186 THE ADVANCEMENT OP LEARNING. 



the ear, but the tares may not be pulled up from the corn in 

 the field. So as it is a thing of great use well to define what, 

 and of what latitude, those points are which do make men 

 mere aliens and disincorporate from the Church of God. 



(10) For the obtaining of the information, it resteth upon 

 the true and sound interpretation of the Scriptures, which are 

 the fountains of the water of life. The interpretations of the 

 Scriptures are of two sorts : methodical, and solute or at large. 

 For this divine water, which excelleth so much that of Jacob s 

 well, is drawn forth much in the same kind as natural water 

 useth to be out of wells and fountains ; either it is first forced 

 up into a cistern, and from thence fetched and derived for use ; 

 or else it is drawn and received in buckets and vessels imme 

 diately where it springeth. The former sort whereof, though 

 it seem to be the more ready, yet in my judgment is more 

 subject to corrupt. This is that method which hath exhibited 

 unto us the scholastical divinity ; whereby divinity hath been 

 reduced into an art, as into a cistern, and the streams of doc 

 trine or positions fetched and derived from thence. 



(11) In this men have sought three things, a summary brevity, 

 a compacted strength, and a complete perfection ; whereof the 

 two first they fail to find, and the last they ought not to seek. 

 For as to brevity, we see in all summary methods, while men 

 purpose to abridge, they give cause to dilate. For the sum or 

 abridgment by contraction becometh obscure ; the obscurity 

 requireth exposition, and the exposition is deduced into large 

 commentaries, or into commonplaces and titles, which grow to 

 be more vast than the original writings, whence the sum was 

 at first extracted. So we see the volumes of the schoolmen are 

 greater much than the first writings of the fathers, whence the 

 master of the sentences made his sum or collection. So in like 

 manner the volumes of the modern doctors of the civil law 

 exceed those of the ancient jurisconsults, of which Tribonian 

 compiled the digest. So as this course of sums and commen 

 taries is that which doth infallibly make the body of sciences 

 more immense in quantity, and more base in substance. 



(12) And for strength, it is true that knowledges reduced 

 into exact methods have a show of strength, in that each part 

 seemeth to support and sustain the other ; but this is more 

 satisfactory than substantial, like unto buildings which stand 

 by architecture and compaction, which are more subject to 

 ruin than those that are built more strong in their several 

 parts, though less compacted. But it is plain that the more 

 you recede from your grounds, the weaker do you conclude ; 

 and as in nature, the more you remove yourself from par- 



