Chapter IX: Preface (8)

Commentaries on the Mischna, _anno_ 340:

The one, _Siphra_.
_Barajetot._
_Talmud Hierosol._
_Tosiphtot._

_Bereschit Rabah_, by R. Osaiah Rabah, commentary on the Mischna.

_Bereschit Rabah, Bar Naconi_, are subtle and agreeable discourses, historical and theological. The same author wrote the books called Rabot.

A hundred years after the _Talmud Hierosol. anno_ 440, was made the _Babylonian Talmud_, by R. Ase, by the universal consent of all the Jews, who are necessarily obliged to observe all that is contained therein.

The addition of R. Ase is called the _Gemara_, that is to say the commentary on the _Mischna_.

And the _Talmud_ as a whole comprises the _Mischna_ and the _Gemara_.

_THE PERPETUITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION._

_Perpetuity._--That religion has always existed on earth, which consists in believing that man has fallen from a state of glory and of communion with God into a state of sorrow, penitence, and estrangement from God, but that after this life we shall be restored by a Messiah who was to come. All things have passed away, and this has subsisted for which are all things.

Men in the first age of the world were carried away into every kind of misconduct, and yet there were holy men, as Enoch, Lamech and others, who awaited with patience the Christ promised from the beginning of the world. Noah saw the evil of men at its height; and he was found worthy to save the world in his person, by the hope of the Messiah of whom he was the type. Abraham was compassed round about by idolaters, when God revealed to him the mystery of the Messiah, whom he greeted from afar. In the days of Isaac and Jacob abomination was spread over the whole earth, but these holy men lived in faith, and Jacob dying and blessing his children, cried in a transport which made him break off his discourse, "I await, O my God, the Saviour whom thou hast promised. _Salutare tuum expectabo, Domine_." The Egyptians were infected both with idolatry and magic, even the people of God were led astray by their example. Yet Moses and others saw him whom they saw not, and adored him, looking to the eternal gifts which he was preparing for them. The Greeks and Latins then enthroned false deities, the poets made a hundred divers theologies, the philosophers separated into a thousand different sects, and yet in the heart of Judæa were always chosen men who foretold the advent of this Messiah, known to them alone. He came at length in the fulness of time, and since then, notwithstanding the birth of so many schisms and heresies, so many revolutions in government, such great changes in all things, this Church, adoring him who has ever been adored, has subsisted without a break. It is a wonderful, incomparable and wholly divine fact, that this Religion which has ever endured, has ever been assailed. A thousand times has it been on the eve of an universal ruin, and whenever it has been in that state God has restored it by extraordinary manifestations of his power. This is marvellous, so also that it has survived without yielding to the will of tyrants. For it is not strange that a State subsists when its laws sometimes give way to necessity, but that....

States would perish if they did not often make their laws bend to necessity, but Religion has never suffered this or practised it. And indeed there must be either compromise or miracles. There is nothing unusual in being saved by yielding, and strictly speaking this is not endurance, besides in the end they perish utterly: there is none which has endured a thousand years. But that this Religion, although inflexible, should always have been maintained, shows that it is divine.

The religion which alone is contrary to our nature, to common sense, and to our pleasures, is that alone which has always existed.

The science which alone is contrary to common sense and human nature, is that alone which has always subsisted among men.

_To show that the true Jews and the true Christians have one and the same Religion._--The religion of the Jews seemed to consist essentially in the fatherhood of Abraham, in circumcision, sacrifices and ceremonies, in the ark, in the temple at Jerusalem, and lastly, in the Law, and the Covenant with Moses.

I say that it consisted in none of these, but solely in the love of God, and that all else was rejected by him;

That God did not accept the posterity of Abraham;

That the Jews if they transgressed were to be punished like strangers. Deut. viii. 19. "If thou at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish as the nations which God has destroyed before you."

That strangers if they loved God were to be received by him as the Jews. Isaiah lvi. 3. "Let not the stranger say, The Lord will not receive me.--The strangers that join themselves unto the Lord God to serve him and love him, will I bring unto my holy mountain, and accept their sacrifices, for mine house is an house of prayer."

That the true Jews ascribed all their merit to God, and not to Abraham. Isaiah lxiii. 16. "Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. Thou art our Father and our Redeemer."

Moses himself said that God would not accept the person of any.

Deut. x. 17. "God," said he, "accepteth neither persons nor sacrifices."

That the circumcision commanded was that of the heart. Deut. x. 16; Jeremiah iv. 4. "Be ye circumcised in heart. Cut off the superfluities of your heart, harden not your hearts, for your God is a great God, strong and terrible, who accepteth not the person of any."

That God said he would one day do it. Deut. xxx. 6. "God will circumcise thine heart, and thy children's heart, that thou mayest love him with all thine heart."

That the uncircumcised in heart should be judged.

Jer. ix. 26. For God will judge the uncircumcised peoples, and all the people of Israel, because he is uncircumcised in heart.

That the exterior is nothing in comparison of the interior. Joel. ii. 13. _Scindite corda vestra_, etc. Isaiah lviii. 3,4, etc.

