rue that all conceals God. But it is at the same time true
that He hides Himself from those who tempt Him, and that He reveals
Himself to those who seek Him, because men are both unworthy and capable
of God; unworthy by their corruption capable by their original nature.

557

What shall we conclude from all our darkness, but our unworthiness?

558

If there never had been any appearance of God, this eternal deprivation
would have been equivocal, and might have as well corresponded with the
absence of all divinity, as with the unworthiness of men to know Him;
but His occasional, though not continual, appearances remove the
ambiguity, If He appeared once, He exists always; and thus we cannot but
conclude both that there is a God, and that men are unworthy of Him.

559

We do not understand the glorious state of Adam, nor the nature of his
sin, nor the transmission of it to us. These are matters which took
place under conditions of a nature altogether different from our own,
and which transcend our present understanding.

The knowledge of all this is useless to us as a means of escape from it;
and all that we are concerned to know, is that we are miserable,
corrupt, separated from God, but ransomed by Jesus Christ, whereof we
have wonderful proofs on earth.

So the two proofs of corruption and redemption are drawn from the
ungodly, who live in indifference to religion, and from the Jews who are
irreconcilable enemies.

560

There are two ways of proving the truths of our religion; one by the
power of reason, the other by the authority of him who speaks.

We do not make use of the latter, but of the former. We do not say,
"This must be believed, for Scripture, which says it, is divine." But we
say that it must be believed for such and such a reason, which are
feeble arguments, as reason may be bent to everything.

561

There is nothing on earth that does not show either the wretchedness of
man, or the mercy of God; either the weakness of man without God, or the
strength of man with God.

562

It will be one of the confusions of the damned to see that they are
condemned by their own reason, by which they claimed to condemn the
Christian religion.

563

The prophecies, the very miracles and proofs of our religion, are not of
such a nature that they can be said to be absolutely convincing. But
they are also of such a kind that it cannot be said that it is
unreasonable to believe them. Thus