This I think I have gained, that I ought to be
the better believed in that which I shall say pertaining to
commendation; because I have proceeded so freely in that which
concerneth censure. And yet I have no purpose to enter into a
laudative of learning, or to make a hymn to the Muses (though I am
of opinion that it is long since their rites were duly celebrated),
but my intent is, without varnish or amplification justly to weigh
the dignity of knowledge in the balance with other things, and to
take the true value thereof by testimonies and arguments, divine and
human.
VI. (1) First, therefore, let us seek the dignity of knowledge in
the archetype or first platform, which is in the attributes and acts
of God, as far as they are revealed to man and may be observed with
sobriety; wherein we may not seek it by the name of learning, for
all learning is knowledge acquired, and all knowledge in God is
original, and therefore we must look for it by another name, that of
wisdom or sapience, as the Scriptures call it.
(2) It is so, then, that in the work of the creation we see a double
emanation of virtue from God; the one referring more properly to
power, the other to wisdom; the one expressed in making the
subsistence of the matter, and the other in disposing the beauty of
the form.
Pages:
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80