APHORISMS

On Spiritual Religion

And here it will not be impertinent to observe, that what the eldest Greek philosophy entitled the Reason (NOYL) and ideas, the philosophic Apostle names the Spirit and truths spiritually discerned; while to those who in the pride of learning or in the overweening meanness of modern metaphysics decry the doctrine of the Spirit in man and its possible communion with the Holy Spirit, as vulgar enthusiasm, I submit the following sentences from a Pagan philosopher, a nobleman and a minister of state--"Ita dico, Lucili, sacer intra nos Spiritus sedet, malorum bonorumque nostrorum observator et custos. Hic prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse tractat. Bonus vero vir seine Deo nemo est." Seneca. Epist. xli.