III. Analytic distribution into the common and proper parts
III. All treatises and partitions by which the body of sacred theology is explained easily please us, provided that at least in the chief foundations of faith and salvation they agree with Sacred Scripture.
And without taking anything from anyone, we gladly and with thanksgiving give each theologian his due praise; yet with the good leave of others whose gifts we admire and revere, for easier knowledge and practice, as we set out to sketch theology as a practical discipline, we will now follow the analytic order and not inconveniently distribute it into the TWO aforesaid PARTS, the COMMON and the PROPER.
We do so because theological dogmas stand in a twofold difference.
Some contain those acts of God's kingdom that somehow belong to all who desire to be saved — namely the chief heads of the Christian religion as articles of faith and foundations of our salvation, which no one may ignore — and their interpretations, illustrations, religious determinations, and conclusions formed jointly from Scripture's dictates as theological principles by a disciplinary method and order mixed together and treated scholastically for the use of learned youth; once rightly known, these are not to be denied or attacked but approved and received and practiced by anyone according to the measure of his grace and age.
Others embrace those acts that belong not to all but chiefly to those who ought to save themselves and others and who hold ecclesiastical office first of all, or scholastic, political, or economic office, or are at least some part of such orders, whether they preside over others or are under them.
The former we will treat under the common part, the latter under the proper part, with the help of God Most High, mindful as to manner of treatment of that Augustinian precept that theology rather requires foundations than ornaments, and as to the matter itself of that saying of Ambrose or Prosper or Eucherius in On the Calling of the Gentiles, book 1, chapter 7: What God willed to be hidden is not to be searched out; what he has made plain is not to be denied — lest in the former we be found unlawfully curious, and in the latter damnably ungrateful.
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III. Nobis quidem facile arrident omnes tractatus & partitiones, quibus sacrae theologiae corpus explicatur, si modo in praecipuis saltem & fundamentis fidei ac salutis, cum sacra scriptura conveniant. Nosque nihil cuiquam detrahentes, omnibus ac singulis Theologis laudem suam cum lubentia & gratiarum actione tribuimus: tamen bona cum pace aliorum, quorum dona miramur ac veneramur, facilioris cognitionis & praxis gratia Theologiam, ut practicam disciplinam, delineaturi, nunc ordinem analyticum sequemur, & non incommode in DUAS praedictas PARTES, COMMUNEM nempe ac PROPRIAM distribuemus, idque propterea, quia dogmata Theologica sunt in duplici differentia. Alia enim sunt, quae continent eos regni Dei actus, qui quodammodo pertinent ad omnes, qui cupiunt servari, summa nempe Christianae religionis capita, tanquam fidei articuli & salutis nostrae fundamenta, quae a nemine ignorari, horumque interpretamenta, tum illustramenta, placita religionis, adeoque conclusiones e dictaminibus scripturae, ceu principiis theologicis, conjunctim disciplinari methodo atque ordine inter se mixtis efformatae & scholastice tractatae in usum eruditae juventutis, quae recte cognitae, non negari aut impugnari, sed approbari & a quovis pro gratiae & aetatis suae modulo recipi & exerceri debent: Alia vero complectuntur eos actus, qui pertinent non ad omnes, sed ad eos potissimum, qui se & alios debent servare, & munere Ecclesiastico cum primis, scholasticoque, aut politico, aut oeconomico funguntur, aut saltem talium ordinum pars aliqua sunt sive aliis praesint, sive subsint. Illa sub parte communi, haec vero sub parte propria, cum auxilio Dei O.M. deinceps pertractabimus, memores, quod ad tractandi modum, Augustiniani illius praecepti: Theologiam potius exigere firmamenta, quam ornamenta, quod ad rem vero, illius sive Ambrosii, sive Prosperi, sive Eucherii lib. 1. de vocat. gentium cap. 7. Quae Deus occulta esse voluit, non sunt scrutanda: quae autem manifesta fecit, non sunt neganda: ne in illis illicite curiosi, in istis damnabiliter inveniamur ingrati.