Pascal's Pensées
probabilities were equally great.
764
_Source of contradictions._--A God humiliated, even to the death on the
cross; a Messiah triumphing over death by his own death. Two natures in
Jesus Christ, two advents, two states of man's nature.
765
_Types._--Saviour, father, sacrificer, offering, food, king, wise,
law-giver, afflicted, poor, having to create a people whom He must lead
and nourish, and bring into His land....
_Jesus Christ. Offices._--He alone had to create a great people, elect,
holy, and chosen; to lead, nourish, and bring it into the place of rest
and holiness; to make it holy to God; to make it the temple of God; to
reconcile it to, and save it from, the wrath of God; to free it from the
slavery of sin, which visibly reigns in man; to give laws to this
people, and engrave these laws on their heart; to offer Himself to God
for them, and sacrifice Himself for them; to be a victim without
blemish, and Himself the sacrificer, having to offer Himself, His body,
and His blood, and yet to offer bread and wine to God ...
_Ingrediens mundum._[284]
"Stone upon stone."[285]
What preceded and what followed. All the Jews exist still, and are
wanderers.
766
Of all that is on earth, He partakes only of the sorrows, not of the
joys. He loves His neighbours, but His love does not confine itself
within these bounds, and overflows to His own enemies, and then to those
of God.
767
Jesus Christ typified by Joseph, the beloved of his father, sent by his
father to see his brethren, etc., innocent, sold by his brethren for
twenty pieces of silver, and thereby becoming their lord, their saviour,
the saviour of strangers, and the saviour of the world; which had not
been but for their plot to destroy him, their sale and their rejection
of him.
In prison Joseph innocent between two criminals; Jesus Christ on the
cross between two thieves. Joseph foretells freedom to the one, and
death to the other, from the same omens. Jesus Christ saves the elect,
and condemns the outcast for the same sins. Joseph foretells only; Jesus
Christ acts. Joseph asks him who will be saved to remember him, when he
comes into his glory; and he whom Jesus Christ saves asks that He will
remember him, when He comes into His kingdom.
768
The conversion of the heathen was only reserved for the grace of the
Messiah. The Jews have been so long in opposition to them without
success; all that Solomon and the prophets said has been useless. Sages,
like Plato and Socrates, have not been able to persuade them.
769
After many persons had gone before, Jesus Christ at last came to
say:[286] "Here am I, and this is the time. That which the prophets have
said was to come in the fullness of time, I tell you My apostles will
do. The Jews shall be cast out. Jerusalem shall be soon destroyed. And
the heathen 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," (_Celsus
laughed at it_); and to the heathen, "You shall enter into the knowledge
of God." And this then came to pass.
770
Jesus Christ came to blind those who saw clearly, and to give sight to
the blind; to heal the sick, and leave the healthy to die; to call to
repentance, and to justify sinners, and to leave the righteous in their
sins; to fill the needy, and leave the rich empty.
771
_Holiness._--_Effundam spiritum meum._[287] All nations were in unbelief
and lust. The whole world now became fervent with love. Princes
abandoned their pomp; maidens suffered martyrdom. Whence came this
influence? The Messiah was come. These were the effect and sign of His
coming.
772
Destruction of the Jews and heathen by Jesus Christ: _Omnes gentes
venient et adorabunt eum.[288] Parum est ut_,[289] etc. _Postula a
me.[290] Adorabunt eum omnes reges.[291] Testes iniqui.[292] Dabit
maxillam percutienti.[293] Dederunt fel in escam._[294]
773
Jesus Christ for all, Moses for a nation.
The Jews blessed in Abraham: "I will bless those that bless thee."[295]
But: "All nations blessed in his seed."[296] _Parum est ut_, etc.
_Lumen ad revelationem gentium._[297]
_Non fecit taliter omni nationi_,[298] said David, in speaking of the
Law. But, in speaking of Jesus Christ, we must say: _Fecit taliter omni
nationi. Parum est ut_, etc., Isaiah. So it belongs to Jesus Christ to
be universal. Even the Church offers sacrifice only for the faithful.
Jesus Christ offered that of the cross for all.
774
There is heresy in always explaining _omnes_ by "all," and heresy in not
explaining it sometimes by "all." _Bibite ex hoc omnes_;[299] the
Huguenots are heretics in explaining it by "all." _In quo omnes
peccaverunt_;[300] the Huguenots are heretics in excepting the children
of true believers. We must then follow the Fathers and tradition in
order to know when to do so, since there is heresy to be feared on both
sides.
775
_Ne timeas pusillus grex.[301] Timore et tremore.--Quid ergo? Ne timeas
[modo] timeas._ Fear not, provided you fear; but if you fear not, then
fear.
_Qui me recipit, non me recipit, sed eum qui me misit._[302]
_Nemo scit, neque Filius._
_Nubes lucida obumbravit._
Saint John[303] was to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
and Jesus Christ[304] to plant division. There is not contradiction.
776
The effects _in communi_ and _in particulari_. The semi-Pelagians err in
saying of _in communi_ what is true only _in particulari_; and the
Calvinists in saying _in particulari_ what is true _in communi_. (Such
is my opinion.)
