But when after an Expectation of Four thousend Years Heaven opned to send Jesus Christ upon Earth and that he came and said to Men It is for me all this has been done and 't is I that you expect That he was worthy of all this preparation and had it been less it had been too little for him He was born it 's true in Obscurity he liv'd in Poverty he di'd in Shame but if thereby he veil'd his Divinity which he sufficiently manifested otherwise and that the blindness of the Jews and of so many others must needs be very great not to discern him and to believe there was no other greatness in the sight of God besides that of Holiness Had there been no Prophecies for Jesus Christ and that he had wrought no Miracles yet there was something so Divine in his Doctrine and in his Life that one must needs be charm'd with it and as there is neither true Vertue nor Sincerity of Heart without the love of Christ so there is
neither depth of Knowledge nor fineness of Wit without admiring him Here let us reflect on the Description I have made and on what we see of the greatest Essay of the Wit of Man And let us see if it be able to mount so high Let Socrates and Epictetus come and at the same time though all Men in the World confess themselves inferior to them in good Living yet they themselves confess that all their Righteousness and all their Vertue is nothing in the sight of Jesus Christ They teach indeed that whatever does not depend on us does nothing concern us That Death is nothing That we should do by others as we would they should do to us It were something were there only Man and that 't were no more but to Govern a kind or Republick and to pass ones Life quietly along But how hard is it thus to dispise Death when we approach the Confines of Eternity And how little are these Thoughts able to Comfort us And if there is a God whom they thought was easie to be pleased and that this Vertue of our own that neither came from God nor relates to him which is grounded only on our Interest and Profit can give us but little hope at Death nor of any kind usage at his hands if we have any Sense of the Duty we owe unto our Creator What is it they have taught us but to be unconcern'd in the midst of Trouble And when they have gone as far as they could have they discover'd to us the ground and bottom of our Frailty and from whence it is we should expect the Remedy This Self-love which is so predominant in all things and Pride or at least the Self-commendation wherewith we flatter our selves instead of Glory and Riches have they healed them by their Precepts How many are there that have exactly observ'd all their Maxims and have preferr'd themselves before others who nevertheless would be asham'd to have what passes in their Heart be known All the goodness of Man to judge rightly of it is nothing but a false imitation of Charity in regard of that Divine Vertue Christ came to teach us and it never comes near to it how much soever it strives to imitate still it falls short or rather does nothing to purpose seeing it hath not God for its only Aim For whatever those say that have gone farthest this way the Righteousness they pretend to has but very narrow Bounds and they judge of things no farther than as they tend to their own private Interest and to Men's outward Conveniencies It is only the Followers of Jesus Christ that are of the Order of true Universal Righteousness and fixing their sight on that which is Infinite do judge of all things by an Infallible Rule that is to say by the Righteousness of God. What do they therefore not owe to him who dissipated the Clouds that darkned them so long a time and taught them they should think of and prepare for Eternity and use the true Means of attaining thereunto And how can they take him for a Common Man like others Him that not only so well knew this Righteousness but that also so punctually practis'd it because to judge rightly It is no less above Man to Live as he Liv'd and as he would have us Live than to raise the Dead and remove Mountains To conclude if there be not a God it is not to be conceiv'd that so great an Idea as that of Christian Religion should ever be conceiv'd in the Mind of Man and that he should conform his Life thereunto And if there be one Jesus Christ must have had so Familliar Converse with him to speak so as he has done that he deserves to be Credited of all he has said so as not to doubt being his Child it being impossible so great a Fraud should be accompany'd with so many Graces One can make but very weak Essays to express ones Thoughts of the Greatness of Jesus Christ and how weak soever the Notions be that one has yet they very far surpass our Expressions And it may be I may only lessen what Monsieur Pascall has left us in some Essays that he had just begun yet so lively that it is easily seen but very few have attained a higher measure of Knowledge than he I will only add That as the Doctrine of Jesus Christ is the fulfilling of the Law his Person also is that of our Evidence and that he has so admirably fulfill'd all the Wonders the Prophets foretold of him That it is hard to