THE NATURE OF THE REVELATION. 1. Its limits. 2. Its sufficiency. 3. Its acquisition. 8. The points fundamental and of perfection ought to be distinguished... 241 We see Moses when he saw the Israelite and the Egyptian fight, he did not say, Why strive you? but drew his sword and slew the Egyptian: but when he saw the two Israelites fight, he said, You are brethren, why strive you? ! The coat of our Saviour was entire without seam, and so is the doctrine of the Scriptures in itself; but the garment of the church was of divers colours. The Limits of the Information 9. Considerations respecting the limits. 1. The inspiration of individuals. 2. The inspiration of the church. 3. The proper use of reason. ... 241 They ought to be piously and wisely distin- 2. The gradations of light for the generation 241 The Acquisition of the Information... 11. It rests upon the sound interpretation of Scrip ture. They are the fountains of the waters of life. 12. Different inodes of interpreting Scripture. 1. Methodical. 13. Methodical mode of interpretation. 17. Divine knowledge beyond human reach. ·· To seek philosophy in divinity is to seek the dead amongst the living: neither are the pots or lavers, whose place was in the outward part of the temple, to be sought in the holiest place of all, where the ark of the testimony was seated. 1. Summary brevity. 2. Compacted strength. 3. Complete perfection. 15. Solute method of interpretation..... 242 16. There have been divers curious but unsafe modes. 2. Solute or at large. 22. Deviations from religion. This divine water which excelleth so much Atheism. Idolatry. drawn and received in buckets and vessels im- 2. Manners Of the law, as to substance and style. It imposes restraint where God granteth liberty, or in taking liberty where God imposeth restraint. 3. Liturgy. 243 4. Government. 1. Patrimony of the church. 2. The franchises of the church. 242 3. The jurisdiction of the church. 4. The laws of the church. 243 I can find no space or ground that lieth vacant and unsown in the matter of divinity; so diligent have men been, either 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 occupate, or not well converted by the labour of man. THE FIRST BOOK OF FRANCIS BACON OF THE PROFICIENCE AND ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, DIVINE AND HUMAN. TO THE KING. THERE were, under the law, excellent king, both the least occasion presented, or the least spark of daily sacrifices, and freewill-offerings; the one pro-another's knowledge delivered. And as the Scripceeding upon ordinary observance, the other upon a ture saith of the wisest king, "That his heart was devout cheerfulness: in like manner there belong- as the sands of the sea:" which though it be one eth to kings from their servants both tribute of duty of the largest bodies, yet it consisteth of the smalland presents of affection. In the former of these I est and finest portions; so hath God given your hope I shall not live to be wanting, according to my majesty a composition of understanding admirable, most humble duty, and the good pleasure of your being able to compass and comprehend the greatmajesty's employments: for the latter I thought it est matters, and nevertheless to touch and appremore respective to make choice of some oblation, hend the least: whereas it should seem an impossiwhich might rather refer to the propriety and ex- bility in nature, for the same instrument to make itcellency of your individual person, than to the busi- self fit for great and small works. And for your ness of your crown and state. gift of speech, I call to mind what Cornelius Tacitus saith of Augustus Cæsar; "Augusto profluens, et quæ principem deceret, eloquentia fuit." For, if we note it well, speech that is uttered with labour and difficulty, or speech that savoureth of the affectation of art and precepts, or speech that is framed after the imitation of some pattern of eloquence, though never so excellent, all this has somewhat servile, and holding of the subject. But your majesty's manner of speech is indeed prince-like, flowing as from a fountain, and yet streaming and branching itself into nature's order, full of facility and felicity, imitating none, and inimitable by any. And as in your civil estate there appeareth to be an emulation and contention of your majesty's virtue with your fortune; a virtuous disposition with a fortunate regiment ; a virtucus ex pectation, when time was, of your greater fortune, with a prosperous possession thereof in the due time; a virtuous observation of the laws of marriage with most blessed and happy fruit of marriage; a virtuous and most Christian desire of peace, with a fortunate inclination in your neighbour princes thereunto: so likewise, in these intellectual matters 0 2 Wherefore, representing your majesty many times unto my mind, and beholding you not with the inquisitive eye of presumption, to discover that which the Scripture telleth me is inscrutable, but with the observant eye of duty and admiration; leaving aside the other parts of your virtue and fortune, I have been touched, yea, and possessed with an extreme wonder at those your virtues and faculties, which the philosophers call intellectual; the largeness of your capacity, the faithfulness of your memory, the swiftness of your apprehension, the penetration of your judgment, and the facility and order of your elocution: and I have often thought, that of all the persons living that I have known, your majesty were the best instance to make a man of Plato's opinion, that all knowledge is but remembrance, and that the mind of man by nature knoweth all things, and hath but our own native and original motions (which by the strangeness and darkness of this tabernacle of the body are sequestered) again revived and restored: such a light of nature I have observed in your majesty, and such a readiness to take flame and blaze from VOL. I.