THE FIRST BOOK. 43 



unseen. Matter of generation : Annon sicut lac mulsisti me 

 et sicut caseum coayulasti me ? &c. Matter of minerals : Habet 

 argentum venarum suarum principia ; et auro locus est in quo 

 conflatur, ferrum de terra toUitur, et lapis solutus calore in CKS 

 vertitur ; and so forwards in that chapter. 



(11) So likewise in the person of Solomon the king, we see 

 the gift or endowment of wisdom and learning, both in Solomon s 

 petition and in God s assent thereunto, preferred before all 

 other terrene and temporal felicity. By virtue of which grant 

 or donative of God Solomon became enabled not only to write 

 those excellent parables or aphorisms concerning divine and 

 moral philosophy, but also to compile a natural history of all 

 verdure, from the cedar upon the mountain to the moss upon 

 the wall (which is but a rudiment between putrefaction and an 

 herb), and also of all things that breathe or move. Nay the 

 same Solomon the king, although he excelled in the glory of 

 treasure and magnificent buildings, of shipping and navigation 

 of service and attendance, of fame and renown, and the like 

 yet he maketh no claim to any of those glories, but only to 

 g i y f in( l uisition of tr uth ; for so he saith expressly 



Ihe glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the 

 king is to find it out ; &quot; as if, according to the innocent play of 

 children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide His works, 

 to the end to have them found out ; and as if kings could not 

 obtain a greater honour than to be God s playfellows in that 

 game ; considering the great commandment of wits and means 

 whereby nothing needeth to be hidden from them. 



(12) Neither did the dispensation of God vary in the times 

 after our Saviour came into the world ; for our Saviour himself 

 did first show His power to subdue ignorance, by His conference 

 with the priests and doctors of the law, before He showed His 

 power to subdue nature by His miracles. And the coming of 

 the Holy Spirit was chiefly figured and expressed in the 

 ^o^ o e . a , glft of ton S ues , which are but vehicula sciential. 



(L6) bo in the election of those instruments, which it pleased 

 God to use for the plantation of the faith, notwithstanding 

 cnat at the first He did employ persons altogether unlearned 

 otherwise than by inspiration, more evidently to declare His 

 immediate working, and to abase all human wisdom or know 

 ledge ; yet nevertheless that counsel of His was no sooner 

 performed, but in the next vicissitude and succession He did 

 send His divine truth into the world, waited on with other 

 learnings, as with servants or handmaids : for so we see St 

 Paul, who was only learned amongst the Apostles, had his peii 

 most used in the Scriptures of the New Testament 



