Biblia Sacra (Gutenberg Bible)

For it is both word, and reason, and calculation, and the cause of each single thing by which those things exist which subsist, all of which we rightly understand in Christ.

Large red decorative initial 'H' with blue penwork flourishes.
This the learned Plato did not know. This the eloquent Demosthenes was ignorant of. "I will destroy," he says, "the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject." True wisdom destroys false wisdom, and it is preached as the folly of the preaching in which we are; yet, Paul speaks wisdom among the perfect. Not, however, the wisdom of this world, which is destroyed, nor of the princes, but they speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, hidden, which God predestined before the ages. Christ is the wisdom of God. For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This wisdom is hidden in a mystery, of which the title of the ninth psalm is noted: "For the hidden things of the son," in which are all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God hidden. And he who was hidden in a mystery was predestined before the ages; predestined, however, and prefigured in the law and the prophets. Whence also the prophets were called "seers," because they saw him whom others did not see. Abraham saw his day and was glad. The heavens were opened to Ezekiel, which were closed to the sinful people. "Reveal," says David, "my eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of your law." For the law is spiritual, and there is need of revelation that it may be understood, and with revealed face we contemplate the glory of God. The book in the Apocalypse is shown sealed with seven seals, which if you give to a man who knows letters to read, he will answer you: "I cannot. For it is sealed." How many today think they know letters, yet hold a sealed book and cannot open it, unless he who holds the key of David unlocks it, who opens and no one shuts, shuts and no one opens. In the Acts of the Apostles, the holy eunuch—or rather the "learned" man, for so the Holy Scripture calls him—when he reads the prophet Isaiah, questioned by Philip: "Do you think you understand what you read?" He answered: "How can I, unless someone teaches me?" I speak for myself meanwhile. I am neither holier nor more studious than this eunuch, who came from Ethiopia, that is, from the furthest ends of the world, to the temple. He left the royal court and was such a lover of the divine law and knowledge that he even read the sacred letters in his carriage. And yet, while he held the book, and the words of the Lord were always in his thought, and his tongue flew and his lips resounded, he was ignorant of him whom, unknowing, he venerated in the book. Philip comes; he shows him Jesus, who lay hidden and closed in the letter. Oh, the wondrous virtue of the teacher! At that same hour the eunuch believed, was baptized, and became a faithful and holy master from a disciple, finding more in the desert fountain of the church than he had in the gilded temple of the synagogue.

Large blue decorative initial 'H' with red penwork flourishes.
These things have been briefly touched upon by me, so that the narrowness of the page might not allow me to wander further, so that you might understand that one cannot enter into the sacred scriptures without a guide and a shown path. I am silent about grammarians, rhetoricians, philosophers, geometers, dialecticians, musicians, astronomers, astrologers, and physicians, whose knowledge is quite useful enough to mortals and is divided into three parts: into doctrine, reason, and use. Let me come to the lesser arts, and those which are administered not so much by the tongue as by the hand. Farmers, masons, metalworkers, woodcutters, weavers, fullers, and others who fashion various furnishings and humble works cannot be without a teacher in what they desire. Physicians promise what belongs to medicine; smiths handle the tools of the smith. The art of the scriptures alone is that which...