II.J ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. 



This matter of divinity is handled cither in form of instruction ot 

 truth, or in form of confutation of falsehood. The declinations from 

 religion, besides the privative, which is atheism, and the branches 

 thereof, are three ; heresies, idolatry, and witchcraft : heresies, when 

 we serve the true God with a false worship ; idolatry, when we worship 

 false gods, supposing them to be true ; and witchcraft, when we adore 

 false gods, knowing them to be wicked and false. For so your majesty 

 doth excellently well observe, that witchcraft is the height of idolatry. 

 And yet we see though these be true degrees, Samuel te.icheth us that 

 they are all of a nature, when there is once a receding from the word 

 of (iod ; for so he saith, &quot; Quasi peccatum ariolandi est repugnare, ct 

 quasi scelus idololatrix nolle acquiesccrc.&quot; 



These things I have passed over so briefly, because I can report no 

 deficiencc concerning them : for I can find no space or ground that 

 lieth vacant and unsown in the matter of divinity ; so diligent have 

 been men, cither in sowing of good seed, or in sowing of tares. 



THUS have I made, as it were, a small globe of the intellectual 

 world, as truly and faithfully as I could discover, with a note and 

 description of those parts which seem to me not constantly occupatc, or 

 not well converted by the labour of man. In which, if I have in any 

 point receded from that which is commonly received, it hath been with 

 a purpose of proceeding / // mclius, and not / // aliud: a mind of amend 

 ment and proticicnce, and not of change and difference. For I could 

 not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing 

 to go beyond others, but yet not more willing than to have others go 

 beyond me again ; which may the better appear by this, that I have 

 propounded my opinions naked and unarmed, not seeking to pre- 

 occupatc the liberty of men s judgments by confutations. For in any 

 thing which is well set down, I am in good hope, that if the first read 

 ing move an objection, the second reading will make an answer. And 

 in those things wherein I have erred, I am sure, I have not prejudiced 

 the right by litigious arguments, which certainly have this contrary 

 effect and operation, that they add authority to error, and destroy the 

 authority of that which is well invented. For question is an honour 

 and preferment to falsehood, as on the other side it is a repulse to 

 truth. But the errors I claim and challangc to myself as my own. 

 The good, if any be, is due tanguain adeps sacrijicii, to be incensed to 

 the honour first of the Divine Majesty, and nexl of your r.iajcily, to 

 wnoiii on earth I am must boundcu. 



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