Benedictus de Spinoza

“ For as we have already seen that in former times the principles of faith were revealed and written in harmony with the capacities and opinions of prophets and people, so now is every; one held bound to accommodate his faith with his opinions, in order that he may cleave to it without mental repugnance, without hesitation or reserve; for we have shown that faith required, not so much absolute truth, as piety or submissiveness, and that it is only good and salutary by reason of the obedience it secures ”

“ To proceed with order, then, let us recur to the grand intent of the Scriptures at large, which will give us a true standard of faith. Now we have seen that the purpose of Scripture was solely to teach obedience. This I hold to be undeniable. For who does not see that either Testament is nothing from beginning to end but a doctrine and discipline of obedience? and that all the Scripture teaching has no other end but to induce mankind to obey of their own free will? Moses did not attempt to convince the Israelites by reasoning, he bound them by covenants, by oaths, by benefits conferred ”

“ Now these do not require dogmas that are absolutely true, but such only as are needful to obedience and to strengthen the mind in neighbourly love, in which sense alone can any man be said to be in God, and God in him, as the Apostle John has it.
Since, therefore, the faith of every man is to be held good and profitable, or the contrary, as it conduces to obedience or to disobedience, and not as it is in itself either true or false, and no one questions the great diversities that occur in the general dispositions of men, — that all cannot by their nature alike agree in all things ”

“ To have a right conception of the nature of faith, it is especially necessary to know that Scripture was adapted to the capacity, not of the prophets only, but of the thoughtless and inconstant Jewish people, no one of whom with the slightest attention could misunderstand it. Whoever accepts indiscriminately as the universal and absolute doctrine of God all that is comprised in the Scriptures, however, does not exactly know what is adapted to common apprehension ”

“ As in the nature of things, then, that dogma which to one is pious and profitable is to another impious and profitless, therefore are all dogmas to be judged by their effects, by the works they produce, by the lives and conversation to which they lead. ”

“ From these texts, yet again, it follows that they are Antichrists indeed who persecute honest men, men who love justice and charity, because they differ from them in speculative opinions, and hold not the same articles of a dogmatic creed with themselves. They who love justice and mercy thereby show themselves true believers, as we know from Scripture, and he who persecutes the true believer is Antichrist. It follows, in conclusion, that to faith, absolutely true are less indispensable than pious dogmas, that is to say, dogmas or precepts that move the mind and heart to obedience. ”

“ To the universal faith, therefore, belong those dogmas alone which obedience to God absolutely demands, and which, neglected, obedience is absolutely impossible. Of all other articles of faith, every one as he best knows himself, and as he finds these calculated to confirm him or otherwise in godly and neighbourly love, may be allowed to think as be pleases. ”

“ We, however, charge those with violating the great law of charity who refuse to concede the same liberty to others which they arrogate to themselves, who condemn and persecute as enemies to God all, though leading most peaceable and virtuous lives, who do not think as they do themselves, and, on the contrary, exalt those as the elect of God who are of their opinion, though they be [often of doubtful lives and] always of weak understanding. Nothing, as I believe, can be more wicked than such conduct, nothing conceived more detrimental to the general weal. ”

“ Nor shall I now shrink from specifying the heads of An Universal Faith, which are also the fundamental dogmas of Scripture. They are these: There is a Supreme Being, who delights in Justice and Mercy, whom all who would be saved are bound to obey, and whose worship consists in the practice of justice and charity towards our neighbour. All else that enters into the religious conception is readily deduced from these grand principles. ”

“ On such points every one is at full liberty to think for himself. Again, it is of no moment, as regards faith, whether God is believed to be Omnipresent according to his essence or according to his power, whether he governs all things of his free will or by natural necessity, whether he prescribes laws in the manner of a sovereign prince, or decrees them as eternal truths; whether man yields obedience to God of free will, or by the necessity of a divine command ”

“ The worship of God consists, and obedience to him is shown, in justice and charity alone, in other words, in the love of our neighbour.
6. All who obey and worship God in this way are saved; whilst they who live under the empire of sensuality are lost. If this be not firmly believed by men, there is no reason why they should prefer obedience to God to indulgence in sensual pleasures.
7. Lastly, God forgives those who repent of their transgressions. There is no man who has not sinned ”

“ We would not however accuse those sectaries of impiety because they accommodate Scripture to their views, inasmuch as Scripture itself in former times was accommodated to the common apprehension; every one therefore may be held free to adapt it' to his opinions [provided he change nothing of its spirit] , if by doing so he sees that he can give a more entire consent, and yield a more full obedience, to all that regards God's justice and mercy. ”

“ God has sole dominion and right in all things. Uninfluenced by aught beyond himself, he acts and wills of his own sovereign pleasure and peculiar grace; for all are bound to obey him, he to obey none. ”

“ And although among these there may be many which have not a shadow of truth, provided that he who accepts them is unconscious of this, he does not rebel against them, as he would necessarily do were he better informed; for how were it possible that one who studies justice and mercy should go on adoring God as a conjuror, were he aware that such a practice was absurd in connection with reasonable ideas of the divine nature? ”

“ Men, however, may err through simplicity of mind; and Scripture, as we have seen, condemns not ignorance but disobedience only — indeed, this follows from the mere definition we have given of faith, all the elements of which must be sought in the broad foundation we have adopted, and in the whole purpose of the Scriptures, unless we would mix up our own imaginations with the sacred teachings. ”

“ One of the remarkable differences between the Old and the New Testament dispensations is the different emphasis that is laid in each on the principle of Faith or Belief. In the Old Testament the words belief and believe occur but very rarely, and are scarcely used to mark a principle. — Belief indeed is scarcely once enjoined as a duty in its pages. ”

“ God is omnipresent, and all things lie open before him. "Were aught believed to be hidden from God, or he were held not to see all, doubts might arise of the impartiality of his justice, which governs all, or his justice might even be denied. ”

“ John, indeed, as he says that no man hath seen God, concludes that no man knows or conceives God save through the feeling of love towards his neighbour, that no one can appreciate any other attribute of God but this of love, in so far as man is capable of the sentiment. ”

“ With a view to determine the limits within which each member of the community may be held at liberty to think as he chooses in matters of faith, and, though thinking differently from others, may still be reckoned among the number of the faithful, I shall now proceed to inquire concerning faith, and essay to determine the grounds on which it rests. ”

“ Belief and unbelief, however, are wholly general and relative terms, and the mental acts they indicate have neither merit nor demerit in themselves — there may be as much demerit in belief as merit in unbelief, and vice versa. In the modern world of science especially, we know or we do not know as regards things positive, we believe or disbelieve in reference to things doubtful. ”

“ For our own part, and without circumlocution, we should define Faith to be: such conceptions of the power and wisdom of God as insure obedience to his will declared in his eternal laws. — Ed.↑ To find a standard of moral and religious truth has long been a desideratum. Spurzheim, the most philosophical of the phrenologists, proposed the following, — "The absolutely true in morals and religion is that which is in harmony with all the faculties proper to man, the faculties he has in common with the lower animals being in subjection." ”

“ Of faith, however, the foundations are laid in history, in language, and must be sought in Scripture and revelation only, as has been already shown in Chapter VII. Faith therefore accords to every one the fullest liberty of philosophizing, and of coming to what conclusions he pleases about the nature of things and ideas, without any charge of sin ”