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← Discours sur l'histoire universelle/Book 1 · Discours sur l'histoire universelle — Seconde partie : La suite de la religion
Chapter 11DiscoursHistUniv.1.11

Réflexions sur la conversion des Gentils

The Divine Counsel of the Cross

The conversion of the Gentiles was not a work of human philosophy but a divine mystery accomplished through the fruit of Christ's cross.

Specific reflections on the conversion of the Gentiles. The deep counsel of God, who intended to convert them through the Cross of Jesus Christ.1 Saint Paul's reasoning regarding this method of converting them. The conversion of the Gentiles was the second event destined to occur in the time of the Messiah, and it served as the surest mark of his coming. We have seen how clearly the prophets foretold it, and how their promises were fulfilled in the time of Our Lord. It is certain that only then—neither sooner nor later—did twelve fishermen sent by Jesus Christ, who were witnesses of his resurrection, accomplish what the philosophers never dared attempt, and what neither the prophets nor the Jewish people at their most protected and faithful could do.✦ This is because the conversion of the world was not meant to be the work of philosophers or even prophets; it was reserved for Christ, and it was the fruit of his cross.✦ It was indeed necessary that this Christ and his apostles should come from the Jews, and that the preaching of the gospel should begin at Jerusalem.✦ And so on.2 And it was fitting that the new light by which the peoples sunk in idolatry were one day to be enlightened should spread throughout the whole world from the place where it had always been.✦ It was in Jesus Christ, son of David and of Abraham, that all the nations were to be blessed and sanctified.✦ We have often noted this. But we haven't yet considered why this suffering Jesus—this Jesus crucified and brought to nothing—was to be the sole author of the conversion of the Gentiles and the sole conqueror of idolatry.✦3

The Foolishness of Preaching

God chose to save the faithful through the 'foolishness' of the cross, confounding human wisdom that failed to recognize Him in creation.

Saint Paul explained this great mystery to us in the first chapter of the First Letter to the Corinthians, and it's good to consider this fine passage in its full course. "The Lord," he says, "sent me to preach the gospel," and so on. No doubt—since it could not draw people out of their ignorance.4 But here is the reason Saint Paul gives for it. It is that God, seeing that the world, with its human wisdom, had not recognized him through the works of his wisdom—that is, through the creatures he had so well ordered—took another path, and resolved to save his faithful by the foolishness of preaching: that is, by the mystery of the cross, where human wisdom can understand nothing.✦✦ What a new and wonderful design of divine providence! God placed man in the world, where no matter which way he turned his eyes, the Creator's wisdom shone through the grandeur, the richness, and the arrangement of such a beautiful work. Yet man failed to recognize him: the creatures that offered themselves to lift our minds higher stopped him instead; blind and brutish, man served them; and not content with worshiping the work of God's hands, he worshiped the work of his own hands. Fables more ridiculous than the ones told to children became his religion: he forgot reason; God wants to make him forget it in another way.5 A work whose wisdom he could grasp never moved him; another work is set before him, in which his reasoning is lost and everything looks like folly to him: it is the cross of Jesus Christ. It isn't by reasoning that we understand this mystery; it is by taking our intelligence captive, and so on.6 Indeed, what do we grasp in this mystery where the Lord of glory is loaded with insults; where divine wisdom is treated as mad; where the one who, sure in himself of his natural greatness, never thought he was claiming too much for himself, and so on?7 All our thoughts are thrown into confusion; and as Saint Paul said, nothing seems more insane to those who aren't enlightened from above.

The Cure for Idolatry

Idolatry, a delirium of the senses and self-love, is cured not by philosophical reasoning but by the radical detachment demanded by the Cross.

