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against itself."

181Luke 11:20. "If with the finger of God... the kingdom of God is come upon
you."

[182]St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica.

183"But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled... He
hath blinded their eyes."

184John 12:41. "These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake
of him."

1851 Cor. 1:22, 23. "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after
wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified."

[186]"But full of signs, full of wisdom; you the Jesuits, what you wish is a
Christ not crucified, a religion without miracles and without wisdom."

18710:26 "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep."

188"Not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye... were filled."

18916. "This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day.
Others said: How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?"

[190]John 9:17, 33. "What sayest thou of him? He said, He is a prophet. If
this man were not of God, he could do nothing."

191Mark 9:39. Nemo est enim qui faciat. "There is no man which shall do a
miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me."

192Ps. 138:24. "And see if there be any wicked way in me."

193Luke 22:66. "Art thou the Christ? tell us."

194John 5:36. "The works which the father hath given me to finish... bear
witness of me." John 10:26-27. "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my
sheep... My sheep hear my voice.

[195]"What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee. (They
do not say: What doctrine do you preach?)"

196John 3:2. "No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be
with him."

[197]"The Lord, making manifest his presence, upholdeth them

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to submit, when it judges that it ought to submit.

271. Wisdom sends us to childhood. Nisi efficiamini sicut parvuli.38

272. There is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason.

273. If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have no mysterious
and supernatural element. If we offend the principles of reason, our
religion will be absurd and ridiculous.

274. All our reasoning reduces itself to yielding to feeling.

But fancy is like, though contrary to, feeling, so that we cannot
distinguish between these contraries. One person says that my feeling is
fancy, another that his fancy is feeling. We should have a rule. Reason
offers itself; but it is pliable in every sense; and thus there is no rule.

275. Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they
are converted as soon as they think of being converted.

276. M. de Roannez said: "Reasons come to me afterwards, but at first a
thing pleases or shocks me without my knowing the reason, and yet it shocks
me for that reason which I only discover afterwards." But I believe, not
that it shocked him for the reasons which were found afterwards, but that
these reasons were only found because it shocked him.

277. The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know. We feel it in a
thousand things. I say that the heart naturally loves the Universal Being,
and also itself naturally, according as it gives itself to them; and it
hardens itself against one or the other at its will. You have rejected the
one and kept the other. Is it by reason that you love yourself?

278. It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason. This, then,
is faith: God felt by the heart, not by the reason.

Faith is a gift of God; do not believe that we said it was a gift of
reasoning. Other religions do not say this of their faith. They only give
reasoning in order to arrive at it, and yet it does not bring

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Luke 11:12. The devils watch them; they are ever by them
at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry
lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the
present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are
restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old
serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them;
and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and
lost.

There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning,
that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not
for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a
foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles,
in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are
seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding
violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of
God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out after the
same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts
of damned souls, and would beget the same torments as they do in them.
The souls of the wicked are in scripture compared to the troubled sea,
Isa. 57:20. For the present, God restrains their wickedness by his
mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying,
"Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;" but if God should withdraw
that restraining power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the
ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God
should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make
the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is
immoderat

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709. One must be bold to predict the same thing in so many ways. It was
necessary that the four idolatrous or pagan monarchies, the end of the
kingdom of Judah, and the seventy weeks, should happen at the same time, and
all this before the second temple was destroyed.

710. Prophecies.--If one man alone had made a book of predictions about
Jesus Christ, as to the time and the manner, and Jesus Christ had come in
conformity to these prophecies, this fact would have infinite weight.

But there is much more here. Here is a succession of men during four
thousand years, who, consequently and without variation, come, one after
another, to foretell this same event. Here is a whole people who announce it
and who have existed for four thousand years, in order to give corporate
testimony of the assurances which they have and from which they cannot be
diverted by whatever threats and persecutions people may make against them.
This is far more important.

711. Predictions of particular things.--They were strangers in Egypt,
without any private property, either in that country or elsewhere. There was
not the least appearance, either of the royalty which had previously existed
so long, or of that supreme council of seventy judges which they called the
Sanhedrin and which, having been instituted by Moses, lasted to the time of
Jesus Christ. All these things were as far removed from their state at that
time as they could be, when Jacob, dying, and blessing his twelve children,
declared to them, that they would be proprietors of a great land, and
foretold in particular to the family of Judah, that the kings, who would one
day rule them, should be of his race; and that all his brethren should be
their subjects; and that even the Messiah, who was to be the expectation of
nations, should spring from him; and that the kingship should not be taken
away from Judah, nor the ruler and

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that he
contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They
hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of
men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines
that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have
done. He does not intend to come to that place of torment; he says
within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order
matters so for himself as not to fail. But the foolish children of men
miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in
their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The
greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of
grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not
because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not
because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure
their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one
by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear
about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear
one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid
out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for
myself -- I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care;
but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and
in that manner; it came as a thief -- Death outwitted me: God's wrath
was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering
myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do
hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden
destruction came upon me."

