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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	doctrine_n	scripture_n	word_n	5,154	5	4.5887	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48289	Eyaggeloigrapha. Or, Some seasonable and modest thoughts, in order to the furtherance and promoting the affairs of religion, and the gospel, especially in Wales Mainly tending to the discovery of the evills of extreams, and the spirit of errour and dissention, that hinders the success, and the begetting of a due temper and moderation of judgement, with an universall love and peace amongst us. All, rationally, materially, and very moderately handled. By J.L. Esquire.	Lewis, John, Esquire.	1659 (1659)	Wing L1840A; ESTC R218109	32,748	45

to shame us eternally to hear how the Turks and Mahometans do exceed us in our lives with whom Drunkennesse is punished with death in so much it is thought that because of their reverence in their Mosches or Churches their many works of devotion Pietie and Charitie their Iustice Temperance and other morall vertues to bee main causes of the growth of Mahometanism and on the contrarie our irreverence and neglect of Religion and loose lives to be the main hinderance of Christianity who but that will seriously consider this and not say welcome Propagation or Propurgation or something among us or whatever to reform and amend us The Words Religion and Gospel opened c. NOw partly clearing what wee mean by Propagation the word Religion and Gospell come opportunely in I formerly hinted they are not altogether the same for as mankind wee have all a common interest in Religion but as Christians and beleevers in Christ wee belong to the Gospell by the meer instinct and impulsion of nature all men are prone to acknowledge and adore the Divine Power or God and this and all that pertains to the reverent performance of this is properly called Religion or Divine Worship now it is said that most of our late endeavours were wholly to promote the Gospel and preaching it and that only the beleevers and Elect in Christ are the better for Now upon a reckoning I presume hardly the moyetie or half the people in Wales would be granted to belong unto Christ and Salvation but admit the number more or fewer now the Gospell and preaching it being only that which takes up our thoughts and care I would know what provision should there be for that number that belongs not to Christ I am confident none is so uncharitable as to say let them shift as they may therefore if not for their souls behoof and benefit yet for the honour and glory of God as meer Creatures there ought to bee something whereby they might testifie their duty and Homage to their Creator which the very dumb Creatures do in their kind the Stork in the Heavens knoweth her appointed times and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow knoweth the time of her comming and were there not this necessitie from nature in respect of God there is another necessity from the respects of Humane Comerce and societie for without some face and sense of Religion among men they would grow savage and make no conscience of their Oaths and Promises in their actions and dealings which I need not further to exemplifie unto the Judicious therefore along and together with the preaching of the Gospell well were it that some reverence decorums of Religion were thought good to be maintained for the containing of all men in the aw and apprehension of God and the maintaining of civill honesty in their actions and dealings And it would much avail to this to have the Administrations more duely and frequently performed and not to suffer such contempt to the places of divine worship to which scarse will be granted their very names which use and the language hath given them and suffered notwithstanding late good provisions for them to decay and ruine without some course be timely taken I know not how many may be converted by preaching but sure I am too many are like to grow utterly heathenish and void of all Religion for the reasons aforementioned The word Preaching explicated THe next word in order is Preaching the Gospell is coincident with this but so much mistakes and abuse there is concerning it that the spirit of dissention seems to bee so wreathed about it that I dread to attempt the medling with it but if the good Reader will bee charitable and think mee non-either that is against or above this or any holy ordinance I will give my poor Judgement and where I fail I beseech the pardon of the Godly and that still hee mind that the design of my pen is in this and the whole for Moderation and against the evills of extreams I will not trouble you with the severall meanings of the word Preaching in the Scripture and the Ages of the Church but surely that which is meant by it in the pure primitive Gospel sense is the Apostles as Heraulds proclaiming and making known to the World that great Mystery hid from all former Ages that Iesus Christ the Son of God was incarnat and born of a blessed Virgin c. to bee Saviour of the World and the publishing of this and the other heavenly Doctrin of Christ as the resurrection and the fundamentalls of Faith is I humbly conceive to be the preaching meant in the Scripture sense and to know and beleeve this there is an absolute necessitie to Salvation now the mistake is that those Texts and places of Scripture that mention the preaching in the forementioned sense and the necessity and efficacy of it is sometimes wrested too violently to the necessity of ordinary preaching and Sermons which certainly cannot be of that absolute necessity as the former because wee are by course of Ages