his drifts what but learning hath set his understanding above theirs and enabled him to talk at a rate his ignorant followers onely can admire Behold then you misled wretches what a Guide you have got who when all his Sophistry and abuse of his own reason and learning all his Logick and Syllogisms are unable to overthrow reason and learning goes about by his queries to undermine them who when all his impudency dares not affirm and all his ability cannot prove endeavors by way off doubt to instill his poison upon hopes that you will swallow take for granted whatever drops from him what is it you admire in this Fellow is it his railing against learning in others doth he not make use of it himself he disputes Syllogistically he is frequent in division abounds in subtill and sophistical distinctions talks hard words rattles out Latine nay there is not one Arrow in his quiver but is feathered with feathers plucked from learnings wing nor is he able to speak or write or you to read or understand one syllable word or sentence against Learning but by its assistance Could you have read could you have wrote could you have understood one word had you not been taught why these are degrees of learning awake and behold the cheat which would make you enemies even to that image of God which is imprinted on you level you with Brutes nay make you such you see it is reason that distinguisheth a man from a Beast it is learning that improves reason be not afraid of being rational this Caytiff would deprive you of your humanity that he might the easier destroy your Christianity rob you of your reason to bob you of your religion For if he be not a very Jesuite yet is he the likest one that ever I met with if the tree may be judged by the fruits his acts will a loud proclaim him a notorious juggler and first behold how he cheats you in stating the question for it is not whether by the help of humane learning a man may attain a saving knowledge to himself whether he can save his own soul but whether he may not attain to such a knowledge as may enable him to hold out the way of Salvation unto others and that a man may do this not only too too frequent examples do make out but the Apostle himself tells us in the 1 Cor. 9. 27. But I keep under my body and keep it in subjection lest that by any means when I have preached unto others I my self should be a cast away a man may preach to others and yet be himself a cast away for this wretch dares not affirm that the Apostle inspired by the Spirit of God would suppose an impossibility and the example of Iudas clearly shewes that a man may have an outward call to teach and yet be a reprobate was not he one of the twelve that was sent to preach the Kingdome of God and to heal the sick Luk. 9. 1 2. also the Apostle in the 2 Tim. 3. 5. speaks of some having a form of Godliness creeping into houses leading captive silly women laden with infirmities These Hypocrites by the help of learning and parts could pray as devoutly talk as holily wrest the Scriptures as dexterously cogging the dy making the word speak what they list craftily applying it having all the arts and methodes of consenage even as he himself yet were they not taught of God it is cleer therfore that learning and parts perse ex propria natura can understand and so apprehend the mystery of the Gospel as to hold it out so to others that the hearers cannot discern by the teaching an Hypocrite from a true Believer notwithstanding all his Positions You may behold also how finely the holy text is wrested by him to no purpose in his following Arguments for unless he prove that a man by the help of learning cannot attain to such a Knowledge as to be able to make an outward profession he proves nothing And that this Sophistry is malicious not ignorant his answering two objections will fully clear Object 1. That though humane learning be an enemy to the law of God while it is in an unsanctified heart yet when the heart is truly turned to God then it becomes a sanctifyed instrument and a good hundmaid to Theology Solution To this he answers That though the heart be truly sanctified in which humane learning doth inhere as in its subject yet doth it not follow that learning it self is no more than sin can be said to be sanctified though the heart of a sinful man may be truly said to be sanctifyed for acquired learning of it self and of its own nature is nothing else but sin and therefore remains so still and cannot be truly nor properly said to be sanctifyed no more than sin But if by being sanctified they mean that the providential wisdome of God doth order it or make use of it for the good of his people I oppose it not so that it be understood that that good flowes not from the nature of acquired knowledge it self but from the wisdome and goodness of the Spirit of God who maketh all things work together for the benefit of those that love him who are called according to his purpose and so no more can properly in this respect be predicated of it than of sin it self which in that case though not as an entity for non entia ad modum entium concipiuntur is said also to work for the good of Gods Saints First to this we say that the habit of sin is destroyed there is a mortification of sin as well as a vivification of grace as Rom. 6. 2. