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Show : THE FL SYLLPJS : With a Refutation of ths Errors Which It Condemns i j - Translated from the Italian of L'Falconi. Fourteenth Error "Philosophy is to be studied without any reference to supernatural su-pernatural revelation." Refutation Our adversaries desire that philosophy be studied without taking tak-ing any account of revelat'on. They hate revelation cane pcius et angtie. an 1 laud to the skits the unbelievers unbe-lievers who. in their foolish pride, sc. k to emancipate themselves from its do- , minion, claiming that thus alone can , they be free to discuss the great prob- : I lerrs relating to God, nan and natun. 1 Let them exult themselves a i much as they please, those proud, vain men; ; they are at best'but fool-?, who refuse to profit by the light which would il- lumine the darkness of their understanding under-standing and guide them sufely in their : journeyings over unknown or hitherto i unexplored paths of science. They deny to God that reasonable obedience which they owe him as the author of their being, who, in order to assist poor, weak humanity, has designed to reveal truths i-. t important, and who has been pleatied to render those truths certain by arguments that will not admit of j truth. They obstinately close their eyes to the truth, and. with inexplicable folly, reject the source of the' sublimest cognitions cognitions which exalt reason rea-son above itself, because they show the marvelous relation? and connection existing ex-isting between the physical, intellectual intellect-ual and moral orders. Wickedly and foolishly wise, our adversaries. are content con-tent to grope about in darkness even regarding those truths which alsolutely speaking, reason can itself discover, but J which revelation places beyond doubt. ! This hi not true philosophy. The true : philosopher will accept truths wherever : he finds them; and much more so when j he can receive them from God. Revela- j tion is tl -thed with the attribute of pos- J itive and absolute certitude. Testi- ; monia tua, Domine credibilia facto sunt i nimis1. History takes rank among the : recognized sources of truth; and yet h:"storical truth can never possess more j than an extrinsic certitude. Now, if j we are constrained to yield to the authority au-thority of human truth; if we accept as i true things which we have not our- ' selves witnessed, if we confidently rely j upon the testimony of persons worthy ' of credit, how much more should we I place implicit credence in things which j are not only established by the direct , tectimony of eye-witnesses, but which 1 were accompanied by the most etupen- j dous miracles? Section III, Indiffertieim j Latudinarianism. Fifteenth Error "Every man is free I to embrace and profess that religion j which, guided by the light of reason, he ' shall consider true." ! Refutation In the first place, this 1 proposition supposes that God has never sipoken. and never desired to f speak to man concerning the particu- lar form of worship which He wishes to be paid to Him. For, granted that God has once vouchsafed "to sne.tk to us, reason is loud in the assertion that it is our duty to reverently receive His commands. No one can refuse obedience obed-ience to the will of the Lord, without thereby failing in the worship due the Supreme Being and rendering himself guilty of rebellion like the prevaricating prevaricat-ing angels. Now, it isi an undoubted fact, attested by the whole human race, j that God has manifested Himself to ; man. and prescribed a particular form , of worship by which He desires man : to recognize His supreme dominion over all things, and to adore Him as the giver of all good. Hence the sacrifices - of Cain and Abel, -toe ( solemnity used by Enos in the ' invocation of the name of the Lord. I the holocausts, of Noah and Abraham, i handed down by tradition from father ' to son, until God revealed, through J!.- sc-s, the manner in which ho desired to be worshiped by a particular people. ,, whom he promised the redemption of jail mankind a promise which, in tic-fulness tic-fulness of time, was realized by our divine di-vine Savior. This is authentic history which all the sophisms of ancient and modern inlidenitly have not been ab.- to deny. It is a solemn revelation, v, iiied by numberless prodigies, and attested at-tested by an entire people a revelation, revela-tion, by the light of which learned men have been able to satisfactorily explain ex-plain certain remnants of truth retained re-tained by the tuitions after the di.-por-sion of men. as St. Augustine, m greatest of all Christian philo.--i pher-. has shown in his immortal w oi k. . Civitate Dei. If God had not manifested manifest-ed himself to man. in what a t r i i i . I abyss of anxiety would he not i.. plunged.' How could he be certa::; whether such and such a l'oi'in of worship wor-ship would be pleasing or displeasir-g j to Almighty God? How could he know j with what solemnity to cl,.-;he bis rit.--! i and sacrifices? Might he not with go.. ' reason fear that God would view j displeasure the killing of animals an the destruction of his animals? ( ;" what fearful crimes were no: tiiec j guilty, who deviated from the tradi-I tradi-I tional form of divine worship? Did they not at last go so far in the e es.-; I of their idolatry as to kill a.nd saeritice I their fellow beings and even then par-; par-; ents and wives, shouting and dam-liv.; with demoniacal glee, as ih.eir unfortunate' unfor-tunate' victims expired in Cue burning embrace of a mullock or other bloodstained blood-stained idol? Man is free to choose his own religion! relig-ion! How will reason ascertain the true and just relations f the human to the divine nature? How will it determine de-termine its aspirations after the infinite; infi-nite; how penetrate the designs of divine di-vine wisdom? How. 'in its inherent weakness, discover what is right and proper in this important matter? And will a just and holy God accent an unjust and unholy worsh-ip? Will God, who is truth itself, recognize an idolatrous idola-trous superstitious and false religion? Without the intervention of Goel's word what knowledge could we possibly possess pos-sess of divine things? Without revelation revel-ation we would know nothing of the terue religion, and without an infallible infal-lible oracle of truth we could not ascertain as-certain what value should be attached to revelation or even where it was to be found But God has spoken, therefore there-fore man cannot be indifferent, and should not neglect to assure himself of that fact, which he may easily do by weighing in the balance of reason motives of credibility. And having r once obtained that assurance he is riot I j free in his choice of religion, but is, on ' the contrary, morally bound to embrace that which the Creator has established. Our Savoir himself proclaims this) truth: He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you, d.--. spiseth me. and he that despiseth me. : despiseth him that sent me. fie that? . believeth shall be saved, but he thit I believeth not shall be condemned. If, therefore, unbelievers are in good faith they will not be able to resist the logij of this reasoning: they will endeavor to ascertain whether God has really spoken, spo-ken, and having assured themselves of that fact they will humbly and reverently rever-ently submit to the divine word. I (To Be Continued.) I |