This was the remedy God was preparing for idolatry. He knew the mind of man, and he knew that it was not by reasoning that an error had to be destroyed which reasoning had not established. There are errors we fall into by reasoning, for man often tangles himself up by reasoning too hard; but idolatry had come by the opposite extreme: it was by extinguishing all reasoning, and by letting the senses dominate—senses that wanted to clothe everything in the qualities they themselves feel.8 That is how divinity had become visible, and coarse.9 People gave it their own shape, and even more shamefully, their own vices and passions. Reasoning had no part in such a brutal error. It was an overturning of common sense, a delirium, a frenzy.10 Reason with a frenzied man, and with a man whom a burning fever drives out of his mind: you only irritate him and make the illness incurable. You have to go to the cause, restore the constitution, and calm the humors whose violence produces such strange fits.11 So, it isn't reasoning that cures the delirium of idolatry. What have the philosophers gained with their pompous speeches, with their sublime style, with their arguments so artfully arranged? Has Plato, with his eloquence that people thought divine, overturned a single altar where those monstrous divinities were worshiped? On the contrary, he and his disciples, and all the wise men of the age, have sacrificed to the lie: etc.12 Isn't it for good reason, then, that Saint Paul cried out in our passage, etc.?13 Have they even been able to destroy the fables of idolatry?14 Have they even suspected that they ought to oppose so many blasphemies openly, and suffer—I don't say the extreme penalty, but the slightest insult—for the truth? Far from doing so, they have held the truth captive, and set it down as a maxim that in matters of religion one must follow the people: the people they so despised have been their rule in the most important matter of all, and the one where their lights seemed most needed.✦ So what good have you been, philosophy? Etc.15 This is how God made it plain through experience that the ruin of idolatry could not be the work of human reasoning alone. Far from entrusting it with the cure of such a disease, God finished confounding it through the mystery of the cross, and at the same time he carried the remedy all the way to the source of the evil.16 Idolatry, if we understand it rightly, was born from that deep attachment we have to ourselves. That is what led us to invent gods like ourselves—gods who were actually nothing but men subject to our passions, weaknesses, and vices—so that under the name of false divinities, the Gentiles were really worshiping their own thoughts, pleasures, and fantasies.

The Incarnate Word and the New Creation

Through the Incarnation and the humility of the Cross, God purifies the human heart and creates a new, victorious Church from nothingness.

Jesus Christ leads us along different paths. His poverty, his humiliations, and his cross make him a horrible object to our senses.✦ You have to leave yourself behind, renounce everything, and crucify everything in order to follow him.✦ Once a person is torn away from themselves and from everything their corruption made them love, they become capable of worshipping God and his eternal truth, whose rules they now want to follow. There, all the idols perish and vanish—both those people worshiped on altars and those each person served in the heart. These had raised up the others.17 People worshiped Venus because they let themselves be ruled by love, and because they loved its power.18 Bacchus, the merriest of all the gods, had altars because people gave themselves over and sacrificed, so to speak, to the joy of the senses—sweeter and more intoxicating than wine. Jesus Christ, through the mystery of his cross, comes to imprint on hearts the love of suffering in place of the love of pleasure. The idols people worshiped outwardly were swept away because those they worshiped within no longer remained: the purified heart, as Jesus Christ himself says, is made able to see God; and man, far from making God like himself, rather strives, as far as his frailty can bear it, to become like God. The mystery of Jesus Christ has shown us how the divinity could be united to our nature without debasing itself, and clothe itself in our weaknesses. The Word became incarnate: he who had the form and nature of God, without losing what he was, took the form of a slave. Unchanging in himself, he unites himself to a nature foreign to him and makes it his own. O men, you wanted gods who were, to tell the truth, nothing but men—and vicious men at that! That was a blindness far too great. But here is a new object of worship set before you: he is God and man together—yet a man who lost nothing of what he was in taking on what we are.✦ The divinity remains unchanging, and since it cannot degrade itself, it can only raise up what it unites with itself. But still—what has God taken from us? Our vices and our sins? God forbid: he has taken from man only what he made in him, and it is certain that he had made neither sin nor vice there.19 He had made that nature; he took it. You could say He created mortality, along with the weakness that accompanies it, because although it wasn't part of the original design, it was the just punishment for sin, and in that sense, it was the work of divine justice. So God didn't disdain to take it on; and by assuming the penalty of sin without the sin itself, He showed that He wasn't a guilty man being punished, but the righteous One who was atoning for the sins of others. In this way, instead of the vices people projected onto their gods, every virtue appeared in this God-man; and so that those virtues might be revealed under the ultimate trials, they appeared in the midst of the most horrible torments. Let's look no further for any other visible god after this One: He alone is worthy to cast down all the idols, and the victory He was to win over them is bound to His cross.✦ In other words, it's tied to an apparent folly.✦ Etc. This is the final blow that had to be struck against our proud ignorance. The wisdom we're led to is so sublime that it looks like folly compared to our own; its rules are so high that everything about it seems to us like wandering off the path.✦ But if this divine wisdom is impenetrable to us in itself, it makes itself known through its effects. A power goes out from the cross, and all the idols are shaken. We see them fall to the ground, even though they were held up by all the power of Rome. It isn't the wise, the noble, or the powerful who have worked such a great miracle.✦ God's work has been carried out, and what he began through the humiliations of Jesus Christ, he has completed through the humiliations of his disciples. Consider, my brothers—this is how Saint Paul concludes his admirable discourse—consider those God has called among you, and from whom he has formed this church that is victorious over the world. Etc. The apostles and their disciples, the refuse of the world and nothingness itself when viewed through human eyes, have prevailed over every emperor and the entire empire. People had forgotten creation, and God has renewed it by drawing his church from this nothingness, making it all-powerful against error. He has overthrown, along with the idols, all human greatness that had a stake in defending them; and he has done so great a work—as he had made the universe—by the sole force of his word.

