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in impenetrable
darkness.
428. If it is a sign of weakness to prove God by nature, do not despise
Scripture; if it is a sign of strength to have known these contradictions,
esteem Scripture.
429. The vileness of man in submitting himself to the brutes and in even
worshipping them. e
430. For Port-Royal. The beginning, after having explained the
incomprehensibility.--The greatness and the wretchedness of man are so
evident that the true religion must necessarily teach us both that there is
in man some great source of greatness and a great source of wretchedness. It
must then give us a reason for these astonishing contradictions.
In order to make man happy, it must prove to him that there is a God; that
we ought to love Him; that our true happiness is to be in Him, and our sole
evil to be separated from Him; it must recognise that we are full of
darkness which hinders us from knowing and loving Him; and that thus, as our
duties compel us to love God, and our lusts turn us away from Him, we are
full of unrighteousness. It must give us an explanation of our opposition to
God and to our own good. It must teach us the remedies for these infirmities
and the means of obtaining these remedies. Let us, therefore, examine all
the religions of the world and see if there be any other than the Christian
which is sufficient for this purpose.
Shall it be that of the philosophers, who put forward, as the chief good,
the good which is in ourselves? Is this the true good? Have they found the
remedy for our ills? Is man's pride cured by placing him on an equality with
God? Have those who have made us equal to the brutes, or the Mohammedans who
have offered us earthly pleasures as the chief good even in eternity,
produced the remedy for our lusts? What religion, then, will teach us to
cure pride and lust? What religion will, in fact
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