Thoughts on Religion

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Preface

Blaise Pascal was born in 1623, and died in 1661, a^ed 36. He early discovered marks of extraordinary capacity ; and after pursuing philosophical and mathematical studies till 1647, was then providentially and graciously led to apply himself to the great truths of the gospel, and to live for God alone.

Pascal was a Roman Catholic, and a Jansenist. He published a peculiarly able and valuable work against the Jesuists, under the title of * Letters of a Provincial to one of his Friends.'

He designed to compose a defence of the Christian Religion against the objections of infidels : but his declining health rendered him unable to execute it. ' His Private Thoughts contain the greater part of what he had written with a view to that performance: and though it consists only of detached thoughts which he had left on loose papers, it has justly obtained a high esteem in the religious world, and is the production by which Pascal is now most generally known.'

His Provincial Letters were a defence of Christianity against its pretended friends. The work he intended to have composed, if his life had been spared, would have been a defence of it against its open, but perhaps less dangerous enemies.

Of this work he once gave an outline in conversation with his friends, who requested he would tell them his plan. He detailed it without any preparation in an extempore discourse, which lasted between two and three hours, charming them with the con-

A 2 ligent in tbe search of tnith, to Gomplain so frequently, that nothing reveals and displays it to them? For this very obscurity under which they labour, and which they object against the church, does itself evince one of the two gp^and points which the church maintains, without affecting the other, and is so far from overthrowing its doctrines, that it manifestly confirms and supports them.

In order to give any weight to their objections, they ought to urge, that they have exerted their utmost endeavours, and have used all the means of information which the church recommends, without obtaining satisfaction. If they could say Uiis, they would indeed attack religion in one of its pretensions : but I hope to shew, in the following papers, that no reasonable person can speak after this manner; and I dare assert, that none ever did. We know very well how men act under this indifference of temper ; they suppose themselves to have made mighty efforts towards the instruction of their minds, when they have spent some hours in reading the Scriptures, and have asked some questions of a clergyman concerning the Articles of Faith. When this is done, they declare to all the world, that they have consulted men and books without success. But I cannot refrain from telling such men, (what I have often told them,) that their negligence is insufferable. It is not a foreign or a petty interest, which is in dispute ; ourselves, and our all are at stake.

The immortality of the soul is a thing which so deeply, so infinitely concerns us, that we must haye utterly lost all feeling, to be cold and indifferent about it. All our actions and thoughts must take so ▼ery different a course, according as eternal blessings may, or may not be expected, that it is impossible for us to proceed vrith judgment and discretion, except we keep this point, which ought ever to be our ultimate object, continually in view.

Thus our highest interest, and our principal duty.

18 to get light into a subject on which oar whole conduct depends. And, therefore, in the number of wavering and unsatisfied men, I make the gpreatest difference imaginable between those who do their utmost to obtain instruction, and those who live without ever thinking or troubling themselves about it.

I cannot but feel compassion for those who sincerely grieve at being in this doubtful state of mind ; who look upon it as the greatest of misfortunes, and who spare no pains to be delivered from it, by making these researches their chief and most serious employ. But as for those who pass away their life wiUiout reflecting on its final issue, and who, merely because they do not find in themselves sufficient evidence to convince them, neglect to seek it elsewhere, and to examine to the bottom, whether the opinions proposed be such as men are wont to entertain through credulous simplicity, or such as, though obscure in themselves, are yet built on solid and immoveable foundations, I consider them in a very different light. This carelessness about an affair in which themselves, their eternity, their all, is concerned, rather provokes my resentment than engages my pity. Nay, it strikes me with wonder and astonishment ; it is a monster to my apprehension. I speak not this from the pious zeal of rapturous devotion ; on the contrary, I affirm, that the love of ourselves, the interest of mankind, and the most simple glimmerings of reason, do naturally inspire us with these sentiments ; and that to know this, we need only see what persons of the meanest capacities understand.

It requires no great superiority of mind to discover that nothing in this world is productive of true and solid satisfaction ; that all our pleasures are merely vanity, that our troubles are innumerable ; and that, after all, death, which threatens us every moment, must, in a few years, perhaps in a few days, put us into an eternal state of happiness, or misery, or annihilation. Between us and heaven^ ot liell, or annihilatioii, there ii notbing interpoeed btt life, the most brittle thing in all the world ; now as the happiness of heaven is certainly not designed for those who donbt whether their sonls be immoital, such persons have nothing to expect but the ndserable chance of annihilation, or hell.