The love of God is commanded in the whole of Deuteronomy, Deut. xxx. 19: "I call heaven and earth to witness that I have set before you death and life, that you may choose life, and that you may love God, and obey him, for God is your life."

That the Jews, for lack of their love, should be rejected for their crimes, and the Gentiles chosen in their stead.

Hosea i. 10.

Deut. xxxii. 20. "I will hide myself from them in view of their latter sins, for they are a froward generation. They have provoked me to anger by things which are no gods, and I will provoke them to jealousy by a people which is not my people, by an ignorant and foolish nation."

Isaiah lxv. 1. That temporal goods are false, and that the true good is to be united to God.

Psalm cxliii. 15. That their feasts were displeasing to God.

Amos v. 21. That the sacrifices of the Jews were displeasing to God.

Isa. lxvi. 1-3; l. 11; Jerem. vi. 20.

David, _Miserere_. Even on the part of the good, _Expectavi_.

Psalm xlix. 8-14. That he has established them only for their hardness. Micah, admirably, vi. 6-8.

I. Kings xv. 22; Hosea vi. 6.

That the sacrifices of the Gentiles should be accepted of God, and that God would none of the sacrifices of the Jews. Malachi i. 11.

That God would make a new covenant with the Messiah, and that the Old should be disannulled. Jer. xxxi. 31.

_Mandata non bona._ Ezek. xx. 25.

That the old things should be forgotten. Isa. xliii. 18, 19; lxv. 17, 18.

That the ark should come no more to mind. Jer. iii. 15, 16.

That the temple should be rejected. Jer. vii. 12-14.

That the sacrifices should be rejected, and purer sacrifices established. Malachi i. 11.

That the order of Aaron's priesthood should be rejected and that of Melchizedek introduced by the Messiah. _Dixit Dominus._

That this sacrifice should be eternal. _Ib._

That Jerusalem should be rejected, and Rome admitted.

That the name of the Jews should be rejected and a new name given. Isa. lxv. 15.

That this new name should be more excellent than that of the Jews, and eternal. Isa. lvii. 5.

That the Jews should be without prophets, Amos, without a king, without princes, without sacrifice, without an idol.

That the Jews should nevertheless always remain a people. Jer. xxxi. 36.

_Perpetuity._--Men have always believed in a Messiah. The tradition from Adam was still fresh in Noah and in Moses. After these the prophets bore witness, at the same time foretelling other things which being from time to time fulfilled in the eyes of all, demonstrated the truth of their mission, and consequently that of their promises touching the Messiah. Jesus Christ worked miracles, and the Apostles also, who converted all the Gentiles; and the prophecies being thus once accomplished, the Messiah is for ever proved.

... On that account I reject all other religions.

In that I find an answer to all objections.

It is just that a God so pure should only disclose himself to those whose hearts are purified.

Therefore that religion is lovable to me, and I find it sufficiently authorized by so divine a morality, but I find yet more....

I find it a convincing fact that since the memory of man has lasted, it was constantly declared to men that they were universally corrupt, and that a Redeemer should come;

That it was not one man who said it, but an infinity of men, and a whole nation lasting for four thousand years, prophesying, and created for that very purpose.... So I stretch out my arms to my Redeemer, who having been foretold for four thousand years, has come to suffer and to die for me on earth at the time and under all the circumstances which had been foretold, and by his grace I await death in peace, in the hope of being eternally united to him; yet I live with joy, whether in the good which it pleases him to bestow on me, or in the ill which he sends for my good, and which he has taught me to bear by his example.

The Synagogue preceded the Church, the Jews preceded the Christians, the prophets foretold the Christians, Saint John foretold Jesus Christ.

No religion but our own has taught that man is born in sin; no sect of philosophers ever said this, therefore none has said the truth.

No sect or religion has always existed on earth, except the Christian religion.

The Christian religion is that alone which renders man lovable and happy at once. Living in the world he cannot be lovable and happy at the same time.

In all times either men have spoken of the true God, or the true God has spoken to men.

There are two foundations, one interior and the other exterior, grace and miracles, and both are supernatural.

_PROOFS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION._

_Proofs of Religion._

Morals--Doctrine--Miracles--Prophecies--Figures.

_Proof_--1. The Christian religion having established itself so strongly, yet so quietly, whilst contrary to nature.--2. The sanctity, the dignity, and the humility of a Christian soul.--3. The wonders of holy Scripture.--4. Jesus Christ in particular.--5. The apostles in particular.--6. Moses and the prophets in particular.--7. The Jewish people.--8. The Prophecies.--9. Perpetuity. No religion has perpetuity.--10. The Doctrine, which explains all.--11. The sanctity of this law.--12. By the course of the world.

It is beyond doubt that after considering what is life and what is religion we cannot refuse to act on the inclination to follow it, if it comes into our heart, and it is certain there is no ground for jeering at those who follow it.

_The general conduct of the world towards the Church._--God willing both to blind and enlighten.--The event having proved that these prophecies were divine, the remainder ought to be believed, and hence we see that the order of the world is on this manner.

The miracles of the creation and the deluge being forgotten, God sent the law and the miracles of Moses, the prophets who prophesied particular things, and to prepare an abiding miracle he prepares prophecies and their fulfilment. But as the prophecies might be suspected he wishes to make them beyond suspicion, etc.

... But even those who seem most opposed to the glory of religion are not in that respect useless for others. We draw from them the first argument, that here is something supernatural, for a blindness of that kind is not natural, and if their folly renders them so opposed to their own good, it will serve to guarantee others against it, by the horror of an example so deplorable, and a folly so worthy of compassion.

... Men revile what they do not understand. The Christian religion consists in two points. It is of equal moment to men to know them both, and equally dangerous to ignore either. And it is equally of God's mercy that he has given marks of both.

Yet they take occasion to conclude that one of these points does not exist from that which is intended to make them certain of the other. Those sages who have said there is a God have been persecuted, the Jews were hated, and still more the Christians. They saw by the light of nature, that if there be a true religion on earth, the course of all things must tend to it as to a centre. And on this ground they venture to revile the Christian religion because they misunderstand it. They imagine that it consists simply in the adoration of a God conceived as great, powerful and eternal; which is in fact deism, almost as far removed from the Christian religion as atheism, its exact opposite. And hence they infer the falsehood of our religion, because they do not see that all things concur to the establishment of this point, that God does not manifest himself to man with all the evidence which is possible.

But let them conclude what they will against deism, they can conclude nothing on that account against the Christian religion, which properly consists in the mystery of the Redeemer, who, uniting in himself the two natures human and divine, has withdrawn men from the corruption of sin that he might in his divine person reconcile them to God.

True religion then teaches these two truths to men, that there is a God whom they are capable of knowing, and that there is such corruption in their nature as to render them unworthy of him. It is of equal importance to men that they should apprehend the one and the other of these points, and it is alike dangerous for man to know God without the knowledge of his own worthlessness, and to know his own worthlessness without the knowledge of the Redeemer who may deliver him from it. To apprehend the one without the other begets either the pride of philosophers, who knew God, but not their own wretchedness; or the despair of atheists, who know their own wretchedness, but not the Redeemer. And as it is alike necessary for man to know these two points, so it is alike of the mercy of God to have given us the knowledge. The Christian religion does this; it is in this that it consists. Let us herein examine the order of the world, and see if all things do not tend to establish these two main points of our Religion.

It is a remarkable fact that no canonical writer has ever employed nature to prove God. All tend to make him be believed. David, Solomon and others have never said: "There is no vacuum, therefore there is a God." They must have been cleverer than the cleverest in after days who have all used this argument.

This is well worth considering.

If it be a mark of weakness to prove God by nature, despise not the Scripture for not doing so: if it be a mark of power to know these contradictions, value the Scriptures on that account.

What! Do you not say yourself that the sky and the birds prove God?--No.--And does not your religion say so?--No. For however it may be true in a sense for some souls to whom God has given this light, it is nevertheless false in regard to the majority.

Think you it is impossible that God is infinite, without parts?--Yes.--I will then make you see something which is infinite and indivisible. A point moving everywhere with infinite swiftness, for it is in all places, and is whole and entire in each situation.

Perhaps this effect of nature, which seems to you impossible beforehand, may teach you to know that there may be others also which you know not as yet. Do not then draw this conclusion from your apprenticeship, that nothing remains for you to know, but rather that an infinity remains for you to know.

It is incomprehensible that there should be a God, and incomprehensible that there should not be; that there should be a soul in the body, and that we should have no soul; that the world should have been created, and that it should not, etc.; that original sin should be, and that it should not be.

If we choose to say that man is too little to merit communion with God, we must be indeed great to form a judgment on the subject.

The Eternal is for ever, if he is at all.

But it is impossible that God should ever be the end, if he is not the beginning. We look above, but lean upon the sand, and the earth will melt, and we shall fall whilst looking towards heaven.

_Objection._ The Scripture is plainly full of matters which were not dictated by the Holy Spirit.

_Answer._ Then they do no harm to faith.

_Objection._ But the Church has decided that all is of the Holy Spirit.

_Answer._ I answer two things: 1. That the Church has never so decided; 2. That if she should so decide it might be maintained.

My God! what trash is all this talk: "Has God made the world but to condemn it? will he ask so much of creatures so weak?" etc. Scepticism is the remedy for this evil, and will lower this vanity.

God has willed to redeem mankind and to open salvation to those who seek him. But men render themselves so unworthy of it, that it is just that God should refuse to some because of their hardness of heart what he grants to others out of a mercy not their due. Had it been his will to overcome the stubbornness of the most hardened, he could have rendered them unable to doubt the truth of his essence, in revealing himself manifestly to them as he will appear at the last day, amid thunderings and lightnings, and so great a convulsion of nature, that the dead will rise again, and the blindest shall see him.

