Page images
PDF
EPUB

§ 68 THE "ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING:" SACRED

PHILOSOPHY.

The Advancement of Learning concludes with an account of Sacred Philosophy, its achievements, deficiencies, and limits.

Sacred theology (or divinity) is grounded only upon the word and oracle of God and upon the light of Nature. Yet whereas the religion of the Greeks was based on argument and the religion of Mahomet interdicted argument, the Christian faith, preserving the golden mean, allows some use of Reason in religion. Reason must not attempt to prove or examine the mysteries of faith, any more than Reason can dispute the rules of a game, as, for example, the rules of chess; but when the principles of faith are admitted, Reason may illustrate them and deduce from them inferences for conduct.

Here may be noted a deficience, a treatise (called Sophron in the Latin translation) on the True Limits and Use of Reason in Spiritual Things, for want of which some men search into what is not revealed, while others dispute what is positively stated, and others again, instead of saying with St. Paul, "1, and not the Lord," are too fond of saying "Not I, but the Lord," and not only so but bind it with the thunder and denunciation of curses and anathemas. (Adv. II. xxv. 1-7.)

Divinity has two principal parts, the nature of the Revelation and the matter of the Revelation. The nature of the Revelation includes, first, the limits of it; secondly, the sufficiency of it; thirdly, the acquiring of it. As to the sufficiency, we may consider herein what points of religion are fundamental and what have been the gradations of light according to the dispensation of times; and here the Author rather gives it as advice, than notes as a deficience, that men shall piously and wisely consider "of what latitude these points are which make men merely" (i.e utterly) "alien and dis-incorporate from the Church of God," suggesting a treatise On the Degrees of Unity in the Kingdom of God.

The acquiring of Revelation may be in two ways. The water of Life obtained from the Scriptures, may either be forced as it were into cisterns and thence drawn when wanted (which is the method of scholastical divinity), or it may be drawn from the Scriptures direct (Interpretation Solute). The former sort, though it may seem to be more ready, is more liable to corruption. Scholastic divinity seeks brevity, compact strength, and a complete perfection; but it has never attained the first two, and ought not to seek the third; for in divinity many things must be left imperfect, unrounded, and abrupt, breaking off with the exclamation-'O the depth of the

1 The following section is in part omitted and in part condensed in the De Augmentis, ix., in which less stress is laid on theology and religious matters than in the Advancement. (See note on p. 405 above.)

wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.' As to the Interpretation Solute, we must bear in mind that the Inditer of the Scriptures knew things which no man attains to know, and therefore the Scriptures cannot be interpreted as a profane book. (Adv. II. xxv. 8–14.)

The two classes of interpreters, who aspire to explain from the Scriptures the secret details of heaven, or to unravel the secrets of Nature, are both to be checked with a 'Be not high-minded, but fear.' The matter contained in Revelation comprises matter of belief and truth of opinion, and matter of service or adoration; whence issue four branches-faith, manners (i.e. morals), liturgy, and government; and these may be briefly passed over, because no deficience can be reported in them, no ground vacant and unsown; so diligent have men been, either in sowing of good seed or in sowing of tares.

Thus has the Author made, as it were, a small globe of the Intellectual World with a note and description of the parts not constantly occupate or not well converted (Lat. "non satis excultas") by the labour of man. (Adv. II. xxv. 15-25.)

INDEX

« PreviousContinue »