Dialogue XIV

Summary

Continuation of the same subject. The incomprehensibility of our mysteries is a certain proof of their truth. The way to clarify the dogmas of faith. Of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Proof of His divinity against the Socinians. No creatures, not even angels, can worship God except through Him. How faith in Jesus Christ renders us pleasing to God.

I. ARISTES. Ah, Theodore! How can I open my heart to you? How can I express my joy? How can I make you feel the happy state into which you have put me? I now resemble a person who has escaped shipwreck, or who finds calm after a storm. I have often felt myself unsettled by dangerous stirrings when faced with our incomprehensible mysteries. Their profundity frightened me, their obscurity troubled me, and although my heart yielded to the force of authority, it was not without difficulty on the part of the mind. For as you know, the mind is naturally fearful in the dark. But now I find everything is in harmony in me: mind follows heart. What am I saying! The mind leads, the mind transports the heart. For – what a paradox! – the more obscure our mysteries are, the more credible they now appear to me. Yes, Theodore, even in the obscurity of our mysteries, received now as they are by so many different nations, I find an invincible proof of their truth.