THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.
Encyclical Letter Providentissimus Deus, November 18,
1893.
The God of all providence, who in the adorable designs of His love at first elevated the human race to the partici- pation of the divine nature, and afterwards delivered it from universal guilt and ruin, restoring it to its primitive dignity, has, in consequence, bestowed upon man a splen- did gift and safeguard — making known to him, by super- natural means, the hidden mysteries of His divinity. His wisdom and His mercy. For although in divine revelation there are contained some things which are not beyond the reach of unassisted reason, and which are made the objects of such revelation in order "that all may come to know them with facihty, certainty, and safety from error, yet not on this account can supernatural revelation be said to be absolutely necessary; it is only necessary because God has ordained man to a supernatural end." ^ This super- natural revelation, according to the belief of the universal Church, is contained both in unwritten tradition and in written books, which are, therefore, called sacred and canonical because, "being written under the inspiration of ji the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and as such \ have been dehA/ered to the Church," ^ This belief has^ been perpetually held and professed by the Church in re- gard to the Books of both Testaments; and there are well- knowTi documents of the gravest kind, coming down to us from the earhest times, which proclaim that God, who
' Cone. Vat. sess iii. cap. ii. de reveL * Ibid.
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