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein and Ephes. 2. 1. You hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins Now the habit of learning is not in the least diminished much less destroyed Secondly That the whole man with all his endowments is sanctified as 1 Thes. 5. 23 24. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the comming of our Lord Jesus Christ Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it Now then either learning must be sanctified or something remains unsanctified Thirdly That acquired learning of it self and of its own nature is not sin for sin is a transgression of the Law 1 Iohn 3. 4. verse For sin is the transgression of the Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Now what Law forbiddeth learning where is it written Thou shalt not be learned and sure were learning either in it self sin or left unsanctified in a sanctified heart we should not find the â—â—â—stle Paul giving thanks for it in 1 Cor. 14. 18. I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all and the holy Ghost describing Apollos leaves him upon record to be an eloquent man {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
we conceive or know to be false and yet what cruelty in this kind hath been practized by the Papists What by the Prelates What by some that succeeded them and yet de-cryed it in them yea what by some of those who will cry out for Liberty of conscience too CHAP. XIII Religion not to be made a stalking-Horse to Ambition or Avarice IF any shall but question in the least these mens jus divinum presently they are Hereticks Schismaticks Sectaries c. If any man shall not have the same whirligiggs in their pates as the other or will not assent in an instant to what ever Chymaera their rambling fancies produce let them be what they will Parliament or City Magistrates or private persons Teachers or Hearers presently pray them down purge them they are self-seekers Tyrants Enemies to the Saints Antichristian and Baals Priests and what not yea such as are to be destroyed Yet by yout leave furious Saint you must excuse our diffidence of your tenents yea and of your Saint-ship too until we perceive more ground for thē and find a better temper in you our Lord and Master I am sure hath given us ground to doubt you and I hope the servant is not above the Lord it will be best for us then to observe him When his disciples would have had fire commanded from heaven He tels them ye know not what manner of Spirit you are of for the Son of Man is not come to destroy souls but to save them we know who is Abaddon {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Destroyer and it is his badg to be spitting of fire why is it not as lawfull for us to question an opinion though it have your stamp and superscription upon it as it was for the Bereans to bring even Apostolical words to the touch-stone Yet were they rewarded by Saint Paul with the title of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} more noble an Epithite we canot find in your Catalogue But you will say they believed they did indeed but not hand over head and so may we when we find the same Spirit bearing witnesse to your doctrine which did to the Apostles But through all your cantinglanguage we do discover your aimes indeed out of the abundance of the heart your tongues tell us you would be popular great and powerfull and injoy the fat things of the earth these only belong to you and your tribe you are to rule the Nations to bind their kings in chains and their nobles with fetters of iron the old itch of temporal Lordship is wretchedly broke out upon you your hands are the hands of Esau though your voice be the voice of Jacob your practices are unchristian though yout profession be sanctity Christ he promises to make his disciples fishers of men but you fish for honour worldly power and riches for your followers a bewitching bait to catch poor mortals we read of the devil tempting our head with the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them but from whom have you Commission thus to tempt his members Who gave you authority to dispose of worldly powers Is your Masters kingdom of this world If it be we must rank you with those antichristian usurpers who arrogate to themselves a power above all that is called God What more doth that man of Rome whom we find bestowing the kingdoms of the world on those that will bow down and worship him but cursing deposing and turning out of office all that refuse to subscribe to his fopperies Thus we see Mahomet not with this loadstone drawing men but with his Sword conquering them he drawes his Sword bids them deliver up their Souls and upon this condition he will spare their lives Signailla quae Tyrannis et latronibus non desunt what more do Tyrants and Thieves But sure the Christian Religion stands not in need of such helps whose principles in themselves are attractive and magnetical enamouring souls and leading them captive in the silken bonds of love with the cords of a man CHAP. XIV The benefit of Humane Learning with an answer to some objections made against it ANother sort there is wriggled in amongst us who even in print and pulpits publickly bray against learning endeavouring to seduce people into a belief that humane learning as they call it is in no measure to