THE SECOND BOOK 227 



give cause to dilate. For the sum or abridgement 

 by contraction becometh obscure ; the obscurity re- 

 quireth exposition, and the exposition is deduced into 

 large commentaries, or into common places 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 ex 

 ceed those of the ancient jurisconsults, of which Tri- 

 bonian compiled the digest. So as this course of sums 

 and commentaries 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 re 

 duced 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 which are 

 built more strong in their several parts, though less com 

 pacted. 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 particulars, 

 the greater peril of error you do incur : so much more 

 in divinity, the more you recede from the scriptures by 

 inferences and consequences, the more weak and dilute 

 are your positions. 



13. And as for perfection or completeness in divinity, 

 it is not to be sought ; which makes this course of arti 

 ficial divinity the more suspect. For he that will reduce 

 a knowledge into an art, will make it round and uniform : 

 but in divinity many things must be left abrupt, and 

 concluded with this : O altitude sapientiae et scientiae 

 Dei ! quam incomprehensibilia sunt judicia ejus, et non 

 investigabiles viae ejus. So again the apostle saith, Ex 

 parte scimus : and to have the form of a total, where 

 there is but matter for a part, cannot be without sup 

 plies by supposition and presumption. And therefore 



