|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 8
(50) From these considerations I pass on to the Hebrew State, which I
describe at some length, in order to trace the manner in which Religion
acquired the force of law, and to touch on other noteworthy points. (51) I
then prove, that the holders of sovereign power are the depositories and
interpreters of religious no less than of civil ordinances, and that they
alone have the right to decide what is just or unjust, pious or impious;
lastly, I conclude by showing, that they best retain this right and secure
safety to their state by allowing every man to think what he likes, and say
what he thinks.
(52) Such, Philosophical Reader, are the questions I submit to your notice,
counting on your approval, for the subject matter of the whole book and of
the several chapters is important and profitable. (53) I would say more, but
I do not want my preface to extend to a volume, especially as I know that
its leading propositions are to Philosophers but common places. (54) To the
rest of mankind I care not to commend my treatise, for I cannot expect that
it contains anything to please them: I know how deeply rooted are the
prejudices embraced under the name of religion; I am aware that in the mind
of the masses superstition is no less deeply rooted than fear; I recognize
that their constancy is mere obstinacy, and that they are led to praise or
blame by impulse rather than reason. (55) Therefore the multitude, and those
of like passions with the multitude, I ask not to read my book; nay, I would
rather that they should utterly neglect it, than that they should
misinterpret it after their wont. (56) They would gain no good themselves,
and might prove a stumbling-block to others, whose philosophy is hampered by
the belief that Reason is a mere handmaid to Theology, and whom I seek in
this work especially to benefit. (57) But as there will be many who have
neither the leisure, nor, perhaps, the inclination to read through all I
have written, I feel bound here, as at the end of my treatise, to declare
that I have written nothing, which I do not most willingly submit to the
examination and judgment of my country's rulers, and that I am ready to
retract anything, which they shall decide to be repugnant to the laws or
prejudicial to the public good. (58) I know that I am a man and, as a
man, liable to error, but against error I have taken scrupulous care, and
striven to keep in entire accordance with the laws of my country, with
loyalty, and with morality.
CHAPTER I. - Of Prophecy
(1) Prophecy, or revelation is sure knowledge revealed by God to man. (2) A
prophet is one who interprets the revelations of God {insights} to those who
are unable to attain to sure knowledge of the matters revealed, and
therefore can only apprehend them by simple faith.
(3) The Hebrew word for prophet is "naw-vee'", Strong:5030, [Endnote 1]
i.e. speaker or interpreter, but in Scripture its meaning is restricted to
interpreter of God, as we may learn from Exodus vii:1, where God says to
Moses, "See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall
be thy prophet;" implying that, since in interpreting Moses' words to
Pharaoh, Aaron acted the part of a prophet, Moses would be to Pharaoh as a
god, or in the attitude of a god.
(4) Prophets I will treat of in the next chapter, and at present consider
prophecy.
(5) Now it is evident, from the definition above given, that prophecy really
includes ordinary knowledge; for the knowledge which we acquire by our
natural faculties depends on knowledge of God and His eternal laws; but
ordinary knowledge is common to all men as men, and rests on foundations
which all share, whereas the multitude always strains after rarities
and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature; so that, when
prophecy is talked of, ordinary knowledge is not supposed to be included.
(6) Nevertheless it has as much right as any other to be called Divine, for
God's nature, in so far as we share therein, and God's laws, dictate it to
us; nor does it suffer from that to which we give the preeminence, except in
so far as the latter transcends its limits and cannot be accounted for by
natural laws taken in themselves. (7) In respect to the certainty it
involves, and the source from which it is derived, i.e. God, ordinary,
knowledge is no whit inferior to prophetic, unless indeed we believe, or
rather dream, that the prophets had human bodies but superhuman minds, and
therefore that their sensations and consciousness were entirely different
from our own.
(8) But, although ordinary knowledge is Divine, its professors cannot be
called prophets [Endnote 2], for they teach what the rest of mankind could
perceive and apprehend, not merely by simple faith, but as surely and
honourably as themselves.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|