Pascal's Pensées
succeeded, Jesus Christ might well have succeeded, we ought to say that
since Mahomet succeeded, Jesus Christ should have failed.
599
Any man can do what Mahomet has done; for he performed no miracles, he
was not foretold. No man can do what Christ has done.
600
The heathen religion has no foundation [at the present day. It is said
once to have had a foundation by the oracles which spoke. But what are
the books which assure us of this? Are they so worthy of belief on
account of the virtue of their authors? Have they been preserved with
such care that we can be sure that they have not been meddled with?]
The Mahometan religion has for a foundation the Koran and Mahomet. But
has this prophet, who was to be the last hope of the world, been
foretold? What sign has he that every other man has not, who chooses to
call himself a prophet? What miracles does he himself say that he has
done? What mysteries has he taught, even according to his own tradition?
What was the morality, what the happiness held out by him?
The Jewish religion must be differently regarded in the tradition of the
Holy Bible, and in the tradition of the people. Its morality and
happiness are absurd in the tradition of the people, but are admirable
in that of the Holy Bible. (And all religion is the same; for the
Christian religion is very different in the Holy Bible and in the
casuists.) The foundation is admirable; it is the most ancient book in
the world, and the most authentic; and whereas Mahomet, in order to make
his own book continue in existence, forbade men to read it, Moses,[217]
for the same reason, ordered every one to read his.
Our religion is so divine that another divine religion has only been the
foundation of it.
601
_Order._--To see what is clear and indisputable in the whole state of
the Jews.
602
The Jewish religion is wholly divine in its authority, its duration, its
perpetuity, its morality, its doctrine, and its effects.
603
The only science contrary to common sense and human nature is that alone
which has always existed among men.
604
The only religion contrary to nature, to common sense, and to our
pleasure, is that alone which has always existed.
605
No religion but our own has taught that man is born in sin. No sect of
philosophers has said this. Therefore none have declared the truth.
No sect or religion has always existed on earth, but the Christian
religion.
606
Whoever judges of the Jewish religion by its coarser forms will
misunderstand it. It is to be seen in the Holy Bible, and in the
tradition of the prophets, who have made it plain enough that they did
not interpret the law according to the letter. So our religion is divine
in the Gospel, in the Apostles, and in tradition; but it is absurd in
those who tamper with it.
The Messiah, according to the carnal Jews, was to be a great temporal
prince. Jesus Christ, according to carnal Christians,[218] has come to
dispense us from the love of God, and to give us sacraments which shall
do everything without our help. Such is not the Christian religion, nor
the Jewish. True Jews and true Christians have always expected a Messiah
who should make them love God, and by that love triumph over their
enemies.
607
The carnal Jews hold a midway place between Christians and heathens. The
heathens know not God, and love the world only. The Jews know the true
God, and love the world only. The Christians know the true God, and love
not the world. Jews and heathens love the same good. Jews and Christians
know the same God.
The Jews were of two kinds; the first had only heathen affections, the
other had Christian affections.
608
There are two kinds of men in each religion: among the heathen,
worshippers of beasts, and the worshippers of the one only God of
natural religion; among the Jews, the carnal, and the spiritual, who
were the Christians of the old law; among Christians, the
coarser-minded, who are the Jews of the new law. The carnal Jews looked
for a carnal Messiah; the coarser Christians believe that the Messiah
has dispensed them from the love of God; true Jews and true Christians
worship a Messiah who makes them love God.
609
_To show that the true Jews and the true Christians have but the same
religion._--The religion of the Jews seemed to consist essentially in
the fatherhood of Abraham, in circumcision, in sacrifices, in
ceremonies, in the Ark, in the temple, in Jerusalem, and, finally, in
the law, and in the covenant with Moses.
I say that it consisted in none of those things, but only in the love of
God, and that God disregarded all the other things.
That God did not accept the posterity of Abraham.
That the Jews were to be punished like strangers, if they transgressed.
_Deut._ viii, 19; "If thou do 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 the Lord destroyeth before your face."
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 who join themselves unto the Lord to serve
Him and love Him, will I bring unto my holy mountain, and accept therein
sacrifices, for mine house is a house of prayer."
That the true Jews considered their merit to be from God only, and not
from 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 told them that God would not accept persons. _Deut._ x,
17: "God," said he, "regardeth neither persons nor sacrifices."
The Sabbath was only a sign, _Exod._ xxxi, 13; and in memory of the
escape from Egypt, _Deut._ v, 19. Therefore it is no longer necessary,
since Egypt must be forgotten.