Not thus willed he to appear in his gentle advent, because since so many men make themselves unworthy of his mercy, he willed to leave them deprived of the good which they refuse. It had not then been just that he should appear in a manner plainly divine, and wholly capable of convincing all men, but neither had it been just that he should come in so hidden a manner as not to be recognised of those who sincerely sought him. He has willed to reveal himself wholly to these, and thus willing to appear openly to those who seek him with their whole heart, and to hide himself from those who fly him with all their heart, he has so tempered the knowledge of himself as to give signs of himself visible to those who seek him, and obscure to those who seek him not.

There is enough light for those who wish earnestly to see, and enough obscurity for those of a contrary mind.

Therefore let men recognise the truth of religion in the very obscurity of religion, in the little light we have of it, and in our indifference to the knowledge of it.

The prophecies, the very miracles and proofs of our Religion, are not of such a nature that we can say they are absolutely convincing. But they are also of such a kind, that none can say that it is unreasonable to believe in them. Thus there is both evidence and obscurity to enlighten some and blind others; but the evidence is such that it surpasses or at least equals the evidence to the contrary, so that it is not reason which can determine us not to follow it, and therefore it can only be lust and malice of heart. And by this means there is evidence enough to condemn, and not enough to convince; so it appears in those who follow it, that it is grace and not reason which causes them to follow it; and in those who fly it, it is lust, not reason, which causes them to fly it.

Who can help admiring and embracing a religion which thoroughly knows that which we recognise more and more in proportion to our light?

_That God has willed to hide himself._--If there were only one Religion God would certainly be manifest; so also if there were no martyrs but in our own Religion.

God being thus hidden, every religion which does not say that God is hidden is not the true religion, and every religion which does not show the reason of it is unedifying. Our religion does all this: _Vere tu es Deus absconditus_.

Religion is so great a thing, that it is right that those who will not take the trouble to seek if it be obscure should be deprived of it. Why then should any complain, if it be such as to be found by seeking?

The obscurity would be too great, if truth had not visible signs. This is a marvellous one, that it has always been preserved in a Church and a visible assembly. The clearness would be too great if there were only one opinion in this Church, but to recognise what is true is only to see what has always existed, for it is certain that truth has always existed, and that nothing false has been always in existence.

Recognise then the truth of religion even in the obscurity of religion, in the little light we have of it, and in the indifference we have to its knowledge.

God chooses rather to sway the will than the intellect. Perfect clearness would be useful to the intellect but would harm the will. To humble pride.

Were there no obscurity man would not be sensible of his corruption; were there no light man would despair of remedy. Thus it is not only just, but useful for us, that God should be partly hidden and partly revealed, because it is equally dangerous for man to know God without the knowledge of his misery, and to know his misery without the knowledge of God.

If the mercy of God is so great that his teaching is salutary even when he hides himself, what great light may we not expect when he reveals himself?

We shall understand nothing of the works of God if we do not take it as a principle that he has willed to blind some and enlighten others.

What say the prophets of Jesus Christ? That he will be manifestly God? No: but that he is a God truly hidden, that he will be misunderstood; that none would think it was he; that he would be a stone of stumbling on which many would fall, etc. Let us no longer then be reproached with want of clearness, since we make profession of it.

But, it is said, there are obscurities.--And without that, no one would have stumbled at Jesus Christ, which is one of the formal announcements of the prophets: _Excæca_....

Instead of complaining that God is hidden, you will give him thanks for having revealed so much of himself; and you will give him thanks again for not having revealed himself to the proudly wise, who are unworthy to know so holy a God.

Two sorts of persons know: those whose heart is humble, and who love lowliness, whatever their order of intellect, whether high or low, and those who have understanding enough to see the truth, whatever opposition they may feel to it.

I may well love total darkness, but if God keep me in a state of semi-obscurity, this partial darkness is unpleasant to me, and because I do not see in it the advantages of total darkness it pleases me not. This is a fault, and a proof that I am making an idol of darkness apart from God's order. Now his order alone is to be worshipped.

Did the world exist to instruct man concerning God, his divinity would shine out incontestably from every part of it, but as it exists only by Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ, and to instruct men concerning their corruption and their redemption, proofs of these two truths start up everywhere.

What is seen does not denote either the total exclusion or the manifest presence of divinity, but the presence of a God who hides himself. All bears this character.

Had nought of God ever appeared, this eternal deprivation would have been equivocal, and might as well be interpreted of the total absence of divinity, as of man's unworthiness to know him; but by occasional and not continual appearances he has taken away all ambiguity. If he have appeared once, he is for ever, and thus it must be concluded both that there is a God, and that men are unworthy of him.

God, that he may reserve to himself alone the right to instruct us and that he may render the difficulty of our being unintelligible to us, has hidden the knot so high, or rather so low, that we cannot reach it. So that it is not by the efforts of our reason, but by the simple submission of our reason, that we can truly know ourselves.

Wisdom sends us to childhood: _nisi efficiamini sicut parvuli_.

"A miracle," says one, "would strengthen my faith." He says so when he does not see one. Reasons seen from afar seem to limit our view, but as we reach them we begin to see beyond. Nothing stops the activity of our spirit. There is no rule, we say, which has not its exception, no truth so general but that there is a side on which it is lacking. If it be not absolutely universal, we have a pretext for applying the exception to the matter in hand, and for saying: _This is not always true, hence there are cases in which it is not so. It only remains to show that this is one of them._ And we must be very awkward or unlucky if we do not find one some day.

