I. 3.] THE FIRST BOOK. 



or will of God, then indeed is he spoiled by vain 

 sophy: for the contemplation of God s creatures and 

 works produceth (having regard to the works and crea- j 

 tures themselves) knowledge, but having regard to God, | 

 no perfect knowledge, but wonder, which is broken know J 

 ledge. And therefore it was most aptly said by one of 

 Plato s school, That the sense of man carrieth a resem 

 blance with the sun, which (as we see) openeth and revealeth 

 all the terrestrial globe ; but then again it obscureth and 

 concealelh the stars and celestial globe : so doth the sense 

 discover natural things, but it darkeneth and shutteth up 

 divine. And hence it is true that it hath proceeded, that 

 divers great learned men have been heretical, whilst they 

 have sought to fly up to the secrets of the Deity by the 

 waxen wings of the senses. And as for the conceit that 

 too much knowledge should incline a man to atheism, 

 and that the ignorance of second causes should make a 

 more devout dependence upon God, which is the first 

 cause^tffs t, it is good to ask the question which Job 

 &amp;gt;eked of his friends : Will you lie for God, as one man will 

 do for another, to gratify him ? For certain it is that God 

 worketh nothing in nature but by second causes: and 

 if they would have it otherwise believed, it is mere im 

 posture, as it were in favour towards God ; and nothing 

 else but to offer to the author of truth the unclean 

 sacrifice of a lie. But further, it is an assured truth, and 

 a conclusion of experience, that, a, little or superficial 

 knowledge of phi^^p^y rrpy-Jnrlinn thr miiu^of man to 

 athdsnL but a jurtheL-SIQceedinfi therein doth bring 

 mind back again to religion. For in the entrance of 

 philosophy, when the second causes, which are next unto 

 the senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man, if it 

 dwell and stay there it may induce some oblivion of the 



