Some learned men ground dogma-faith in the light of the things revealed; we put the proper ground in God speaking
Some learned men — if we have their mind right — think the certainty of the faith by which we embrace religion's dogmas and believe what God has revealed rests in the light of the things revealed, and in a certain inborn splendor of truth that convinces our mind and all but compels assent. When someone believes the Gospel, and is persuaded that the Son of God was made man, came into the world, suffered and died for us, rose again, ascended into the heavens, and the rest that belongs to our redemption, they hold that the proper and principal ground of that assent is the doctrine's own majesty, holiness, sublimity, and truth, and its congruence with right reason — which seizes the mind into assent and makes plain that the doctrine is not only true but has come immediately from God, since things so great and wonderful could neither be found nor fabricated by human wit.
On that view the truth of heavenly doctrine would by nature be recognized by us before we were sure God was its author; and so the ultimate and chief ground of believing it would not be the truthfulness and authority of God speaking, and that God so said and revealed, but — as they put it — the very truth and evidence of the thing. We do grant that religion's dogmas have their own light and arguments of truth, and even of divine origin. Still it seems more agreeable to theological truth and teaching to say that the proper and principal ground of the faith by which we receive those dogmas is the authority of God speaking and revealing, rather than the thing's own truth and light. That is proved by many arguments.
Latin
XXVI. Viris doctis quibusdam visum est, si modo mentem eorum percipimus, certitudinem fidei, qua religionis dogmata amplectimur, et rebus a Deo revelatis credimus, fundari in rerum revelatarum luce, et splendore quodam insito veritatis, quo mens nostra convincitur, et ad assensum veluti cogitur. Nimirum, quum aliquis Evangelio credit, et sibi persuadet Filium Dei hominem factum esse, et in mundum venisse, pro nobis passum et mortuum esse, resurrexisse, in caelos ascendisse, et caetera quae ad nostram redemptionem pertinent, in ea sunt sententia, propriam et praecipuam rationem illius assensus, esse ipsam doctrinae majestatem, sanctitatem, sublimitatem, veritatem, et cum ratione recta congruentiam, quae mentem rapit in sui assensum, et manifestum reddit doctrinam illam, non tantum veram esse, sed immediate a Deo prodiisse, quandoquidem ab ingenio humano tanta, tamque miranda, nec inveniri, nec confingi potuerint. Unde sequitur doctrinae caelestis veritatem natura prius a nobis agnosci, quam certi simus illam Deum authorem habere; adeoque ultimam et potissimam illius credendae rationem non esse Dei dicentis veracitatem et authoritatem, et quia Deus ita dixit et revelavit: sed ipsam, ut diximus, rei veritatem et evidentiam. Verum, licet agnoscamus religionis dogmata suam habere lucem et argumenta veritatis, atque etiam originis divinae: Videtur tamen veritati et doctrinae Theologicae magis consentaneum, si dicamus fidei, qua dogmata illa recipimus, rationem propriam et praecipuam esse authoritatem Dei dicentis et revelantis, potius quam ipsam rei veritatem et lucem: quod probatur multis argumentis.