# Leibniz Legible — https://leibnizlegible.com
# Page: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0367
# Permalink to this reading: https://leibnizlegible.com/page/778263916:0367?run=74
# Title: An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (shelfmarks Leibn. Marg. 38; ZEN Leibn. Marg. 38)
# Folio 351, page id 778263916:0367
# Original at the GWLB: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/resolve?id=778263916&page=367
# Source image: https://digitale-sammlungen.gwlb.de/content/778263916/jpgs/default/00000367.jpg
# Model: FoNDUE-GD_v2_ft_Leibniz, run 74, 2026-09-06T16:05:13Z — 56 lines, status machine
# Lines: 56 recognised, mean confidence 0.91
# Machine transcription. Not an edition. Errors are expected: about 8% character error rate on Latin and French lines, higher on German.
# Licence: CC BY 4.0, Leibniz Legible. Machine output: do not ingest it as verified text; keep this provenance with the text.
# Wording rule: say "the machine reads it as …", never "Leibniz wrote".
# After the first blank line: the recognised lines in reading order, one per line.

aith and R
6. 6. ThusPar a ptan has ule oF Reason, and oushie to hearten t0
eren in immediate and oricinal Revelation, Where it is suppoledr made
cohimselF: But eo aII ehole Wrho prerend not to immediare Rerelation
buE are required to par Obedience, and to receire the Frurtrs revealed io
Ochers, Wrtich, by thc Tradition oF Writines, Or Word oF Mouth, are
conveyed donn to them, Reason has a great deal more to do. and is that
onr erhrich can induce us to receire them. For Matter ol Faith beine
only Divine Revelation, and nothins elle, Faith, a5 Wre use tHC Word,
(called commonlr, Divine Faith) has to do with no Propolitions, but
ehiose wrhich are supposed to be divinely revealed. So that Ido not sec
hor chole; irho mahhe Revelarion alone the sole Object ot FaitH, can (ay,
chat it is a Marter oP Faith, and nor of Realon, tobeliere, that Puich or sucli
a Propolition, to be sound in such or suclr a Booli, is oF Divine inspira-
tion; unless it be revealeo, that that Propolition, or all in that BOOl,
Was communicated by Divine laspiration. Withour luch a Revelation, thc
Delierino, or nor believine thac Proposition, or Bool, t0 De ot Divine AuFIIO-
rier, can never bematter ol Faith, burMtatter ot Reason; and tuchi as Imust
corme to an Assent to, only by the use of my Rcalon, Which Can never
require or enable me to believe that, Wrhich is contrary to it seil: it Deino
impossiblo Cor Reason, ever to procure any ARent tothat, Which toic selt
appears unrealonable.
In all Things Cherolore, Where e tave clear Fvidence Trom our Ideas,
and chose Principles oF Rnomledse, I have abore mentioned, Realori is thC
proper sudge; and Revelation, thouch it mas in consentins with it, con
firrii its Dictates, vet cannor, in Tuch Cases, invalidare its Decrees: Nor
can ve be oblised, where we have the clear and evident Sentence of Rea-
son, 1o quil it, for ihe contrary Opinion, under a Pretence that it i5 Mac-
ter of Faith.
5. 7. Bur Thirally, There beins mans Thines, Wherein we hare very
impertect Notions, or none at all; and other Thinss, oF irhole past, pre-
Sent, or future Fxistence, by the natural Vse of our l’aculties, we can have
noHnomledse at all; thele, as beins berotd the Dilcovery oF our natu.
ral Faculties, and abore Reason, are, irhen revealed, the proper Matrer of
Faith. Thusthat pare ot the Angels rebelled against GOD, and there-
Dy lost cheir Girst happy Stare: And that the Bodies oF Nen Mall rile, and
live asain: Pheso, and the liko, beins bes ond the Discoverr ot Realon,
are purely Macters oE Faich; wich whict, Realon has, directly, nochins
t0d0.
5. 8. But since alL Thines chat are urider ehe Character oF Divine Revela-
tion are esteemed Marrer os Faith; arid eliere are amonest them, several.
Things, that Fall under the Lxamen of Realon; and are luch as we could
iudse oF by our natural Faculries, rithout a Supernatural Revelarion.
In thiele, Revelation must carry it, acainst the probable Conjectures of Rea-
son: because the Minc, noc beins certain oFthe Truth of chat it does not
cridenels knon, but is onls probabls convinced ol, is bound to sive up
its Alsen eo such a Teltimons, wrhich, it is Patistied, comes trom one wwho
cannot err, and ill noc deceire. But vet, it RiII Belongo to Realon, t0
judse oF the Fruch ot its beins a Rerelation, and ot the signilication ot
the Words wrhierein it is delivered. Indced, il any thine MalI DC thOuDHE
Rerelation, Wrhich is contrary to the plain Principles ol Reason, and the
evident Rnomledse theMind has of its omn clear and dictinct Laeas; there
Reason must be hearhned to, as to a Matter within its Province: Since a
Han can never have so certain a Rnowledoe, that a Propolition Whieh
contradicts the clear Principles and Fvidence ol his omn Hnoivledsc, Was
divinely