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| Preface.
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Preface.
When men
seek to know God, and bend their minds according to the capacity of
human weakness to the understanding of the Trinity; learning, as
they must, by experience, the wearisome difficulties of the task,
whether from the sight itself of the mind striving to gaze upon
light unapproachable, or, indeed, from the manifold and various
modes of speech employed in the sacred writings (wherein, as it
seems to me, the mind is nothing else but roughly exercised, in
order that it may find sweetness when glorified by the grace of
Christ);—such men, I say, when they have dispelled every
ambiguity, and arrived at something certain, ought of all others
most easily to make allowance for those who err in the
investigation of so deep a secret. But there are two things most
hard to bear with, in the case of those who are in error: hasty
assumption before the truth is made plain; and, when it has been
made plain, defence of the falsehood thus hastily assumed. From
which two faults, inimical as they are to the finding out of the
truth, and to the handling of the divine and sacred books, should
God, as I pray and hope, defend and protect me with the shield of
His good will,209
and with the
grace of His mercy, I will not be slow to search out the substance
of God, whether through His Scripture or through the creature. For
both of these are set forth for our contemplation to this end, that
He may Himself be sought, and Himself be loved, who inspired the
one, and created the other. Nor shall I be afraid of giving my
opinion, in which I shall more desire to be examined by the
upright, than fear to be carped at by the perverse. For charity,
most excellent and unassuming, gratefully accepts the dovelike eye;
but for the dog’s tooth nothing remains, save either to shun it
by the most cautious humility, or to blunt it by the most solid
truth; and far rather would I be censured by any one whatsoever,
than be praised by either the erring or the flatterer. For the
lover of truth need fear no one’s censure. For he that censures,
must needs be either enemy or friend. And if an enemy reviles, he
must be borne with: but a friend, if he errs, must be taught; if he
teaches, listened to. But if one who errs praises you, he confirms
your error; if one who flatters, he seduces you into error. “Let
the righteous,” therefore, “smite me, it shall be a kindness;
and let him reprove me; but the oil of the sinner shall not anoint
my head.”210
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