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As regards the uncertainty about everything which Varro alleges to be
the differentiating characteristic of the New Academy, the city of
God thoroughly detests such doubt as madness. Regarding matters which
it apprehends by the mind and reason it has most absolute certainty,
although its knowledge is limited because of the corruptible body
pressing down the mind, for, as the apostle says, "We know in
part." It believes also the evidence of the senses which the mind
uses by aid of the body; for [if one who trusts his senses is
sometimes deceived], he is more wretchedly deceived who fancies he
should never trust them. It believes also the Holy Scriptures, old
and new, which we call canonical, and which are the source of the
faith by which the just lives and by which we walk without doubting
whilst we are absent from the Lord. So long as this faith remains
inviolate and firm, we may without blame entertain doubts regarding
some things which we have neither perceived by sense nor by reason, and
which have not been revealed to us by the canonical Scriptures, nor
come to our knowledge through witnesses whom it is absurd to
disbelieve.
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