2.— On the Holy fear of God.
" With him that feareth the Lord, it shall go well in the latter end, and in the day of his death he shall be blessed."— Eccles. i. 13.
[L'Abbe de Bretteville, born in the year 1630 at Bretteville, near Caen in Normandy. In the year 1667 he entered the Society of Jesus, which order he, however, abandoned in 1678. He died in 1688.]
The fear of the terrible judgment of God is necessary to lead a sinner back to repentance, but love must be added to fear to make this repentance perfect.
It seems to me that there is implanted in the heart of man two natures; both combined will contribute to his conversion, and make it perfect and secure. In toto corde vestro.
There is in the heart an inferior nature, which is more worldly, and which can only be moved by sensible things; fear is for this portion of the heart; for it is by the contemplation of hell and the fearful consequences of vice that seizes the heart of man and turns it away from sin.
But there is in this same heart a superior celestial nature, which is only susceptible of the dawn of grace. This is love; this is that divine charity which moves that portion of the heart, and which makes it seek God for God's sake alone.
The conversion of the heart begins with fear and finishes with love.
To return to God simply through fear is, so to say, only