Read the original Latin

Réflexions particulieres sur la conversion des Gentils. Profond conseil de Dieu, qui les vouloit convertir pzr la Croix de Jesus-Christ. Raisonnement de Saint Paul sur cette maniere de les convertir.

Cette conversion des gentils estoit la seconde chose qui devoit arriver au temps du messie, et la marque la plus asseûrée de sa venuë. Nous avons veû comme les prophetes l’avoient clairement prédite, et leurs promesses se sont verifiées dans les temps de Nostre Seigneur. Il est certain qu’alors seulement, et ni plustost ni plus tard, ce que les philosophes n’ont osé tenter, ce que les prophetes ni le peuple juif lors qu’il a esté le plus protegé et le plus fidele n’ont pû faire, douze pescheurs envoyez par Jesus-Christ et témoins de sa résurrection l’ont accompli. C’est que la conversion du monde ne devoit estre l’ouvrage ni des philosophes, ni mesme des prophetes : il estoit réservé au Christ, et c’estoit le fruit de sa croix.

Il falloit à la verité que ce Christ et ses apostres sortissent des juifs, et que la prédication de l’evangile commençast à Jérusalem. Etc. Et il estoit convenable que la nouvelle lumiere dont les peuples plongez dans l’idolatrie, devoient un jour estre éclairez, se répandist par tout l’univers du lieu où elle avoit toûjours esté. C’estoit en Jesus-Christ fils de David et d’Abraham que toutes les nations devoient estre benies et sanctifiées. Nous l’avons souvent remarqué. Mais nous n’avons pas encore observé la cause pour laquelle ce Jesus souffrant, ce Jesus crucifié et anéanti, devoit estre le seul auteur de la conversion des gentils, et le seul vainqueur de l’idolatrie.

Saint Paul nous a expliqué ce grand mystere au I chapitre de la I epistre aux corinthiens, et il est bon de considerer ce bel endroit dans toute sa suite. le Seigneur, dit-il, m’a envoyé prescher l’evangile, etc. sans doute, puis qu’elle n’a pû tirer les hommes de leur ignorance. Mais voicy la raison que Saint Paul en donne. C’est que Dieu voyant que le monde avec la sagesse humaine ne l’avoit point reconnu par les ouvrages de sa sagesse , c’est à dire, par les créatures qu’il avoit si bien ordonnées, il a pris une autre voye, et a résolu de sauver ses fideles par la folie de la prédication , c’est à dire, par le mystere de la croix, où la sagesse humaine ne peut rien comprendre.

