Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/296

290 such an eminent position among the sources of revelation that "without their assiduous study and use theology can- not be placed on a true footing, or treated as its dignity demands. For although it is right and proper that students in academies and schools should be chiefly exercised in acquiring- a scientific knowledge of dogma, by means of reasoning from the Articles of Faith to their consequences, According to the rules of approved and sound philosophy— nevertheless the judicious and instructed theologian will by no means pass by that method of doctrinal demonstration which draws its proof from the authority of the Bible; "for theology does not receive her first principles from any other science, but immediately from God by revelation. And, therefore, she does not receive of other sciences as from a superior, but uses them as her inferiors or hand- maids." It is this view of doctrinal teaching which is laid down and recommended by the prince of theologians, St. Thomas of Aquin; who moreover shows — such being the essential character of Christian theology — how she can defend her own principles against attack: "If the ad- versary," he says, "do but grant any portion of the divine revelation, we have an argument against him; thus, against a heretic we can employ Scripture authority, and against those who deny one article we can use another. But if our opponent reject divine revelation entirely, there is no way left to prove the Articles of Faith by reasoning ; we can only solve the difficulties which are raised against them." Care must be taken, then, that beginners approach the study of the Bible well prepared and furnished; otherwise, just hopes will be frustrated, or, perchance, what is worse, they will unthinkingly risk the danger of error, falling an easy prey to the sophisms and labored erudition of the rationalists. The best preparation will be a conscientious application to philosophy and theology