93

—— of Christians the only good, the only rest of the soul is in him, 93

—— we may well know, without knowing what he is, 97

—— that there is less risk in wagering that there is a, than that there is not, 98

—— man without, is in ignorance and misery, 104

—— of the philosophers, 111

—— man of himself cannot come to, 114

—— alone is master of the Jews, 122

—— foresaw heresies, 128

—— sometimes spoke by figures, 160

—— the power of, shown by his conduct to Jewish people, 161

—— idea of, that the true religion, should present, 179

—— the Christian religion commands that we should love and follow, 182

—— that in spite of our vileness it is not incredible that, should unite himself to us, 185

—— reveals himself to, and hides himself from man, 193

—— infinite, without parts, 205

—— if, is the end he is the beginning, 206

—— why, was hidden in his first advent, 207

—— that, willed to hide himself, and that the religion which says so is true, 208

—— chooses rather to sway the will than the intellect, 208

—— why, has permitted many religions to exist, 212

—— impossible and useless to know, without Jesus Christ, 226

—— speaks rightly of God, 227

—— we must love, only, 238

—— we should spend our life either in pleasing or in seeking, 240

—— exercises at once his mercy and his judgment to the world, 241

—— has come to bring war among men, 246

—— what is pleasing to, is usually displeasing to man, 246

—— forbids some things implicitly, and not explicitly, 247

—— can alone give faith to Christians, 249

—— knowledge and love of, 252

—— cannot lead men into error by miracles, 263

—— cannot favour a doctrine which destroys the Church, 269

—— foretold the disorders which the Church would undergo, 278

—— heals those who know him, 280

—— no sign ever given by Devil without a stronger sign on the part of, 286

—— the heart is conscious of, not the reason, 307

Good, almost unique, 59

—— philosophers do not know what is the true, 181

—— and evil, meaning of the words, 192

Good birth, its advantages, 68

Good breeding, 271

Good sense, argument against scepticism, 110

Gospel, prophecies cited in the, their use, 133

—— the kings of old worked unconsciously for the glory of the, 147

—— figures of the, their application, 160

—— all the, has reference to Jesus Christ, 226

Grace, its action on man, 108

—— the figure of glory, 161

—— law, and nature, 250

—— needed to make a man a saint, 296

—— opposed to nature, 296

Grandeur to be felt must be abandoned, 40

Great men and little have the same accidents, 75

—— are allied to the people, 74

Greatness, infinity of, most obvious to the senses, 21

—— and littleness of man, 43

—— of man consists in knowing he is miserable, 47

—— of man even in sensuality, 69

—— of the human soul consists in knowing how to keep the mean, 76

—— has no lustre for those who seek understanding, 227

Greece, 120

Greek legislators, 121

Greeks, 197, 222

Grotius, 140


Haggai, his prophecy, 156

Happiness of man, in what it consists, 49

—— all men seek, 95

—— there was once in man a true, 95

—— of man with God, 89

—— common aim of ordinary men and of saints, but their ideals are different, 244

Happy, why man cannot be, 74

Hatred of self necessary, 238

—— —— the true and only virtue, 240

Heart and reason, comparison between actions of, 307

—— those who judge by the, do not understand the process of reasoning, 308

—— the, we know truth by, as well as by reason, 102

—— believes for its own reasons, 307

Heat, what it is, 313

Hebrews, the, their manner of counting, 144

Heel of a slipper, 58

Hell, fear of, 100

Heresies, the source of all, 273

—— the way to hinder, 274

—— various, 297

—— foreseen by God, 128

Heresy, exclusion of a truth a source of, 274

Heretics, the Jesuits hinder their conversion, 281

Herod, 147, 218, 221

Hesiod, the book of, 121

Hilary, Saint, 127, 278

History, all that is not contemporaneous is open to suspicion, 174

Holy Sacrament, Catholic and heretical doctrines on, 274

Holy Thorn, the miracle of the, 257

—— conclusion to be drawn from the miracle of the, 269

Homer, quoted, 120

Homer's writings, romances, 173

Huguenots, their errors concerning the Pope, 288

Hunting, sought for the diversion, 34

—— is a royal sport, 35


"I," the, consists in my thought, 76

—— where does it reside, 80

—— each, the enemy of all others, 84

Identity of number and matter, 299

Ignorance, natural, is the best wisdom of man, 83

—— of man, 104

Iliad, the, 173

Illusion, all men under an, 71

Imaginary life, the, 58

Imagination, deceptive powers of the, 51

—— faculty of, 51

—— described, 51

—— great complacency of the active, 52

—— enlarges little objects and belittles the great, 56

—— cords of, 56

Immortality of the soul, importance to be sure of this, 101

Impiety, ill-bred people only incapable of, 8

Impressions, old, man deceived by, 54

Inability of man to attain good, 95

Incapacity to prove truth, 109

Incarnation, the, shows man the greatness of his misery, 188

Incomprehensible, things which appear such, 205

Inconstancy of man, 26

—— its causes, 31

—— examples of, 79

Indifference, unfairness of men who live in, as to the truth, 9

Indifferent, the, in religion not to be despised, 8

Indulgences, 274

Inequality is necessary among men, but opens the door to tyranny, 68

Infallibility would be a strange miracle, 288

Infinite, nothing, 96

—— ignorant of the nature of the, and why, 96

Injustice of self-love, 239

—— that others should attach themselves to us, 240

—— letter on, 254

Innocents, Massacre of the, 221

Inquisition, the, and the Society, 284

Insensibility of man, 12

Instability, 101

Instinct and experience, 26

—— we have an, which raises us, 44

—— and reason, marks of two natures, 44

Intellect, the, believes naturally, 77

Intelligence, place of human, in the order of intelligible things, 22

Interest, our own, is a source of error, 54

Irenæus, Saint, 127

Isaac, 197

Isaiah, translation of a passage of, 147

—— translation of several prophecies of, 150

—— foretold the Messiah, 154

—— foretold that miracles would not be believed, 258

Italy, 120, 148


Jacob, 126

—— his death-bed prophecy, 140

—— foretold the coming of Jesus Christ, 197

Jaddus, 227

Jansenists, and the ancient saints, 275

—— heretics, and Jesuits, 296

Jansenius, 268

Jeremiah, his prophecy concerning the reprobation of the Temple and the sacrifices, 149

—— and Hananiah, 267

—— explanation of a word in, 270

Jesuits and Jansenists, 273

—— destroy the three notes of religion, 275

—— are like heretics, 275

—— corrupt the laws of the Church, 276

—— corrupt religion, 277

—— compared to false prophets, 278

—— their injustice and hypocrisy, 278

—— their hardness greater than that of the Jews, 279

—— vanity of the, 280

—— in corrupting their judges they make them unjust, 282

—— given up to the spirit of lying, 282

—— exaggerated notion they have of their importance, 285

—— it is good that their deeds should be unjust, 287

—— their lax opinions displeasing because they have exceeded all bounds, 290

—— duplicity of the, 292

—— have abandoned the old rules and follow reason, compared to the unbelieving Jews, 292