be tolerated in a Gospel-Teacher most wretchedly wresting Scripture to apply those texts against preaching themselves to overthrow it a fallacie so base that they had need to cry up ignorance lest the cheat should be descried as if learning and preaching themselves were termini convertibiles the one necessarily implying the other whereas it is commonly quite contrary it is your Sciolist your fellow that hath scarce wet his lips in that sacred fountain who will be dabling and patching that he may be thought a Scholer when as the most learned men who are conscious of their own sufficiency seldome or never unless upon just and necessary occasions make the least shew of it in their publick teaching The truth of this is verified dayly in our eyes by the continual practice of many learned men amongst us Where shall we find more powerfull plainness than in the works of the learned Bolton to omit the names of the rest which are so well known to all thus shall we see your coward the common Braggadochio and those the greatest boasters who have the least in them for such being conscious off their own baseness endeavour to make others believe them to be brave Fellows which they know themselves not to be and to make up in shew what they want in reality whereas your valiant man is still silent and lets his acts speak for him knowing according to the proverb that Good Wine needs no Bush and that worth will be taken notice of without proclaiming it at the Market Cross 2. But the Apostles were poor Fishrmen and the like altogether unlearned and therefore the Gospel Ministers ought to be so too O Horrid Jesuitical nay Diabolical Sophistry We acknowledge that the only wise God in the carrying on of his great and glorious works usually makes use of such instruments as seem despicable and contemptible in the eyes of men yea such as are altogether unable and unfit to hatch and carry on defigns of their own the more to manifest that it is his work and to shew his strength in their weakness which unless supported by Omnipotency would sink under it as also to leave the obstinate without excuse but though these may seem weak yet are they made mighty through the power of God that strengthens them and are abundantly supplyed from above with what gifts and graces soever are necessary for them Thus the Apostles being poor unlearned Fishermen and the like once called and invested with the Apostleship were endued from above had the gift of Tongues immediately were taught by the Holy Ghost and who dares affirm them unlearned then or deny skill
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} the word usually is taken for a learned man and see what followes He helped them much which believed for he mightily convinced the Iewes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which the learned Beza in his Annotations renders Magna cum contentione and he gives the reason of it Vti volui hac perphrasi ut Graeci vocabuli emphasin servarem quo significatur eloquentem hunc hominem omnes quod aiunt nervos revincendis Iudaeis contendisse I have used this periphrasis that I might preserve the emphasis of the Greek word by â—â—ich is signified that this eloquent man employed the utmost of his abilities to convince the Jews Behold then what Divinity your Doctor teaches who is not onely content to bely learning but sanctification making the holy Spirit work by halves and as he plaies the Knave here so in the latter part he plaies the Fool fighting with his own shadow and keeping a coil about nothing for the very objection as he himself hath put it asserts the good to flow from the sanctification of learning not from its own nature it makes it a handmaid and so does he untill he comes to his Conclusion which how true it is as it sufficiently appears by what is said yet will be more manifest if we consider learning in it self to be indifferent either good or evil according as it is used or abused now is sin so Suppose a man shall make the glory of God his onely end in his attaining learning that thereby he may be better enabled to read converse dispute and speak concerning the mysteries of Salvation for could he have written or spoken as he doth without it unless by help of a miracle will he affirm this learning to be sin is the Physical act sinful or doth the moral circumstance cloath it with good or evil Something more then may be predicated of learning than of sinne which cannot be conceived in any other notion than of sin Object 2. Again if it be objected that though learning be not effectual to the understanding of the mystery of the Gospel yet it is prealent to the compleating of the literal and historical knowledge thereof Take this here that these objections are of his own cloathing the terms are his own Solution To this he answers Though it may conduce to the gaining of literal and historicall knowledge yet this is not ad idem because it profiteth nothing For truth it self bears record It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profitteth nothing and men are made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit For the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life So that all literal and historical knowledge gained by mans power is but like the principle from whence it slowed fleshly earthly deadly and destructive