A TREATISE

OF

DOGMATIC THEOLOGY.

CHAPTER I.

OF FAITH AND THEOLOGY.

§. 1. ALL Christian Theology is founded primarily on Faith. of Faith. Nor is it possible to exclude Reason from any definition of Faith, which seeks to embrace its main elements. For, seeing that Reason is defined to be "a faculty of the human mind whereby it endeavours to know truth either by ratiocination or by simple perception," and Faith is described by no mean Theologian among the Ancients as "a conception of things invisible in harmony with nature," it would be a violation of the first laws of our nature to assert Faith to be a voluntary assent of the mind to any proposition that shall directly contradict Reason. "Without faith it is impossible to please GOD;" and, as Reason is His special and distinguishing gift to Man in the ordinary course of His Providence, so the Faith which is acceptable to Him must be in accordance with that antecedent and primary knowledge supplied to Man by Reason. They, who out of pretended zeal for Revelation seek to disparage Natural Religion, may be justly suspected. S. Paul assumes the existence of GOD as demonstrable by Reason to the Greeks; and we should not disregard the conclusions of Reason, as to some positions being supreme probabilities amounting even to moral

Huet. Alnet. Quæstiones, p. 7.
Theodoret. Opp. T. iv. p. 479.

Heb. xi. 6.

B

The
Alliance of
Faith and
Reason.

certainties, which Revelation asserts, and Faith believes, to be positive Truths. Revelation cannot go against the clear evidence of Reason; for, even when it is originally given, it presupposes evidence of its proceeding from GOD and of its not being an illusion of the senses. We cannot admit that a

thing that comes from GOD should render our faculties useless. Yet an induction of Reason founded merely on the physical laws of Nature cannot avail to disprove a miracle or a mystery; for the ordinary course of Nature may be changed or suspended by GOD its Maker (Leibniz, Nouveaux Essais, IV. c. 18). The alliance of Faith and Reason is perpetually celebrated by a long line of Theologians and Writers on Christian Evidences as the basis of their operations, when they set about the exposition of Revealed Religion. Men are invited to repose their trust in the Invisible and Unknown GOD, because they already have the experience of ordinary life that such faith is at the same time reasonable and profitable. The uncertain issues of the future interpose no effectual obstruction to the fulfilment of the common occupations of society; and therefore à fortiori men should not decline obedience to the revealed Will of GOD, because of the seeming venture which it involves.

§. 2. But this assent to the Revealed Will of God necessarily presupposes those primary notions or intuitions, which generally obtain among rational beings, touching the existence of One Almighty Self-subsistent First Cause, the Maker and Preserver of all things. I say 'generally,' for polytheistic systems betray their origin in confused apprehension of what were poetic conceptions of the Unseen GOD. If some Australian or African tribes at present can form no conception of a GOD, it is a proof of a lowest stage of degradation, none against their ancestors' possession of the same. The Veddahs of Ceylon were supposed to have lost even articulate speech. Subsequent investigation has corrected that impression. On the other hand, what sublime ideas have been traditionally cherished among races most remote from modern civilization! A tribe on the Amazon believes the stars to

a Origen, adv. Celsum, p. 11. S. Joan. Damascen De Orthodoxa Fide,

cap. 98.

be rays of light from the face of the Creator-Spirit. The Popol Vuh prays for light and harvests to the One Power, whose symbols were the lightning-flash, the thunderbolt, and the hurricane. Whether such notions be innate in the human mind antecedently to instruction, or acquired (as most ideas are) by experience, by logical induction, or by the universal consent and tradition of mankind, may be disputed; but it is generally admitted that there are implanted in human nature such principles, as that Man may by them. arrive at a knowledge of GOD with the help of the reasoning faculty natural to him. The two chief sources of those notions concerning the existence of GOD are to be found in the consciousness of the reasoning being, first with respect to external objects, and secondly with respect to himself. "Because that which may be known of GOD is manifest in them; for GOD hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead."f "The heavens declare the glory of GOD, and the firmament showeth His handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." g

And again, the voice of conscience witnesses to a universal moral Law, which can only proceed from a higher and allpervading Power. "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." Some preliminary knowledge of GOD, however acquired, must precede Faith; "for he that cometh to GOD must believe that He is; and that knowledge must be in accordance with right Reason. For whereas Belief is a kind of assent, and no one can

h

Ps. xix. 1-3.
Rom ii. 14, 15.

i Heb. xi. 6.

