His belief was inflexible that the Holy
Scriptures, excepting a few books, contained a divine revelation in
every word and letter. It was for him the dearest thing on earth, the
foundation of all his learning. He had put himself so in sympathy
with it that he lived among its figures as in the present. The more
urgent his feeling of responsibility, the warmer the passion with
which he clung to Scripture; and a strong instinct for the sensible
and the fitting really helped him over many dangers. His
discrimination had none of the hair-splitting sophistry of the ancient
teachers. He despised useless subtleties, and, with admirable tact,
let go what seemed to him unessential; but, if he was not to lose his
faith or his reason, he could do nothing, after all, but found the new
doctrine on words and conditions of life fifteen hundred years old,
and in some cases he became the victim of what his adversary Eck
called "the black letter."
Under the urgency of these conditions his method took form. If he had
a question to settle, he collected all the passages of Holy Scripture
which seemed to offer him an answer. He sought earnestly to understand
all passages in their context, and then he struck a balance, giving
the greatest weight to those which agreed with each other, and for
those which were at variance patiently striving to find a solution
which might reconcile the seeming contradiction. The resulting
conviction he firmly established in his heart, regardless of
temptations, by fervent prayer.
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