The true field and subject of imposture remain elusive and unknown. All the more so because strangeness in the first place gives credit; and then, not being subject to our ordinary discourses, they show us the means to combat them. For this reason, said Plato, it is much easier to satisfy, speaking of the nature of the Gods, than of the nature of men, because the ignorance of the listeners lends a beautiful and wide scope and complete freedom to the handling of a hidden subject. It follows that nothing is believed so firmly as what we know least, nor are people so confident as those who tell us fables, such as alchemists, prognosticators, fortune-tellers, palmists, doctors, id genus omne (all that kind.)
To whom I would gladly add, if I dared, a host of people, ordinary interpreters and checkers of God’s designs, priding themselves on finding the causes of every accident, and on seeing in the secrets of the divine will the incomprehensible motives of his works; and although the variety and continual discordance of events casts them from corner to corner, and from east to west, they nevertheless continue to follow their path, and, in the same way, believe in painting black and white.
In one Indian nation, there is this commendable observance: when something happens to them in some encounter or battle, they publicly ask forgiveness from the Sun, who is their God, as if it were an unjust action, attributing their good or bad fortune to divine reason and submitting their judgment and discourse to it. It is enough for a Christian to believe that all things come from God, to receive them with gratitude for his divine and inscrutable wisdom, and yet to take them in good part, in whatever way they are sent to him. But I find it wrong what I see in use, to seek to confirm and support our religion through the happiness and prosperity of our undertakings.
Our belief has enough other foundations without authorizing it through events: because, the people being accustomed to these plausible arguments and properly to their taste, there is a danger that, when events turn out to be contrary and disadvantageous, they will shake their faith. As in wars where we are for religion, those who had the advantage in the encounter with the Rochelabeille, making much of this accident, and using this fortune for a certain approval of their party, when they come afterwards to excuse their misfortunes of Mont-contour and Jarnac on the grounds that these are paternal rods and chastisements, if they do not have a people entirely at their mercy, they make it quite easy for them to feel that it is like taking two moldings from the same bag, and blowing hot and cold from the same mouth.
It would be better to teach them the true foundations of truth. A fine naval battle was won against the Turks in recent months, under the leadership of Don Joan of Austria; but it has pleased God in the past to make others see others like them at our expense. In short, it is difficult to bring divine matters into our balance, without them suffering damage. And who would like to explain why Arrius and Leon, his Pope, the main leaders of this heresy, died at different times of such similar and strange deaths (because, removed from the dispute by a pain in the stomach, both of them suddenly died), and exaggerating this divine vengeance through the circumstance of the place, he could well add to this the death of Heliogabalus, who was also killed in a retreat.
But what? Irenaeus finds himself in the same situation. God, wanting us to learn that the good have something else to hope for, and the bad something else to fear than the fortunes or misfortunes of this world, he manipulates them and applies them according to his occult disposition, and deprives us of the means to foolishly take advantage of it.
And those who try to use human reason to prevail over it are making a fool of themselves. They never get one touch, without receiving two in return. Saint Augustine provides a fine example of this with his adversaries. It is a conflict that is decided by the weapons of memory rather than those of reason. One must be content with the light that the Sun deigns to communicate to us through its rays; and he who raises his eyes to take in more of it within his own body should not find it strange if, for the penalty of his presumption, he loses his sight in it.
“Who of men can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the Lord wills?” (Apocrypha: Book of Wisdom)