say which is most Extravagant either to doubt as Atheists do If a Messias was promis'd or to believe with the Jews that he is yet to come Let those that feel any doubt herein and who are no way touch'd with this Divine Life Examin themselves strictly and they will assuredly find the difficulty they have to Believe does not come but only from their unwillingness to Obey and that if Jesus Christ was content to live as he did without expecting to be imitated they would be content to look on him as a worthy Object of their Adoration But at least let this render their Doubts suspicious and if they know the power of the Heart and after what manner the Mind is always led let them look on themselves as Judge and Parties and to judge Equitably they indeavour for a time to forget the wretched Interest they may therein have otherwise they must never expect to receive Light the hardness of their Heart will ever resist the Proofs of their Mind and nothing will be able to dispel the Clouds of their Understanding This is strange yet very true not only the things that must be felt depend on the Heart but also those that belong to the Spirit when the Heart may have any share in them So that though they have more Light and Verity than is needful to convince yet they never do it and never incline to Act till the Heart be first gain'd and without that it would be to no purpose And this is it which causes the Merit of good Deeds and the Guilt of ill ones for whilst the Spirit only Acts either it judges well and this is only to see what that is wherein there is no Merit or if it judges ill it fansies to see what it doth not which is only an Errour of Fact which cannot be counted Criminal But when once the Heart becomes concern'd and that it makes the Will judge well or ill thereafter as it loves or hates it happens that either it fulfils the Law in loving what it ought to love which cannot be without a kind of Merit or that in loving what it should hate he violates the Law which is never excusable which is the cause also that God not willing Men should attain to know them as they do Geometry wherein the Heart is not interessed and in which Crime the Good have no advantage over others in that study he has been
Opinion they had of believing it to be Divine and Writ by Moses Moreover that these Miracles were of a very surprizing Nature being mention'd throughout the whole Book repeated in sundry places and involv'd in the Principal Events there would have been need to have made a new Book to have adjusted them and not barely to have alter'd one that had been received before We must therefore again return to this pretended Glory of the Nation and maintain that the Jews willingly sufferr'd this falsification and that they were even glad that all these Miracles were added to their Law and that the Story of them was written This might have some colour were the Question only of matter of Policy It might be well said to the Romans for Example that they descended from Aeneas and it may be the French will suffer it should be said they sprang from the Trojans These are things some People fansy might be and that no body is concern'd to oppose them and which do not thwart other things that have been a long while establish'd and are regarded as the most Considerable But as for the Jews those People so Zealous of their Religion so Faithful in their smallest Traditions and to whom Lying was so severely forbidden this Supposition is wholly unlikely and improbable For I do not believe that the boldness of denial can go so far as to deny all the Proofs of the Zeal the Jews had for their Religion seeing that even at this day they have so great a Veneration for their Law that for above Sixteen hundred years that they are dispers'd and that they see no Effect of what was promis'd them they still observe it with the same exactness as they did almost at first and still wait for the fulfilling of those Promises What appearance is there then that they would have sufferr'd those Books they look'd upon as the very Word of God to be stuft with such a horrible Number of Lyes in making themselves thereby unworthy his Protection and running the danger of being Convicted of Fraud by all their Neighbours Was not this to hazard losing all to gain nothing There needs no more than this to convince any Man of good Sense and Judgment But if one would further insist on the Love of the Jews for their Nation and pretend that the desire of making themselves be admir'd could induce them to commit this Fraud let us see if the quite contrary will not appear and if there be the least likelihood they could believe to be the more consider'd by the things related in this Book which appear so disgraceful to the Nation in general and if all things had been in favour of the Publick let us see if it be likely that private Persons and whole Families would therein willingly have sacrific'd themselves seeing especially nothing constrain'd them and that needing only to invent it was at their free Liberty to choose what way they pleas'd and to have sav'd every body without stirring up any to discover their