The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'CriePascal, Blaise
Religion
The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie
Pascal, Blaise
Jansenists -- France -- Early works to 1800; Jesuits -- Early works to 1800; Port-Royal des Champs (Abbey) -- Early works to 1800
But it may be said, perhaps, that you have not offended against the last
rule at least, which binds you to desire the salvation of those whom you
denounce, and that none can charge you with this, except by unlocking
the secrets of your breasts, which are only known to God. It is strange,
fathers, but true, nevertheless, that we can convict you even of this
offence; that while your hatred to your opponents has carried you so far
as to wish their eternal perdition, your infatuation has driven you to
discover the abominable wish; that so far from cherishing in secret
desires for their salvation, you have offered up prayers in public for
their damnation; and that, after having given utterance to that hideous
vow in the city of Caen, to the scandal of the whole Church, you have
since then ventured, in Paris, to vindicate, in your printed books, the
diabolical transaction. After such gross offences against piety, first
ridiculing and speaking lightly of things the most sacred; next falsely
and scandalously calumniating priests and virgins; and lastly, forming
desires and prayers for their damnation, it would be difficult to add
anything worse. I cannot conceive, fathers, how you can fail to be
ashamed of yourselves, or how you could have thought for an instant of
charging me with a want of charity, who have acted all along with so
much truth and moderation, without reflecting on your own horrid
violations of charity, manifested in those deplorable exhibitions, which
make the charge recoil against yourselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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