Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 426

402

§ 73.

This

THIS PRIXCIPIUM

not the case at all,

is

and he who thinks that the Holy-

Spirit really gave the Scripture, but

tion to our natural reason, trary, the

the

Holy

Spirit,

is

now leaves

its

wofully mistaken.

who gave

the Scriptures,

appropria-

On

the con-

is

Himself

perpetual author (auctor perpetuus) of all appropria-

tion of their contents by It is the

vidual.

the

[Div. Ill

human

Holy

of all application to the indi-

by illumination, enables

consciousness to take up into itself the sub-

stance of the Scripture;

human

and

Spirit who,

in the course of ages leads our

consciousness to ever richer insights into

its

con-

and who, while this process continues, imparts to the God, as they reach the years of discretion, that personal application of the Word, which, after the Divine Only, counsel, is both intended and indispensable for them. however many-sided and incisive this constant working of the Holy Spirit may be, it brings no new content (and herein lies the nerve of this second distinction), no increased supply of material, no enlargement of the substance A believer of the nineteenth of the knowledge of God. century knows much more than a believer of the tenth or third century could know, but that additional knowledge is ever dug from the selfsame gold mine; and that former generations stood behind in wealth of knowledge, can only be explained by the fact, that in those times the working of the mine was not so far advanced. This, of course, does not imply that the former generations fell short in knowledge of God, but simply, that the development of the human consciousness in those times did not make such demands on our knowledge of God. A child can be equally rich in his God as the full-grown man, but because the consciousness of the adult is more richly unfolded, he holds the knowledge of God With the fuller likewise in a more richly unfolded form. development of the consciousness of humanity the increase tent;

elect of

of insight into the contents of the Scriptures keeps equal step.

But however

far this

increase

of

knowledge may

proceed in the future, it will never be able to draw its material from any other source than from the Holy Scripture.

And

it is

for this reason, that for the several nations also.

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