Circumcision was only a sign, _Gen._ xvii, 11. And thence it came to
pass that, being in the desert, they were not circumcised because they
could not be confounded with other peoples; and after Jesus Christ came,
it was no longer necessary.
That the circumcision of the heart is commanded. _Deut._ x, 16;
_Jeremiah_ iv, 4: "Be ye circumcised in heart; take away the
superfluities of your heart, and harden yourselves not. For your God is
a mighty God, strong and terrible, who accepteth not persons."
That God said He would one day do it. _Deut._ xxx, 6; "God will
circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, that thou mayest love
Him with all thine heart."
That the uncircumcised in heart shall be judged. _Jeremiah_ ix, 26: For
God will judge the uncircumcised peoples, and all the people of Israel,
because he is "uncircumcised in heart."
That the external is of no avail apart from the internal. _Joel_ ii, 13:
_Scindite corda vestra_, etc.; _Isaiah_ lviii, 3, 4, etc.
The love of God is enjoined in the whole of Deuteronomy. _Deut._ xxx,
19: "I call heaven and earth to record that I have set before you life
and death, that you should choose life, and love God, and obey Him, for
God is your life."
That the Jews, for lack of that love, should be rejected for their
offences, and the heathen 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 without faith. They have moved me to
jealousy with that which is not God, and I will move them to jealousy
with those which are not a people, and with 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 are displeasing to God. _Amos_ v, 21.
That the sacrifices of the Jews displeased God. _Isaiah_ lxvi. 1-3; i,
II; _Jer._ vi, 20; David, _Miserere._--Even on the part of the good,
_Expectavi_. _Psalm_ xlix, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14.
That He has established them only for their hardness. _Micah_,
admirably, vi; 1 _Kings_ xv, 22; _Hosea_ vi, 6.
That the sacrifices of the Gentiles will be accepted of God, and that
God will take no pleasure in the sacrifices of the Jews. _Malachi_ i,
II.
That God will make a new covenant with the Messiah, and the old will be
annulled. _Jer._ xxxi, 31. _Mandata non bona. Ezek._
That the old things will be forgotten. _Isaiah_ xliii, 18, 19; lxv 17,
10.
That the Ark will no longer be remembered. _Jer._ iii, 15, 16.
That the temple should be rejected. _Jer._ vii, 12, 13, 14.
That the sacrifices should be rejected, and other pure sacrifices
established. _Malachi_ i, II.
That the order of Aaron's priesthood should be rejected, and that of
Melchizedek introduced by the Messiah. _Ps. Dixit Dominus._
That this priesthood should be eternal. _Ibid._
That Jerusalem should be rejected, and Rome admitted. _Ps. Dixit
Dominus._
That the name of the Jews should be rejected, and a new name given.
_Isaiah_ lxv, 15.
That this last name should be more excellent than that of the Jews, and
eternal. _Isaiah_ lvi, 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.
610
_Republic._--The Christian republic--and even the Jewish--has only had
God for ruler, as Philo the Jew notices, _On Monarchy_.
When they fought, it was for God only; their chief hope was in God only;
they considered their towns as belonging to God only, and kept them for
God. 1 _Chron._ xix, 13.
611
_Gen._ xvii, 7. _Statuam pactum meum inter me et te foedere sempiterno
... ut sim Deus tuus ..._
_Et tu ergo custodies pactum meum._
612
_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 should
have come. All things have passed away, and this has endured, for which
all things are.
Men have in the first age of the world been carried away into every kind
of debauchery, and yet there were saints, as Enoch, Lamech, and others,
who waited patiently for the Christ promised from the beginning of the
world. Noah saw the wickedness of men at its height; and he was held
worthy to save the world in his person, by the hope of the Messiah of
whom he was the type. Abraham was surrounded by idolaters, when God made
known to him the mystery of the Messiah, whom he welcomed from
afar.[219] In the time of Isaac and Jacob abomination was spread over
all the earth; but these saints 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 taum expectabo, Domine._"[220] The Egyptians were infected
both with idolatry and magic; the very people of God were led astray by
their example. Yet Moses and others believed Him whom they saw not, and
worshipped Him, looking to the eternal gifts which He was preparing for
them.
The Greeks and Latins then set up false deities; the poets made a
hundred different theologies, while the philosophers separated into a
thousand different sects; and yet in the heart of Judæa there were
always chosen men who foretold the coming of this Messiah, which was
known to them alone.
He came at length in the fullness of time, and time has since witnessed
the birth of so many schisms and heresies, so many political
revolutions, so many changes in all things; yet this Church, which
worships Him who has always been worshipped, has endured
uninterruptedly. It is a wonderful, incomparable, and altogether divine