The Harvard Classics

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECTION III Of The Necessity Of The Wager A LETTER to incite to the search after God. And then to make people seek Him among the philosophers, sceptics, and dogmatists, who disquiet him who inquires of them. The conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, is to put religion into the mind by reason, and...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECTION III Of The Necessity Of The Wager A LETTER to incite to the search after God. And then to make people seek Him among the philosophers, sceptics, and dogmatists, who disquiet him who inquires of them. The conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, is to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace. But to will to put it into the mind and heart by force and threats is not to put religion there, but terror, terorrem potius quam rcligionem Nisi terrerentur et non docerentur, improba quasi domi- natio videretur (Aug. Ep. 48 or 49).' Contra mendacium ad Consentinm. 187 Order.?Men despise religion; they hate it, and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true. Venerable, because it has perfect knowledge of man; lovable, because it promises the true good. 'Terror rather than reli.eion. If they were not terrified and were instructed, it would seem like in unjust tyranny. To meet a lie, appeal to the Council. In every dialogue and discourse, we must be able to say to those who take offence, Of what do you complain? To begin by pitying unbelievers; they are wretched enough by their condition. We ought only to revile them where it is beneficial; but this does them harm. To pity atheists who seek, for are they not unhappy enough ? To inveigh against those who make a boast of it. And will this one scoff at the other? Who ought to scoff? And yet, the latter does not scoff at the other, but pities hint. To reproach Miton with not being troubled, since God will reproach him. Quid -Ret hominibus qui minima contemnun...