born where Christ is owned and beleeved in the former sense and have sundry helps by Education Conference Meditation and good Books to improve that knowledge But I conceive the preaching in our latter sense and use to bee of very speciall conveniencie and necessitie for us and our improvement in the knowledge and wayes of God so it bee right Gospel and Orthodox preaching and beyond all other private helps and means when it is a publick Ordinance because no doubt of a more special blessing along with it but if some say that the Devil and evil spirits may be said in some kind to beleeve in the first sense I confess perhaps they do as to their intellectuals and historically but so as to their sorrow and horror but mankind beleeves at least to some glympses of hope and comfort and the Elect to their unspeakable joy c. The mistake partly of this necessity made Preaching lately as it were overflow its banks and to overtop all other Ordinances and made that gap and tolleration for all pretenders that the complaint was like as of old at the offerings of the Temple That the people bring more than enough for the service of the work of the Lord until his Highness late seasonable Ordinance hath and I hope still will more like Moses then caused the people to be restrained from bringing more work into the Sanctuary And truly I have often much marvelled how in ancient times when they had scarce any kind of Preaching nor near those helps our times abound with they should so far out go us in holiness of life Mortification and contempt of the World they by Praying Fasting holy Hymnes frequent use of the Sacraments and other Exercises of devotion and troubling not themselves nor the world with Crochers and Notions attained to higher pitches of holiness than we know or feel doubtless the holy

design to discover first what Lets and Obstructions lye most in the way and after to propound the Remedies and means to promote it Certainly our Lets and hinderances of successe proceed from some mistakes and dissentions amongst us and I have often mused seriously wherein this spirit of error and discord doth lye and in my poor judgement it chiefly lurks in meer words and I have thought it is no marvell the Apostle hath so often and emphatically warned us to beware of them charging before the Lord that they strive not about words and indeed if wee look upwards through the whole ages of the Church wee shall find they have been ever unhappy and fatall to it one word or rather syllable or letter rent and ruined the antient glorious Church of the East and Mr. Calvin bemoaning the same unhappinesse of Words in his time as when some not content with words the primitive Church was necessitated to make use of but would have words out of Scripture with more inconvenience they did saies hee ob nudas voculas digladiari so brabble and quarrell about words that veritas altercando amittitur charitas odiose rixando dissolvitur Truth Love and Charity was lost and gone And it please God wee had not cause to make it our own complaint in these dayes I verily think there hath not been an age more guilty of this vanity and unhappinesse than wee are I list not hear to offer you a list of the words wee contend and differ about I beleeve there is scarse a word that belongs to the Body of Religion whether those from Scripture or used in Divinitie and the Church that hath been left unquarrelled with by some or other and I pray God the word Scripture it self calling it Bible and the ancient Greek names and Titles of the Books as Genesis Exodus c. may be left quietly alone nay many words of the Language but of civill use are gain-said such a turbulent Villain is this spirit of Error and Dissention the Remedy whereof with all humble submission to the godly wise and especially safest for Religion were to rest and stand content with words as use and custome hath delivered them unto us for they have been ever held to be the sole Masters of Words and to give the Law and stamp unto them and it is worth taking notice of that many times words of good and harmlesse signification through Ignorance and prejudice become in time to be taken in the worse sense which did we understand and not behold them through the false glass of prejudice clearly in their first innocent institutions and right meaning a wise man would but laugh at the variances about them though some of them passing through the revolutions of corrupt ages may carry some cause of offence with them yet so to strive for them even to so much trouble and loss of Charitie I conceive is a Remedie worse than the disease and many can make that wise use of them as to bear with them as some petty monuments of the Truth and Antiquity of Christian Religion c. And I conceive it would bee a labour well bestowed for some able hand to open and explicate all such words in Religion as the Vulgar take offence at that every body might not call this and that superstition and Antichristian without more ground than his own weak fancie and doubtless it would be a course that would much conduce to settle mens judgements and allay their differences and a means to avoid that other mischief and cause of variances our pronenesse to bee falling and reeling from one extream to another as our care to shunne superstation wee slip sometimes into a worse angle and wider from Religion which is Prophanenesse both which words I shall somewhat open anon in the mean time I could heartily beg it from the able Ministers to make it more their work than hitherto I have seen to open and unfold unto the people those main and Cardinall words of Religion as that most glorious and awefull name God oh that wee could