2.

as before; only it was much more glorious, being adorned richly with flower-work of gold, vermilion, and blue. And I observed that twelve sentences filled the whole area, written with letters of gold. The first was, The measure of providence is the divine goodness, which has no bounds but itself, which is infinite. The thread of time and the expansion of the universe, the same hand drew out the one and spread out the other. 3. Darkness and the abyss were before the light, and the suns or stars before any opaqueness or shadow. 4. All intellectual spirits that ever were, are, or ever shall be, sprung up with the light, and rejoiced together before God in the morning of the creation. 5. In infinite myriads of free agents which were the framers of their own fortunes, it had been a wonder if they had all of them taken the same path ; and therefore sin at the long run shook hands with opacity. 6. As much as the light exceeds the shadows, so much do the regions of happiness those of sin and misery.

These six, Philopolis, I distinctly remember, but had cursorily and glancingly cast mine eye on all twelve. But afterwards fixing my mind orderly upon them, to commit them all perfectly to my memory (for I did not expect that I might carry the keys away with me home), by that time I had got through the sixth aphorism, there had come up two asses behind me out of the wood, one on the one side of the tree, and the other on the other, that set a braying so rudely and so loudly, that they did not only awake, but almost affright me into a discovery that I had all this while been but in a dream. For that aged grave person, the silver and golden keys, and glorious parchment were all suddenly vanished, and I found myself sitting alone at the bottom of the same oak where I fell asleep, betwixt two rudely braying asses.

(From the Divine Dialogues.)

THE OBSCURITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

That there is a considerable obscurity and abstruseness in Christian religion is easily made evident as well from the cause as the effects of this obscurity. For besides that from the common nature of a mystery Christianity ought to be competently obscure and abstruse, that it may thereby become more venerable and more safely removed out of all danger of contempt; we cannot but see what a special congruity there is in the matter itself, to

have so holy and so highly-concerning a mystery as our religion is, abstruse and obscure. For that divine wisdom that orders all things justly ought not to communicate those precious truths in so plain a manner that the unworthy may as easily apprehend them as the worthy; but does most righteously neglect the sensual and careless, permitting every man to carry home wares proportionable to the price he would pay in the open market for them : and when they can bestow so great industry upon things of little moment, will not spare to punish their undervaluing this inestimable pearl by the perpetual loss of it. For what a palpable piece of hypocrisy is it for a man to excuse himself from the study of piety, complaining of the intricacies and difficulties of the mystery thereof; whereas he never yet laid out upon it the tenth part of that pains and affection that he does upon the ordinary trivial things of this world?

Thus are the careless, voluptuous epicure and over-careful worldling justly met with. But not they alone. For the obscurity of this mystery we speak of is such, that all the knowledge of nature and geometry can never reach the depth of it, or relish the excellency of it; nor all the skill of tongues rightly interpret it, unless that true interpreter and great mystagogus, the Spirit of God himself, vouchsafe the opening of it unto us, and set it so home in our understandings, that it begets faith in our hearts, so that our hearts misgive us not in the profession of what we would acknowledge as true. For as for the outward letter itself of the Holy Scriptures, God has not so plainly delivered himself therein, that he has given the staff out of his own hands, but does still direct the humble and single-hearted, while he suffers the proud searcher to lose himself in this obscure field of truth. Wherefore disobedient both learning and industry are turned off from obtaining any certain and satisfactory knowledge of this divine mystery, as well as worldliness and voluptuousness. According as our Blessed Saviour has pronounced in that devout doxology:-I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.

Nor are the wicked only disappointed, but the goodly very much gratified by the intricacy of this sacred mystery. For the spirit of man being so naturally given to search after knowledge, and his understanding being one of the chiefest and choicest

faculties in him, it cannot but be a very high delight to him to employ his noblest endowments upon the divinest objects, and very congruous and decorous they should be so employed. Besides, the present doubtfulness of truth makes the holy soul more devout and dependent on God, the only true and safe guide thereunto. From whence we should be so far from murmuring against Divine Providence for the obscurity and ambiguity of the Holy Scriptures, that we should rather magnify His wisdom therein; we having discovered so many and so weighty reasons why those divine oracles should be obscure the wicked thereby being excluded; the due reverence of the mystery maintained; and the worthy partakers thereof much advantaged and highly gratified.

