IT.] ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 239 



should please himself, or others, in the reprehension of them, they 

 shall make that ancient and patient request, &quot; Verbcra, seel audi.&quot; 

 Let men reprehend them, so they observe and weigh them. For the 

 appeal is lawful, though it may be it shall not be needful, from the 

 first cogitations of men to their second, and from the nearer times to 

 the times farther off. Now let us come to that learning, which both 

 the former times were not so blessed as to know, sacred and inspired 

 Divinity, the sabbath and port of all men s labours and peregrinations. 



THK prerogative of God extendeth as well to the reason, as to the 

 will of man ; so that as we are to obey his law, though we find a reluc- 

 tation in our will ; so we are to believe his word, though we find a 

 rcluctation in our reason. For if we believe only that which is agree 

 able to our sense, we give consent to the matter, and not to the author, 

 which is no more than we would do towards a suspected and dis 

 credited witness : but that faith which was &quot; accounted to Abraham 

 for righteousness,&quot; was of such a point, as whereat Sarah laughed, 

 who therein was an image of natural reason. 



Howbeit, if we will truly consider it, more worthy it is to believe than 

 to know as we now know. For in knowledge man s mind suffereth from 

 sense, but in belief it suffereth from spirit, such one as it holdeth for 

 more authorized than itself; and so suffereth from the worthier agent. 

 Otherwise it is of the state of m=in glorified, for then faith shall cease, 

 and &quot; we shall know as we are known.&quot; 



Wherefore we conclude, that sacred theology, which in our idiom 

 we call divinity, is grounded only upon the word and oracle of God, 

 and not upon the light of nature: for it is written, &quot; Cecil enarrant 

 gloriam Dei : &quot; but it is not written, &quot;Cceli enarrant voluntatcm Dei :&quot; 

 but of that it is said, &quot;Ad legcm ct testimonium, si non fecerint secun- 

 dum vcrbum istud,&quot; etc. This holdeth not only in those points of 

 faith which concern the great mysteries of the Deity, of the creation, 

 of the redemption, but likewise those which concern the law moral 

 truly interpreted ; &quot; Love your enemies : do good to them that hate 

 you: be like to your heavenly Father, that suffereth his rain to fall 

 upon the just and unjust.&quot; To this it ought to be applauded, &quot; Nee 

 vox hominem sonat,&quot; it is a voice beyond the light of nature. So we 

 sec the heathen poets, when they fall upon a libertine passion, do still 

 expostulate with laws and moralities, as if they were opposite and 

 malignant to nature ; &quot; Et quod natura rcmittit Invida jura ncgant.&quot; 

 So said Dendamis the Indian unto Alexander s messengers ; &quot;that he 

 had heard somewhat of Pythagoras, and some other of the wise men 

 of Gr;ucia, and that he held them for excellent men : but that they 

 had a fault, which was, that they had in too great reverence and vene 

 ration a thing they called law and manners.&quot; So it must be confessed 

 that a great part of the law moral is of that perfection, whcreunto the 

 light of nature cannot aspire ; how then is it, that man is said to have, 

 by the light and law of nature, some notions and conceits of virtue and 

 vice, justice and wrong, good and evil? Thus: because the light of 

 nature is used in two several senses ; .he one, that which springcth from 



