AC 2568 - To Affirm or Deny

AC 2568 [2, 4-6]

[2] As regards humankind
it is one thing to regard the doctrine of faith
from rational things,
and altogether another
to regard rational things from the doctrine of faith.
To regard the doctrine of faith from rational things
is not to believe in the Word,
or in the doctrine derived from there,
until one is persuaded from rational things that it is so;
whereas to regard rational things
from the doctrine of faith
 is first to believe in the Word,
or in the doctrine therefrom,
and then to confirm the same by rational things.
The former is inverted order,
and results in nothing being believed;
whereas the latter is genuine order,
and causes the person to believe the better.

There are therefore two principles;
one of which leads to all folly and insanity,
and the other to all intelligence and wisdom.
The former principle is to deny all things,
or to say in the heart
 that we cannot believe them
until we are convinced by what we can apprehend,
or perceive by the senses;
this is the principle
that leads to all folly and insanity,
and is to be called the negative principle.
The other principle is to affirm
the things which are of doctrine from the Word,
or to think and believe within ourselves
that they are true because the Lord has said them:
this is the principle
that leads to all intelligence and wisdom,
and is to be called the affirmative principle.

The more they who think from the negative principle
consult things rational,
the more they consult memory-knowledges,
and the more they consult things philosophical,
the more do they cast and precipitate themselves
into darkness, until at last they deny all things.
The causes of this are,
that no one can apprehend
higher things from lower ones,
that is, spiritual and celestial things,
still less Divine things,
from lower ones,
because they transcend all understanding,
and moreover everything
is then involved in negatives from that principle.
On the other hand,
those who think from an affirmative principle
can confirm themselves by whatever things rational,
by whatever memory-knowledges,
and whatever things philosophic
they have at command;
for all these are to them things confirmatory,
and give them a fuller idea of the matter.

Moreover there are some who are in doubt
before they deny,
and there are some who are in doubt
before they affirm.
Those who are in doubt before they deny
are those who incline to a life of evil;
and when this life carries them away,
then insofar as they think of the matters in question
they deny them.
But those who are in doubt before they affirm
are those who incline to a life of good;
 and when they suffer themselves
to be bent to this by the Lord,
then insofar as they think about those things
so far they affirm.
As this subject is further treated of
in the verses which follow,
it is permitted of the Lord's Divine mercy
to illustrate them more fully there (see n. 2588).