Lib. I. Of the Advancement ofLedrning. i-f 



So as from this order and diflribution , it appears, that the Angeh 

 of Knowledge and lUnminationy are fUced before the Angels of Office and 

 Domination. 



§ To defcend from Spirits and Intelkaual Forms, to Sertfible and 

 Material Forms, we read thjit the firfl of Created forms was Light ^ 

 which hath a relation and correfpondence in nature and Coporeal 

 things, to knowledge in Spirits and Incorporeal things. So in the di.* 

 ftribution of D^yxjWe lee the daji wherein God did red and contemplate 

 his own works, was bleft above all the dajis wherein theFabrick of the 

 "Vnivcrfe was Created and Difpofed. 



§ After the Creation was finifht, we read that M/« w^/jp/rfc'^^ in the 

 Garden to roork^ therein 5 which work (b appointed to him, could be 

 no other than the work of Contemplation , that is , the end hereof was 

 not for neceffity , but for delight and exercife without vexation or 

 trouble : For there being then no reluftation of the Creature , no 

 fweat of the brow ; mans imployment muft of confequence have been 

 matter of delight znd contemplation, not of Labour and Worl{. Aqain, 

 the firfl: Afts that man perform'd in Paradife, comprehended the two 

 fummary parts of kfiowledge 5 thofe were the view of Creatures, and the 

 impofition of names. For the knowledge which introduc'd the Fall , it 

 was (as we have toucht before) not the Natural Knowledge concerning 

 the Creatures 5 but the Moral Knowledge of Good and Evil, where the* 

 fuppofition was, that Gods Commandments or Prohibitions were not 

 the Originals of Good and Evil , but that they had other beginnings , 

 which man afpircd to know, to the end to make a total de- 

 feftion from God, and to depend wholly upon himlelf, and his Free- 

 will. 



§. Topafs to the firfl: event or occurrence after the Fall of Man, We 

 fee (as the Scriptures have infinite Myfteries, not violating at all the 

 truth of the fl:ory or letter J an image of the two States, the Contempla- Gen .4; 

 five and A&ive, figur'd in the Perfons of Abel and Cain , and in their 

 Profeffions and Primitive trades of life ; whereof the one was a 

 Shepherd, who by reafon of his leifure , reft in a place , and free 

 view of Heaven , is a lively image of a Contemplative life 5 the o- 

 ther a Husbandman, that is , a man toil'd and tired with working; 

 and his countenance fixt upon the earth : where we may fee the fa- 

 vour and ElcBion of God went to the Shepherd, and not to the tiller of 

 Ground. 



^ So in the Age before the Flood, the holy Records (with in thofe Gen.4i 

 few Memorials which are there entred and regiftred, touching the oc- 

 currences ofthatage)have vouchfafed to mention and honour Inventors 

 of Alujick^and wor/{s in Metals. 



§ In the next Age after the Flood , the great judgement of God 

 upon the ambition of Man was the Confujlon of Tongues 'j where- Gea.iii 

 by the open trade and interconrfc of Learning and Knowledge was chiefy 

 embraced. 



II. Lctusdelcend toMofes the Law-giver, and Gods firfl: Notary, 

 he is adorn'd in Scripture with this commendation. That he wasfecn in 

 all the Learning of the Egyptians':, which Nation, we know, was one a^^^^ 

 of the mofl: ancient Schools of the world ; for fo Plato brings in the 

 ^Egyptian Prieft faying unto Solon, Ton Grecian rare' ever children, 



D 2 pi$ 