Nothing can be more tme, and nothing more terrible than this. Let as braye it as we will, in this must end the most splendid life that is spent upon earth.

It is in vain for men to tarn aside their thoughts from this eternity which awaits them, as if they were able to destroy it by neglecting to think of it : it Bobsists in spite of them, it is hastening on, and death, which is to draw the cartain from it, will, in a short time, infallibly redace them to the dreadfal necessity of being for ever annihilated, or for ever miserable.

We have here a doabt of the most awfal consequence, and to be the sabjeot of it is indisputably a most serious misfortune ; but, at the same time, it is an indispensable duty not to remain under it, with* out inquiring diligently to be delivered from it.

He, then, who doubts, and yet seeks not to be resolved, is equally unhappy and unjust; but if withal he is easy and contented, if he freely avows his indifference, and above all, if he takes a pride in professing it, and makes this most deplorable condition the subject of his vanity and pleasure, I have not words to fix a name on so extravagant a creature.

Whence can a man derive such sentiments ? What pleasure can there be in expecting nothing but misery without resource ? What cause is there for vanity in finding one's self in impenetrable darkness? Or what consolation in despairing for ever of a comforter?

To be at ease in such ignorance, is a thing so monstrous, that they who live in it ought to be

PASCAL.

aroaaed to a lense of its stupidity and extravag^ce, by haying their inward reflections laid open before them, that they may be oohfoanded at the prospect of their own folly. For thus it is that men reason, who thus obstinately remain ignorant of what they are, without seeking for information.

* I know not who has sent me into the world ; nor what the world is, nor what I am myself. I am shockingly ignorant of all things. I know not what my body is, what my senses are, or what my soul is* This very part of me which thinks what I speak> which reflects upon itself, and upon every thing around me, is yet as ignorant of itself as it is of every tiling else. I behold these frightful spaces of the universe with which I am encompassed, and feel myself confined to one little comer of the vast extent, without understanding why I am placed in this part of it rather than in any other ; or why the short period of time that is allotted me to live, was assigned to me at this particular point, rather than any other, of the whole eternity which was before me, or of that which is to come after me. I see notiiing but infinities on all sides, which swallow, me up like an atom, or like a shadow, which endures but a single instant, and is never to return. All that I know is, that I must shortly die ; but what I am most ignorant of is this very death, from which I cannot escape.

* As I know not whence I came, so I know not whither I am going ; only this I know, that at my departure out of the world, I must either be for ever annihilated, or fall into the hands of an incensed God, without being able to decide which of these two conditions will be my everlasting portion.

* Such is my state, so full of weakness, obscurity, and wretchedness. And from all this I conclude, that I ought to pass all the days of my life, without ever considering what is hereafter to befal me ; and that I have nothing to do but to follow my inclina-t tioBfly without reflection or disquiet, doing all that which, if what is said of a miserable eternity be true^ will infallibly plunge me into it. It is possible I might find some light to clear up my doubts ; but I will not take the trouble to stir one foot in search of it ; and despising all those who do take pains in this inquiry, I am resolved to go on, without fear or foresight, and try the grand event; I will .pan as easily as I can out of life, and die utterly uncertain about the eternal state of my future existence.''

It is an honour to religion that it has such unreasonable men for its professed enemies ; and their opposition is of so little importance to it, that, on the contrary, it serves to confirm the principal truths which it teaches. For the grand object of Christianity is to establish these two principles, the depravity of human nature, and redemption by Jesui Christ. Now these opposers, if they are of no use in demonstrating the truth of redemption, by the sanctity of their lives, are yet highly serviceable in shewing the corruption of nature by their unnatural sentiments.