Jesus Christ, redemption by, one of the fundamentals of religion, 6

—— apart from, man has no communion with God, 91

—— the goal of all, and the centre to which all tends, 92

—— knowledge of, 93

—— difference between, and Mahomet, 116

—— no man can do what, did, 116

—— foretold by the Jewish people, 122

—— used the order of charity, not of the intellect, 128

—— foretold and announced by prophecies, 131

—— small in his beginnings, 136

—— betrayed, 140

—— foretold as to the time and the state of the world, 147

—— has given us the interpretation of the Old Testament cipher, 159

—— prefigured by Joseph, 164

—— in, all dissonances of Scripture are brought to harmony, 167

—— according to carnal Christians, 172

—— announced by Adam, 174

—— proofs of the divinity of, 213

—— came with all the circumstances foretold, 213

—— no man has had so great renown, none enjoyed it less, 214

—— all the glory of, for our sakes, to enable us to recognise him, 214

—— the office of, 314

—— foretold and foreteller, 215

—— why, did not come in a visible manner, why in figures, 216

—— has come to sanctify and to blind, 216

—— we can have nothing but veneration for, 216

—— special prophecies regarding, 217

—— is the more to be loved in not having done as the rabbis said, 219

—— not known by contemporary writers, 221

—— clearness and simplicity of the language of, 222

—— why, was weak in his agony, 222

—— centre of the two Testaments, 226

—— has made known to men their misery, and given the remedy, 226

—— greatness and lowliness of, 228

—— for all, 229

—— compared to Moses, 229

—— the redeemer of all, 230

—— would not have the testimony of devils, 230

—— why he would be put to death with the forms of justice, 230

—— leaves the wicked in their blindness, 230

—— alone in his agony, 231

—— only once complained, 231

—— considered in all persons and in ourselves, 234

—— how, gives himself in communion, 234

—— words of, to man, 235

—— has adopted our sins, and admitted us into covenant with him, 247

—— worked miracles as witnesses of the prophecies, 261

—— has verified by his miracles that he was the Messiah, 262

—— without the miracles not blameworthy not to believe in, 270

—— the two natures of, source of contradictions, 273

—— all faith consists in, and in Adam, 280

—— came to bring war, 281

—— a stone of stumbling, 283

—— never condemned without a hearing, 283

—— appeal to his tribunal from that of the Pope, 284

—— did not die for all, heresy of, 296

Jews, their situation in the midst of the world, 119

—— their expectation of a Redeemer, 120

—— the most ancient nation known to men, 120

—— sprung from one man only, 120

—— declared that all the world is in error, 121

—— were slaves of sin, 122

—— their dispersion, bore the prophecies into all regions of the world, 131

—— were a carnal people, 162

—— their religion the true, 162

—— the prophecies interpreted by the, according to their carnal instincts, 163

—— their refusal of Christ has given an additional mark of him, 164

—— their explanation of Scripture defective, 167

—— type of the chosen people, 169

—— loved the shadow and misunderstood the substance, 170

—— hold a midway place between Christians and pagans, 172

—— two kinds of, 172

—— antiquity of the, 173

—— sincerity of the, proved by the care with which they preserved the Bible, 173

—— formed to serve as witnesses of the Messiah, 174

—— prove Christianity by their present condition, 191

—— the religion of the true, is the same as that of Christians, 198

—— in slaying Messiah afforded a final proof of him, 218

—— their perpetuity and miserable state prove Jesus Christ, 219

—— their second destruction will never end, 220

—— bound to believe the miracles of Jesus Christ, 263