Nouveau et admirable dessein de la divine providence ! Dieu avoit introduit l’homme dans le monde, où de quelque costé qu’il tournast les yeux, la sagesse du créateur reluisoit dans la grandeur, dans la richesse et dans la disposition d’un si bel ouvrage. L’homme cependant l’a méconnu : les créatures qui se presentoient pour élever nostre esprit plus haut, l’ont arresté : l’homme aveugle et abruti les a servies ; et non content d’adorer l’oeuvre des mains de Dieu, il a adoré l’oeuvre de ses propres mains. Des fables plus ridicules que celles que l’on conte aux enfans, ont fait sa religion : il a oublié la raison : Dieu la luy veut faire oublier d’une autre sorte. Un ouvrage dont il entendoit la sagesse ne l’a point touché ; un autre ouvrage luy est presenté, où son raisonnement se perd, et où tout luy paroist folie : c’est la croix de Jesus-Christ. Ce n’est point en raisonnant qu’on entend ce mystere ; c’est en captivant son intelligence etc. en effet, que comprenons-nous dans ce mystere où le Seigneur de gloire est chargé d’opprobres ; où la sagesse divine est traitée de folle ; où celuy qui asseûré en luy-mesme de sa naturelle grandeur, n’a pas crû s’attribuer trop etc. toutes nos pensées se confondent ; et comme disoit Saint Paul, il n’y a rien qui paroisse de plus insensé à ceux qui ne sont pas éclairez d’enhaut.

Tel estoit le remede que Dieu préparoit à l’idolatrie. Il connoissoit l’esprit de l’homme, et il sçavoit que ce n’estoit pas par raisonnement qu’il falloit détruire une erreur que le raisonnement n’avoit pas établie. Il y a des erreurs où nous tombons en raisonnant, car l’homme s’embrouïlle souvent à force de raisonner : mais l’idolatrie estoit venuë par l’extrémité opposée ; c’estoit en éteignant tout raisonnement, et en laissant dominer les sens qui vouloient tout revestir des qualitez dont ils sont touchez. C’est par là que la divinité estoit devenuë visible, et grossiere. Les hommes luy ont donné leur figure, et ce qui estoit plus honteux encore, leurs vices et leurs passions. Le raisonnement n’avoit point de part à une erreur si brutale. C’estoit un renversement du bon sens, un délire, une phrénesie. Raisonnez avec un phrénetique, et contre un homme qu’une fiévre ardente fait extravaguer ; vous ne faites que l’irriter, et rendre le mal irremédiable : il faut aller à la cause, redresser le temperament, et calmer les humeurs dont la violence cause de si étranges transports.

Ainsi ce ne doit pas estre le raisonnement qui guerisse le délire de l’idolatrie. Qu’ont gagné les philosophes avec leurs discours pompeux, avec leur stile sublime, avec leurs raisonnemens si artificieusement arrangez ? Platon avec son éloquence qu’on a crû divine, a-t-il renversé un seul autel où ces monstrueuses divinitez estoient adorées ? Au contraire, luy et ses disciples, et tous les sages du siecle ont sacrifié au mensonge : etc. N’est-ce donc pas avec raison que Saint Paul s’est écrié dans nostre passage, etc. Ont-ils pû seulement détruire les fables de l’idolatrie ? Ont-ils seulement soupçonné qu’il fallust s’opposer ouvertement à tant de blasphêmes, et souffrir, je ne dis pas le dernier supplice, mais le moindre affront pour la verité ? Loin de le faire, ils ont retenu la verité captive, et ont posé pour maxime qu’en matiere de religion, il falloit suivre le peuple : le peuple qu’ils méprisoient tant, a esté leur regle dans la matiere la plus importante de toutes, et où leurs lumieres sembloient le plus necessaires.

