Pascal's Pensées
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from
religious conviction.
895
It is in vain that the Church has established these words, anathemas,
heresies, etc. They are used against her.
896
The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, for the master tells him
only the act and not the intention.[368] And this is why he often obeys
slavishly, and defeats the intention. But Jesus Christ has told us the
object. And you defeat that object.
897
They cannot have perpetuity, and they seek universality; and therefore
they make the whole Church corrupt, that they may be saints.
898
_Against those who misuse passages of Scripture, and who pride
themselves in finding one which seems to favour their error._--The
chapter for Vespers, Passion Sunday, the prayer for the king.
Explanation of these words: "He that is not with me is against me."[369]
And of these others: "He that is not against you is for you."[370] A
person who says: "I am neither for nor against", we ought to reply to
him ...
899
He who will give the meaning of Scripture, and does not take it from
Scripture, is an enemy of Scripture. (Aug., _De Doct. Christ._)
900
_Humilibus dat gratiam; an ideo non dedit humilitatem?[371]
Sui eum non receperunt; quotquot autem non receperunt an non erant
sui?_[372]
901
"It must indeed be," says Feuillant, "that this is not so certain; for
controversy indicates uncertainty, (Saint Athanasius, Saint Chrysostom,
morals, unbelievers)."
The Jesuits have not made the truth uncertain, but they have made their
own ungodliness certain.
Contradiction has always been permitted, in order to blind the wicked;
for all that offends truth or love is evil. This is the true principle.
902
All religions and sects in the world have had natural reason for a
guide. Christians alone have been constrained to take their rules from
without themselves, and to acquaint themselves with those which Jesus
Christ bequeathed to men of old to be handed down to true believers.
This constraint wearies these good Fathers. They desire, like other
people, to have liberty to follow their own imaginations. It is in vain
that we cry to them, as the prophets said to the Jews of old: "Enter
into the Church; acquaint yourselves with the precepts which the men of
old left to her, and follow those paths." They have answered like the
Jews: "We will not walk in them; but we will follow the thoughts of our
hearts"; and they have said, "We will be as the other nations."[373]
903
They make a rule of exception.
Have the men of old given absolution before penance? Do this as
exceptional. But of the exception you make a rule without exception, so
that you do not even want the rule to be exceptional.
904
_On confessions and absolutions without signs of regret._
God regards only the inward; the Church judges only by the outward. God
absolves as soon as He sees penitence in the heart; the Church when she
sees it in works. God will make a Church pure within, which confounds,
by its inward and entirely spiritual holiness, the inward impiety of
proud sages and Pharisees; and the Church will make an assembly of men
whose external manners are so pure as to confound the manners of the
heathen. If there are hypocrites among them, but so well disguised that
she does not discover their venom, she tolerates them; for, though they
are not accepted of God, whom they cannot deceive, they are of men, whom
they do deceive. And thus she is not dishonoured by their conduct, which
appears holy. But you want the Church to judge neither of the inward,
because that belongs to God alone, nor of the outward, because God
dwells only upon the inward; and thus, taking away from her all choice
of men, you retain in the Church the most dissolute, and those who
dishonour her so greatly, that the synagogues of the Jews and sects of
philosophers would have banished them as unworthy, and have abhorred
them as impious.
905
The easiest conditions to live in according to the world are the most
difficult to live in according to God, and vice versa. Nothing is so
difficult according to the world as the religious life; nothing is
easier than to live it according to God. Nothing is easier, according to
the world, than to live in high office and great wealth; nothing is more
difficult than to live in them according to God, and without acquiring
an interest in them and a liking for them.
906
The casuists submit the decision to the corrupt reason, and the choice
of decisions to the corrupt will, in order that all that is corrupt in
the nature of man may contribute to his conduct.
907
But is it _probable_ that _probability_ gives assurance?
Difference between rest and security of conscience. Nothing gives
certainty but truth; nothing gives rest but the sincere search for
truth.
908
The whole society itself of their casuists cannot give assurance to a
conscience in error, and that is why it is important to choose good
guides.
Thus they will be doubly culpable, both in having followed ways which
they should not have followed, and in having listened to teachers to
whom they should not have listened.
909
Can it be anything but compliance with the world which makes you find
things probable? Will you make us believe that it is truth, and that if
duelling were not the fashion, you would find it probable that they
might fight, considering the matter in itself?
910
Must we kill to prevent there being any wicked? This is to make both
parties wicked instead of one. _Vince in bono malum._[374] (Saint
Augustine.)
911
_Universal._--Ethics and language are special, but universal sciences.
912
_Probability._--Each one can employ it; no one can take it away.
913
They allow lust to act, and check scruples; whereas they should do the
contrary.
