A Hint to Sceptics
Reason is always striving, always at a loss; and of necessity, it must so come to pass, while it is exercised about that which is not its proper object. Let us be content at last to know God by his own methods, at least so much of Him as He is pleased to reveal to us in the Sacred Scriptures. To apprehend them to be the Word of God is all our reason has to do, for all beyond it is the work of faith, which is the seal of Heaven impressed upon our human understanding.—Dryden.
Bishop Mant, writing in a more scientific age than that in which Dryden flourished, says:
“Persons have, perhaps, been sometimes found who, from their attachment to pursuits of science, and to the acquisition of general knowledge, have appeared sceptical upon the subject of Divine revelation. But others, at least equally endowed with intellectual powers, and equally rich in intellectual acquirements, have been serious, rational, and conscientious believers. Amongst these may be ranked the great apostle, St. Paul, who has been rarely surpassed in strength of understanding, or in the treasures of a cultivated mind; and in connexion with him it may be added, that ‘Luke, the beloved physician, whose praise is in the Gospel,’ was professionally acquainted with the operations of nature, and the effects of secondary causes, and thus qualified to appreciate the miraculous and supernatural character of the works which he has recorded as foundations of our belief.”