|
If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would
appear to man as it is: infinite. - Blake |
|
They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountainhead. - Thoreau (While tracing up that stream from where I found myself I encountered the following): |
! --------------------------------
(Tracing farther still reveals...):
! --------------------------------
(Any relation between Descartes' Analytic |
|
The mind's highest good is the knowledge of God, and the mind's highest virtue is to know God. - Spinoza |
|
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind. - Jesus |
|
Our mind, in so far as it knows itself and the body under the form of eternity, has to that extent necessarily a knowledge of God, and knows that it is in God, and is conceived through God. - Spinoza |
|
The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. - Jesus |
|
I became thoroughly convinced, that the Bible leaves
reason absolutely free,
that it has nothing in common with
philosophy,
in fact, that Revelation and
Philosophy
stand on different footings. ...
... the multitude - ever prone to superstition, and caring
more for the shreds of antiquity than for eternal
truths - pays homage to the
Books of the Bible, rather than to the
Word of God. I show that the
Word of God has not been revealed as a
certain number of books, but was
displayed to the prophets as a simple idea
of the Divine mind, namely, obedience to
God in singleness of heart, and in the
practice of justice and charity; and
I further point out, that this doctrine
is set forth in Scripture in
accordance with the opinions and
understandings of those, among whom the
Apostles and Prophets preached, to the
end that men might receive it
willingly, and with their whole heart. ...
... Those who look upon the Bible as a message sent down by God from Heaven
to men, will doubtless cry out that I have committed the sin against the
Holy Ghost because I have asserted that the Word of God [The Bible] is faulty,
mutilated, tampered with, and inconsistent; that we possess it only in
fragments, and that the original of the covenant which God made with the
Jews has been lost. However, I have no doubt that a little reflection
will cause them to desist from their uproar: for not only reason but the
expressed opinions of prophets and apostles openly proclaim that God's
eternal Word and covenant, no less than true religion, is Divinely inscribed
in human hearts, that is, in the human mind, and that this is the true
original of God's covenant, stamped with His own seal, namely, the idea of
Himself, as it were, with the image of His Godhood.
Spinoza, TPT |
|
... We may be able quite to comprehend that God can communicate immediately with man, for without the intervention of bodily means He communicates to our minds His essence; still, a man who can by pure intuition comprehend ideas which are neither contained in nor deducible from the foundations of our natural knowledge, must necessarily possess a mind far superior to those of his fellow men, nor do I believe that any have been so endowed save Christ. To Him the ordinances of God leading men to salvation were revealed directly without words or visions, ... Christ communed with God mind to mind. Spinoza, TPT |
|
...I will speak on the three subjects on which you desire me
to disclose my sentiments, and tell you, first, that
my opinion concerning
God differs widely from that which is ordinarily
defended by modern Christians. For I hold that
God is of all things the cause immanent, as the
phrase is, not transient.
I say that all things are in God and move in God,
thus agreeing with Paul, and, perhaps, with all the ancient
philosophers, though the phraseology may be
different; I will even venture to affirm that I agree with all the
ancient Hebrews, in so far as one may judge from their
traditions, though these are in many ways corrupted. The supposition
of some, that I endeavour to prove in the
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus [TPT] the unity of
God and Nature (meaning by the latter a certain mass or corporeal
matter), is wholly erroneous.
As regards miracles, I am of opinion that the revelation of
God can
only be established by the wisdom of the
doctrine, not by miracles, or in other words by ignorance. This I
have shown at sufficient length in Chapter 6 [TPT]
concerning miracles. I will here only add, that I make this chief
distinction between religion
and superstition, that the
latter is founded on ignorance, the former on knowledge;
this, I take it,
is the reason why Christians are
distinguished from the rest of the world, not by faith,
nor by charity,
nor by the other fruits of the Holy Spirit, but
solely by their opinions, inasmuch as they defend their cause, like
everyone else, by miracles, that is by ignorance,
which is the source of all malice; thus they turn a faith,
which may be true, into
superstition.
