There be two things in the world that do pass under this ac- count:— 1. The one is learning or literature; skill and knowledge of arts, sciences, tongues, with the knowledge of the things that are past. 2. Prudence and skill for the management of ourselves in reference to others, in civil affairs, for public good ; which is much the fairest flower within the border of nature's garden. Now, concerning both these, I shall briefly evince, — (1.) That they are utterly instificient for the compassing and obtaining of i\\0SQ particular ends whereunto they are designed. (2.) That both of them in conjunction, with their utmost improvement, cannot reach the true general end of wisdom. Both which considerations will set the crown, in the issue, upon the head of Jesus Christ: —
1. Begin we with the first of these, and that as to the first par- ticular. Learning itself, if it were all in one man, is not able to compass the particular end whereto it is designed; which writes " vanity and vexation " upon the forehead thereof.
The particular end of literature (though not observed by many,
^ The division of which this indicates the second jiart, is implied, but not expressed, in p. 79, and the first paragraph of p. 80. — Ed.
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men's eyes being fixed on false ends, which compels them in their progress " aberrare a scopo") is none other but to remove some part of that curse which is come upon us by sin. Learning is the product of the soul's struggling with the curse for sin. Adam, at his first creation, was completely furnished with all that knowledge (excepting only things not then in being, neither in themselves nor in any natural causes, as that Avhich we now call tongues, and those things that are the subject of story), as far as it lies in a needful tendency to the utmost end of man, wliich we now press after. There was no strait- ness, much less darkness, upon his understanding, that should make him sweat for a way to improve, and make out those general concep- tions of things which he had. For his knowledge of nature, it is manifest, from his imposition of suitable names on all the creatures (the particular reasons of the most of which to us are lost) ; wherein, from the approbation given of his nomination of things in the Scrip- ture, and the significancy of what yet remams evident, it is most apparent it was done upon a clear acquaintance with then- natures. Hence Plato could observe,^ that he was most wise that first imposed names on things; yea, had more than human Avisdom. Were the wisest man living, yea, a general collection of all the wise men in the world, to make an experiment of their skill and learning, in giving names to all living creatures, suitable to their natures and expressive of their qualities, they would quickly perceive the loss they have in- cuiTed. Adam was made i^erfect, for the whole end of ruling the creatures and living to God, for which he was made; which, without the knowledge of the nature of the one and the will of the other, he could not be. All this being lost by sin, a multiplication of tongiies also being brought in, as a curse for an after rebellion," the Avhole design of learning is but to disentangle the soul from this issue of sin. Ignorance, darkness, and blindness, is come upon the under- standing ; acquaintance with the works of God, spiritual and natural, is lost; strangeness of communication is given, by multiplication of tongues; tumultuating of passions and affections, \nt\i innumerable darkening prejudices, are also come upon us. To remove and take this away — to disentangle the mind in its reasonings, to recover an acquaintance with the works of God, to subduct the soul from inider the effects of the curse of division of tongues — is the aim and tendence of literature. This is the " aliquid quo tendit;" and he that hath any other aim in it, " Passim sequitur corvum testaque lutoque."'* Now, not to insist upon that vanity and vexation of spirit, with the
* Oi/uKi fiit lyu rot aXu^iffTaTov Xeyov tip) tovtuo tivai, u ^uxeaTis, fjii'i%u tivu, iv\afjin iivai >) av^^uviiav, Triv ^i/^ivnv to, T^uru OMOftaTX ToTt T^dyftxirit. — I'lato ill Crutylo.
* fruii. xi. 3, etc.
' These words are borrowed from Pcr.s., Sat. iii. CO, 61, in allusion to tlio fiuit- less pursuit of any ohj'.ct by tlie use of inadequate means.— Kd.
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innumerable evils wherewitli this enterprise is attended, this is that I only say, it is in itself no way sufificient for the attainment of its end, which writes vanity upon its forehead with characters not to be obliterated. To this purpose I desire to observe these two things : —
(1.) That the knowledge aimed at to be recovered was given unto man in order to his walking Avith God, unto that supernatural end whereunto he was appointed. For after he was furnished with all his endowments, the law of life and death was given to him, that he might know wherefore he received them. Therefore, knowledge in him was spiritualized and sanctified : even that knowledge which he had by nature, in respect of its principle and end, was spiritual.