Nothing is so important to any man as his own state; nothing so serious to him as eternity. If, therefore, we find persons indifferent to the loss of their being, and to the danger of everlasting misery, their temper is highly unnatural. They aie quite different men in all other things ; they fear 6ie smallest inconveniences ; they see them as they approach, and feel them when they arrive ; and the same man who passes days and nights in rage and despair for the loss of a place, or for some imaginary affront to his honour, is the very same mortal who knows that he must soon lose every thing by death, and yet remains without disquiet, concern, or emor tion. This strange insensibility with respect to things the most awful in their consequences, in a heart ao acutely sensible to the meanest trifles^ is a

PASCAL. It

A man confined in a dangeon, who does not know but the order for his execntion is given, who has but a single hoar to inform himself concerning it, and that one honr sufficient, in case it have passed, to obtain its reyocation, would act contrary to natore, should he make use of this hour not to procure the necessary information, but to play and divert himself; yet such is the condition of the persons we are describing, only with this difference, that the evils with which they are threatened, are infinitely gpreater than the mere loss of life, and the transient punish« ment which the prisoner would have to fear. Tet they run thoughtlessly upon the precipice, casting a vttl over their eyes, to keep themselves from discerning it, and making mock of those who warn them of their danger.

Thus not only the zeal of those who do seek God, demonstrates the truth of religion, but likewise the blindness of those who do not seek him, and who pass their days in this horrible neglect. There must have been a strange revolution in the nature of man, to be able to live in such a state, — much more to applaud and value himself upon it. For supposing it to be absolutely certain, that there is nothing but annihilation to fear after death, would not this rather be a cause*^for dejection than for pride? And is it not the highest pitch of extravagance, if we have no certainty of this, to glory because we are in doubt?

And yet, after all, it is too evident that man has so far declined from his original nature, that there is in his heart a secret delight in all this. Nay this brutal ease between the fear either of hell or of annihilation, carries somewhat so tempting in it, that not only do those who unhappily are sceptically •inclined make a boast of it, but even those who are not, think it something brave to pretend to be so.

For experience shews us, that most of those wba pretend to infidelity are of this latter kind, mm counterfeits and hypocrites in atheism. They are persons who have heard it said, that the genteol manners of the world consist in thus acting the bravo. This is what they term throwing off the yoke, and which the greater number of them profess to do, merely in imitation of others.

But if they have the least portion of commoa sense, it will not be diiHoult to make them perceive how miserably they deceive themselves, by seeking in this way for applause and esteem. For this is not the method to g^in credit, even with worldly men who are able to judge rightly on things, and whe know that the only method of succeeding is to appear honest, faithful, prudent, and capable of advancing the interest of our friends ; for men naturallj love nothing but that which some way contributes ttf their benefit. But what benefit can we derive from hearing a man confess that he has shaken off the yoke of religion ; that he does not believe there is a God who watches over his actions ; that he consider! himself as absolute master of his own conduct, and accountable for it only to himself? Does he think we shall be induced from hence to repose a greater degree of confidence In him, and to look to him for comfort, advice, or assistance, in the difficulties of life? Can he imagine we are greatly delighted whea he tells us, that he doubts whether our souls be any thing better than a little wind or smoke ; especiaUj if he tells it us with an air of assurance and satis* faction? Is such a thing to be spoken of with pleasantry ? or should it not rather be uttered with sadness, as the most melancholy reflection that can be mentioned.

If they would but think seriously on the subject) they must perceive this conduct to be so very ill chosen, so contrary to good manners, and so remote even from that gentility to which they pretend, that nothing ean more effectually expose them to the contempt and ayerslon of mankind, to mark them oat as persons defective in onderstanding and jadg« ment. And, indeed, should we require of them an account of their sentiments, and of the reasons for which they call Religion in question, what they have to offer would appear so weak and contemptihle, that it would rather confirm us in our belief. This is what a person once told them with great propriety. If jftm etmiismiu (said he) to imlk mt this rate^ yon will v^Uihly make me a Christian. And he was in the light: for who would not tremble to find himself entangled in the same opinions with associates so truly conteqiptible.

Those therefore who only counterfeit these principles, are extremely unhappy in putting a constraint on their natural disposition, in order to render themselves the most impertinent of all mankind. If they are heartily and sincerely concerned at their want of information, let them not dissemble it A confession of this can never be shameful ; for there is really no shame, but in being shameless. Nothing betrays so much weakness of understanding, as not to perceive the misery of man without God. Nothing is a aurer token of extreme baseness of spirit, than not to wish for the reality of eternal promises. No man is so truly a coward, as be that acts the brave against heaven. Let them therefore leave these impieties to those who are bom with a judgment so unhappy, as to be capable of entertaining them in earnest. If they cannot be Christian Men, let them be Men of Honour : and let them at last acknowledge, that there are but two sorts of persons who deserve to he accounted reasonable, either those who serve God with all their heart, because they know him ; or those who seek him with all their heart, because as yet they know him not.

