5. Another principle involved in the doctrine of the Incarnation, viewed as taught or as dogmatic, is the necessary use of language, e. g. of the text of Scripture, in a second or _mystical sense_. Words must be made to express new ideas, and are invested with a sacramental office. 6. It is our Lord's intention in His Incarnation to make us what He is Himself; this is the principle of _grace_, which is not only holy but sanctifying. 7. It cannot elevate and change us without mortifying our lower nature:--here is the principle of _asceticism_. 8. And, involved in this death of the natural man, is necessarily a revelation of the _malignity of sin_, in corroboration of the forebodings of conscience. 9. Also by the fact of an Incarnation we are taught that matter is an essential part of us, and, as well as mind, is _capable of sanctification_. 5. Here are nine specimens of Christian principles out of the many[326:1] which might be enumerated, and will any one say that they have not been retained in vigorous action in the Church at all times amid whatever development of doctrine Christianity has experienced, so as even to be the very instruments of that development, and as patent, and as operative, in the Latin and Greek Christianity of this day as they were in the beginning? This continuous identity of principles in ecclesiastical action has been seen in part in treating of the Note of Unity of type, and will be seen also in the Notes which follow; however, as some direct account of them, in illustration, may be desirable, I will single out four as specimens,--Faith, Theology, Scripture, and Dogma. § 2. _Supremacy of Faith._ This principle which, as we have already seen, was so great a jest to Celsus and Julian, is of the following kind:--That belief in Christianity is in itself better than unbelief; that faith, though an intellectual action, is ethical in its origin; that it is safer to believe; that we must begin with believing; that as for the reasons of believing, they are for the most part implicit, and need be but slightly recognized by the mind that is under their influence; that they consist moreover rather of presumptions and ventures after the truth than of accurate and complete proofs; and that probable arguments, under the scrutiny and sanction of a prudent judgment, are sufficient for conclusions which we even embrace as most certain, and turn to the most important uses. 2.