From the book
A New Light of Alchemy
Michael Sendivogius · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordIn John French’s 1650 address, reason is the faculty required to read both Scripture and Nature.
- In the workFrench opens by opposing abundant knowledge to little known truth and comparing prevailing knowledge with castles in the air.
- In this editionThe appendix distinguishes historical English from modernisation.
- A place to readFaith without reason is but implicite. The historical wording states French’s contrast.
Meaning
In John French’s 1650 address, reason is the faculty required to read both Scripture and Nature. Implicit faith names the assent he criticises when the independent exercise of reason is absent. These are English reception terms, not added Latin doctrine.
Use in the book
French opens by opposing abundant knowledge to little known truth and comparing prevailing knowledge with castles in the air. He recognises two appointed paths to wisdom, the book of God and the book of Nature, but immediately qualifies both by the need for rational reading. His complaint is directed both at those who think Scripture beneath them and those who reject natural study as a ground of atheism.
He next distinguishes knowing how a thing is from having reason to believe that it is so. The claim does not require complete causal comprehension before every belief; it does demand some rational ground of assent. Philosophy should improve reason, which in turn grounds belief in Scripture and provides principles for answering opponents.
The image of God is construed through rational humanity, and abandoning reason in sacred mysteries is described as unmaking oneself and entering a labyrinth of errors. These strong theological assertions are French’s own framing of the English publication. They should be read as a later translator’s account of legitimate knowledge, not retroactively attributed to every passage of Sendivogius.
Places to read
- John French to the Reader · 1650 · Passage 1Historical English · 1650Faith without reason is but implicite. The historical wording states French’s contrast.
- John French to the Reader · 1650 · Passage 2Historical English · 1650yet I wil see some reason that a thing is so: He requires grounds of assent without demanding complete knowledge of how.
- John French to the Reader · 1650 · Passage 2Historical English · 1650a rational creature: Rationality explains his appeal to the divine image.
In this edition
The appendix distinguishes historical English from modernisation. Note 98 explains implicit faith and corrects the printed Sciptures only in the modernised layer. “Implicit faith” is the modernisation’s phrase; the historical line reads implicite.