consider what wee speak when wee name it the Word of God the Spirit Heaven Hell and all other Principall and fundamentall words of Religion every which word is and is not much more than what every one thinks that have them frequent in their mouths this I say I could heartily commend unto the Orthodox good Ministers which people being solidly instructed and grounded in would doubtless more kindly and happily bring on the work of grace in them when those other speculations which I see without this ground-work doe but swell and distemper the fancie and thence the strange opinions and imaginations of many poor well-meaning souls in these dayes Thus farre of words in generall as they foment our Error and dissentions I will now offer as for our present design to open some usuall words which being not throughly understood by all do minister much matter of mistakes and contention about them as also some brief observations upon them but still with submission to the Judiciously godly The Word Propagation explicated THe word Propagation properly as every School-boy knows signifieth the cutting down of an old Vine and planting young ones in their stead but in the sense of Religion it hath ever very properly been used as much as to extend and inlarge and in that signification wee take it It being so let us grant the word a twofold sense as it hath been used and is in order to Religion the first wee may call the ancient Propagation as in the primitive times people from Infidells and Pagans were converted to acknowledge and beleeve Christ c. And as multitudes and Nations did come so to beleeve this was called the Propagation of the Gospell now in this sense some among us mutter at the word as a disparagement to our Country who from our Ancestors the Britains have received the Title of Christianity with some of the first of the World as all Histories and Antiquity doth grant and also to the honour of our Nation wee must confess as a great mercy of God to us that since that best Act one of the worst Kings ever did Henry the eighth our incorporation into England wee are much improved in all points of civilitie and Religion farre above what our Ancestors were now besides this we may also call Propagation in a more modern sense as when those that go under the generall name of Christians and yet are dissolute and unchristian and unholy in their lives and brought by means of the Gospell and converted into a better state of vertuous and holy Christian living and fear of God and in this sense wee may well admit of Propagation and heartily wish it amongst us and all the World for it is a sad observation that a great Author makes that Christians in that generall term and in gross are thought to be the impurest part of all mankind it is able

Spirit hath some other secret way besides the onely sense of Hearing and the means of words to come into the soul as to Eliah he was not in the wind and fire and earthquake but in the still small voyce 2 Now Preaching being thus stated I could heartily commend especially to our younger Preachers a due care of what they deliver unto the people for they like Iacobs flocks before the Rods apprehend and conceive but just as you put before their eyes and to inform their Judgement especially in the principles of Faith as wel as to move their affections which later without the former makes them so easily fly into peevish fancies and not to obtrude and press upon their credulity that every thing they deliver is Scripture and the Word of God but what undoubtedly is so much may proceed from their own ignorance and frail affections as men and that they would prescribe unto the people some sober Rules for reading the Scriptures for some as soon as they can but read a Chapter prefer their own fansy before the soundest Interpretations hence and the like the strange opinions and crased extravagancies of many in these times as those we call Quakers and others deluded but happly well-meaning souls I have often mused of them and they are not strange for I find such a kind in all Religions that ever were as the Illuminati in Spain the Dervises among the Turks and indeed all Enthusiasts whatsoever it proceeding from the over-intention of the fancy and melancholy and indeed they ought to be gained and reduced rather with Physick than reason and this I say comes when the fancy like a ship hath overmuch sail and the Understanding and Judgement want ballast and therefore it were a good remedy to spare many speculations and notions and to ground people in the substantials of Faith and Religion move and perswade them unto the duties and practices of a holy life so that many that have a desire to fear God and to lead honest vertuous lives yet if they agree not with some in opinions and forms they shall have but their cold commendations and stile of moral men Whereby sure I am many good motions and intentions are made abortive and people quite discouraged from either being good or doing good Methinks to feed the hungry cloath the naked relieve the oppressed are most proper works for all Christians sure I am upon that account we are to expect our doom at the last day and not according to our notions and words but according to our deeds we shall then be dealt with We read of an holy old plain man that is said to be nineteen years learning one verse which was I said I will take heed to my ways that I offend not in my tongue as to practice it hence the ancients had a rule Praedicatio brevis Ruminatio longa Actio perpetua short Sermons long Meditations and continual Practice 3 For our better success in the word one more caution I have to our Preachers and Ministers that is I humbly conceive