_Contradictions._

Infinite wisdom and wisdom of Religion.

Contradiction is a bad mark of truth.

Much that is certain is contradicted.

Much that is false passes without contradiction.

Contradiction is not a mark of falsehood, nor the want of contradiction a mark of truth.

There is a pleasure in being in a vessel beaten about by a storm, provided we are certain it will not founder. The persecutions which try the Church are of this kind.

The history of the Church should rightly be called the history of truth.

Those who find difficulties of belief seek an excuse in the unbelief of the Jews. "If it was so clear," say they, "why did not the Jews believe?" And they almost wish the Jews had believed, that they might not be deterred by the example of their refusal. But their very unbelief is the foundation of our faith. We should be much less disposed to believe if they were on our side. We should then have a far more ample pretext. This is the wonderful point, to have made the Jews great lovers of the things foretold, and great enemies of their accomplishment.

What could the Jews, his enemies, do? Receiving him they give proof of him by that reception, for then the Messiah is acknowledged by those to whom was committed the expectation of his coming; rejecting him they prove his truth by that rejection.

_On the fact that the Christian Religion does not stand alone._--This is so far from being a reason against believing it the true one that, on the contrary, it proves it to be so.

Those who love not the truth take as a pretext that it is contested, and that a multitude deny it; and thus their error comes from this alone, that they love neither truth nor charity. So they are without excuse.

The wicked who profess to follow reason, ought to be extremely strong in reason.

What then do they say?

Do we not see, say they, beasts live and die like men, and Turks like Christians? They have their ceremonies, their prophets, their doctors, their saints, their religious, as well as we, etc. _But how is this contrary to the Scripture? Does it not say all this?_

If you care but little to know the truth, here is enough for your peace. But if you desire to know it with your whole heart, this is not enough, look to the details. This would suffice for a question in philosophy, but not here, where your all is concerned. And yet, after a slight meditation of this kind, we shall go off to amuse ourselves, etc. We should acquaint ourselves with this religion; even if it does not disclose the reason for such obscurity, it will perhaps teach it to us.

If God had permitted one only Religion, it would have been too easily recognised. But when we look at it near we can easily see the true through the confusion.

_PROOFS OF THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST._

_Perpetuity._--Let it be considered that from the beginning of the world the expectation or the worship of the Messiah has subsisted without a break; that there have been men who said that God had revealed to them the future birth of a Redeemer who should save his people; that afterwards came Abraham saying he had had a revelation that the Messiah was to spring from him by a son who should be born; that Jacob declared that of his twelve sons the Messiah would spring from Judah; that Moses and the prophets then came to declare the time and the manner of his advent; that they said their law was only provisional till that of the Messiah, that it should last till then but the other should endure eternally; that thus either their law or that of the Messiah, of which it was the promise, would be always upon earth; that in fact it has always endured; that at last Jesus Christ has come with all the circumstances foretold. How wonderful is this!

The two most ancient books in the world are those of Moses and Job, the one a Jew, the other a Gentile, both of whom regard Jesus Christ as their common centre and object: Moses in reporting the promises of God to Abraham, Jacob, etc., and his prophecies. And Job, _Quis mihi det ut, etc. Scio enim quod redemptor meus vivit, etc._

I believe that Joshua was the first of God's people who had this name, as Jesus Christ was the last of God's people.

What man had ever so great renown! The whole Jewish people foretold him before his coming. The Gentile world worships him after his coming. The two worlds, Gentile and Jewish, regard him as their centre.

Yet what man ever had less enjoyment of his renown! Of thirty-three years he spent thirty in retirement. For three years he passed as an impostor, the priests and rulers rejected him, his friends and kinsmen despised him. At the end he died, betrayed by one of his own disciples, denied by another, abandoned by all.

What part then had he in all this renown? Never man had more glory, never man more ignominy. All this renown was for our sakes, to enable us to recognise him, he took none of it for himself.

_Office of Jesus Christ._--He alone was to produce a great people, elect, holy, and chosen, to lead it, to nourish it, to bring it into a place of rest and holiness, to make it holy to God, to make it the temple of God, to reconcile it to God, to save it from the wrath of God, to deliver it from the slavery of sin, which visibly reigns in man, to give laws to this people, to engrave these laws on their heart, to offer himself to God for them, to sacrifice himself for them, to be a victim without spot, himself the priest, needing to offer himself, his body and his blood, and yet to offer bread and wine to God....

After many persons had come before, at last came Jesus Christ, to say: "Here am I and this is the hour, that which the prophets had said was to come in the fulness of time. I tell you what my apostles will do. The Jews shall be cast out, Jerusalem shall be soon destroyed, and the Gentiles shall enter into the knowledge of God. My apostles shall do this after you have slain the heir of the vineyard."

