Pascal's Pensees Part 70

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 unG.o.dliness 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._

G.o.d regards only the inward; the Church judges only by the outward. G.o.d absolves as soon as He sees penitence in the heart; the Church when she sees it in works. G.o.d 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 a.s.sembly 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d alone, nor of the outward, because G.o.d 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 G.o.d, and vice versa. Nothing is so difficult according to the world as the religious life; nothing is easier than to live it according to G.o.d. 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 G.o.d, 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 a.s.surance?

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 a.s.surance 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 l.u.s.t 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 h.e.l.ls, 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