Fraud Had he said nothing but what would have been for their Honour as those great Miracles that shew such a particular Protection of God over them had not that been sufficient without inventing so many things wherein so many People were concern'd to oppose them and others also that render that Nation so worthy of disgrace What is there for Example more wretched than the fear and murmuring of that People for the bitterness of the Waters and the want of Provisions and for the Thirst they sufferr'd at Riphidim They were scarce any sooner got out of Aegypt but they forgot all they would have the World think God did for them They think they are forsaken and betray'd saying That they had been brought out of a Country where they liv'd at their ease though they were Slaves in it that they should die in the Wilderness they doubt either of the power or protection of that God that had so wonderfully appear'd for them and are ready to Rebel against the Man that they believ'd was chosen of God to deliver them Is it not the greatest and shamefullest weakness that can be Is it not the height of Ingratitude both towards God and their Conductor What could their greatest Enemies have invented more shameful to them And who can imagin that to make them considerable to the World and be thought the People beloved of God they should have dreamt to display themselves so inconstant unfaithful and ignorant that for Fourty years that they said they were fed with Food come down from Heaven there scarce past a day but they were heard cry like Children and wish'd with Tears in their Eyes they were still Slaves in Aegypt that they might have their fill of Leeks and Onions One must Transcribe the whole Book of Moses to write all the Infidelities and Errors of this People for there is scarce any thing else to be seen in it They seem to have study'd to equal their Crimes with the Blessings God bestow'd on them There was scarce any one thing in which they Rebell'd not against their Leader and they were scarce free from one Punishment but that they diserv'd another so that nothing could hinder that head-strong People from falling frequently into the same Crimes nor the Example of the 25000 that the Sons of Levy slew by the Command of Moses for their Sin of Idolatry nor that Fire that destroyed near 15000 for their Insurrection nor that greivous Plague of Fiery Serpents nor the great Punishment infflicted by Moses for their Sinning with the Daughters of the Midianites which cost the Lives of most of the Princes and of 24000 of the People But to say all in a Word what can be seen more strange and shameful to them than the general Apostacy they fell into when Moses was on the Mount Sinai and that those Rebels made Aaron make them a Golden Calf and sacrific'd to it as to their God Let all these Circumstances be well consider'd and it will be seen that a People that is capable to fall therein is at the same time guilty of all Vices at once and especially of Folly and Extravagance They say they were brought out of the Land of their Enemies by the greatest and strangest Miracles that could be so that there is not a step of their Life wherein the wonderful Power and Goodness of God is not express'd towards them this God forgives all their Murmurrings and all their Incredulities instead of punishing their Distursts he bestows on them Meat and Drink where there never was any before and fully satisfies the meanest and lowest of their Desires Nevertheless whilst they knew their Deliverer and their Conductor was on the Mount with the same God receiving Orders for their Conduct a sudden and ridiculous Fear siezes them they are troubled at Moses his stay and without knowing why or wherefore require of Aaron a God to march before them they force him to make a Golden Calf which they set on
business If some did but begin others may advance the Work each may add something according to their Capacity and probably there might soon enough be found if not to shew the Truth of Religion in a way as Geometrical as is shewn that for Example a certain crooked Line may always tend to a certain right Line without ever touching it both the one and the other being even continu'd for ever at least to prove it with as much conviction and to leave the more satisfaction and light in the Mind That there is another kind of DEMONSTRATION and as certain as that of GEOMETRY THE greatest part of the assurances we have are grounded but on small Number of Proofs which being separated are not Infallible and yet nevertheless in some Circumstances being united together become so strong and clear that they more than suffice to condemn those of Extravagance that should offer to deny them and there would sooner Doubts arise in the Mind touching any Demonstration whatever than of them That the City of London for Instance was burnt some years past it is certain this is not truer in it self than that three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two Right Angles but it may be said it is truer in relation to Men in general Let every one hereupon Examin if he can so much as doubt and consider by