Qu’as-tu donc servi, ô philosophie ? Etc. C’est ainsi que Dieu a fait voir par experience, que la ruine de l’idolatrie ne pouvoit pas estre l’ouvrage du seul raisonnement humain. Loin de luy commettre la guerison d’une telle maladie, Dieu a achevé de le confondre par le mystere de la croix, et tout ensemble il a porté le remede jusqu’à la source du mal. L’idolatrie, si nous l’entendons, prenoit sa naissance de ce profond attachement que nous avons à nous-mesmes. C’est ce qui nous avoit fait inventer des dieux semblables à nous ; des dieux qui en effet n’estoient que des hommes sujets à nos passions, à nos foiblesses, et à nos vices : de sorte que sous le nom des fausses divinitez, c’estoit en effet leurs propres pensées, leurs plaisirs et leurs fantaisies que les gentils adoroient.

Jesus-Christ nous fait entrer dans d’autres voyes. Sa pauvreté, ses ignominies et sa croix le rendent un objet horrible à nos sens. Il faut sortir de soy-mesme, renoncer à tout, tout crucifier pour le suivre. L’homme arraché à luy-mesme et à tout ce que sa corruption luy faisoit aimer, devient capable d’adorer Dieu et sa verité éternelle dont il veut doresnavant suivre les regles.

Là perissent et s’évanoûïssent toutes les idoles, et celles qu’on adoroit sur des autels, et celles que chacun servoit dans son coeur. Celles-cy avoient élevé les autres. On adoroit Venus, parce qu’on se laissoit dominer à l’amour, et qu’on en aimoit la puissance. Bacchus le plus enjoûé de tous les dieux avoit des autels, parce qu’on s’abandonnoit, et qu’on sacrifioit, pour ainsi dire, à la joye des sens plus douce et plus enyvrante que le vin. Jesus-Christ par le mystere de sa croix vient imprimer dans les coeurs l’amour des souffrances au lieu de l’amour des plaisirs. Les idoles qu’on adoroit au dehors furent dissipées, parce que celles qu’on adoroit au dedans ne subsistoient plus : le coeur purifié, comme dit Jesus-Christ luy-mesme, est rendu capable de voir Dieu ; et l’homme loin de faire Dieu semblable à soy, tasche plustost, autant que le peut souffrir son infirmité, à devenir semblable à Dieu. Le mystere de Jesus-Christ nous a fait voir comment la divinité pouvoit sans se ravilir estre unie à nostre nature, et se revestir de nos foiblesses. Le verbe s’est incarné : celuy qui avoit la forme et la nature de Dieu , sans perdre ce qu’il estoit, a pris la forme d’esclave .

Inalterable en luy-mesme, il s’unit, et il s’approprie une nature étrangere. O hommes, vous vouliez des dieux qui ne fussent, à dire vray, que des hommes, et encore des hommes vicieux ! C’estoit un trop grand aveuglement. Mais voicy un nouvel objet d’adoration qu’on vous propose ; c’est un dieu et un homme tout ensemble, mais un homme qui n’a rien perdu de ce qu’il estoit en prenant ce que nous sommes. La divinité demeure immuable, et sans pouvoir se dégrader, elle ne peut qu’élever ce qu’elle unit avec elle. Mais encore qu’est-ce que Dieu a pris de nous ? Nos vices et nos pechez ? A Dieu ne plaise : il n’a pris de l’homme que ce qu’il y a fait, et il est certain qu’il n’y avoit fait, ni le peché, ni le vice.

Il y avoit fait la nature ; il l’a prise. On peut dire qu’il avoit fait la mortalité avec l’infirmité qui l’accompagne, parce qu’encore qu’elle ne fust pas du premier dessein, elle estoit le juste supplice du peché, et en cette qualité elle estoit l’oeuvre de la justice divine. Aussi Dieu n’a-t-il pas dédaigné de la prendre ; et en prenant la peine du peché sans le peché mesme, il a montré qu’il estoit, non pas un coupable qu’on punissoit, mais le juste qui expioit les pechez des autres. De cette sorte, au lieu des vices que les hommes mettoient dans leurs dieux, toutes les vertus ont paru dans ce dieu-homme ; et afin qu’elles y parussent dans les dernieres épreuves, elles y ont paru au milieu des plus horribles tourmens. Ne cherchons plus d’autre dieu visible aprés celuy-cy : il est seul digne d’abbatre toutes les idoles ; et la victoire qu’il devoit remporter sur elles est attachée à sa croix.

