religion is opposed to our corruptions. It is absurd to say that an
eternal recompense is offered to the morality of Escobar.

    916. Probability.- They have some true principles; but they misuse
them. Now, the abuse of truth ought to be as much punished as the
introduction of falsehood.

    As if there were two hells, one for sins against love, the other
for those against justice!

    917. Probability.- The earnestness of the saints in seeking the
truth was useless, if the probable is trustworthy. The fear of the
saints who have always followed the surest way. (Saint Theresa
having always followed her confessor.)

    918. Take away probability, and you can no longer please the
world; give probability, and you can no longer displease it.

    919. These are the effects of the sins of the peoples and of the
Jesuits. The great have wished to be flattered. The Jesuits have
wished to be loved by the great. They have all been worthy to be
abandoned to the spirit of lying, the one party to deceive, the others
to be deceived. They have been avaricious, ambitious, voluptuous.
Coacervabunt tibi magistros.* Worthy disciples of such masters, they
have sought flatterers, and have found them.

    * II Tim. 4. 3. "Shall they heap to themselves teachers."

    920. If they do not renounce their doctrine of probability,
their good maxims are as little holy as the bad, for they are
founded on human authority; and thus, if they are more just, they will
be more reasonable, but not more holy. They take after the wild stem
on which they are grafted.

    If what I say does not serve to enlighten you, it will be of use
to the people.

    If these are silent, the stones will speak.

    Silence is the greatest persecution; the saints were never silent.
It is true that a call is necessary; but it is not from the decrees of
the Council that we must learn whether we are called, it is from the
necessity of speaking. Now, after Rome has spoken, and we think that
she has condemned the truth, and that they have written it, and
after the books which have said the contrary are censured; we must cry
out so much the louder, the more unjustly we are censured, and the
more violently they would stifle speech, until there come a Pope who
hears both parties, and who consults antiquity to do justice. So the
good Popes will find the Church still in outcry.

    The Inquisition and the Society are the two scourges of the truth.

    Why do you not accuse them of Arianism? For, though they have said
that Jesus Christ is God, perhaps they mean by it not the natural
interpretation, but, as it is said, Dii estis.*

    If my Letters are condemned at Rome, that which I condemn in
them is condemned in heaven. Ad tuum, Domine Jesu, tribunal
appello.*(2)

    * Ps. 81. 6. "Ye are gods."

    *(2) "To your tribunal, Lord Jesus, I call."

    You yourselves are corruptible.

    I feared that I had written ill, seeing myself condemned; but
the example of so many pious writings makes me believe the contrary.
It is no longer allowable to write well, so corrupt or ignorant is the
Inquisition!

    "It is better to obey God than men."

    I fear nothing; I hope for nothing. It is not so with the bishops.
Port-Royal fears, and it is bad policy to disperse them; for they will
fear no longer and will cause greater fear. I do not even fear your
like censures, if they are not founded on those of tradition. Do you
censure all? What! Even my respect? No. Say then what, or you will
do nothing, if you do not point out the evil, and why it is evil.
And this is what they will have great difficulty in doing.

    Probability.- They have given a ridiculous explanation of
certitude; for, after having established that all their ways are sure,
they have no longer called that sure which leads to heaven without
danger of not arriving there by it, but that which leads there without
danger of going out of that road.

    921.... The saints indulge in subtleties in order to think
themselves criminals and impeach their better actions. And these
indulge in subtleties in order to excuse the most wicked.

    The heathen sages erected a structure equally fine outside, but
upon a bad foundation; and the devil deceived men by this apparent
resemblance based upon the most different foundation.

    Man never had so good a cause as I; and others have never
furnished so good a capture as you...

    The more they point out weakness in my person, the more they
authorise my cause.