know how this animal, who knows himself to be so
weak, has the right to measure the mercy of God and set limits to it,
suggested by his own fancy. He has so little knowledge of what God is that
he does not know what he himself is, and, completely disturbed at the sight
of his own state, dares to say that God cannot make him capable of communion
with Him.
But I would ask him if God demands anything else from him than the knowledge
and love of Him, and why, since his nature is capable of love and knowledge,
he believes that God cannot make Himself known and loved by him. Doubtless
he knows at least that he exists, and that he loves something. Therefore, if
he sees anything in the darkness wherein he is, and if he finds some object
of his love among the things on earth, why, if God impart to him some ray of
His essence, will he not be capable of knowing and of loving Him in the
manner in which it shall please Him to communicate Himself to us? There
must, then, be certainly an intolerable presumption in arguments of this
sort, although they seem founded on an apparent humility, which is neither
sincere nor reasonable, if it does not make us admit that, not knowing of
ourselves what we are, we can only learn it from God.
"I do not mean that you should submit your belief to me without reason, and
I do not aspire to overcome you by tyranny. In fact, I do not claim to give
you a reason for everything. And to reconcile these contradictions, I intend
to make you see clearly, by convincing proofs, those divine signs in me,
which may convince you of what I am, and may gain authority for me by
wonders and proofs which you cannot reject; so that you may then believe
without... t