that it would not do amiss to correspond and comply with the people in some of their more tollerable Modes and Customs at least for a while and not too rigidly inveigh against them As their aptness to observe some of the ancient Festivals as the Nativity and Resurrection of our Savior and the like referring to the great actions of our Redemption All the Christian Churches of the world laying aside Rome as the Eastern and the reformed Churches hath ever anciently and doth observe them and the charity and hospital●●y of such times doth much ballance the abuse and corruptions imputed to them and with us in Wales the people generally from an ancient use much spend the time in pious Hymns and Songs celebrating the birth and actions of Christ which at least keeps them in some awe and reverence of God and their anniversary course no doubt makes some more impression upon them than not at all As also their not using the Lords Prayer at least sometimes in compliance with the peoples use I confess I think the blessed Prayer hath been as all the rest of the Scriptures abused as in the conceit of the absolute necessity of it at all times and contenting with the meer formal utterance of it to the exclusion of other devotion these abuses the people should be discreetly advised of and not utterly to disuse it as I hear they do not in other places of England and London rather than so I incline to beleeve with those that the Apostles and the Church after them ever used it in their devotions and the first I find that gain-said the use of it was the Pelagians as in the Synod of Militane the first charge against them was Nova Haeresis nimium perniciosa tentat urgere inimicorum gratia Christi qui etiam nobis dominicam orationem in piis disputationibus conantur auferre That they endeavored to take away the use of the Lords Prayer whereby we see the antiquity of the use and who we imitate in contemning it Doubtless sometimes at our more solemn Devotions at least it might be as the Diamond in the Ring and as the sweet odor of our prayers And it is observable that upon a time when it as much concerned Christian Religion in this Land as ever at the first conversion of the Saxons unto it Gregory the great advised his Agents here to comply as much as may be with them in their Pagan ways To make use of their Temples to the service of God and even to go far with them in their Sacrifices of Beasts as to celebrate thereby the Christian Festivals as accounting it hard at once to draw them from their old waies but by degrees and so to gain them the Apostle seems to have been also thus minded when to the weak he became as the weak c. And the last thing I shall humbly recommend especially unto the more learned Ministers and Pastors is the consideration and use of the Laws of Nature not corrupt and Right Reason in the affairs of Religion for where the Scriptures are silent and dark as they are most in matters of external Worship Hence is our best light as our own Mr. Cradock judiciously observes as for instance That which all Nations and the better and wiser sort of men have ever consented and agreed in is held a Principle of the Law of Nature even but this one Rule well weighed managed by judicious moderate men one would think it were able to ●out away most of all our vexed differences contentions for our declination from this and the Laws of Nature betrays us to most of the Errors and extravagancies of the times as I shall further observe hereafter and leave it to the judgement of the able Ministers who to their hand may find help in this from some late * learned men And so

much for the word Preaching The word Saints unfolded THe next word as most proper to follow Preaching is the innocent word Saint and certainly in the true scripture-Scripture-sense the word sounds alike as the word Christian Beleever or Elect and proper to be used so it be without affectation in the old Testament as I conceive sometimes it is used to import the people of the Jews in distinction from other Nations and in the use of the Church I mean not that of Rome alone it hath been anciently used partly to the Saints Triumphant in Heaven and those that have been very eminent in their times for Sanctity and Holiness of life or some remarkable service in the Church as a stile of honor unto them and in this sense it sticks unto the names of the Apostles the ancient Fathers and others I find the word in the Original to signifie a total opposition to earthly things {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ab {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} privat {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} unearthliless So that earthli-mindedness and worldliness and Saintship is inconsistent for my part I heartily wish all would labor to become such in holiness and innocency of life and to abandon all other unhappy names of Schism and divisions amongst us and once again meet in the old honest name Christian The Word Church explained with observations on it THe next and last is the word Church and this is of various significations even in Scripture the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} usually but improperly translated Church signifies any number Assembly or Congregation either in a good or bad sense That rout and company that would have killed Paul is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Church and I beleeve had the Translators foreseen what strife there is about the word in our daies they would have used some other word for some now violently would restrain the word onely to a number of persons whereas they may be certain there is scarce one word in Scripture and those of greatest moment but admit of more sense than one and granting this the strife would bee at an end but indeed the English or Saxon rather word Church properly signifies place for Church in all the Northern Nations language as from their mother the Dutch signifies the place of Divine Worship and comes from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Dominica or Lords house and our Welch word Eglwys doth more allude to {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} than the word Church Having seen something through the word the first thing observable is to see the force of passion and prejudice in some even to wrench and transport them from the Law and instincts of Nature as either not to allow such places or at least any regard or respect towards them for as from the Law and Principles of Nature all Nations never so barbarous acknowledge a supream Divine Power so as naturally they have an impression to assign some places to the worship of the same Power and some answerable respect and reverence to the places read you may of Nations that are so barbarous that they want Towns and other ornaments of civil Nations but none there is but have their Aras Templa their Rites and places to worship and indeed such a strong byas and impulse of nature there is thereunto that most and some Christian do slip rather into superstition and too much reverence than be short in the worst extream Prophaneness or too little to such places As they say the Emperor of Russia in his greatest pomp will alight from his horse at the sight of every Church and to his devotions and will not mount but go on foot whilst in sight of it I urge not for as the Papists extream undue superstitious reverence to such places as if there were inherent holiness in them but because of the end and the service they are ordained to I conceive them not to be so slighted and contemned as they are by many Methinks were there nothing else but that one example of our Savior of whipping the buyers and sellers out of the Temple and that with such indignation and deliberation it were sufficient to gain some regard to such places for our Churches are ordained to the same use and ends as the Temple was and it was not Solomons and the Merchandise was for religious ends for sacrifice from all which I conceive it is clearly evinced that if no honor and respect be to be given yet no scorn and contempt is to be offered to such places And what our common people in Wales are apt to in this kind out of this instinct of nature some charge them with superstition which when they slip so far unto I could wish them discreetly reproved and instructed but to suffer them to bend to the other worst extream and perswade them to have no account or esteem to such places but to value them as every other ordinary place this passeth my judgement and I know it begets very hard thoughts and I never heard or read any judicious Protestant Divines but seem to allow a kind of relative holiness to such places as for that place commonly alledged of the woman of Samaria that the true worshippers is in Spirit and Truth c. this place is but abused and wrested as if places of Divine Worship and to worship God in Spirit and Truth were inconsistent our Saviours scope there was to take off that fond conceit of the Jews that onely in Ierusalem is the place where men ought to worship and indeed by these words he imports the call of the Gentiles as if he should say the Jews conceive none are to be saved but they for so the opinion goes Salvation is of the Iews but they are deceived the Gentiles shall be as capable of salvation as they which is implied in his very next words and verse But the hour commeth and now is that the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth and what of all this is against Churches or places of divine worship here I might shew how Adam before hee sinned had a place in Paradise to worship God the Patriarks their Altars and the primitive Christians the first thing they did after the stormes of persecutions was over was to build Churches and Oratories and with what joy and solemnitie you may see by that famous Oration of Paulinus which for brevitie I omit and refer you to the place And for the next and last observation upon this word if I do distate any I beseech their Christian pardon that there is a great sir and ever by all the World so accounted which passeth amongst us with little or no notice and acknowledged by many to be no such sin at all which is called Sacrilege The Heathen Magistrate excusing the Apostles Innocency as quitting him from a

great crime saith they were no Robbers of Churches and in another place Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacrilege as if a greater sin if possible than Idolatrie I know how some may flatter themselves with a late sense of the Word I partly know how all Nations and Religions and Christian Ages hath taken it and I think the mistake of these times about it comes from a prejudice and misunderstanding the word superstition as thinking that to bee superstition which many times is not so and so make good our Saviours Proverb Strain at a Gnat and Swallow a Camel but thus much I find and all others may both by the Histories and experience of all times that God hath never suffered this sin to pass without some signal Judgements either upon the parties or their neer posterities and the learned Grotius makes it his wonder that many are not deterred from it from the Example of Achan in the old and Ananias in the New Testament And absolutely thinks a place well worthy the perusall of Princes and Governours of the Christian World That the miseries tumults