John Milton’s – works burned, Aug. 27, 1660

            OF  REFORMATION

          I do not know of anything more worthy than to consider first, the foul     and sudden corruption, and then after many a tedious age, the long deferred,       but much more wonderful and happy reformation of the Church. Sad it is to             think that such a Doctrine should through the grossness and blindness of her       Professors, and the fraud of deceivable traditions, drag so downwards as to             backslide one way into the Jewish beggary and stumble forward another way      into the new-vomited Paganism of sensual Idolatry.

            The superstitious man by his good will is an Atheist; but being scarred    from thence by the pangs and gripes of a boyling conscience, all in a pudder

shuffles up to himself such a God and such a worship as is most agreeable to      remedy his fear. Fear fixed only upon the Flesh renders likewise the whole         faculty of his apprehension carnal, and all the inward acts of worship issuing             from the native strength of the Soul run out lavishly to the upper skin, and there harden into a crust of Formality. Hence men came to scan the Scriptures by the Letter, and in the Covenant of our Redemption magnified the external signs             more than the quickening power of the Spirit.

           How should it come to pass that England, having had this grace and       honor from God to be the first that should set up a Standard for the recovery of      lost Truth, and blow the first Evangelic Trumpet to the Nations, holding up, as 20    from a Hill, the new Lamp of saving light to all Christendom, should now be       last, and most unsettled in the enjoyment of that Peace, whereof she taught the            way to others? For, albeit in purity of Doctrine we agree with our Brethren, yet     in Discipline we are no better than a Schism from all the Reformation. For while             we hold Ordination to belong only to Bishops, as our Prelates do. we must of          necessity hold also their Ministers to be no Ministers, and shortly after their           Church to be no Church.

John Milton’s works were burned this date 8/27/1660, by royal decree, as English monarchy was restored (Milton had supported Parliament).

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Blaise Pascal – death, Aug. 19, 1662

There are only three kinds of persons; those who serve God having found Him; others who are occupied in seeking Him not having found Him; while the remainder live without seeking Him and without having found Him. The first are reasonable and happy the last are foolish and unhappy; those between are unhappy and reasonable.

                – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660) paragraph 257.

 …True fear comes from faith; false fear comes from doubt…

                – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660) paragraph 262.

It is dangerous to make man see too clearly his equality with the brutes without showing him his greatness. It is also dangerous to make his see his greatness too clearly apart from his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both. But it is very advantageous to show him both. Man must not think that he is on a level either with the brutes or with the angels nor must he be ignorant of both sides of his nature; but he must know both.

                – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660) paragraph 418.

Nature has some perfections to show that she is the image of God and some defects to show that she is only His image.

                – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660) paragraph 580.

The difference between Jesus Christ and Mahomet.- Mahomet was not foretold; Jesus Christ was foretold. Mahomet slew; Jesus Christ caused His own to be slain. Mahomet forbade reading; the Apostles ordered reading.

                – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660) paragraph 599.

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.

                – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660) paragraph 859.

Blaise Pascal died this date 8/19/1662, at Paris, France.  He was a scientist, a polemicist, most importantly a Christian.  His death followed a lengthy illness.  Pascal was born 6/19/1623 at Clermont.

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Blaise Pascal – converted to Christ, Nov 23, 1654

 

Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.

           – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660) paragraph 275.

 

Grace is indeed needed to turn a man into a saint; and he who doubts it does not know what a saint or a man is.

           – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660), paragraph 508.

 

The feeble-minded are people who know the truth, but only affirm it so far as consistent with their own interest. But, apart from that, they renounce it.

           – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660), paragraph 583.

 

The Gospel only speaks of the virginity of the Virgin up to the time of the birth of Jesus Christ. All with reference to Jesus Christ.

           – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660), paragraph 742.

 

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

           – Blaise Pascal, Pensees (1660), paragraph 895.

  

Blaise Pascal, who is credited with inventing the wristwatch, the bus route, the first workable calculating machine, turned to Jesus.  This French mathematician was converted today in history.

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