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312
PASCAL'S THOUGHTS

and the Jesuits are very capable of imposing upon him by means of calumny.


883

The wretches who have obliged me to speak of the basis of religion.


884

Sinners purified without penitence; the righteous justified without love; all Christians without the grace of Jesus Christ; God without power over the will of men; a predestination without mystery; a redemption without certitude!


885

Any one is made a priest, who wants to be so, as under Jeroboam.

It is a horrible thing that they propound to us the discipline of the Church of to-day as so good, that it is made a crime to desire to change it. Formerly it was infallibly good, and it was thought that it could be changed without sin; and now, such as it is, we cannot wish it changed! It has indeed been permitted to change the custom of not making priests without such great circumspection, that there were hardly any who were worthy; and it is not allowed to complain of the custom which makes so many who are unworthy!


886

Heretics.—Ezekiel. All the heathen, and also the Prophet, spoke evil of Israel. But the Israelites were so far from having the right to say to him, "You speak like the heathen," that he is most forcible upon this, that the heathens say the same as he.


887

The Jansenists are like the heretics in the reformation of morality; but you are like them in evil.


888

You are ignorant of the prophecies, if you do not know that all this must happen; princes, prophets, Pope, and even