It is necessary to
remark, however, that there is a great difference between willing to
be deceived, and willing to yield assent to opinions in which it
happens that error is found. For though there is no one who
expressly wishes to fall into error, we will yet hardly find any one
who is not ready to assent to things in which, unknown to himself,
error lurks; and it even frequently happens that it is the desire
itself of following after truth that leads those not fully aware of
the order in which it ought to be sought for, to pass judgment on
matters of which they have no adequate knowledge, and thus to fall
into error.
XLIII. That we shall never err if we give our assent only to what
we clearly and distinctly perceive.
But it is certain we will never admit falsity for truth, so long as
we judge only of that which we clearly and distinctly perceive;
because, as God is no deceiver, the faculty of knowledge which he
has given us cannot be fallacious, nor, for the same reason, the
faculty of will, when we do not extend it beyond the objects we
clearly know. And even although this truth could not be established
by reasoning, the minds of all have been so impressed by nature as
spontaneously to assent to whatever is clearly perceived, and to
experience an impossibility to doubt of its truth.
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