God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any
natural man out of hel

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which, when it happens, the
tempter seems to take great advantage, and puts an unhappy bar in the
way of any good effect. One knows not how to deal with such persons;
they turn every thing that is said to them the wrong way, and most to
their own disadvantage. There is nothing that the devil seems to make so
great a handle of, as a melancholy humor; unless it be the real
corruption of the heart.

But it is very remarkable, that there has been far less of this mixture
at this time of extraordinary blessing, than there was wont to be in
persons under awakenings at other times; for it is evident that many who
before had been exceedingly involved is such difficulties, seemed now
strangely to be set at liberty. Some persons who had before, for a long
time, been exceedingly entangled with peculiar temptations of one sort
or other, unprofitable and hurtful distresses, were soon helped over
former stumbling-blocks, that hindered their progress towards saving
good; convictions have wrought more kindly, and they have been
successfully carried on in the way to life. And thus Satan seemed to be
restrained, till towards the latter end of this wonderful time, when
God's Holy Spirit was about to withdraw.

Many times persons under great awakenings were concerned, because they
thought they were

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His justice therein.
And when it is thus, they commonly have some evident sense of free and
all-sufficient grace, though they give no distinct account of it; but it
is manifest, by that great degree of hope and encouragement they then
conceive, though they were never so sensible of their own vileness and
ill-deservings as they are at that time.

Some, when in such circumstances, have felt that sense of the excellency
of God's justice, appearing in the vindictive exercises of it, against
such sinfulness as theirs was; and have had such a submission of mind in
their idea of this attribute, and of those exercises of it-together with
an exceeding loathing of their own unworthiness, and a kind of
indignation against themselves-that they have sometimes almost called it
a willingness to be damned; though it must be owned they had not clear
and distinct ideas of damnation, nor does any word in the Bible require
such self-denial as this. But the truth is, as some have more clearly
expressed it, that salvation has appeared too good for them, that they
were worthy of nothing but condemnation, and they could not tell how to
think of salvation being bestowed upon them, fearing it was inconsistent
with the glory of God's majesty, that they had so much contemned a

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choice of a calling; chance
decides it. Custom makes men masons, soldiers, slaters. "He is a good
slater," says one, and, speaking of soldiers, remarks, "They are perfect
fools." But others affirm, "There is nothing great but war; the rest of men
are good for nothing." We choose our callings according as we hear this or
that praised or despised in our childhood, for we naturally love truth and
hate folly. These words move us; the only error is in their application. So
great is the force of custom that, out of those whom nature has only made
men, are created all conditions of men. For some districts are full of
masons, others of soldiers, etc. Certainly nature is not so uniform. It is
custom then which does this, for it constrains nature. But sometimes nature
gains the ascendancy and preserves man's instinct, in spite of all custom,
good or bad.

98. Bias leading to error.--It is a deplorable thing to see all men
deliberating on means alone, and not on the end. Each thinks how he will
acquit himself in his condition; but as for the choice of condition, or of
co

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different unsearchable ways of taking
wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is
nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a
miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy
any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners
going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and
absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it does not
depend at all the less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at
any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all
concerned in the case.

Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care
of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this, divine
providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There is
this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from
death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between
the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their
liableness to early and unexpected death: but how is it in fact? Eccles.
2:16. "How dieth the wise man? even as the fool."

All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell,
while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not
secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of
hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself
for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what
he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in
his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he
contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They
hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the grea

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constant ravishing view of the glory of God and Christ,
having enjoyed as much as her life could bear. Once, as her brother was
speaking of the dying love of Christ, she told him, she had such a sense
of it, that the mere mentioning of it was ready to overcome her.

Once, when she came to me, she said,-that at such and such a time, she
thought she saw as much of God, and had as much joy and pleasure, as was
possible in this life; and that yet, afterwards, God discovered Himself
far more abundantly. She saw the same things as before, yet more
clearly, and in a far more excellent and delightful manner; and was
filled with a more exceeding sweetness. She likewise gave me such an
account of the sense she once had, from day to day, of the glory of
Christ, and of God, in His various attributes, that it seemed to me she
dwelt for days together in a kind of beatific vision of God; and seemed
to have, as I thought, as immediate an intercourse with Him, as a child
with a father. At the same time, she appeared most remote from any high
thought of herself, and of her own sufficiency; but was like a little
child, and expressed a great desire to be instructed, telling me that
she longed very often to come to me for instruction, and wanted to live
at my house, that I might tell her what was her duty.

She often expressed a sense of the glory of God appearing in the trees,
the growth of the fields, and other works of God's hands. She told her
sister who lived near the heart of the town, that she once thought it a
pleasant thing to live in the middle of the town, but now, says she, I
think it much more pleasant to sit and see the wind blowing the trees,
and to behold in the country what God has made. She had sometimes the
powerful breathings of the Spirit of God on

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employ the rule of love, not of intellect; for
they would warm, not instruct. It is the same with Saint Augustine. This
order consists chiefly in digressions on each point to indicate the end, and
keep it always in sight.

