a certain sense necessary. The Catholic doctrine on this point has been defined by the Vatican Council. “To this Divine revelation it belongeth that those Divine things which are not impervious to human reason may, in the present state of the human race, be known by all with expedition and firm certainty, and without any mixture of error. Nevertheless not on this account must Revelation be deemed absolutely necessary, but because God of His infinite goodness hath ordained man to a supernatural end, that is to say, to be a sharer in the good things of God which altogether surpass the understanding of the human mind; for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love Him” (sess. iii., chap. 2). We must therefore distinguish two different kinds of necessity.
1. Positive Revelation is not absolutely, categorically, and physically necessary for the knowledge of truths of the natural order bearing upon religion and morals, but it is relatively, hypothetically, and morally necessary. If Positive Revelation were absolutely necessary for the acquisition of natural, moral, and religious truths, then none of these truths could be known by any man in any other way. But this is plainly opposed to the doctrine that God and the moral law may be known by man’s unaided reason. Many difficulties, however, impede the acquisition of this knowledge. Very few men have the talent and opportunity to study such a subject, and even under the most favourable circumstances there will be doubt and error, owing to man’s moral degradation and the influences to which he is exposed. Positive Revelation is needed to remedy these defects, but the necessity is only relative, because it exists merely in relation to a portion of mankind, a part of the moral law, and in different degrees under different circumstances; the necessity is moral, because there is no physical impossibility but only great difficulty; and hypothetical, because it exists only in the hypothesis that God has provided no other means of surmounting the difficulties.
2. On the other hand Positive Revelation is absolutely, categorically, and physically necessary for the attainment of