Then the Apostles said to the Jews, "You shall be accursed," and to the Gentiles, "You shall enter into the knowledge of God;" and that came to pass. _Celsus laughed at it._

Then Jesus Christ came to tell men that they had no enemies but themselves, that their passions cut them off from God, that he came to destroy these, and give them his grace to unite them all in an holy Church, that he came to call into this Church Gentiles and Jews, that he came to destroy the idols of the former and the superstition of the latter. To this all men are opposed, not only by the natural opposition of lust; but above all, the kings of the earth, as had been foretold, gathered together to destroy this religion in its infancy. _Quare fremuerunt gentes. Reges terræ adversus Christum._

All that was great on earth was united together, the learned, the wise, the kings. The first wrote, the second condemned, the last slew. Yet notwithstanding all these oppositions, these men, so simple and so weak, resisted all these forces, subduing even the mighty, the learned and the wise, and removed idolatry from all the earth. And all this was done by the power which had foretold it

And prediction crowns all this, so that none may say that chance has done it all.

Whosoever having only a week to live, does not perceive that belief is the right side to take, and that all this is not a stroke of chance....

Now were we not slaves to passion, a week and a hundred years would seem one and the same thing.

The prophets foretold, and were not foretold. The saints were foretold, but were not foretellers. Jesus Christ was foretold and foreteller.

If I had never heard anything of the Messiah, yet after the admirable predictions of the course of the world which I see accomplished, I see that it is divine. And if I knew that these same books foretold a Messiah, I should be certain that he would come. And seeing that they place his time before the destruction of the second temple, I should say that he had come.

_Ingrediens mundum._

Stone upon stone.

That which preceded, that which followed. All the Jews still exist, and are wanderers.

Why did not Jesus Christ come in a visible manner, instead of drawing proof from the prophecies which went before him?

And why did he cause himself to be foretold in figures?

God, to enable the Messiah to be recognised by the good and unrecognised by the wicked, caused him to be so foretold. If the manner of the Messiah had been clearly foretold there had been no obscurity, even for the wicked. If the time had been obscurely foretold, there had been obscurity even for the good, for their goodness of heart would not have made them understand, for instance, that the closed _mem_ means six hundred years. But the time has been foretold clearly and the manner in figures only.

By this means the wicked, mistaking the promised for material blessings, have gone astray, in spite of clear indications of the time, and the good have not gone astray; for the interpretation of the promised blessings depends on the heart, wont to call that _good_ which it loves, but the interpretation of the promised time does not depend on the heart. Thus the clear prediction of the time, and the obscure intimation of the blessings, deceives only the wicked.

If Jesus Christ had come only for sanctification, the whole of Scripture and all things would tend to this end, and it would be easy to convince unbelievers. If Jesus Christ had come only to blind, all his conduct would be confused, and we should have no means of convincing unbelievers. But as he came _in sanctificationem et in scandalum_, as says Isaiah, we cannot convince unbelievers, and they cannot convince us; but by that very fact we overcome them because we say that there is nothing in his conduct conclusive on one side or the other.

Jesus Christ has come to blind those who saw clearly, and to give sight to the blind; to heal the sick and let the sound perish; to call sinners to repentance and justification, and leave the just in their sins; to fill the hungry with good things and to send the rich empty away.

We can have nothing but veneration for a man who clearly foretells events which take place, and who declares his design both to blind and to enlighten, and who mixes obscurities among the clear things which happen.

_During the life of the Messiah.--Ænigmatis._--Ezek. xvii.--His forerunner. Malachi ii.

He will be born an infant. Is. ix. 6.

He will be born at Bethlehem. Micah v. He will appear chiefly in Jerusalem, and will spring from the family of Judah and of David.

He will blind the learned and the wise, Is. vi 8, 29, and preach the Gospel to the poor and the lowly, will open the eyes of the blind, restore health to the sick, and bring light to those who languish in darkness. Is. lxi.

He must show the perfect way, and be the teacher of the Gentiles. Is. lv.

The prophecies must be unintelligible to the wicked, Dan. xii., Hos. xiv. 10, but intelligible to those who are well instructed.

He must be the precious corner stone. Is. xxviii. 16.

He must be the stone of stumbling and offence. Is. viii.

Jerusalem must dash against this stone.

The builders must reject this stone. Ps. cxvii. 22.

God will make of this stone the head of the corner.

And this stone will grow into a mountain, and fill the whole earth. Dan. ii.

Thus he must be rejected, disowned, betrayed, sold, Zach. xi. 12, spit upon, buffeted, mocked, afflicted in a thousand ways, be given gall to drink, Ps. lxviii., pierced, Zach. xii., his feet and his hands pierced, killed, and lots cast upon his vesture.

He must rise again, Ps. xv., the third day. Hos. vi. 3.

He must ascend to heaven to sit on the right hand. Ps. cx.

The kings will arm themselves against him. Ps. ii.

Being on the right hand of the Father, he will have victory over all his enemies.

The kings of the earth, and all nations shall worship him. Is. lx.

The Jews will remain as a nation. Jer.

They will be dispersed, without kings, etc., Hos. iii; without prophets. Amos;

Waiting for salvation and finding it not. Is.

