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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.
The casuists submit the decision to the corrupt reason, and the choice of decisions to the corrupt will, in order that all[Pg 268] that is corrupt in the nature of man may contribute to his conduct.
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.
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.
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?
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.)
Universal.—Ethics and language are special, but universal sciences.
Probability.—Each one can employ it; no one can take it away.
They allow lust to act, and check scruples; whereas they should do the contrary.
Montalte.[375]—Lax opinions please men so much, that it is strange that theirs displease. It is because they have exceeded all[Pg 269] 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.
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!
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).
Take away probability, and you can no longer please the world; give probability, and you can no longer displease it.
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.
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.[Pg 270]
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.[Pg 271]
... 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?