Lastly, in order to disclose
my opinions on the third point, I will tell you that
I do not think it necessary for salvation to know
Christ according to the flesh: but with regard to the
Eternal Son of God, that is the Eternal
Wisdom of God, which has manifested itself
in all things and especially in the
human mind, and above all in
Christ Jesus, the case is far otherwise.
For without this no one can come to a state of blessedness,
inasmuch as it alone teaches, what is true or false, good or evil.
And, inasmuch as this wisdom was made
especially manifest through Christ Jesus,
as I have said, His disciples
preached it, in so far as it was revealed to
them through Him, and thus showed that they could rejoice in that
spirit of Christ more than the rest of mankind. The
doctrines added by certain churches, such as that
God took upon Himself human nature, I have expressly said that I
do not understand; in fact, to speak the truth, they seem to
me no less absurd than would a statement, that a circle
had taken upon itself the nature of a square. This I think
will be sufficient explanation of my opinions concerning the
three points mentioned. Whether it will be satisfactory to
Christians you will know better than I...
Spinoza, Letter 21 |
|
It remains for me to show that between faith or
theology, and philosophy, there is no connection, nor affinity.
I think no one will dispute the fact who has knowledge of the aim
and foundations of the two subjects, for they are as wide apart as the
poles. Spinoza, TPT ...Sublime speculations have, in my opinion, no bearing on Scripture. As far as I am concerned I have never learnt or been able to learn any of God's eternal attributes from Holy Scripture. Spinoza, Letter 34 |
I have thought it worth while here to call attention to this, in order to show by this example how the knowledge of particular things, which I have called intuitive or of the third kind, is potent, and more powerful than the universal knowledge, which I have styled knowledge of the second kind [reason]. For, although in Part 1 I showed in general terms, that all things (and consequently, also, the human mind) depend as to their essence and existence on God, yet that demonstration, though legitimate and placed beyond the chances of doubt, does not affect our mind so much, as when the same conclusion is derived from the actual essence of some particular thing, which we say depends on God." - Spinoza (The Ethics)
|
...it is clear, that we, in many cases, perceive and form our general notions:-- [ 1. Knowledge of the First Kind, Opinion or Imagination:] From particular things represented to our intellect fragmentarily, confusedly, and without order through our senses; I have settled to call such perceptions by the name of knowledge from the mere suggestions of experience. From symbols, e.g., from the fact of having read or heard certain words we remember things and form certain ideas concerning them, similar to those through which we imagine things. I shall call both these ways of regarding things knowledge of the first kind, opinion, or imagination. [ 2. Knowledge of the Second Kind, Reason:] From the fact that we have notions common to all men, and adequate ideas of the properties of things; this I call reason and knowledge of the second kind. [ 3. Knowledge of the Third Kind, Intuition (direct, non-inferential knowledge):] Besides these two kinds of knowledge, there is, as I will hereafter show, a third kind of knowledge, which we will call intuition. This kind of knowledge proceeds from an adequate idea of the absolute essence of certain attributes of God to the adequate knowledge of the essence of things. Spinoza, The Ethics |
|
...therefore (if once our knowledge and love come to embrace that
without which we can neither be, nor be understood, and which is in
no way corporeal) how incomparably greater and more glorious will and
must be the kind of effects resulting from this union; for these must
necessarily be commensurate with the thing with which it is united.
And when we become aware of these excellent effects, then we may say with
truth, that we have been born again. For our first birth took place when
we were united with the body, through which the activities and movements
of the [vital] spirits have arisen; but this our other or second birth
will take place when we become aware in us of entirely different effects
of love, commensurate with the knowledge of this incorporeal object,
and as different from the first as the corporeal is different from the
incorporeal, spirit from flesh. And this may, therefore, all the more
justly and truly be called Regeneration, inasmuch as only from this
love and union does Eternal and unchangeable existence ensue...
Spinoza, ST |