284. Do not wonder to see simple people believe without reasoning. God
imparts to them love of Him and hatred of self. He inclines their heart to
believe. Men will never believe with a saving and real faith, unless God
inclines their heart; and they will believe as soon as He inclines it. And
this is what David knew well, when he said: Inclina cor meum, Deus, in...
[39]

285. Religion is suited to all kinds of minds. Some pay attention only to
its establishment, and this religion is such that its very establishment
suffices to prove its truth. Others trace it even to the apostles. The more
learned go back to the beginning of the world. The angels see it better
still, and from a more distant time.

286. Those who believe without having read the Testaments, do so because
they have an inward disposition entirely holy, and all that they hear of our
religion conforms to it. They feel that a God has made them; they desire
only to love God; they desire to hate themselves only. They feel that they
have no streng

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to make an atonement for sin; and others with the value and glory of His
obedience and righteousness. In some the excellency and loveliness of
Christ, chiefly engages their thoughts; in some His divinity, that He is
indeed the Son of the living God; and in others, the excellency of the
way of salvation by Christ, and the suitableness of it to their
necessities.

Some have an apprehension of these things so given, that it seems more
natural to them to express it by sight or discovery, others think what
they experience is better expressed by the realizing conviction, or a
lively or feeling sense of heart; meaning, as I suppose, no other
difference but what is merely circumstantial or gradual.

There is, often, in the mind, some particular text of Scripture, holding
forth some evangelical ground of consolation; sometimes a multitude of
texts, gracious invitations and promises flowing in one after another,
filling the soul more and more with comfort and satisfaction. Comfort is
first given to some, while reading some portion of Scripture; but in
some it is attended with no particular Scripture at all, either in
reading or meditation. In some, many divine things seem to be discovered
to the soul as it were at once; others have their minds especially
fixing on some one thing at first, and afterwards a sense is given of
others; in some with a swifter, and others a slower successi

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"But a prince shall oppose, his conquests," (Scipio Africanus, who stopped
the progress of Antiochus the Great, because he offended the Romans in the
person of their allies), "and shall cause the reproach offered by him to
cease. He shall then return into his kingdom and there perish, and be no
more." (He was slain by his soldiers.)

"And he who shall stand up in his estate," (Seleucus Philopator or Soter,
the son of Antiochus the Great), "shall be a tyrant, a raiser of taxes in
the glory of the kingdom," (which means the people), "but within a few days
he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle. And in his place
shall stand up a vile person, unworthy of the honour of the kingdom, but he
shall come in cleverly by flatteries. All armies shall bend before him; he
shall conquer them, and even the prince with whom he has made a covenant.
For having renewed the league with him, he shall work deceitfully, and enter
with a small people into his province, peaceably and without fear. He shall
take the fattest places, and shall do that which his fathers have not done,
and ravage on all sides. He shall forecast great devices during his time."

723. Prophecies.--The seventy weeks of Daniel are ambiguous as regards the
term of commencement, beca

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the salvation of her soul, before she was ill, and was in great distress
in the beginning of her illness; but seemed to have satisfying evidences
of God's mercy to her, before her death; so that she died very full of
comfort, in a most earnest and moving manner warning and counselling
others. This seemed to contribute to render solemn the spirits of many
young persons; and there began evidently to appear more of a religious
concern on people's minds.

In the fall of the year I proposed it to the young people, that they
should agree among themselves to spend the evenings after lectures in
social religion, and to that end divide themselves into several
companies to meet in various parts of the town; which was accordingly
done, and those meetings have been since continued, and the example
imitated by elder people. This was followed with the death of an elderly
person, which was attended with many unusual circumstances, by which
many were much moved and affected.

About this time began the great noise, in this part of the country,
about Arminianism, which seemed to appear with a very threatening aspect
upon the interest of religion here. The friends of vital piety trembled
for fear of the issue; but it seemed, contrary to their fear, strongly

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our law judge any man
before it hear him, and specially such a man who works such miracles"?

830. The prophecies were ambiguous; they are no longer so.

831. The five propositions were ambiguous; they are no longer so.

832. Miracles are no longer necessary, because we have had them already. But
when tradition is no longer minded; when the Pope alone is offered to us;
when he has been imposed upon; and when the true source of truth, which is
tradition, is thus excluded; and the Pope, who is its guardian, is biased;
the truth is no longer free to appear. Then, as men speak no longer of
truth, truth itself must speak to men. This is what happened in the time of
Arius. (Miracles under Diocletian and under Arius.)

833. Miracle.--The people concluded this of themselves; but if the reason of
it must be given to you...

It is unfortunate to be in exception to the rule. The same must be strict,
and opposed to exception. But yet, as it is certain that there are
exceptions to a rule, our judgment must though strict, be just.

834. John 6:26: Non quia vidisti signum, sed quia saturati estis.188

Those who follow Jesus Christ because of His miracles honour His power in
all the miracles which it produces. But those who, making profession to
follow Him because of His miracles, follow Him in fact only because He
comforts them and satisfies them with worldly blessings, discredit His
miracles, wh