-21 161 there seemeth to be no less contention between the excellency of your majesty's gifts of nature, and the universality and perfection of your learning. For I am well assured that this which I shall say is no amplification at all, but a positive and measured truth; which is, that there hath not been since Christ's time any king or temporal monarch, which has been so learned in all literature and erudition, divine and human. For let a man seriously and diligently revolve and peruse the succession of the emperors of Rome; of which Cæsar the dictator, who livee some years before Christ, and Marcus Antonius, were the best learned; and so descend to the emperors of Græcia, or of the West; and then to the lines of France, Spain, England, Scotland, and the rest, and he shall find this judgment is truly made. For it seemeth much in a king, if, by the compendious extractions of other men's wits and labours, he can take hold of any superficial ornaments and shows of learning; or if he countenance and prefer learning and learned men: but to drink indeed of the true fountains of learning, nay, to have such a fountain of learning in himself, in a king, and in a king born, is almost a miracle. And the more, because there is met in your majesty a rare conjunction, as well of divine and sacred literature, as of profane and human; so as your majesty standeth invested of that triplicity, which in great veneration was as-clined to atheism, and how the contemplation of cribed to the ancient Hermes; the power and fortune of a king, the knowledge and illumination of a priest, and the learning and universality of a philosopher. This propriety, inherent and individual attribute in your majesty, deserveth to be expressed not only in the fame and admiration of the present time, nor in the history or tradition of the ages succeeding; but also in some solid work, fixed memorial, and immortal monument, bearing a character or signature both of the power of a king, and the difference and perfection of such a king. Therefore I did conclude with myself, that I could not make unto your majesty a better oblation, than of some treatise tending to that end, whereof the sum will consist of these two parts; the former, concerning the excellency of learning and knowledge, and the excellency of the merit and true glory in the augmentation and propagation. thereof: the latter, what the particular acts and works are, which have been embraced and undertaken for the advancement of learning; and again, what defects and undervalues I find in such particular acts: to the end, that though I cannot positively or affirmatively advise your majesty, or propound unto you framed particulars; yet I inay excite your princely cogitations to visit the excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeable to your magnanimity and wisdom. the way, and, as it were, to make silence, to have the true testimonies concerning the dignity of learning to be better heard, without the interruption of tacit objections; I think good to deliver it from the discredits and disgraces which it hath received, all from ignorance, but ignorance severally disguised; appearing sometimes in the zeal and jealousy of divines; sometimes in the severity and arrogancy of politicians; and sometimes in the errors and imperfections of learned men themselves. I hear the former sort say, that knowledge is of those things which are to be accepted of with great limitation and caution; that the aspiring to overmuch knowledge, was the original temptation and sin, whereupon ensued the fall of man; that knowledge hath in it somewhat of the serpent, and therefore where it entereth into a man it makes him swell; "Scientia inflat:" that Solomon gives a censure, "That there is no end of making books, and that much reading is a weariness of the flesh;" and again in another place, "That in spacious knowledge there is much contristation, and that he that increaseth knowledge increaseth anxiety;" that St. Paul gives a caveat, "That we be not spoiled through vain philosophy;" that experience demonstrates how learned men have been arch-heretics, how learned times have been in second causes doth derogate from our dependence upon God, who is the first cause. To discover then the ignorance and error of this opinion, and the misunderstanding in the grounds thereof, it may well appear these men do not observe or consider, that it was not the pure knowledge of nature and universality, a knowledge by the light whereof man did give names unto other creatures in Paradise, as they were brought before him, according unto their proprieties, which gave the occasion to the fall; but it was the proud knowledge of good and evil, with an intent in man to give law unto himself, and to depend no more upon God's commandments, which was the form of the temptation. Neither is it any quantity of knowledge, how great soever, that can make the mind of man to swell; for nothing can fill, much less extend the soul of man, but God and the contemplation of God; and therefore Solomon speaking of the two principal senses of inquisition, the eye and the ear, affirmeth that the eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing; and if there be no fulness, then is the continent greater than the content: so of knowledge itself, and the mind of man, whereto the senses are but reporters, he defiineth likewise in these words, placed after that calendar or ephemerides, which he maketh of the diversities of times and seasons for all actions and purposes; and concludeth thus: "God hath made all things beautiful, or decent, in the true return of their sea IN the entrance to the former of these, to clear sons: Also he hath placed the world in man's |