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you turned away your eyes from this light, which seemed at first so welcome. But although he was worthy of all belief, "I have a greater testimony than that of John;" even that of my Father. "For the" miraculous "works which the Father hath given me to perfect, the works themselves which I do, give testimony of me, that the Father hath sent me, and the Father himself who hath sent me hath given testimony of me. Neither have you heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape;" for God, who is a pure spirit, comes not under the observation of the senses; but by the works which he has given me to perform, and which are, as it were, his voice, he has made sensible the testimony which he has rendered concerning me; "and you have not his word abiding in you, for whom he hath sent, him you believe not."

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Meantime you deem yourselves the faithful depositories and minute searchers of this divine word. You "search the Scriptures, for think in them to have life everlasting. The same are they that give testimony of me, and you will not come to me that you may have life (11)," which they only promise you through me. You remove from, whilst you seem to be in search of it, because you withdraw from the only road that conducts to it. Whereas, if I seek to attract you to me, I do so with a view to your interest, and not my own. "I receive not glory from men. But" you, who wish to justify by the motive of the love of God your unwillingness to hear me, "I know that you have not the love of God in you," and the conduct you pursue towards me is proof of this; for "I am come in the name of my Father, and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive (12)." Yet your increYet

although much more deserving of credit when rendering this testimony to another than if he had rendered it to himself.

(11) Who is there who would not have life, and above all others, eternal life? The Jews wished for it, and we also wish for it. But the Jews did not wish to have it through faith in Jesus Christ; and we do not wish to have it through the observance of the law of Jesus Christ. They wished for the end like ourselves: like them, we do not wish for the means. They perished with such a wish; and what can we expect but to perish like them, if we do not pass from this wish (which I know not whether to call chimerical or hypocritical) to a sincere, absolute, and efficacious wish, tending to the end by the means, and embracing every thing without exception and without reserve?

(12) This is not merely a threat, 'tis ¡rophetic of what was going to happen immedi

dulity should not excite surprise. There is nothing in faith that flatters human pride; being little esteemed amongst men, faith attracts the complacency of God alone. "How can you believe, who receive glory one from another, and the glory which is from God

ately after the death of Jesus Christ. All those who wished to assume to themselves the title of Messiah, found followers amongst them, and the prodigy of their credulity in this regard equals that of their incredulity. Terrible, yet just chastisement of that voluntary blindness which, after having closed their eyes to the truth, renders them the dupes, and at last the victims of the grossest illusions and the most absurd lies! Let us dread this, since it is daily renewed before our eyes. When men decline hearkening to the voice of those whom God has established as interpreters of his oracles, they listen to others, for after all the people do not know how to construct for themselves a system of religion, and error, like faith, cometh to them by hearing (Rom. x. 17). Wherefore to them it is a necessity to hearken to other masters; and to what masters do they hearken? First of all, to men without title, without credentials, without mission, who bear witness of themselves, who must be credited on their word, when, with a boldness as ridiculous as 'tis insolent, they come and tell, I alone am more enlightened in matters of religion, I understand Scripture better than all the doctors and all the pastors of the Church. But this is merely the beginning of the illusion. After having rejected those really sent by God, the people receive as envoys of God every one who presents himself before them. By means of considerable effrontery and some strokes of jugglery, a man, qualified at most to figure as a mountebank, sets the rumor afloat that he is a prophet, and a thousand voices are heard repeating, He is a prophet. Others come to enlist themselves, and as all have an equal right, there soon appears formed a body of prophets and prophetesses, composed of the very dregs of the lowest populace. In language worthy of those who use it, they retail the most monstrous conceits, such ravings as the excitement of fever could scarcely engender in the brain of a distempered patient. All that is intelligible is their palpable impiety; but in general they do not understand themselves. Whether we can understand them or not, still they are oracles, who are listened to with religious attention, who are entertained, whose sayings are reported and treasured up like a second Scripture, more respected than the first, which now is merely made use of to clothe their extravagant whims in sacred expressions. The mind once fascinated and carried away, the flesh has no longer any bridle: the filth of impurity mingles with the visions of fanaticism, and comes to be incorporated with its fearful mysteries. And well would it be if they did not soon pass from lust to cruelty, from folly to phrensy; if they did not advance with torch and steel in hand to accomplish the sanguinary predictions of those prophets, who never cease announcing the impending and utter ruin of their adversaries! To such a pitch does this reason degrade and vilify itself, when too proud to bend under the salutary yoke of divine authority. This is an abridgment of the history of the Gnostics, the Montanists, the Priscilianists, the Donatists, the Albigenses, the Hussites, the Anabaptists, the fanatics of Cevennes, &c., &c., &c., and in fine, of all those who, walking in the same paths, shall ever stray into the same wanderings, and shall verify in themselves the expression of the Saviour: I am come in the name of the Father, receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.

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alone you do not seek? Think not that I will accuse you to my Father." He who you are forever placing in opposition to me, and of whom you would give people to understand that you are most zealous defenders, this "Moses, in whom you trust, is" already "one that accuseth did believe Moses, you For if you. would perhaps (13) believe me also; for he wrote of me (14). But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

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CHAPTER XIV.

A PENITENT SINNER AT THE FEET OF JESUS CHRIST. THE CORN PLUCKED.

