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(8.)

But although I have not yet found the specific ground which Pausdom Popery/Catholicism, Jodendom Judaism, or Heidendom Paganism, considered as such, could not give me: yet I have a firm foundation in common with them all, and a second foundation in common with a part of them. The first is Reden Reason, which serves as a light to all men; provided it is pure, not hindered or clouded by prejudice or passions. The other is the Schift Scripture, inspired by God: but likewise pure in itself; as viewed by us as if we had never read the Scripture: and thus outside all human prejudice, from translations from the Hebrew and Greek, in which it was originally written, and from the explanation of the Teachers, old or new. These two do not stand one under the other: but actually next to each other. It was first conceived by Filo den Jode Philo the Jew, that he, inclined to explain the Scripture allegorically and not being satisfied with that which Paul writes of Sarah and Hagar in Galatians 4:22, brought that distinction of Woman and Handmaid to the Scripture and Reason; saying it was intended thereby that philosophy and natural wit must bow under the Scripture. Since then, that proverb has grown cold in the mouths of our scriptural scholars, and after Philo said it once, it was accepted as a fixed rule in Godgeleerdheid Theology.

But the truth is that Reason must go before the Scripture; because the Scripture presupposes Reason. I say healthy Reason; to which the Scripture must reveal itself and make it appear that it is from God. After that, Reason stands next to the Scripture, as speaking of things of which the Scripture is silent: and the Scripture stands next to Reason, as it teaches us something entirely different, and which is not subject to the investigation of our understanding. Finally, it is nonetheless so that the Scripture is above Reason: not as Woman and Mistress (for they each have their distinct households) but as one who is of higher nobility and of greater means: as God therein reveals to us what was never understood by human intellect. original: "1 Kor. 2:9" Referring to the verse: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." Nevertheless, it happens that they meet each other on the way, or come together in a house; and thus lend a hand to each other: but both as free people; only with that difference, that Reason, as the lesser, always

(9.)

shows reverence to the Scripture. When it is then said that a Christian must bring his understanding into captivity under God's Word: then the understanding is viewed as it is, with that clouding and infection that clings to us; and in regard to those things which, being above our comprehension, are revealed to us in God's Word, and are to be believed as the Scripture says, though we do not understand how. But not that we must believe it as men present it to us; with their translations and interpretations, which in many places are very diverse. God's Word is then considered originally, as it has come down from God, and not yet explained thus or so by any man: and Reason, not as it first comes to us and is hindered by prejudices and passions, but purified thereof by the same Spirit that inspired the Scripture. Those are the two fundamental principles of upright knowledge in natural and spiritual matters.

Yet there is still this distinction: that Reason is the ground and rule of the knowledge of natural things: of which the Scripture does not treat to teach us, but only speaks of them as things known to us in their nature; in order to make, besides a civil use, also a good use in the spiritual. But in matters of saligheid salvation, God's Word alone is the ground and rule of faith and life; without Reason being able to add anything thereto, or take from it, or change it: yet it has here a twofold use. The first is that it tests the writings which are said to be from God; or from the knowledge that man naturally has of God, it shows the marks of that divinity: and after that, it must understand from the sense of the words what kind of teachings they are that are written therein for our salvation.

In addition to this, Scripture and Reason offer mutual help to each other in each other's affairs. For if the Scripture speaks in a natural way of natural things, since it never lies: so must Reason teach how one shall understand the Scripture there, according to the requirement of the nature of things. So it is with the description of the course and the light of the Sun in the 19th Psalm; and there are many such places. Or if something occurs in Nature where our own experience is lacking to

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