C’est à dire qu’elle est attachée à une folie apparente. Etc. Voilà le dernier coup qu’il falloit donner à nostre superbe ignorance. La sagesse où on nous mene est si sublime, qu’elle paroist folie à nostre sagesse ; et les regles en sont si hautes, que tout nous y paroist un égarement. Mais si cette divine sagesse nous est impenétrable en elle-mesme, elle se déclare par ses effets. Une vertu sort de la croix, et toutes les idoles sont ébranlées. Nous les voyons tomber par terre, quoy-que soustenuës par toute la puissance romaine. Ce ne sont point les sages, ce ne sont point les nobles, ce ne sont point les puissans qui ont fait un si grand miracle.

L’oeuvre de Dieu a esté suivie, et ce qu’il avoit commencé par les humiliations de Jesus-Christ, il l’a consommé par les humiliations de ses disciples. considerez, mes freres, c’est ainsi que Saint Paul acheve son admirable discours, considerez ceux que Dieu a appellez parmi vous, et dont il a composé cette eglise victorieuse du monde. Etc. Les apostres et leurs disciples, le rebut du monde, et le néant mesme, à les regarder par les yeux humains, ont prévalu à tous les empereurs et à tout l’empire. Les hommes avoient oublié la création, et Dieu l’a renouvellée en tirant de ce néant son eglise qu’il a rendu toute puissante contre l’erreur. Il a confondu avec les idoles toute la grandeur humaine qui s’interessoit à les défendre ; et il a fait un si grand ouvrage, comme il avoit fait l’univers, par la seule force de sa parole.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Acts.1.8 — But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
  2. ↩1Cor.1.18-1Cor.1.24;Gal.6.14 — For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1Cor.1.19 — For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will set aside." 1Cor.1.20 — Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1Cor.1.21 — For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through its wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the proclaimed message. 1Cor.1.22 — For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, 1Cor.1.23 — but we proclaim Christ crucified: to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, 1Cor.1.24 — but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Gal.6.14 — But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
  3. ↩Acts.1.8;Luke.24.47 — But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Luke.24.47 — and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem
  4. ↩Isa.49.6;Luke.2.32 — And he said, "It is too light a thing for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." Luke.2.32 — a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.
  5. ↩Matt.1.1;Gen.12.3 — The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Gen.12.3 — And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
  6. ↩1Cor.1.23;Phil.2.7-Phil.2.8 — but we proclaim Christ crucified: to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, Phil.2.7 — but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, and appearing as a human being. Phil.2.8 — And he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
  7. ↩Rom.1.20 — For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes have been clearly perceived, being understood through the things that have been made: both his eternal power and divine nature. So they are without excuse.
  8. ↩1Cor.1.18-1Cor.1.25 — For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1Cor.1.19 — For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will set aside." 1Cor.1.20 — Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1Cor.1.21 — For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through its wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the proclaimed message. 1Cor.1.22 — For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, 1Cor.1.23 — but we proclaim Christ crucified: to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, 1Cor.1.24 — but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1Cor.1.25 — For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
  9. ↩Rom.1.18 — For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by unrighteousness.
  10. ↩1Cor.1.18-1Cor.1.23 — For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1Cor.1.19 — For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will set aside." 1Cor.1.20 — Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1Cor.1.21 — For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through its wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the proclaimed message. 1Cor.1.22 — For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, 1Cor.1.23 — but we proclaim Christ crucified: to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness,
  11. ↩Matt.16.24;Luke.9.23;Gal.5.24 — Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Luke.9.23 — Then he said to all, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me." Gal.5.24 — And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
  12. ↩Phil.2.6-Phil.2.7 — who, existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to exploit, Phil.2.7 — but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness, and appearing as a human being.
  13. ↩1Cor.1.18-1Cor.1.25 — For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1Cor.1.19 — For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will set aside." 1Cor.1.20 — Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1Cor.1.21 — For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through its wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the proclaimed message. 1Cor.1.22 — For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, 1Cor.1.23 — but we proclaim Christ crucified: to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, 1Cor.1.24 — but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1Cor.1.25 — For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
  14. ↩1Cor.1.18-1Cor.1.25 — For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1Cor.1.19 — For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will set aside." 1Cor.1.20 — Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1Cor.1.21 — For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through its wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the proclaimed message. 1Cor.1.22 — For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, 1Cor.1.23 — but we proclaim Christ crucified: to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, 1Cor.1.24 — but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1Cor.1.25 — For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
  15. ↩1Cor.1.18-1Cor.1.25 — For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1Cor.1.19 — For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will set aside." 1Cor.1.20 — Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1Cor.1.21 — For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through its wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the proclaimed message. 1Cor.1.22 — For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, 1Cor.1.23 — but we proclaim Christ crucified: to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, 1Cor.1.24 — but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1Cor.1.25 — For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
  16. ↩1Cor.1.26-1Cor.1.27 — For consider your calling, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 1Cor.1.27 — But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Source reads "pzr"; translated as intended "par" ("by"), a clear typographic/OCR error.
  2. 2 ↩Source has the abbreviation 'Etc.'; rendered as a natural English continuation marker rather than left as Latin-style 'Etc.'
  3. 3 ↩'anéanti' rendered as 'brought to nothing' to keep the force of abasement/self-emptying without modern casual 'annihilated'.
  4. 4 ↩French 'elle' has no explicit noun in this truncated sentence; from the following Pauline argument (human wisdom failing to know God), it almost certainly means human wisdom / worldly wisdom.
  5. 5 ↩«Dieu la luy veut faire oublier d’une autre sorte» means God will make man forget prideful human reason by another path—the cross—not that God abolishes reason as such.
  6. 6 ↩Source ends with «etc.»—Bossuet is alluding to, and truncating, the Pauline phrase about captivating the understanding (cf. 2 Cor 10:5).
  7. 7 ↩The third relative clause and final «etc.» look like a truncated citation or paraphrase; sense is clear enough to render, but the exact referent of «celuy qui...» remains slightly open.
  8. 8 ↩"revestir des qualitez dont ils sont touchez": the senses want to dress all things in the sensible qualities by which they are affected (touch, impression), not merely "qualities that touch them" in a vague modern sense.
  9. 9 ↩"grossiere" here means crude/materialized (thickened into sense-bound form), not merely "rude" in manners.
  10. 10 ↩"phrénesie" is the older medical/moral term for frenzy or mad raving; rendered "frenzy" to keep the clinical-moral force without archaism.
  11. 11 ↩Medical analogy (temperament/humors) is kept deliberately: Bossuet uses humoral physiology as the image for treating idolatry at its root rather than by argument.
  12. 12 ↩Source ends with 'etc.', marking an abbreviated continuation or cited expansion not fully printed in this section.
  13. 13 ↩Source ends with 'etc.'; the Pauline outcry is assumed known from the chapter's base passage and is not quoted in full here.
  14. 14 ↩'seulement' here intensifies the rhetorical question as 'even / so much as,' not as a bare 'only.'
  15. 15 ↩Source preserves the abridgment marker Etc., as in neighboring sections; not expanded.
  16. 16 ↩'luy' continues the address to philosophy / human reasoning from the preceding sentences; rendered as 'it'.
  17. 17 ↩Celles-cy points to the inner idols of the heart (just named); les autres are the outer idols of the altars. The claim is causal: heart-idols produced public idols.
  18. 18 ↩Amour here is erotic passion, not theological charity; puissance is the sway of that passion.
  19. 19 ↩«ce qu'il y a fait» = what God made in man (human nature as creature), not human deeds; the following section confirms this by distinguishing nature, which God made and assumed, from mortality as the penalty of sin.

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