-whose very

For what can indeed more highly gratify a man— nature is reason, and special prerogative speech-than by his skill in arts and languages, by the sagacity of his understanding, and industrious comparing of one piece of those sacred pages with another, to work out, or at least to clear up, some divine truth out of the Scripture to the unexpected satisfaction of himself and general service of the Church; the dearest faculty of his soul and greatest glory of his nature acting then with the fullest commission, and to so good an end that it need know no bounds, but joy and triumph may be unlimited, the heart exulting in that in which we cannot exceed, viz. the honour of God and the good of His people? All which gratulations of the soul in her successful pursuits of divine truth would be utterly lost or prevented, if the Holy Scriptures set down all things so fully, plainly, and methodically, that our reading and understanding would everywhere keep equal pace together. Wherefore, that the mind of man may be worthily employed and taken up with a kind of spiritual husbandry, God has not made the Scriptures like an artificial, wherein the walks are plain and regular, the plants sorted and set in order, the fruits ripe, and the flowers blown, and all things fully exposed to our view; but rather like an uncultivated field, where indeed we have the ground and hidden seeds of all precious things, but nothing can be brought to any great beauty, order, fulness, or maturity without our own industry; nor indeed with it, unless the dew of His grace descend upon it, without whose blessing this spiritual culture will thrive as little as the labour of the husbandman without showers of rain.

VOL. II

(From the Mystery of Godliness.)

20

DESIGN IN THE ANIMAL WORLD

WE are now come to take a view of the nature of animals. In the contemplation whereof we shall use much what the same method we did in that of plants, for we shall consider in them also their beauty, their birth, their make and fabric of body, and usefulness to mankind. And to dispatch this last first, it is wonderful easy and natural to conceive, that as almost all are made in some sort or other for human uses, so some so notoriously and evidently, that without main violence done to our faculties, we can in no wise deny it. As to instance in those things that are most obvious and familiar; when we see in the solitary fields a shepherd, his flock, and his dog, how well they are fitted together; when we knock at a farmer's door, and the first that answers shall be his vigilant mastiff, whom from his use and office he ordinarily names Keeper (and, I remember, Theophrastus, in his character Пepì ȧypoikias, tells us that his master, when he has let the stranger in, ἐπιλαβόμενος τοῦ púyxeos, taking his dog by the snout, will relate long stories of his usefulness and the services he does to the house and them in it : Οὗτος φυλάσσει τὸ χωρίον καὶ τὴν οἰκίαν καὶ τοὺς ἔνδον ; "This is he that keeps the yard, the house, and them within "); lastly, when we view in the open champaign a brace of swift greyhounds coursing a good stout and well-breathed hare, or a pack of well-tuned hounds and huntsmen on their horsebacks with pleasure and alacrity pursuing their game, or hear them winding their horns near a wood side, so that the whole wood rings with the echo of that music and cheerful yelping of the eager dogs—to say nothing of duck-hunting, of fox-hunting, of otter-hunting, and a hundred more such-like sports and pastimes, that are all performed by this one kind of animal: I say, when we consider this so multifarious congruity and fitness of things in reference to ourselves, how can we withhold from inferring that that which made both dogs and ducks and hares and sheep, made them with a reference to us, and knew what it did when it made them? And though it be possible to be otherwise, yet it is highly improbable that the flesh of sheep should not be designed for food for men; and that dogs, that are such a familiar and domestic creature to man, amongst other pretty feats that they do

for him, should not be intended to supply the place of a servitor too, and to take away the bones and scraps, that nothing might be lost. And unless we should expect that Nature make jerkins and stockings grow out of the ground, what could she do better than afford us so fit materials for clothing as the wool of the sheep, there being in man wit and art to make use of it? To say nothing of the silk-worm, that seems to come into the world for no other purpose than to furnish man with more costly clothing, and to spin away her very entrails to make him fine without.

Again, when we view those large bodies of oxen, what can we better conceit them to be, than so many living and walking powdering-tubs, and that they have animam pro sale, as Philo speaks of fishes, that their life is but for salt, to keep them sweet till we shall have need to eat them? Besides, their hides afford us leather for shoes and boots, as the skins of other beasts also serve for other uses. And indeed man seems to be brought into the world on purpose that the rest of the creation might be improved to the utmost usefulness and advantage: for were it not better that the hides of beasts and their flesh should be made so considerable use of to feed and clothe men, than that they should rot and stink upon the ground, and fall short of so noble an improvement as to be matter for the exercise of the wit of man, and to afford him the necessary conveniences of life? For if man did not make use of them, they would either die of age, or be torn apieces by more cruel masters. Wherefore we plainly

see that it is an act of reason and counsel to have made man that he might be a lord over the rest of the creation, and keep good quarter among them.

And being furnished with fit materials to make himself weapons, as well as with natural wit and valour, he did bid battle to the very fiercest of them, and either chased them away into solitudes and deserts, or else brought them under his subjection, and gave laws unto them; under which they live more peaceably and are better provided for (or at least might be, if men were good) than they could be when they were left to the mercy of the lion, bear, or tiger. And what if he do occasionally and orderly kill some of them for food? their despatch is quick, and so less dolorous than the paw of the bear, or the teeth of the lion, or tedious melancholy and sadness of old age, which would first torture them, and then kill them, and let them rot upon the ground stinking and useless.