To those persons then who sincerely inquire after God, and who, being sensible of their misery, truly

14 THOUGHTS ON RBLIGION.

desire to be rescued from it, it is just to contribute our labour and service, to assist them in finding oat that light of which they feel the want.

Bat as for those who live without either knowing God, or endeavouring to know him, they look on themselves as so little deserving their own care, thai they cannot but be unworthy the care of others: and it requires all the charity of the religion they despise, not to despise them to such a degree, as to abandon them to their folly. But since the same religion obliges us to consider them, while tltey remain in this life, as still capable of God's enlightening grace ; and to believe it possible, that, in a very short time, they may be filled with a greater degree of faith than ourselves ; and that we on the other handy may fall into their blindness ; we ought to do for them, what we desire should be done to us in their case ; to intreat them that they would take pity on themselves, and at least advance a step or two, and try if they can discover the light. To this end let them employ in the perusal of this work, a few of those hours which they spend so unprofitably in other pursuits. It is possible they may gain somewhat by the reading ; at least, they cannot be great losers. But if any shall apply themselves to it, with perfect sincerity, and with an unfeigned desire of knowing the truth, I hope they will meet with satisfaction, and be convinced by those proofs of our divine religion, which they will here find collected together.

Chapter II. The Characters Of True Religion

RUE religion will always distinguish itself by bilging men to love God. This is what natural latice requires, and yet what no religion but the hristian has ever enjoined.

It ought likewise to know the concupiscence of an^and his utter insufficiency for the attainment r virtue by his own strength. It should likewise oint out the proper remedies for this defect; of hich prayer is the chief. Our religion has done all lis, and no other has eyer taught us to beg of Grod le power to love and obey him.

To establish the truth of a religion, it is necessary lat it should be acquainted with human -nature, or our true nature and true happiness, true virtue nd true religion, are things the knowledge of which inseparable. It should also be able to discern the reatness and the meanness of man; together with le reason of both. What religion, the Christian ily excepted, has ever made ail these known? Other religions, as those of the heathens, are more Dpular, for they consist only in external appearace ; but then they are not adapted to men of talents nd understanding. A religion purely intellectual, ight be fitter for men of genius, but would by no teans be suited to the common ranks of mankind, hristianity alone is proportioned to all; for it consists botli of that in^hicb is internal and of Uiat which is external. It raises the most ignorant to inward and spiritual acts, and brings down the most intelligent to outward performances, and is never complete but when it joins one of these effects to the other. For it is both necessary that the common people should understand the spirit of the lettevy and that the learned should submit their spirit to the letter, by the performance of outward actions.

That we are in ourselves hateful, reason alone will convince us ; and yet there is no religion bat the Christian which teaches us to hate ourselves; wherefore no other religion can be entertained by those who know themselves to be worthy of nothing but hatred.

No religion, except the Christian, has understood that man is the most excellent of visible creatures^ and, at the same time, the most miserable. Some, perceiving the reality of his excellence, have censured as mean and ungrateful, the low opinion which men naturally entertain of themselves. Others, well knowing the unhappy effects of his baseness and misery, have treated with the greatest ridioiile those sentiments of grandeur which are no lesi natural to men.

Our religion alone has taught that man is born in sin : no sect of philosophers ever said this ; therefore none of them ever declared the truth.

God being concealed from us, every religion which does not teach that he is so, is false; and eveiy religion which does not shew the reason why he is so, must be barren and unedifying : our religion ^s done both.

