our condition.

    238. What do you then promise me, in addition to certain troubles,
but ten years of self-love (for ten years is the chance), to try
hard to please without success?

    239. Objection.- Those who hope for salvation are so far happy;
but they have as a counterpoise the fear of hell.

    Reply.- Who has most reason to fear hell: he who is in ignorance
whether there is a hell, and who is certain of damnation if there
is; or he who certainly believes there is a hell and hopes to be saved
if there is?

    240. "I would soon have renounced pleasure," say they, "had I
faith." For my part I tell you, "You would soon have faith, if you
renounced pleasure." Now, it is for you to begin. If I could, I
would give you faith. I cannot do so, nor therefore test the truth
of what you say. But you can well renounce pleasure and test whether
what I say is true.

    241. Order.- I would have far more fear of being mistaken, and
of finding that the Christian religion was true, than of not being
mistaken in believing it true.

                          SECTION IV

                    OF THE MEANS OF BELIEF

    242. Preface to the second part.- To speak of those who have
treated of this matter.

    I admire the boldness with which these persons undertake to
speak of God. In addressing their argument to infidels, their first
chapter is to prove Divinity from the works of nature. I should not be
astonished at their enterprise, if they were addressing their argument
to the faithful; for it is certain that those who have the living
faith in their hearts see at once that all existence is none other
than the work of the God whom they adore. But for those in whom this
light is extinguished, and in whom we purpose to rekindle it,
persons destitute of faith and grace, who, seeking with all their
light whatever they see in nature that can bring them to this
knowledge, find only obscurity and darkness; to tell them that they
have only to look at the smallest things which surround them, and they
will see God openly, to give them, as a complete proof of this great
and important matter, the course of the moon and planets, and to claim
to have concluded the proof with such an argument, is to give them
ground for believing that the proofs of our religion are very weak.
And I see by reason and experience that nothing is more calculated
to arouse their contempt.

    It is not after this manner that Scripture speaks, which has a
better knowledge of the things that are of God. It says, on the
contrary, that God is a hidden God, and that, since the corruption
of nature, He has left men in a darkness from which they can escape
only through Jesus Christ, without whom all communion with God is
cut off. Nemo novit Patrem, nisi Filius, et cui voluerit Filius
revelare.*

    * Matt 11. 27 "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."

    This is what Scripture points out to us, when it says in so many
places that those who seek God find Him. It is not of that light,
"like the noonday sun," that this is said. We do not say that those
who seek the noonday sun, or water in the sea, shall find them; and
hence the evidence of God must not be of this nature. So it tells us
elsewhere: Vere tu es Deus absconditus.*

    * Is. 45. 15. "Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself."

    243. It is an astounding fact that no canonical writer has ever
made use of nature to prove God. They all strive to make us believe in
Him. David, Solomon, etc., have never said, "There is no void,
therefore there is a God." They must have had more knowledge than
the most learned people who came after them, and who have all made use
of this argument. This is worthy of attention.

    244. "Why! Do you not say yourself that the heavens and birds
prove God?" No. "And does your religion not say so"? No. For
although it is true in a sense for some souls to whom God gives this
light, yet it is false with respect to the majority of men.

    245. There are three sources of belief: reason, custom,
inspiration. The Christian religion, which alone has reason, does
not acknowledge as her true children those who believe without
inspiration. It is not that she excludes reason and custom. On the
contrary, the mind must be opened to proofs, must be confirmed by
custom and offer itself in humbleness to inspirations, which alone can
produce a true and saving effect. Ne evacuetur crux Christi.*

    * I Cor. 1. 17. "Lest the cross of Christ should be made of none
effect."

    246. Order.- After the letter That we ought to seek God, to
write the letter On removing obstacles, which is the discourse on "the
machine," on preparing the machine, on seeking by reason.

    247. Order.- A letter of exhortation to a friend to induce him
to seek. And he will reply, "But what is the use of seeking? Nothing