777
_Omnis Judæa regio, et Jerosolomymi universi, et baptizabantur._[305]
Because of all the conditions of men who came there. From these stones
there _can_ come children unto Abraham.[306]
778
If men knew themselves, God would heal and pardon them. _Ne convertantur
et sanem eos, et dimittantur eis peccata._[307]
779
Jesus Christ never condemned without hearing. To Judas: _Amice, ad quid
venisti?_[308] To him that had not on the wedding garment, the same.
780
The types of the completeness of the Redemption, as that the sun gives
light to all, indicate only completeness; but [_the types_] of
exclusions, as of the Jews elected to the exclusion of the Gentiles,
indicate exclusion.
"Jesus Christ the Redeemer of all."--Yes, for He has offered, like a man
who has ransomed all those who were willing to come to Him. If any die
on the way, it is their misfortune; but, so far as He was concerned, He
offered them redemption.--That holds good in this example, where he who
ransoms and he who prevents death are two persons, but not of Jesus
Christ, who does both these things.--No, for Jesus Christ, in the
quality of Redeemer, is not perhaps Master of all; and thus, in so far
as it is in Him, He is the Redeemer of all.
When it is said that Jesus Christ did not die for all, you take undue
advantage of a fault in men who at once apply this exception to
themselves; and this is to favour despair, instead of turning them from
it to favour hope. For men thus accustom themselves in inward virtues by
outward customs.
781
The victory over death. "What is a man advantaged if he gain the whole
world and lose his own soul?[309] Whosoever will save his soul, shall
lose it."[310]
"I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil."[311]
"Lambs took not away the sins of the world, but I am the lamb which
taketh away the sins."[312]
"Moses[313] hath not led you out of captivity, and made you truly free."
782
... Then Jesus Christ comes to tell men that they have no other enemies
but themselves; that it is their passions which keep them apart from
God; that He comes to destroy these, and give them His grace, so as to
make of them all one Holy Church; that He comes to bring back into this
Church the heathen and Jews; that He comes to destroy the idols of the
former and the superstition of the latter. To this all men are opposed,
not only from the natural opposition of lust; but, above all, the kings
of the earth, as had been foretold, join together to destroy this
religion at its birth. (_Proph.: Quare fremuerunt gentes ... reges terræ
... adversus Christum._)[314]
All that is great on earth is united together; the learned, the wise,
the kings. The first write; the second condemn; the last kill. And
notwithstanding all these oppositions, these men, simple and weak,
resist all these powers, subdue even these kings, these learned men and
these sages, and remove idolatry from all the earth. And all this is
done by the power which had foretold it.
783
Jesus Christ would not have the testimony of devils, nor of those who
were not called, but of God and John the Baptist.
784
I consider Jesus Christ in all persons and in ourselves: Jesus Christ as
a Father in His Father, Jesus Christ as a Brother in His Brethren, Jesus
Christ as poor in the poor, Jesus Christ as rich in the rich, Jesus
Christ as Doctor and Priest in priests, Jesus Christ as Sovereign in
princes, etc. For by His glory He is all that is great, being God; and
by His mortal life He is all that is poor and abject. Therefore He has
taken this unhappy condition, so that He could be in all persons, and
the model of all conditions.
785
Jesus Christ is an obscurity (according to what the world calls
obscurity), such that historians, writing only of important matters of
states, have hardly noticed Him.
786
_On the fact that neither Josephus, nor Tacitus, nor other historians
have spoken of Jesus Christ._--So far is this from telling against
Christianity, that on the contrary it tells for it. For it is certain
that Jesus Christ has existed; that His religion has made a great talk;
and that these persons were not ignorant of it. Thus it is plain that
they purposely concealed it, or that, if they did speak of it, their
account has been suppressed or changed.
787
"I have reserved me seven thousand."[315] I love the worshippers unknown
to the world and to the very prophets.
788
As Jesus Christ remained unknown among men, so His truth remains among
common opinions without external difference. Thus the Eucharist among
ordinary bread.
789
Jesus would not be slain without the forms of justice; for it is far
more ignominious to die by justice than by an unjust sedition.
790
The false justice of Pilate only serves to make Jesus Christ suffer; for
he causes Him to be scourged by his false justice, and afterwards puts
Him to death. It would have been better to have put Him to death at
once. Thus it is with the falsely just. They do good and evil works to
please the world, and to show that they are not altogether of Jesus
Christ; for they are ashamed of Him. And at last, under great temptation
and on great occasions, they kill Him.
791
What man ever had more renown? The whole Jewish people foretell Him
before His coming. The Gentile people worship Him after His coming. The
two peoples, Gentile and Jewish, regard Him as their centre.
And yet what man enjoys this renown less? Of thirty-three years, He
lives thirty without appearing. For three years He passes as an
impostor; the priests and the chief people reject Him; His friends and
His nearest relatives despise Him. Finally, He dies, betrayed by one of
His own disciples, denied by another, and abandoned by all.
What part, then, has He in this renown? Never had man so much renown;
never had man more ignominy. All that renown has served only for us, to
render us capable of recognising Him; and He had none of it for Himself.
792
The infinite distance between body and mind is a symbol of the
infinitely more infinite distance between mind and charity; for charity
is supernatural.