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to show you that this leads you there, it is this which will lessen the
passions, which are your stumbling-blocks.
The end of this discourse.--Now, what harm will befall you in taking this
side? You will be faithful, humble, grateful, generous, a sincere friend,
truthful. Certainly you will not have those poisonous pleasures, glory and
luxury; but will you not have others? I will tell you that you will thereby
gain in this life, and that, at each step you take on this road, you will
see so great certainty of gain, so much nothingness in what you risk, that
you will at last recognise that you have wagered for something certain and
infinite, for which you have given nothing.
"Ah! This discourse transports me, charms me," etc.
If this discourse pleases you and seems impressive, know that it is made by
a man who has knelt, both before and after it, in prayer to that Being,
infinite and without parts, before whom he lays all he has, for you also to
lay before Him all you have for your own good and for His glory, that so
strength may be given to lowliness.
234. If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on
religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an
uncertainty, sea voyages, battles! I say then we must do nothing at all, for
nothing is certain, and that there is more certainty in religion than there
is as to whether we may see to-morrow; for it is not certain that we may see
to-morrow, and it is certainly possible that we may not, see it. We cannot
say as much about religion. It is not certain that it is; but who will
venture to say that it is certainly possible that it is not? Now when we
work for to-morrow, and so on an uncertainty, we act reasonably; for we
ought to work for an uncertainty accord
Jan Mannoury
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