HERE we give a narrative which others place a little further on: they think it occurred at Naim, and we think it was at Bethany, a borough or small town a short distance from Jerusalem. It follows, from the view we take, that the sinner whose conversion we are going to relate is no other than Mary, sister of Lazarus and of Martha. Neither shall we distinguish her from Mary Magdalen, so well known by her tender and inviolable attachment to the sacred person of the Saviour. Many think that these are two, or even three different persons. They ought not to be blamed for maintaining upon this point the opinion which appeared to them most probable; yet it is desirable to know that their proofs fall very short indeed of demonstration. After having examined their reasons, we

(13) See Note 4, page 64, where this "perhaps" is explained.

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(14) In the 18th chapter of Deuteronomy we read these words: The Lord thy God will raise up to thee a prophet of thy nation, and of thy brethren, like unto me. will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak all that I shall command him. He that will not hear his words which he shall speak in my name, I will be the revenger.

This prophecy has always been applied to Jesus Christ, and undoubtedly Jesus Christ had it then in view. These words, like unto me, signify, 1st. A man, like unto me, to allay the apprehensions of the people, who, from fear of dying, had entreated the Lord not to speak personally any more by himself, as he had done upon Mount Sinai. 2d. They also signify a legislator, like unto me, to distinguish Jesus Christ from the other prophets, and to prepare men for receiving the new law which was to abrogate the old.

think we may state with confidence that they merely oppose conjecture to conjecture, a new opinion to one more ancient. Now, opinion for opinion, we feel no difficulty in stating that we side more willingly with those which are ancient and common than those which are new and singular. After this short digression, we shall proceed to recount the narrative which occasioned it.

Despite of the declared hostility of the Pharisees to Jesus Christ, there was one of them who ventured to give him marks of attachment and respect. His name was Simon, and it is thought very probable that he is no other than Simon the leper, who is also spoken of in circumstances very like the present. Whether from esteem for Jesus Christ, or from that species of vanity which induces opulent men to invite extraordinary characters to their tables, (a) "Simon desired Jesus to eat with him." Jesus consented, and thereby showed that what he hated in the Pharisees was their vices, and not themselves. "He went therefore into his house, and sat down to meat. Behold, a woman that was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that he sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment; and standing behind at his feet (1), she began to wash his feet with tears, wiped them with the hairs of her head, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. The Pharisee, who had invited him, seeing it, spoke within himself: This man, if he were a prophet, would know surely who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him (2), that she is a sinner." He, before whose eyes all things are laid bare, knew well what the Pharisee ventured to think, though not to utter, and by letting him know that he was cog

(a) St. Luke, vii. 36.

(1) The posture in which it was the custom of those times to recline at table, facilitated to her the means of so doing. They reclined on beds (or couches), the head being turned towards the table and the feet outwards.

(2) To be a prophet, it is not necessary to know every thing by divine revelation; it is enough to know several. Eliseus was not the less a prophet, although he was ignorant of the death of the Sunamite's son, which the Lord, he said, had concealed from him. Thus Jesus Christ might, as man, be ignorant what this woman was, and nevertheless be a prophet. Wherefore the Pharisee was mistaken on this point. We shall see that he also deceived himself on several others. Innumerable are the blunders of malice, which, notwithstanding, thinks itself so subtle and penetrating.

nizant of what was passing within him, should have fully satisfied the Pharisee's mind that he was plainly invested with the quality of prophet. But as he wished to use forbearance towards a man who had invited him to his table, he not only did not address him until he had in some manner asked his permission, but also made use of a parable, which, without too sorely wounding his self-love, yet convinced him of his error, by showing him how blind he was in the judgment he passed upon Jesus Christ, unjust in his strictures on the penitent, and presumptuous in the estimate he formed of himself, "He said to him then, answering," not his words, but his thoughts: "Simon, I have something to say to thee: Master, say it, said he. A certain creditor had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. Whereas they had not wherewith to pay, he forgave them both. Which, therefore, of the two loveth him most? I suppose, said Simon, answering, that he to whom he forgave most. Jesus said to him: Thou hast judged rightly." And turning to the woman, he justified the little attention which he had seemed to pay to what she was doing, by making it apparent that he had remarked every thing, that he gave her credit for all, and that her tears had a more delicious relish for him than all the dainties which the Pharisee had served up before him. "Dost thou see this woman? I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she with tears hath washed my feet, and with her hairs hath wiped them. Thou gavest me no kiss, but she, since she came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but she with ointment hath anointed my feet. Wherefore, I say to thee, many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much (3). But

(3) The great love of this sinful woman is given here for the cause of the great remission accorded to her. In the parable remission is granted to her on account of this great love. If you seek for the justice of the application, I am free to avow there is much ado in finding it. Yet that it does not appear impossible, you may form your own judgment by what we are going to say. It seems that there would exist no further difficulty if we admitted a love which was at the same time the cause and the effect of the remission, that is to say, a love that preceded the remission, and which had at the same time the remission for its motive. This is, in point of fact, the love of that penitent. According to the parable she loved much, because many sins were remitted her; and following the application, many sins are remitted her, because she loved much. Now, here is the way in which all this can be explained and recon

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