and wars of Christiandome continue as a just vengeance of God for this sin And sure I am the Lord hath ranked it amongst the Catalogue of his Judgements upon a Nation I will iay wast your Cities and bring your Sanctuaries to desolation I will conclude all upon this word with a very remarkable passage out of once a learned Statesman of this Land which is so much the more to be admited that he so long before should foretell the humour and as it were the fortune of Religion in these dayes hee there discoursing of the Armie of Israel removing their Camp and the care and reverence they had of the Tabernacle which saith he all ages have in a degree imitated Now in this superfine age all reverence of the Church where God is to be worshiped and served is accounted a kind of Poperie insomuch that time would have it if it were not resisted that God would be turned out of Churches into Barns and thence into fields and Mountains and the office of the Ministry robbed of all dignities and respect and b●● as contemptible as those places all order discipline and Church Government left to newness of opinion and mens fancie yea and soon after as many kinds of Religions would spring up in England as there are Parish Churches and every contentious and Ignorant person cloathing himself with the Spirit of God insomuch when truth shall appear which is but one unto the simple multitude no less variable than contrary to it self the faith of men will soon after dye by degrees and all Religion will be held in scorn and contempt Every word and syllable is his own to bee seen in the cited place and whether it was the foresight of a great Brain or Prophesie I know not but I pray God it may prove a false one I further humbly conceive as I shewed formerly from words so also our mistakes and dissentions grow from our misconceiving the scope and use of the holy Scriptures as sometimes strai●●ing them to give us light and direction in such things as happily God hath not ordained them to reveal unto us as in most things as concern externall worship as Order Decencie c. as our Mr. Cradock doth well observe wee mistake sayes he if wee take the Scriptures to be Aphorismes Canons and Theorems and where they hold forth no light hee referrs us to the laws of Nature and right Reason the custome and practice of the Saints in their Generations for sayes he if it hath been a general custome in the Church and hath been practised by the Saints time out of mind and God hath not determined it I will go along with them and further sayes he for my part when I observe any custome in any Church any thing that is laudable and comely and God hath not determined it there is a kind of honour and reverence that strikes into my heart c. Thus he not unlike the determination of Augustine in the like case In his de quibus nihil certi statuit scriptura mos populi dei vel instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt that where the Scriptures are dark and silent there the customes of Gods people and Iudgement of our fore-Fathers are to be observed The Scriptures no doubt are perfect and alsufficient as to those ends God hath ordeined them that is to reveal unto us the Doctrin of Faith and Salvation but as to other appurtenances to the state and solemnities of Religion and externall worship about which our unhappy quarrells are well were it wee could suffer our selves to be guided by the Judgement and Rules mentioned the want of this is our pronenesse to reproach each other with superstition and prophanenesse and Antichristian all of them I confesse great evills but surely many times misunderstood which causeth so much scupulosities tortures of conscience and uncharitablenesse amongst us and therefore I could heartily wish those words were once rightly stated amongst us methinks to conclude all things superstitious that are not expresly warranted in Scripture is of some perillous consequence and of the two great evills I humbly conceive superstition to be less than prophanenesse for superstition is acknowledged to be a cultus perversus or a kind of Religion looking awry whereas prophanenesse in its proper sense is the great opposite of Religion and yet such a prejudice and mistake there is about then that wee easier and with lesse reluctancie rush into Prophanene than into superstition I find the learned deriving the word Prophanenesse from disorder and confusion and any degree to the contempt of divine worship and the places imports the guilt and were these words rightly rendred and understood doubtlesse it would take off much of our matter of differences and contentions 2 I shall mention another mistake of some places of Scripture fomenting contention as those texts that are produced and wresled to make against natural parts Knowledge and learning as the 1 and 2 to the Corinth Where is the Scribe c. God hath made foolish the wisdome of this World and such other places whereby simple people are brought to conceive hard thoughts of Gods excellent gifts and ignorance most strangely promoted the consequence whereof I leave to the Judgement of the wise and truly Religious doubtlesse the Apostle doth not condemn true wisdome and knowledge but the false and counterfeit wisdome of the Grecians in those times to whom Christ and his Doctrin seemed foolishnesse did wee know what knowledge is wee would infinitely be taken with the beautie of it for what is it but the improvement of natural Reason and what is Reason but a beam and ray of that divine light and a drop of that infinite Fountain of all excellencies and perfections which is God Every good and perfect gift is from above and commeth down from the Father of light and