Advancement of Learning 177 



he had not been only an imitation of divine nature, but a 

 pattern of it. But these be heathen and profane passages, 

 having but a shadow of that divine state of mind, which 

 religion and the holy faith doth conduct men unto, by 

 imprinting upon their souls charity, which is excellently 

 called the bond of perfection, because it comprehendeth 

 and fasteneth all virtues together. 1 And as it is 

 elegantly said by Menander of vain love, which is but 

 a false imitation of divine love, Amor melior Sophista 

 Icevo ad humanam vitam? that love teacheth a man to carry 

 himself better than the sophist or preceptor; which he 

 calleth left-handed, because, with all his rules and precepts, 

 he cannot form a man so dexterously, nor with that facility 

 to prize himself and govern himself, as love can do: so 

 certainly, if a man s mind be truly inflamed with charity, 

 it doth work him suddenly into a greater perfection than 

 all the doctrine of morality can do, which is but a sophist 

 in comparison of the other. Nay further, as Xenophon 

 observed truly, that all other affections, though they raise 

 the mind, yet they do it by distorting and uncomeliness 

 of ecstasies or excesses ; but only love doth exalt the mind, 

 and nevertheless at the same instant doth settle and com 

 pose it ; 3 so in all other excellencies, though they advance 

 nature, yet they are subject to excess; only charity ad- 

 mitteth no excess. For so we see, aspiring to be like God 

 in power, the angels transgressed and fell; Ascendant, et 

 ero similis altissimo : 4 by aspiring to be like God in know 

 ledge, man transgressed and fell; Eritis sicut Dii, sciences 

 bonum et malum : 5 but by aspiring to a similitude of God 

 in goodness or love, neither man nor angel ever transgressed, 

 or shall transgress. For unto that imitation we are called : 

 Diligite inimicos vestros, benefacite eis qui oderunt vos, et 

 orate pro persequentibus et calumniantibus vos, ut sitis filii 

 Patris vestri qui in ccelis est, qui solem simm oriri facit super 

 bonos et malos, et pluit super justos et injustos* So in the 

 first platform of the divine nature itself, the heathen 



1 Coloss. iii. 14. 



2 &quot; Not Menander but Anaxandrid.es 



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* Xen. Symp. ad init. * Isai. xiv. 14. 



5 Gen. iii. 5. Luke vi. 27, 28. 



