defilement of man and his love consists principally in this: that he loves to believe that his life and all its faculties are his own, independent of God. His purification from defilement, therefore, consists in his being willing to acknowledge that his life and its faculties are derived continually from God, and are no further his own than as lent to him for use and enjoyment.
Here, then, may be seen clearly, at one view, the nature both of the defilement and the purification of science. Science is defiled so long as it is believed by man to be his own, and not God’s; and it is purified in proportion as it is seen and gladly acknowledged to be continually the property and the gift of God.
Let the children then of this world tremble whilst they pride themselves on the possession of knowledge which they are unwilling to confess to be the perpetual gift of the Most High; for, in this unhappy case, their science is most filthy and polluted, and, in consequence of its separation from its Divine Source, tends to widen the gulph interposed between them and the habitations of peace and purity. But let the children of God rejoice and be comforted, whilst they are wise and willing to acknowledge that both their science and their faculty of science are from above, since, in this case, all their acquirements of knowledge being connected with the Divine Fountain of purity, are proportionably pure, and, according to the degree of their purification, yield, to their favoured possessor, a rich and abundant harvest of joy, of peace, and of security.