To this we say that what he saith here against learning may as well be said against reading teaching and hearing there must be fit and outward Organs there must be eyes a tongue and eares and these must have a body to subsist is all reading hearing and teaching therefore like the principle from whence they flow fleshly earthly deadly and destructive Behold then whether these Scriptures are wrested or no do you think they are to be understood to condemn all outward means or onely to shew that outward means without the inward assistance and operation of the Spirit cooperating with them were unable to beget saving grace in a soul do you conceive the Spirit of God in them disallowes all reading teaching hearing or only forbid to put such a confidence in them as to esteem them able in themselves to confer eternal life upon us Besides i that place in the Corinths the letter signifies the Law of which Moses was a Minister the Spirit the Gospell which Christ brought and delivered to his Apostles and Ministers for look but into the chapter and you shall see the scope of the Apostle is to advance the Ministery of the Gospel above the Ministery of the Law was not this rightly applied then against learning can you imagine he himself can thâ—â—k them to mean what he puts upon them but I leave him and so I hope will you yet I could wish some able pen would take him task and 〈…〉 the Impostor CHAP. XVI The abuse of Learning no argument against the use of it But as this fellow cries down so are there others which too much cry up learning who will entail the â—ift of teaching upon it and allow none to teach but an Vniversity Graduate which is no other than put bounds to God to limit the holy Spirit hither and no farther shalt thou go but because these men idolize it must we execrate and abhor it because the Persians adored the Sun must we Christians refuse the comfort of its light and heat in thus doing we run as far out of the way on the one hand as they do on the other Let them consider how many under the light of the Gospel furnish'd with the helps of humane learning are strangely unacquainted with the knowledg of Christ crucified a plain experienced Christian notwithstanding their Auxiliary forces only by the help of a Bible will put a whole Army to flight Surgunt indocti et rapiunt coelum when they in the mean time do but as he speaks ornare Diabolum they become learned spoiles Sapienter descendunt in infernum they go cunningly to Hell And then on the other side let not us be so silly and malicious as to put the fault in learning whereas there is no greater vicinity than between truth and goodness heaven is full of knowledge as it is of holiness and it is brimfull of both if some will not make a right use or will abuse their learning must learning suffer can there be a more gross abuse than as Isocrates speaks {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to lay the blame on the thing not the man some men with weapons commit murders and outrages shall not others therefore have any for their own necessary and just defence some make themselves drunk may not others therefore drink to maintain life and to comfort and chear the heart Noah was drunk with wine shall not Timothy therefore drink a little for his stomachs sake and his often infirmities 1 Tim. 5. 23. a subtil Jesuiticall Knave wrests Scripture may not a Minister of the Gospel therefore quote it The first abuses his learning to pervert and destroy shall not the second make use of his to instruct and edifie Upon this account all things might be condemned even profession it self and all religious duties which have been by some abused and prophaned CHAP. XVII The Mischief of Ignorance THese things thus weighed will not the improvement of nature beautified adorned with supernatural grace make men more serviceable and instrumental for Gods glory when the strength of learning and the power of Godliness unite and concentricate their forces will they not
with the alluring bait of pleasure and this Aristotle confirms by an argument drawn from the pernicious effect of pleasure And thus Cicero in Catone Impedit consilium volupt as rationi inimica et mentis oculos perstringit Pleasure saith he that foe to reason lays a bar in judgements way and dazzles the eye of the understanding And again in 2. lib. offic. Voluptates blandissimae dominae saepe majores partes animae à virtute detorquent Those flattering Mistresses Pleasures do often enveagle and draw the nobler parts of the soul from the practise of vertue and Seneca in Epist. 