what degrees he acquir'd this certainty which one finds to be more intimate and of another Nature than that which comes from Demonstration and every jot as full as if one had seen that conflagration with their own Eyes Nevertheless how many be there that not having heard twenty times of this Accident at the first time would it may be have lay'd even hand that such a thing hapen'd it may be two to one the second time then afterwards upon farther Thoughts they would lay a hundred to one of it at the Fourth a thousand to one and at last at the Tenth time they would even venture their Life of the Truth of it For this Multiplication is quite another thing than that of Figures in which the addition of one Figure does so mightily increase the whole As for Instance if to the Twenty four Letters one should add one more this would cause an exceeding Multiplication of Words that might thereby be compos'd the Reason is evident for to whatever part the Addition of one Number can set Multiplication the Infinity is always a great distance off whereas on the other hand from the Second or Third Proof as they are stated one may attain the Infinity that is to say the Certainty that the thing is So that as a Man would be counted a Fool if he should stagger ever so little of loosing his Life if with three Dice one should throw Three sixes twenty times following or to be an Emperour if one mist yet there is infinitely more extravagance to doubt that the City of London was burnt for it is easie justly to know the odds of this Wager or Game and in how many times one undertakes to throw three Sixes But it is not so with the Proofs that makes us believe this Fire It is not a thing can be assign'd and as infinite as numbers are there be not any can determine it We plainly perceive that is a thing of another Nature and that we are no less certain of it than we are of first Principles For to what degree soever one stretch the difficulty of a certain hazard as for Instance to make a blind Man at the first dash find out exactly a Speech of Cicero's by taking the Letters hap hazard one after another that compos'd it after having been mingled altogether It is true that though this be unreasonable to propose yet a Man well skill'd in the Knowledge of Numbers will justly determine that the thing is feasible there being no real impossibility but that it may be effected But as for Matters of Fact they are certain or they be not There is a City of Rome or there is not The City of London was burnt or it was not There is no doubt of this But some may say Grant that a Man had indeed set the Letters in order and that one will bet whether he has found Cicero's Speech here is a Matter of Fact and of the same kind as that of Rome nevertheless one may judge what may be lay'd It is true but you have not seen what he has found if you had the matter had been out of doubt you would know for certain if it were the Speech or not It is the same of Rome the things that prove there is a City of that Name shews it us as plain as if we had liv'd there all our Life there is no difficulty in the Case So also the certainty one has that Rome is is a Demonstration in its kind for there are several sorts of Demonstrations and one attains to know them by other ways than those of Geometry and also by plainer ways although one do not it may be so well perceive the progress of it All things that do not depend of hazard are of this kind and it is certain there be some things that the multiplying of all the Figures in the World can never attain to For Instance Take an Idiot set him in the first Presidents place and bid him make a Speech is it possible to assign how likely it would be that he would not Word for Word hit upon the last Speech the President made No certainly and the Reason is because the things of the Understanding and the Mind are not of the same Nature as those of the Body If one found out a Speech of Cicero's in ranging by hazard a Printers Letters it is plain this may be done this is nothing but assembling Bodies which is possible in the infinite But to find a Speech by thought is quite another thing for a Man never says a thing but because he will say it and he cannot say any thing but what the Light of his Mind discovers to him so that he only sees as he has more or less Light. And there are an Infinite Number of things where it is impossible this particular Light of each Mind can attain as there are many things to which the Light diffus'd into all Men being united together cannot reach It is evident that if this Man acted as a Machine it would not be impossible but hazard might direct him to that Speech and the difficulty of the wager may be assign'd But of what one thinks it is certain he could never hit of it and that the Light of his Mind according to which he must go can never lead him that way It may haply be said this Man may act as a Machine and only pronounce Words which signifying nothing in his Intention might express the Thoughts of the first President But it is what cannot be because it is impossible a Man can so far divest himself of Sense he must only desire to