914
_Montalte._[375]--Lax opinions please men so much, that it is strange
that theirs displease. It is because they have exceeded all bounds.
Again, there are many people who see the truth, and who cannot attain to
it; but there are few who do not know that the purity of religion is
opposed to our corruptions. It is absurd to say that an eternal
recompense is offered to the morality of Escobar.
915
_Probability._--They have some true principles; but they misuse them.
Now, the abuse of truth ought to be as much punished as the introduction
of falsehood.
As if there were two hells, one for sins against love, the other for
those against justice!
916
_Probability._[376]--The earnestness of the saints in seeking the truth
was useless, if the probable is trustworthy. The fear of the saints who
have always followed the surest way (Saint Theresa having always
followed her confessor).
917
Take away _probability_, and you can no longer please the world; give
_probability_, and you can no longer displease it.
918
These are the effects of the sins of the peoples and of the Jesuits. The
great have wished to be flattered. The Jesuits have wished to be loved
by the great. They have all been worthy to be abandoned to the spirit of
lying, the one party to deceive, the others to be deceived. They have
been avaricious, ambitious, voluptuous. _Coacervabunt tibi
magistros._[377] Worthy disciples of such masters, they have sought
flatterers, and have found them.
919
If they do not renounce their doctrine of probability, their good maxims
are as little holy as the bad, for they are founded on human authority;
and thus, if they are more just, they will be more reasonable, but not
more holy. They take after the wild stem on which they are grafted.
If what I say does not serve to enlighten you, it will be of use to the
people.
If these[378] are silent, the stones will speak.
Silence is the greatest persecution; the saints were never silent. It is
true that a call is necessary; but it is not from the decrees of the
Council that we must learn whether we are called, it is from the
necessity of speaking. Now, after Rome has spoken, and we think that she
has condemned the truth, and that they have written it, and after the
books which have said the contrary are censured; we must cry out so much
the louder, the more unjustly we are censured, and the more violently
they would stifle speech, until there come a Pope who hears both
parties, and who consults antiquity to do justice. So the good Popes
will find the Church still in outcry.
The Inquisition and the Society[379] are the two scourges of the truth.
Why do you not accuse them of Arianism? For, though they have said that
Jesus Christ is God, perhaps they mean by it not the natural
interpretation, but as it is said, _Dii estis_.
If my Letters are condemned at Rome, that which I condemn in them is
condemned in heaven. _Ad tuum, Domine Jesu, tribunal appello._
You yourselves are corruptible.
I feared that I had written ill, seeing myself condemned; but the
example of so many pious writings makes me believe the contrary. It is
no longer allowable to write well, so corrupt or ignorant is the
Inquisition!
"It is better to obey God than men."
I fear nothing; I hope for nothing. It is not so with the bishops.
Port-Royal fears, and it is bad policy to disperse them; for they will
fear no longer and will cause greater fear. I do not even fear your like
censures, if they are not founded on those of tradition. Do you censure
all? What! even my respect? No. Say then what, or you will do nothing,
if you do not point out the evil, and why it is evil. And this is what
they will have great difficulty in doing.
_Probability._--They have given a ridiculous explanation of certitude;
for, after having established that all their ways are sure, they have no
longer called that sure which leads to heaven without danger of not
arriving there by it, but that which leads there without danger of going
out of that road.
920
... The saints indulge in subtleties in order to think themselves
criminals, and impeach their better actions. And these indulge in
subtleties in order to excuse the most wicked.
The heathen sages erected a structure equally fine outside, but upon a
bad foundation; and the devil deceived men by this apparent resemblance
based upon the most different foundation.
Man never had so good a cause as I; and others have never furnished so
good a capture as you....
The more they point out weakness in my person, the more they authorise
my cause.
You say that I am a heretic. Is that lawful? And if you do not fear that
men do justice, do you not fear that God does justice?
You will feel the force of the truth, and you will yield to it ...
There is something supernatural in such a blindness. _Digna
necessitas.[380] Mentiris impudentissime_ ...
_Doctrina sua noscitur vir_ ...
False piety, a double sin.
I am alone against thirty thousand. No. Protect, you, the court;
protect, you, deception; let me protect the truth. It is all my
strength. If I lose it, I am undone. I shall not lack accusations, and
persecutions. But I possess the truth, and we shall see who will take it
away.
I do not need to defend religion, but you do not need to defend error
and injustice. Let God, out of His compassion, having no regard to the
evil which is in me, and having regard to the good which is in you,
grant us all grace that truth may not be overcome in my hands, and that
falsehood ...
921
_Probable._--Let us see if we seek God sincerely, by comparison of the
things which we love. It is _probable_ that this food will not poison
me. It is _probable_ that I shall not lose my action by not prosecuting
it ...
922
It is not absolution only which remits sins by the sacrament of penance,