ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 425 



derived from the rabbis and cabalists. But these men 

 fail of their end; for they do not, by this means, honor the 

 Scriptures as they imagine, but rather debase and pollute 

 them. For they who seek a material heaven, and a mate 

 rial earth, in the word of God, absurdly seek for transitory 

 things among eternal. To look for theology in philosophy 

 is looking for the living among the dead, and to look for 

 philosophy in theology is to look for the dead among the 

 living. 



The other excess, in the manner of interpretation, ap 

 pears, at first sight, just and sober; yet greatly dishonors 

 the Scriptures, and greatly injures the church, by explain 

 ing the inspired writings in the same manner as human writ 

 ings are explained. For we must remember, that to God, 

 the author of the Scriptures, those two things lie open which 

 are concealed from men; the secrets of the heart, and the 

 successions of time. Therefore, as the dictates of Scripture 

 are directed to the heart, and include the vicissitudes of all 

 ages, along with an eternal and certain foreknowledge of all 

 heresies, contradictions, and the mutable states of the church, 

 as well in general as in particulars, these Scriptures are not 

 to be interpreted barely according to the obvious sense of 

 the place, or with regard to the occasion upon which the 

 words were spoken, or precisely by the context, or the prin 

 cipal scope of the passage, but upon a knowledge of their 

 containing, not only in gross or collectively, but also dis- 

 tributively, in particular words and clauses, numberless rivu 

 lets and veins of doctrine, for watering all the parts of the 

 church and all the minds of the faithful. For it is excel 

 lently observed, that the answers of our Saviour are not 

 suited to many of the questions proposed to him, but ap 

 pear, in a manner, impertinent: and this for two reasons, 1, 

 because as he knew the thoughts of those who put the ques 

 tion, not from their words as men know them, but immedi 

 ately, and of himself, he answered to their thoughts, and not 

 to their words; and, 2, because he spoke not to those alone 

 who were present, but to us, also, now living, and to the 