Divine Authority the cause of Faith.

assent unless to that which appears true, therefore that which
is believed must needs appear to reason to be true either by
itself or by reason of something intermediate: and if we trace
backwards, we must needs come at last to some ultimate
term, which appears to reason to be true in itself and accord-
ing to itself. Therefore Faith doth not exclude Reason, but
supposes previous though not demonstrative Reason. Whence
our SAVIOUR Himself reduced the doctrine of the Faith which
He preached to certain things apparent in themselves, to wit,
miracles; that from things apparent and seen Reason might
assent to sayings that were not apparent. After He had
said, 'I and My FATHER are one,'' (which is not apparent in
itself), He said, 'If I do not the works of My FATHER, believe
Me not; but if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the
works; that ye may know, and believe, that the FATHER is
in Me, and I in Him.'k And it was the same with the
doctrine of the Apostles, of which it is said: "And they
went forth and preached everywhere, the LORD working with
them, and confirming the word with signs following."1

Demonstration necessitates the intellect to assent;
m and
therefore it is evident that reason of so explicit and cogent a
character doth not enter into the account of Faith, which is
an assent to propositions that involve the possibility of dis-
sent. That Reason may prepare the way for Faith may
readily be admitted; but that Reason is the cause of Faith
can no ways be allowed. When once we have accepted
mysteries on credible proofs, all we can do is to parry objec-
tions to what we cannot fully comprehend. The language of
S. Dionysius of Alexandria touching the mysteries of the
Apocalypse may be equally applied to all the fundamental
doctrines of the Gospel; he measured not, nor judged them
by his own reasoning, but assigned more to faith."

§. 3. Having now presupposed the exercise of that Reason,
whereby men "believe that GOD is," we come to inquire into
the formal cause of Faith; which is none other than Divine

1

Authority directing the Church and revealing the Scripture." Or "a stable assent unto things inevident, upon authority of a Divine Revealer." (Sir Thomas Browne, Of Vulgar Errors, Bk. vii., c. 18, p. 411.) S. Paul saith, "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?" "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of GOD." P Faith cometh by hearing or the ministry of the Church; and the hearing is that of the message which the Church is commissioned to unfold respecting the Will of GOD. This message is assumed by universal Christendom to be contained in what are termed the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament. We believe that the Scriptures were inspired and revealed by GOD, because the Church directed by the HOLY SPIRIT hath approved of them. Many heretical sects in the early ages admitted and circulated writings purporting to be Divine Revelations, which the Catholic Church utterly rejected. Whence S. Augustine saith, "I would not believe the Gospel, unless the authority of the Catholic Church moved me." He did not mean thereby to exalt the authority of the existing Church above that of the Canonical Scriptures, but that it was primarily owing to the authority of the Catholic Church that he believed the Scriptures; and, therefore, when urged to receive strange documents such as the Epistle of Manichæus as a revelation from GOD, he declined to do so, because they lacked the prescription of the Catholic Church.

But the authority of the Church's testimony to the authenticity of Scripture would vanish, if the Church had the power of putting forth fresh documents from time to time, purporting to be exemplars of the Divine Will; for she would be doing precisely what Augustine blamed the Manichees for doing. Therefore we must trace the prescription as an inheritance derived from the primary authority of the original

• Durand. in Lib. 3 Sent. Dist.

24, qu. 1, §. 16.

P Rom. x. 14-17.

S. Aug. Contra Epist. Manichæi. T. VIII. p. 154.