🚀 go-pugleaf

of man; lovable because it
promises the true good.

188. In every dialogue and discourse, we must be able to say to those who
take offence, "Of what do you complain?"

189. 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.

190. To pity atheists who seek, for are they not unhappy enough? To inveigh
against those who make a boast of it.

191. And will this one scoff at the other? Who ought to scoff? And yet, the
latter does not scoff at the other, but pities him.

192. To reproach Milton with not being troubled, since God will reproach
him.

193. Quid fiet hominibus qui minima contemnunt, majora non credunt?[24]

194. ... Let them at least learn what is the religion they attack, before
attacking it. If this religion boasted of having a clear view of God, and of
possessing it open and unveiled, it would be attacking it to say that we see
nothing in the world which shows it with this clearness. But since, on the
contrary, it says that men are in darkness and estranged from God, that He
has hidden Himself from their knowledge, that this is in fact the name which
He gives Himself in the Scriptures, Deus absconditus;25 and finally, if it
endeavours equally to establish these two things: that God has set up in the
Church visible signs to make Himself known to those who should seek Him
sincerely, and that He has nevertheless so disguised them that He will only
be perceived by those who seek Him with all their heart; what advantage can
they obtain, when, in the negligence with which they make profession of
being in search of the truth, they cry out that nothing reveals it to them;
and since that darkness in which they are, and with which they upbraid the
Church, establishes only one of the things which she affirms, without
touching the other, and,