im 
50 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. aie i. 
that he designed to obliterate and extingtidk the memory 
of heathen antiquity and authors. But contrariwise it was 
the Christian church, which, amidst the inundations of the 
Scythians on the one side from the north-west, and the 
Saracens from the east, did preserve in the sacred lap and 
bosom thereof the precious relics even of heathen learn- 
ing, which otherwise had been extinguished as if no’such 
thing hadever been. 
15. And we see before our eyes, that in the age of 
ourselves and our fathers, when it pleased God to call 
the Church of Rome to account for their degenerate 
manners and ceremonies, and sundry doctrines obnoxious, 
and framed to uphold the same abuses; at one and the 
same time it was ordained by the Divine Providence, that 
there should attend withal a renovation and new spring 
/of all other knowledges. And, on the other side we see 
V the Jesuits, who partly in themselves and partly by the 
emulation and provocation of their example, have much 
quickened and strengthened the state of learning, we see 
(I say) what notable service and reparation they have done 
to the Roman see. 
16. Wherefore to conclude this part, let it be observed, 
that there be two principal duties and services, besides 
ornament and illustration, which philosophy an and _ human _ 
pian do perform to faith and religion. The one, 
Because they are an~effectual inducement to the. exalt- 
aM ation_of, of the glory of God. For as the Psalms and other 
scriptures do often invite us to consider and magnify the 
great and wonderful works of God, so if we should rest 
only in the contemplation of the exterior of them as they 
first offer themselves to our senses, we should do a like 
injury unto the majesty of God, as if we should judge 
or construe of the store of some excellent jeweller, by 
