HKB
The | first corruption of knowledge, he | argues, resulted from the Egyptians' | concealment of wisdom "as sacred | Mysteries." The current age of | inquiry benefitted from "the | dissolution of the ABBYES, whereby | their Libraries came forth into the | light, and fell into industrious Mens | hands." Surrounded by the warring | forces of contrary religions (the | society's rooms at Gresham College, | London, were occupied by soldiers in | 1658), the founders of the Royal | Society--according to Sprat's | account--were "invincibly arm'd" not | only against scholastic Catholicism, | but against the "inchantments of | ENTHUSIASM" and "spiritual Frensies" | that sometimes characterized the | Protestant revolutionaries. | | In Bacon's project, there is an | explicit, delineated role for the | study of divinity, which he carefully | separates from his own work. Reason | is at work "in the conception and | apprehension of the mysteries of God | to us revealed" and in "the inferring | and deriving of doctrine and | direction thereupon" (III, 479). In | the first instance reason stirs | itself only to grasp and illustrate | revelation; it does not inquire. This | is the foundation of Bacon's | distinction between true natural | philosophy, which inquires into the | world as God's manifestation of his | GLORY or power, and true theology, | which piously interprets the | scripturally revealed meaning of | God's inscrutable will. The natural | world declares God's glory but not | his will (III, 478). Reason's power | in theology therefore "consisteth of | probation and argument." lt | formulates doctrine only insofar as | God's revelation, largely or wholly | through Scripture, makes it possible. | The Lord "doth grift [graft) his | revelations and holy doctrine upon | the notions of our reason, and | applieth his inspirations to open our | understanding" (III, 480). (pp. 172- | 173) GRATIFY HIM?{19} But if any man without | 19. Job 13, 7-9: any sinister humour doth indeed make doubt | Authorized Version: Will ye speak that this digging further and further into | wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully | for him? Will ye accept his person? | will ye contend for God? Is it good | that he should search you out? as one | man mocketh another, do ye so mock | him? the mine of natural knowledge{20} is a | 20. This image is also used in A.L. Sp. thing without example and uncommended in | III, 351, I, 16 where Bacon refers to the Scriptures, or fruitless; let him | Democritus (Vert's footnote) remember and be instructed; for behold it | was not that pure light of natural | knowledge, whereby man in paradise was | able to give unto every living creature a | name according to his propriety{21}, which | 21. Genesis 2,19-20 gave occasion to the fall; but it was an | Geneva Bible: