Section XIII, 851

Unjust persecutors of those whom God visibly protects. If they reproach you with your excesses, “they speak as the heretics.” If they say that the grace of Jesus Christ distinguishes us, “they are heretics.” If they do miracles, “it is the mark of their heresy.”

Ezekiel.—They say: These are the people of God who speak thus.

It is said, “Believe in the Church”;[358] but it is not said, “Believe in miracles”; because the last is natural, and not the first. The one had need of a precept, not the other. Hezekiah.

The synagogue was only a type, and thus it did not perish; and it was only a type, and so it is decayed. It was a type which contained the truth, and thus it has lasted until it no longer contained the truth.

My reverend father, all this happened in types. Other religions perish; this one perishes not.

Miracles are more important than you think. They have served for the foundation, and will serve for the continuation of the Church till Antichrist, till the end.

The two witnesses.

In the Old Testament and the New, miracles are performed in connection with types. Salvation, or a useless thing, if not to show that we must submit to the Scriptures: type of the sacrament.

Section XIII, 852

[We must judge soberly of divine ordinances, my father.

Saint Paul in the isle of Malta.]

Section XIII, 853

The hardness of the Jesuits, then, surpasses that of the Jews, since those refused to believe Jesus Christ innocent only because they doubted if His miracles were of God. Whereas the Jesuits, though unable to doubt that the miracles of Port-Royal are of God, do not cease to doubt still the innocence of that house.

Section XIII, 854

I suppose that men believe miracles. You corrupt religion either in favour of your friends, or against your enemies. You arrange it at your will.

Section XIII, 855

On the miracle.—As God has made no family more happy, let it also be the case that He find none more thankful.

Section XIV, 856

Clearness, obscurity.—There would be too great darkness, if truth had not visible signs. This is a wonderful one, that it has always been preserved in one Church and one visible assembly [of men]. There would be too great clearness, if there were only one opinion in this Church. But in order to recognise what is true, one has only to look at what has always existed; for it is certain that truth has always existed, and that nothing false has always existed.

Section XIV, 857

The history of the Church ought properly to be called the history of truth.

Section XIV, 858

There is a pleasure in being in a ship beaten about by a storm, when we are sure that it will not founder. The persecutions which harass the Church are of this nature.

Section XIV, 859

In addition to so many other signs of piety, they[359] are also persecuted, which is the best sign of piety.

Section XIV, 860

The Church is in an excellent state, when it is sustained by God only.