The calling of the Gentiles by Jesus Christ. Is. lii., Ps. lxxi.

The Jews in slaying him that they might not receive the Messiah, stamped him with the final proof of his Messiahship.

And by continuance in denial, they made themselves unimpeachable witnesses; and in slaying him, and continuing to reject him, they have fulfilled the prophecies.

The word _Galilee_, which the Jewish rabble pronounced as if by chance, in their accusation of Jesus Christ before Pilate, gave Pilate a reason for sending Jesus Christ to Herod, so that the mystery was accomplished, that he should be judged by Jews and Gentiles. Chance was apparently the cause that the mystery was accomplished.

The conversion of the Gentiles was only reserved for the grace of the Messiah. The Jews so long opposed them without success; all that Solomon and the prophets had said was useless. Wise men like Plato and Socrates could not persuade them.

If this was so clearly foretold to the Jews, why did they not believe it, or why were they not exterminated for resisting what was so clear?

I answer first: it was foretold both that they would not believe what was so clear, and that they would not be exterminated. And nothing is more glorious to the Messiah, for it is not enough that there should be prophets, they must be kept above suspicion. Now, etc.

Had the Jews been all converted by Jesus Christ, we should have none but doubtful witnesses, and had they been entirely destroyed we should have had no witnesses at all.

The Jews rejected him, but not all. The saints receive him, but not carnal men. Yet this is far from being against his glory, it is the last stroke which perfects it. The argument on their side, the only one which is found in the Talmud and the rabbinical writings, is that Jesus Christ has not subdued the nations sword in hand, _gladium tuum, potentissime_. Is this all they can allege? Jesus Christ has been slain, they say, he was subdued, he has not had dominion over the heathen by his power, he has not distributed the spoil among us, he does not give riches. Is this all they have to allege? This is the very point wherein he seems to me so lovable. I would none of such an one as they represent. It is plain that his life only hinders them from receiving him, by their refusal they become irreproachable witnesses, and what is more, they thereby fulfil the prophecies.

There are those who see clearly that man has no other enemy than lust, which turns him from God, and not God, and that there is no other good but God, not a fat land. Let those who believe that the good of man is in the flesh, and evil that which turns him away from sensual pleasures, besot themselves with them and die in them. But those who seek God with their whole heart, whose only ill is not to see him, whose only desire is to possess him, whose only enemies are those who would turn them from him, who are afflicted when they are surrounded and overwhelmed by such enemies, may take comfort, for I declare to them this joyful news: there is for them a Redeemer, whom I will show them; I will show them that there is for them a God, and I will not show him to others. I will show them that a Messiah has been promised, who will deliver them from their enemies, and that one has come to deliver them from their iniquities, not from their enemies.

It is a wonderful thing, and worthy of all attention, to see the Jewish nation existing so many years in constant misery, it being necessary as a proof of Jesus Christ, both that they should exist to be his witnesses, and should be miserable because they crucified him, and though to be miserable and to exist, are contradictory, this nation still exists in spite of its misery.

When Nebuchadnezzar carried away the people, for fear they should believe that the sceptre had departed from Judah, they were assured beforehand that they would be but a short time in captivity, and would be restored.

They were never without the comfort of their prophets, or the presence of their kings. But the second destruction is without promise of restoration, without prophets, without kings, without comfort, without hope, for the sceptre is taken away for ever.

_Proofs of Jesus Christ._--To have been captive with the assurance of deliverance in seventy years was no true captivity. But now they are captives without hope.

God has promised them that even though he should disperse them to the ends of the earth, nevertheless if they were faithful to the law he would gather them together. They are now very faithful to it, yet remain oppressed.

_Blindness of Scripture._--The Scripture, say the Jews, says that we know not whence Christ should come.

John vii. 27 and xii 34.

The Scripture says that Christ abideth for ever, and he said that he should die. Therefore, says Saint John, they believed him not, though he had done so many miracles, that the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled: _He hath blinded them, etc._

_Contradictions._--The sceptre until Messiah come. Without king or prince.

The eternal law, changed.

The eternal covenant, a new covenant.

The good law, evil precepts, Ezekiel xx.

Apparent discord of the Evangelists.

_Proofs of Jesus Christ._

Why the book of Ruth was preserved.

Why the story of Tamar.

The genealogy of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is intermixed with so many that are useless, that it cannot be distinguished. If Moses had kept only the register of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, that had been too plain. If he had not marked that of Jesus Christ, it had not been plain enough. But after all, whoso looks closely sees that of Jesus Christ distinctly traced through Tamar, Ruth, etc.

Jesus Christ in an obscurity--as the world calls obscurity--so great, that the historians who wrote only the important matters of States hardly perceived him.

_On the fact that neither Josephus, nor Tacitus, nor other historians, have spoken of Jesus Christ._--So far from this being any argument against, it is rather one for us. For it is certain that Jesus Christ has existed, that his religion has made a great noise, and that these people were not ignorant of it; thus it is plain that they designedly concealed it, or perhaps that they did speak of it, and what they said has been suppressed or altered.

