208 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



monies, and sundry doctrines obnoxious 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 renovation and new spring of all other knowledges: 

 and on the other side we see the Jesuits, who partly in 

 themselves 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. 



Wherefore to conclude this part, let it be observed 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 the,}Lare 

 an effectual inducement to the exaltation of the glory of 

 G0d: 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 contempla- 

 tion of the exterior 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 they" 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, ancT 

 then the creatures expressing his power ; whereof the later 

 is a key unto the former ; not only opening our under- 

 standing 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 medi- 

 tation of the omnipotency of God, which is chiefly signed 

 and engraven upon his works. Thus much therefore for 

 divine testimony and evidence concerning the true dignity 

 and value of learning. 



As for human proofs, it is so large a field, as in a 

 discourse of this nature and brevity it is fit rather to use 

 choice of those things which we shall produce, than to 



