himself. Everything bears
this character.

.. Shall he alone who knows his nature know it only to be miserable? Shall
he alone who knows it be alone unhappy?

.. He must not see nothing at all, nor must he see sufficient for him to
believe he possesses it; but he must see enough to know that he has lost it.
For to know of his loss, he must see and not see; and that is exactly the
state in which he naturally is.

.. Whatever part he takes, I shall not leave him at rest.

557.... It is, then, true that everything teaches man his condition, but he
must understand this well. For it is not true that all reveals God, and it
is not true 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.

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

559. 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.

560. 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 ou