BOOK IX.] FAITH ABOVE KNOWLEDGE. 369 



which is no more than we do to a suspected witness. But 

 the faith imputed to Abraham for righteousness consisted in 

 a. particular, laughed at by Sarah, a who, in that respect, was 

 an image of the natural reason. And, therefore, the more 

 absurd and incredible any divine mystery is, the greater 

 honour we do to God in believing it ; and so much the more 

 noble the victory of faith : as sinners, the more they are 

 oppressed in conscience, yet relying upon the mercy of God 

 for salvation, honour him the more ; for all despair is a kind 

 of reproaching the deity. And if well considered, belief is 

 more worthy than knowledge ; such knowledge, I mean, as 

 we have at present : for in knowledge, tire human mind is 

 acted upon by sense, which results from material things ; but 

 in faith, the spirit is affected by spirit, which is the more 

 worthy agent. It is otherwise in the state of glory : ior, 

 then, faith shall cease, and we shall know as we are known. b 

 Let us, therefore, conclude, that sacred theology must be 

 drawn from the word and oracles of God ; c not from the 

 light of nature, or the dictates of reason. It is written, that 

 &quot; the heavens declare the glory of God :&quot; but we nowhere 

 find it, that the heavens declare the will of God, which is 

 pronounced a law, and a testimony, that men should do 

 according to it, &c. Nor does this hold only in the great 

 mysteries of the Godhead, of the creation, and 01 the redemp 

 tion, but belongs, also, to the true interpretation of the 

 moral law. &quot; Love your enemies, do good to them that hate 

 you,&quot; ifcc., &quot; that ye may be the children of your heavenly 

 father, who sends his rain upon the just and the unjust.&quot;* 

 Which words are more than human, 



&quot; Nee vox hominem sonat.&quot; e 



and go beyond the light of nature. So the heathen poets, 

 especially when they speak pathetically, frequently expostu 

 late with laws and moral doctrines, (though these arc far 

 more easy and indulgent than divine laws), as if they had a 

 kind of malignant opposition to the freedom of nature, 



&quot; Et quod natura remittit 



Invida jura negant.&quot; 



according to the expression of Dendamis, the Indian, to the 

 messengers of Alexander; viz., &quot; That he had heard, indeed, 



Gen. xviii. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. c Psal. xviii, 2. 



* Matt. v. 44, 4i&amp;gt;, ^Eneid, i. 332. l Ovid, Metara. * 330. 