That religion which consists in believing that man has fallen from a state of glory and communication nfith God, to a state of sorrow, humiliation, and estrangement from God, but that he should be «t length restored by a Messiah who was to come, ]i|tf always been in the world. All things have pa99ed away bat this, for which all other things exist, has remained.. For God, having designed to form to himself a holy people, whom he would separate from all other nations, deliver from their enemies, and settle in a place of rest, was pleased expressly to promise, not only that he would do this, but that he would come himself into the world for that purpose, and foretold by his prophets the very time and manner of his coming. In the mean while, to confirm the hope of his elect through all ages, he gave them continual types and figures, and never left them without assurances both of his power and his inclination to save them. For immediately after the creation of man, Adam was the witness of these, being made depositary of the promise concerning a Saviour to be bom of the seed of the woman ; and though men, so near the time of their first creation, could not have forgotten their creation and their fall, or the promise which God had given them of a Redeemer ; yet since they suffered themselves to be carried away into all sorts of corruptions and disorders, God was pleased to raise up holy men, as Enoch, Lamech, and others, who patiently waited for that Messiah who was promised from the commencement of the world. After this, when the wickedness of men was arrived at its highest pitch, God sent Noah, whom he saved, when all the rest of the world was drowned, by a miracle which testified at once the power of God to save the world, and his determination to do so, by raising up to the woman the seed which he had promised. This miraculous interposition was sufiicient to establish the hopes of mankind ; and the memory of it was still fresh in their minds, when God renewed his promises to Abraham, who dwelt in the midst of idolaters, and revealed to him the mystery of the Messiah that was to come. In the days of Isaac and Jacob, iniquity had spread itself over the whole earth; yet these holy patriarchs lived in faith, and the latter of them, as he blest his children when he was dying, oried out with a degree of transport which interrupted hii discourse, '* I have waited for thy saivatioiiy Lord."

The Egyptians were polluted with idolatry and mag^c, and the people of God were led away by their example; yet Moses, with other excellent penoaa, saw him who was invisible, and adored him, lookiB^ forward to those eternal blessings which ho was preparing for them.

The Greeks and Romans afterwards spread ti» worship of fictitious deities : the poets invented different systems of theology ; philosophers were divided into a thousand different sects; yet there were always in Judea, men chosen to prophesy of the coming of the Messiah, who was unknown to every other nation.

At length, in the fulness of time, he came ; and ever since his appearance, notwithstanding all the schisms and heresies which have arisen, all the kingdoms which have been destroyed, and the numeroai changes which have taken place in all things, tills same church, that worships him who has ever been adored, still subsists without interruption. And what is astonishing, unparalleled, and altogether divine, this religion which has always endured, has beea always opposed. A thousand times has it been apparently on the very brink of total destruction; and as often as it has been so, so often has it been rescued by some extraordinary interposition of Almighty Power. And it is still further astonishing, that it should always have been able to ataod, without in any degree yielding to the will of iti oppressors.

States must infallibly perish, if they did not oite permit their laws to give way to necessity : but leligion has never done this, and yet has stood its grround. But either such accommodations or miraoles gire indispensable. It is no wonder that goverttmenti boBld preserve themselves by yielding to eireamtances; and yet it is in some degree improper to all this preserving themselves; and henee we see tiat they have all at length been utterly destroyed, or liaa any one of them lasted so long as fifteen nndred years. Bat that this religion should have Iwaya continued unchanged and inflexible, this is raly divine.

Truth would be too much obscured, if it were destnte of visible appearances, of which this is a very wonderful one, that it should have been always erpetuated in a church or visible assembly. Its istre, on the other hand, would be too great, if this hurch were altogether undivided in opinion : but in rder to find out which opinion is true, we have only > examine what has always been held by it ; for it is srtain that what is true has never ceased to have a laoe in it, while nothing that is false has been always laintained.

Thus has faith in the Messiah been perpetually laintained. The tradition concerning him was anded down regularly from Adam to Noah and loses. After these, the prophets predicted his oming, at the same time foretelling other things, rhich were from time to time fulfilled in the eyes f the world, and which demonstrated the truth of leir mission, and consequently of their promises onceming him. They unanimously declared, that le law given to them was but preparatory to that of le Messiah ; that till he came it should subsist, but lat the latter should endure for ever ; and that by lis means, either the law of Moses, or that of the [essiah, of which it was a promise, should always ontinue upon earth ; and, in fact, it has always connued. Jesus Christ came under all the circumstances ley had predicted. He wrought miracles, as did Iso his apostles, who converted the gentile world : qd the prophecies being thereby fulfilled, the Meslah is for ever demonstrated.

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I see many contrary reli^ons, all of which miiBt be false but one. Each of them claims credit upon its own authority, and deals oat its threatening! afcainst all who disbelieve it. I do not therefore take them at their word. For they can all do alike in this respect, just as every man can call himself a prophet. Bat in Christianity I see the accomplishment of prophecies, and an infinite number of miracles, attested beyond all reasonable doubt, and these I find in no other relig^ion.