Works of President Edwards, Vol. 4 of 4 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Works of President Edwards, Vol. 4 of 4

By divinity is meant, that science or doctrine which comprehends all those truths and rules which concern the great business of reli ion. There are vari ous kinds of arts and sciences taught and learned in t e schools, which are conversant about various objects about the works of nature in general, as philosophy; or the visible heavens, as astronomy or the sea, as navigation; or the earth, as geography or the body of man, as physio and anatomy or the soul of man, with regard to its natural powers and qualities, as logic and pneumatology; or about human government, as politics and juris prudence. But there is one science, or one certain kind of knowledge and doctrine, which is above all the rest, as it is concerning God and the great business of religion: this is divinity which is not learned, as other sciences, merely by the improvement of man's natural reason, but is taught by God himself in a certain book that he hath given for that end, full of instruction. This is the rule which God hath given to the world to be their guide in searching after this kind of knowledge, and is a summary of all things of this nature needful for us to know. Upon this account divinity is rather called a doctrine, than an art or science.

Indeed there is what is called natural religion or divinity. There are many truths concerning God, and our duty to him, which are evident by the light of nature. But Christian divinity, properly so called, is not evident by the light of nature; it depends on revelation. Such are our circumstances now in our fallen state, that nothing which it is needful for us to know concerning God, is manifest by the light of nature in the manner in which it is necessary for us to know it. For the knowledge of no truth in divinity is of any significance to us, any otherwise than, as it some way or other belongs to the gospel scheme, or as it relates to a Mediator. But the light of nature teaches us no truth of divinity in this matter. Therefore it cannot be said, that we come to the knowledge of any part of Christian divinity by the light of nature. The light of nature teaches no truth as it is in Jesus. It is only the word of God, contained in the Old and New Testament, which teaches us Christian divinity.

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