The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn YokdhanIbn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic
The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan
Ibn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Malik
Islamic philosophy -- Early works to 1800
Sec. 4. This was the Means which the Generality of the People of God had to
know his Will. They receiv'd it from the _Prophets_, who had it
_immediately_ from God. So that the Difference of their Knowledge
consisted in the Manner of their receiving of it, not in the Things
receiv'd, which were the same both to the _Prophets_ and the _People_.
Only the _Prophets_ receiv'd it _immediately_, but not the _People_: for
then consequently they would all have been Prophets, which it is plain
they were not.
Sec. 5. And when it had pleas'd God to give a clearer and fuller Revelation
of his Will to the Prophet _Moses_; what was deliver'd to him, was
committed to the Care of the Priests, of whom both King and People were
oblig'd to learn their Duty. Deut. xvii. 18. _And it shall be when he
sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom, that he shall write him a Copy
of this Law in a Book, out of that which is before the Priests the
Levites, and it shall be with him, and, he shall read therein all the
Days of his Life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep
all the Words of this Law, and these Statutes, to do them_. And Malachi
xi. 7. _The Priests Lips should preserve Knowledge, and they should seek
the Law at his Mouth, for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts_. So
that they were not to seek after any other more perfect manner of
Worship, than what was deliver'd in that Book, nor to expect that those
Truths or Precepts which were contained in it, should be reveal'd to
them anew, either by any Prophet living in their time, or by _immediate
Revelation_; but to draw all their Instructions from the aforesaid
Helps. And accordingly we never find any of the Prophets making any
Alteration in the Law, or calling the people to a more perfect way of
Worship. From whence 'tis plain that they were well assur'd of its
Sufficiency, till the _Messias_, who was to compleat it should come; and
their never bidding the People to look for any other way of teaching
than what was to be had from that Book, and the Mouth of the Priests,
proves evidently that they knew those means to be sufficient.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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