—— the hardness of the Jesuits surpasses that of the, 279

Job knew the misery of man, 45

—— the book of, regards Jesus Christ as centre and object, 213

John Baptist, Saint, 140, 230

—— and Jesus Christ, 201

Jonah, a sign of the resurrection, 266

Joseph, son of Jacob, ordered that he should not be buried in Egypt, 141

Josephus on the Jewish law, 120

Joshua, the first of God's people who had this name, 213

Judas, Jesus did not regard in, his enmity, 232

Judge, authority of the, 65

Judgment, instability of the, 27

—— confusion of the judgment of man, 32

—— and the intellect, 307

Justice, what is the essence of, 62

—— what is, 67

—— of God, 96

—— influenced by imagination and the passions, 53

—— and truth, man cannot attain them, 54

—— man is ignorant of, 61

—— changes with the climate, 61

—— human is not the true justice, 62

—— is what is established, 64

—— the false, of Pilate, 234

—— of God, which abases the pride of man, 241

Just man, takes for himself nothing of the world, 244

—— compared to Abraham, 244

—— acts by faith in the smallest things, 244

—— takes part only in unpleasant things, 244


King without diversion is full of miseries, 40

—— man a discrowned, 47

—— whence comes the respect paid a, 55

—— on what the power of a, is based, 55

—— and tyrant, 72

—— what is the happiness of a, 34

Kingships, duchies, and magistracies real and necessary, 76

Knowledge of God our only good, 96

—— intuitive, where it leads us, 19

—— we should have of ourselves, 101

Koran, foundation of the Mahomedan religion, 115

—— and St. Matthew, 116


Lacedæmon, 120

Lacedæmonians, 238

Lamech, 126, 197

Language, examples of too careful, 304

Latins, 197

Latitude, three degrees of, 61

Law, instance in which the, was justly violated, 297

—— of the Jews, served as model for the best laws of antiquity, 121

—— —— severe and rigorous as to religious worship, 121

—— —— is figurative, 167

—— Christian, foretold by the prophets, 135

—— and grace, 250

—— and nature, 250

Laws, natural, there is not a single universal, 61

—— why we follow ancient, 67

Lessius, 291

Letters, arrangement by, 253

Liancourt, the frog and the pike of, 313

Liars, some are, simply for lying's sake, 77

Life, the frailest thing in the world, 12

—— its short duration, 28

—— the last act of, 75

—— a perpetual illusion, 86

—— compared to a dream, 105

—— religious, both easy and difficult, 248

Lingende, Father, 267

Littleness of man, what we call nature in animals is, 47

Logicians, 65

Love, why it changes its object, 32

—— shows the frivolity of man, 60

—— representation of, at the theatre, 248

—— source of faith, 289

Lust, threefold division of, 243

—— the three kinds of, have made three sects, 113

Lusts, compared to three rivers, 243

Lute, to be skilled in playing the, 72


Machine, letter which shows the use of proofs by the, 254

—— of Descartes; defects of this hypothesis, 312

—— the calculating, compared to animals, 313

Macrobius, 221

Mad, men are of necessity, 78

Magistrate, taken as an example of influence of imagination, 52

—— the pomp with which they are surrounded, 53

Mahomet, the soldiers of, 65

—— thoughts on, 115

—— foundation of his religion, 115

—— difference between Jesus Christ and, 116

—— forbade reading, 116

—— renders testimony to himself, 116

—— his doctrine is ridiculous, 117

—— religion of, 119

Maimonides, Moses, 157

Malchus, 235

Man, his ignorance, 5

—— his destiny, 6

—— unfairness of, in living indifferent to Religion, 9

—— blindness of, 12

—— worthlessness of, 13

—— comparison between, and nature, 19

—— presumption of, in wishing to know nature, 21

—— thinks he is able to comprehend the infinitely little, 22

—— must not look for certainty or stability, 23