Excerpt from A Tract on the Doctrines of Election and Reprobation The Scripture, says Calvin, is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing useful or necessary to be known is omitted, so nothing is taught which it is not beneficial to know. While then, a presumptuous curiosity 011 the one hand may not be allowed, to carry us beyond the Scriptures, let not a sickly timidity 011 the other, induce us to fall below them. Let the chris tian man, as Calvin again says, Open his heart and his ears to all the dis courses addressed to him by God, only with this moderation, that as soon as the Lord closes His sacred month, he also shall desist from further inquiry. This will be the best barrier of sobriety, if in learning we not only follow the leadings of God, but as soon as He ceases to teach, we give up our desire of learnmg. It is a celebrated observation of Solomon, that it is the glory of God to conceal a thing. But as both piety and common sense suggest that this is not to'be understood generally of every thing, we must seek for the proper distinction, lest we content ourselves with brutish ignorance, under the pretext of modesty and sobriety. Now, this distinction is clearly cxpl'esse'cl in a few words by Moses The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and to our children, that we may do all the words of this law. Deut. Xxix. 29. For we see how me enforces on the people attention to the doct1 ine of the law, only by the cc lestial decree, because it pleased God to promulgate 1t; and restrains the same people within those limits with this single reason, that it is not lawful for mortals to intrude into the secrets of God. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.