Page:On Science, its Divine Origin, Operation, Use and End.pdf/14

10 within his reach. It is his own fault, therefore, if he does not enrich his mind with endless stores of the most sublime and extended knowledge, because it is his own fault if he does not acquaint himself with the Word and works of the Great and Glorious God, and thereby ascend to the eternal world and its Divine Author, and thus connecting himself with the Infinite and Eternal, discover, to his unutterable joy, that the extent of science is unlimited, since it is impossible that what is infinite and eternal can ever be fully comprehended by what is finite and temporal.

By the degrees of science are not meant the degrees of its extent in the kingdoms of nature, or of the visible things of this outward world, which are called natural; for all those degrees make properly but one degree, viz., the natural degree of science. But by the degrees of science are to be understood its degrees as estimated on a scale ascending from the outermost principles of natural things to the inmost principles of things spiritual, which degrees are four in number, viz., natural, spiritual, celestial, and divine. By the natural degree of science, is meant science employed in the contemplation of the lower things of this world, for all such things are called natural; by the spiritual degree of science, is meant science employed in the contemplation of the interior truths of God's Holy Word and kingdom, for all