52.  Origen gives the answer of a wise man, and in conformity with the principles we have established in the matter.  For reason, far from being contrary to Christianity, serves as a foundation for this religion, and will bring about its acceptance by those who can achieve the examination of it.  But, as few people are capable of this, the heavenly gift of plain faith tending towards good suffices for men in general.  ’If it were possible’, he says, ’for all men, neglecting the affairs of life, to apply themselves to study and meditation, one need seek no other way to make them accept the Christian religion.  For, to say nothing likely to offend anyone’ (he insinuates that the pagan religion is absurd, but he will not say so explicitly), ’there will be found therein no less exactitude than elsewhere, whether in the discussion of its dogmas, or in the elucidation of the enigmatical expressions of its prophets, or in the interpretation of the parables of its gospels and of countless other things happening or ordained symbolically.  But since neither the necessities of life nor the infirmities of men permit of this application to study, save for a very small number of persons, what means could one find more qualified to benefit everyone else in the world than those Jesus Christ wished to be used for the conversion of the nations?  And I would fain ask with regard to the great number of those who believe, and who thereby have withdrawn themselves from the quagmire of vices wherein before they were plunged, which would be the better:  to have thus changed one’s morals and reformed one’s life, believing without examination that there are punishments for sin and rewards for good actions; or to have waited for one’s conversion until one not only believed but had examined with care the foundations of these dogmas?  It is certain that, were this method to be followed, few[103] indeed would reach that point whither they are led by their plain and simple faith, but the majority would remain in their corruption.’

53.  M. Bayle (in his explanation concerning the objections of the Manichaeans, placed at the end of the second edition of the Dictionary) takes those words where Origen points out that religion can stand the test of having her dogmas discussed, as if it were not meant in relation to philosophy, but only in relation to the accuracy wherewith the authority and the true meaning of Holy Scripture is established.  But there is nothing to indicate this restriction.  Origen wrote against a philosopher whom such a restriction would not have suited.  And it appears that this Father wished to point out that among Christians there was no less exactitude than among the Stoics and some other philosophers, who established their doctrine as much by reason as by authorities, as, for example, Chrysippus did, who found his philosophy even in the symbols of pagan antiquity.