Essays On Faith And Immortality

error they exclude as unworthy of the "perfect" man. By "perfect man" they mean man not merely freed from all positive blemishes to which his mortality is heir, but enriched with supernatural perfections of knowledge and grace, and therefore no longer " perfect" in the sense of mere man. This is a legacy of the abandoned Augustinian theology, which viewed such " supernatural" gifts as part of the essence of humanity as created in Adam, and forfeited by Adam's sin. To be " perfect man" Christ must have possessed at least all the gifts belonging essentially to the unspoilt humanity of unfallen Adam. If theologians still claim these perfections for Christ it can now only be de congruo, and not any longer as of necessity. To be " perfect man " meansonly to possess what are now allowed to be the essential attributes of humanity. Of these ignorance is one; and inseparable from ignorance is error. It is not merely that to be ignorant of certain things implies error about something, but that to be ignorant of anything implies error about everything. To be ignorant of the motion of the earth is to suppose and affirm its stability; and so in all those numberless cases where appearances contradict reality, and where there is nothing to raise a doubt or suggest a suspense of judgment. The error may be innocuous ; the truth practically unimportant in itself; still one false judgment is actually or potentially the seed of an infinite multitude of errors, and, while i...