28. Quis Hostis in quenquam ita contumeliosus fuit quam in quosdam voluptates suae No professed enemy hath been so injurious and spitefull hath wrought a man so much disgrace as their own pleasures their bosom delights have done too many one Dalilah hath been more powerful to captivate a Sampson than all the Lords than all the thousands among the Philistimes And as a help we shall adde this That proposing the most sublime and heroical Patterns of vertue for our imitation we shall the less square our actions by the crooked and deceitful rule of Pleasure He that shall make Cicero his example shall never become a Cataline nor shall the admirer of a studious and contemplative Athenian of a couragious and active Lacaedemonian incur the infamy and effeminacie of a delicate Sybarite or a dissolved Persian thus when the glory of Miltiades once disturbed the sleep of Themistocles when his victory at Marathon had made a conquest also over the others debauchery at Athens you see how soon he broke those silken cords of pleasure wherein he was noos'd and the sense of honour having set an edge upon his affections he soon cut that Gordion knot whereby he became first victorious over himself and after over Asia I mean the numerous Persian with the strength of Asia then invading Greece and of a dissolute young man became the most famous Captain in his time Greece could boast of of such efficacy is a noble example Whereas on the contrary as Cicero in Laelio Nihilaltum nihil magnificum nihil divinum suscipere possunt qui suas cogitationes abjecerunt in rem humilem et abjectam The latter phrase is very emphatical he that trifles away his thoughts in a low and abject contemplation shall never come to be fit for any high any noble any heroick undertaking Thus the muck worm that pores upon the ground continually will never arrive to the liberal science of Astronomy and we cannot but suppose that he shall shoot neerer Heaven who takes his aim at a star than he that levels at a Gloworm The efficient cause of vertue is custome which is the genuine Parent of an habit thus when we see a man wallow in vice we say he is habituated to it yet have there been some who have endeavoured to alter this Pedegree and to engraft this excellent Cien on another stock Gallen a Physician would bring it under his cure and place it within the verge of his art and could he do it it would be no smal addition to his calling both in respect of honour and profit which would abound in admirers and never want patients how necessary would the Physician be to the Body Politick as well as natural could he rectify and purge the manners as well as the humours and not only help men to live but to live well O the sacred power of that Physick which could purge out vice and be a cordiall to vertue thou hast a fragrancy beyond the ointment of the Apothecary whose shop alas cannot be the cradle of vertue neither can all his compounds compose the affections all his distillations instill vertue all his essences and spirits quicken that noble heat in the soul it is beyond the power of Chymistry to extract this habit or to resolve corrupted nature into its first principle of purity Shew me that Doctor that can by his Physiek make the cholerike man meek the Coward valiant or the corrupt Just and let him enjoy the deity of Aesculapius and his ruined Shrines be repaired for his service I confess they can make the Miser open his fist and scatter his Angells when he is terrifyed with the dreadful apparition of death This wretch contrary to all others who hold fastest when in danger of drowning unclutching his gripe when he is sinking into the grave and parting with his Mammon his beloved Deity so long adored by him when the Devil appears ready to ceize him But this is but like the Cowards winking and laying about him when there is no remedy but fight or dy like Damaetas in the noble and ingenuous Sydney who when the Sea would let him run no further turnd had the hap to have his adversary cry quarter first and the one is as far from being liberal as the other valiant Thus it seems making for his profession Gallen attempts to cry up his own Diana and on Nature beget a Sire for vertue for he will have it spring from a Temperament of the Body but though this may encline yet doth it not necessarily draw men to vertue 1. For we often see manners changed the temperament remaining the same as in the example of Themistocles and the temper changed the manners continuing for in the life of Marius we read that though he was both old gross and corpulent yet did he daily in publick exercise himself in arms among the young men endeavoring to make his body active and nimble whether nature would or no yea so fiery and young was his ambition that the I hill froast of age which had made his head hoary could not nip it and such a thirst after honour burned within him that six Consulships adorn'd with the most-splendid tryumphs could not quench it but his aspiring soul would have drawn his unweldie body craz'd with age and loaden with honour after it into Pontus whether he eagerly sought to be sent Commander in chief against Mithridates yea upon his death bed when he was light headed fancying he was warring against Mithridates he would often use such postures and motions of the body as became a General backed with a loud and military clamour Alas poor man as if one sprig of Laurel could have given thee content which in a whole Grove thou couldst not find though springing from thine own conquests 2. Again the temper is not in our power manners are for if they were not to what purpose would deliberation counsel exhortation praise reproof laws rewards punishments be it is evident then that the Temperament is not the proximate and chief cause of vertue Secondly And as Gallen so the Stoicks make Nature the cause of vertue which they hold born with man but vice contrary to Nature and acquired by evil custom So that they themselves will have custome the cause of the acquired habit of vice which grants our Tenent for having proved vertue to be a