When Augustus learnt that Herod's own son was among the children under the age of two years whom he had commanded to be slain, he said that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son. Macrob. _Saturn_. Lib. ii., c. 4.

Macrobius, on the Innocents slain by Herod.

_Prophecies._--Great Pan is dead.

Herod believed to be the Messiah. He had taken away the sceptre of Judah, but he was not of Judah. This was held by a considerable sect.

Both Barcoseba and another received by the Jews. And the rumour which was everywhere in those times. Suetonius, Tacitus, Josephus.

In what sort should Messiah come, seeing that by him the sceptre should be eternally in Judah, and at his coming the sceptre should depart from Judah?

To the end that seeing they should not see, and understanding they should not understand, nothing could be better done.

Curse of the Greeks against those who count periods of time.

_Proofs of Jesus Christ._--Jesus Christ said great things so simply that he seems not to have considered them, and yet so tersely that it is clear he had considered them. This clearness joined with simplicity is wonderful.

Who taught the evangelists the qualities of an entirely heroic soul, that they should paint it so perfectly in Jesus Christ? Why did they describe him weak in his agony? Did they not know how to paint a steadfast death? No doubt they did, for the same Saint Luke paints the death of Saint Stephen as braver than that of Jesus Christ.

They describe him therefore as capable of fear before the need of dying came, and then wholly strong.

But when they represent him as so afflicted, it is when he afflicts himself, and when men afflict him, then is he wholly strong.

The style of the Gospel is wonderful in many ways, and in this among others, that it contains no invectives against the executioners and enemies of Jesus Christ. The historians do not rail against Judas, Pilate, nor any of the Jews.

If this modesty of the evangelical writers had been simulated, as well as many other traits of a beautiful character, and they had only simulated it to attract observation, even if they had not dared to draw attention to it themselves, they would not have failed to procure friends, who would have remarked on it to their advantage. But as they acted thus without dissimulation, and from perfectly disinterested motives, they pointed it out to no one, and I believe that many points of this kind have never been noticed till now, which is an evidence of how dispassionately all was done.

The apostles were either deceived or deceivers. Both hypotheses are difficult; for it is not possible to mistake a man raised from the dead....

While Jesus Christ was with them, his presence might sustain them, but after that, what gave them force to act if he did not appear to them?

_Proof of Jesus Christ._--The supposition that the apostles were deceivers is thoroughly absurd. Suppose we follow it out, and imagine these twelve men assembled after the death of Jesus Christ, making a plot to say that he was risen again. By this they attack all earthly powers. The heart of man is strangely inclined to fickleness and change, swayed by promises and by wealth. Had one of these men contradicted themselves under these temptations, nay more, had they done so in prison, in torture and in death, they were lost. Let that be followed out.

Hypothesis that the apostles were deceivers.
The time clearly.
The manner obscurely.
Five typical proofs.
1,600 prophets.
2,000
400 scattered.

_Atheists._--What reason have they to say it is not possible to rise again? Which is the more difficult, to be born or to rise again; that that which has never been should be, or that what has been should be again? Is it more difficult to come into being than to return to it? Habit causes the one to seem easy to us, the want of habit causes the other to seem impossible. The popular way of judging.

Why should not a virgin bear a child? does not a hen lay eggs without a cock? What distinguishes these outwardly from others? and who has told us that the hen may not form the germ as well as the cock?

What have they to say against the resurrection, or against the child-bearing of the Virgin? which is the more difficult; to produce a man or an animal, or to reproduce it? And if they had never seen any species of animal, could they guess that they were not produced without connection with each other?

How I hate these follies of not believing in the Eucharist, etc.... If the Gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is there?

It is impiety not to believe in the Eucharist on the ground that we do not see it.

_THE MISSION AND GREATNESS OF JESUS CHRIST._

We know God only by Jesus Christ. Without this mediator all communion with God is taken away, by Jesus Christ we know God. All who have thought to know God, and to prove him without Jesus Christ, have had but feeble proofs. But for proof of Jesus Christ we have the prophecies, which are solid and palpable proofs. And these prophecies, accomplished and proved true by the event, mark the certainty of these truths, and consequently the divinity of Jesus Christ. In him then, and by him we know God; apart from him, and without the Scripture, without original sin, without a necessary mediator, foretold and come, we could not absolutely prove God, nor teach sound doctrine and sound morality. But by Jesus Christ, and in Jesus Christ we prove God and teach morality and doctrine. Jesus Christ is then the true God of men.

But we know at the same time our misery, for this God is none other than he who repairs our misery. Thus we can only know God well by knowing our sins. Therefore those who have known God without knowing their misery, have not glorified him, but have glorified themselves. _Quia non cognovit per sapientiam, placuit Deo per stultitiam prædicationis salvos facere._

Not only do we know God by Jesus Christ alone, but we know ourselves by Jesus Christ alone. We know life and death by Jesus Christ alone. Apart from Jesus Christ we know not what is our life, nor our death, nor God, nor ourselves.

Thus without the Scripture, which has Jesus Christ alone for its object, we know nothing, and see only obscurity and confusion in the nature of God, and in our own nature.