Pascal's Pensees Part 48

The Jews and the Gentiles typified by the two sons. Aug., _De Civ._, xx, 29.

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The six ages, the six Fathers of the six ages, the six wonders at the beginning of the six ages, the six mornings at the beginning of the six ages.[238]

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Adam _forma futuri_.[239] The six days to form the one, the six ages to form the other. The six days, which Moses represents for the formation of Adam, are only the picture of the six ages to form Jesus Christ and the Church. If Adam had not sinned, and Jesus Christ had not come, there had been only one covenant, only one age of men, and the creation would have been represented as accomplished at one single time.

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_Types._--The Jewish and Egyptian peoples were plainly foretold by the two individuals whom Moses met; the Egyptian beating the Jew, Moses avenging him and killing the Egyptian, and the Jew being ungrateful.

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The symbols of the Gospel for the state of the sick soul are sick bodies; but because one body cannot be sick enough to express it well, several have been needed. Thus there are the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the paralytic, the dead Lazarus, the possessed. All this crowd is in the sick soul.

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_Types._--To show that the Old Testament is only figurative, and that the prophets understood by temporal blessings other blessings, this is the proof:

First, that this would be unworthy of G.o.d.

Secondly, that their discourses express very clearly the promise of temporal blessings, and that they say nevertheless that their discourses are obscure, and that their meaning will not be understood. Whence it appears that this secret meaning was not that which they openly expressed, and that consequently they meant to speak of other sacrifices, of another deliverer, etc. They say that they will be understood only in the fullness of time (Jer. x.x.x, _ult._).

The third proof is that their discourses are contradictory, and neutralise each other; so that if we think that they did not mean by the words "law" and "sacrifice" anything else than that of Moses, there is a plain and gross contradiction. Therefore they meant something else, sometimes contradicting themselves in the same chapter. Now, to understand the meaning of an author ...

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l.u.s.t has become natural to us, and has made our second nature. Thus there are two natures in us--the one good, the other bad. Where is G.o.d?

Where you are not, and the kingdom of G.o.d is within you. The Rabbis.

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Penitence, alone of all these mysteries, has been manifestly declared to the Jews, and by Saint John, the Forerunner; and then the other mysteries; to indicate that in each man, as in the entire world, this order must be observed.

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The carnal Jews understood neither the greatness nor the humiliation of the Messiah foretold in their prophecies. They misunderstood Him in His foretold greatness, as when He said that the Messiah should be lord of David, though his son, and that He was before Abraham, who had seen Him.

They did not believe Him so great as to be eternal, and they likewise misunderstood Him in His humiliation and in His death. "The Messiah,"

said they, "abideth for ever, and this man says that he shall die."[240]

Therefore they believed Him neither mortal nor eternal; they only sought in Him for a carnal greatness.

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_Typical._--Nothing is so like charity as covetousness, and nothing is so opposed to it. Thus the Jews, full of possessions which flattered their covetousness, were very like Christians, and very contrary. And by this means they had the two qualities which it was necessary they should have, to be very like the Messiah to typify Him, and very contrary not to be suspected witnesses.

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_Typical._--G.o.d made use of the l.u.s.t of the Jews to make them minister to Jesus Christ, [who brought the remedy for their l.u.s.t].

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Charity is not a figurative precept. It is dreadful to say that Jesus Christ, who came to take away types in order to establish the truth, came only to establish the type of charity, in order to take away the existing reality which was there before.

"If the light be darkness, how great is that darkness!"[241]

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Fascination. _Somnum suum.[242] Figura hujus mundi._[243]

The Eucharist. _Comedes panem_ tuum.[244] _Panem_ nostrum.

_Inimici Dei terram lingent._[245] Sinners lick the dust, that is to say, love earthly pleasures.

The Old Testament contained the types of future joy, and the New contains the means of arriving at it. The types were of joy; the means of penitence; and nevertheless the Paschal Lamb was eaten with bitter herbs, _c.u.m amaritudinibus_.[246]

_Singularis sum ego donec transeam._[247]--Jesus Christ before His death was almost the only martyr.

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_Typical._--The expressions, sword, s.h.i.+eld. _Potentissime._

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We are estranged, only by departing from charity. Our prayers and our virtues are abominable before G.o.d, if they are not the prayers and the virtues of Jesus Christ. And our sins will never be the object of [_mercy_], but of the justice of G.o.d, if they are not [_those of_] Jesus Christ. He has adopted our sins, and has [_admitted_] us into union [_with Him_], for virtues are [_His own, and_] sins are foreign to Him; while virtues _[are]_ foreign to us, and our sins are our own.

Let us change the rule which we have hitherto chosen for judging what is good. We had our own will as our rule. Let us now take the will of [_G.o.d_]; all that He wills is good and right to us, all that He does not will is [_bad_].

All that G.o.d does not permit is forbidden. Sins are forbidden by the general declaration that G.o.d has made, that He did not allow them. Other things which He has left without general prohibition, and which for that reason are said to be permitted, are nevertheless not always permitted.

For when G.o.d removed some one of them from us, and when, by the event, which is a manifestation of the will of G.o.d, it appears that G.o.d does not will that we should have a thing, that is then forbidden to us as sin; since the will of G.o.d is that we should not have one more than another. There is this sole difference between these two things, that it is certain that G.o.d will never allow sin, while it is not certain that He will never allow the other. But so long as G.o.d does not permit it, we ought to regard it as sin; so long as the absence of G.o.d's will, which alone is all goodness and all justice, renders it unjust and wrong.

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