46 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



ourselves and our fathers, when it pleased God to call 

 the Church of Rome to account for their degenerate 

 manners and ceremonies, and sundry doctrines ob- 

 noxious and framed to uphold the same abuses ; at 

 one and the same time it was ordained by the Divine 

 Providence, that there should attend withal a renova- 

 tion and new spring of all other knowledges. And, on 

 the other side we see the Jesuits, who partly in them- 

 selves and partly by the emulation and provocation of 

 their example, have much quickened and strengthened 

 the state of learning, we see (I say) what notable 

 service and reparation they have done to the Roman 

 see. 



16. Wherefore to conclude this part, let it be ob- 

 served, that there be two principal duties and services, 

 besides ornament and illustration, which philosophy 

 and human learning do perform to faith and religion. 

 The one, because they are an effectual inducement to 

 the exaltation of the glory of God. For as the Psalms 

 and other scriptures do often invite us to consider and 

 magnify the great and wonderful works of God, so if 

 we should rest only in the contemplation of the ex- 

 terior of them as they first offer themselves to our senses, 

 we should do a like injury unto the majesty of God, as 

 if we should judge or construe of the store of some 

 excellent jeweller, by that only which is set out toward 

 the street in his shop. The other, because they minister 

 a singular help and preservative against unbelief and 

 error. For our Saviour saith, ' You err, not knowing 

 the scriptures, nor the power of God ' ; laying before 

 us two books or volumes to study, if we will be secured 

 from error ; first the scriptures, revealing the will of 

 God, and then the creatures expressing his power ; 

 whereof the latter is a key unto the former : not only 

 opening our understanding to conceive the true sense 

 of the scriptures, by the general notions of reason and 

 rules of speech ; but chiefly opening our belief, in 

 drawing us into a due meditation of the omnipotency 

 of God, which is chiefly signed and engraven upon his 

 works. Thus much therefore for divine testimony and 



