If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 743 and 745 Broadway COPYRIGHT, 1879. BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. GRANT, FAIRES & RODGERS, 9277 ここ ·F53 f Ψυχικὸς δὲ ἄνθρωπος ου δέχεται τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ θεοῦ. μωρία γὰρ αὐτῳ ἐστι, καὶ οὐ δύναται γνῶναι, ὅτι πνευματικῶς ἀνακρίνεται. 1 Cor. ii. 14. "Howbeit, if we will truly consider it, it is more worthy to believe than to know as we now know. For in knowledge man's mind suffers from sense which is the reflection of things material—but in faith the spirit suffers from spirit which is a worthier agent. Otherwise it is in the state of men glorified, for then faith shall cease, and we shall know even as we are known." "The use of human reason in matters of religion is of two sorts; the former in the explanation of the mystery, the latter in the inferences derived from it. With regard to the explanation of the mysteries, we see that God vouchsafes to descend to the weakness of our apprehension, by so expressing His mysteries that they may be most sensible to us; and by grafting His revelations upon the notions and conceptions of our reason; and by applying His inspirations to open our understandings, as the form of the key to the ward of the lock. But here we ought by no means to be wanting to ourselves; for as God uses the help of our reason to illuminate us, so should we likewise turn it every way, that we may be more capable of receiving and understanding His mysteries; provided only that the mind be enlarged, according to its capacity, to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind." ******* "But as the use of the human reason in things divine is of two kinds, so likewise in the use are two kinds of excess; the one when it inquires too curiously into the manner of the mystery; the other when the same authority is attached to inferences as to principles. ******* Wherefore it appears to me that it would be of especial use and benefit if a temperate and careful treatise were instituted, which, as a kind of divine logic, should lay down proper precepts touching the use of human reason in theology.. For it would act as an opiate, not only to lull to sleep the vanity of curious speculations, wherewith sometimes the schools labor, but also in some degree to assuage the fury of controversies, wherewith the Church is troubled. Such a treatise I reckon among the things deficient; and call it Sophron, or The Legitimate Use of Human Reason in Divine Subjects."-BACON, De Augmentis, b. ix. |