Advancement of Learning 2 1 9 



more, leaving out the largeness of exhortations and applica 

 tions thereupon, had been set down in a continuance, it had 

 been the best work in divinity which had been written since 

 the Apostles times. 



The matter informed by divinity is of two kinds ; matter 

 of belief and truth of opinion, and matter of service and 

 adoration ; which is also judged and directed by the former : 

 the one being as the internal soul of religion, and the other 

 as the external body thereof. And therefore the heathen 

 religion was not only a worship of idols, but the whole 

 religion was an idol in itself; for it had no soul, that is, no 

 certainty of belief or confession : as a man may well think, 

 considering the chief doctors of their church were the poets : 

 and the reason was, because the heathen gods were no 

 jealous gods, but were glad to be admitted into part, as 

 they had reason. Neither did they respect the pureness 

 of heart, so they might have external honour and rites. 



But out of these two do result and issue four main 

 branches of divinity; faith, manners, liturgy, and govern 

 ment. Faith containeth the doctrine of the nature of God, 

 of the attributes of God, and of the works of God. The 

 nature of God consisteth of three persons in unity of God 

 head. The attributes of God are either common to the 

 Deity, or respective to the persons. The works of God 

 summary are two, that of the creation and that of the 

 redemption : and both these works, as in total they appertain 

 to the unity of the Godhead, so in their parts they refer 

 to the three persons: that of the creation, in the mass of 

 the matter, to the Father; in the disposition of the form, 

 to the Son; and in the continuance and conservation of 

 the being, to the Holy Spirit. So that of the redemption, 

 in the election and counsel, to the Father; in the whole 

 act and consummation to the Son ; and in the application, 

 to the Holy Spirit ; for by the Holy Ghost was Christ con 

 ceived in flesh, and by the Holy Ghost are the elect regene 

 rate in spirit. This work likewise we consider either 

 effectually, in the elect; or privatively 1 in the reprobate; 

 or according to appearance, in the visible church. 



For manners, the doctrine thereof is contained in the law, 



1 All old editions have privately ; but I cannot find that this word 

 is ever used as the sense of this passage requires it, and so have sub 

 stituted privatively. 



