orthy of love, that several of them have thought they must dispense
with loving him; a blasphemy, shocking to other divines, who were less
ingenuous. St. Thomas having maintained, that we are obliged to love God
as soon as we attain the use of reason, the Jesuit Sirmond answered him,
_that is very soon_. The Jesuit Vasquez assures us, that _it is enough to
love God at the point of death_. Hurtado, more rigid, says, _we must
love God very year_. Henriquez is contented that we love him _every five
years_; Sotus, _every Sunday_. Upon what are these opinions grounded? asks
father Sirmond; who adds, that Suarez requires us to _love God sometimes_.
But when? He leaves that to us; he knows nothing about it himself. _Now_,
says he, _who will be able to know that, of which such a learned divine is
ignorant?_ The same Jesuit Sirmond further observes, that _God_ "does not
command us to love him with an affectionate love, nor does he promise us
salvation upon condition that we give him our hearts; it is enough to obey
and love him with an effective love by executing his orders; this is the
only love we owe him; and he has not so much commanded us to love him, as
not to hate him." This doctrine appears heretical, impious, and abominable
to the Jansenists, who, by the revolting severity they attribute to their
God, make him far less amiable, than the Jesuits, their adversaries. The
latter, to gain adherents, paint God in colours capable of encouraging
the most perverse of mortals. Thus nothing is more undecided with the
Christians, than the important question, whether they can, ought, or
ought not to love God. Some of their spiritual guides maintain, that it
is necessary to love him with all one's heart, notwithstanding all his
severity; others, like father Daniel, think that, _an act of pure love
to God is the most heroic act of Christian virtue, and almost beyond the
reach of human weakness_. The Jesuit Pintereau goes farther; he says, _a
deliverance from the grievous yoke of loving God is a privilege of the new
covenant_.

185.

The character of the Man always decides that of his God; every body
makes one for himself and like himself. The man of gaiety, involved in
dissipation and pleasure, does not imagine, that, God can be stern and
cross; he wants a good-natured God, with whom he can find reconciliation.
The man of a rigid, morose, bilious, sour disposition, must have a God
like himself, a God of terror; and he regards, a