madnes of these daies, when euery man and woman is become not only a reader, but a teacher, controuler, and iudge of Doctors, Church, Scriptures and all: such as either contemne or easily passe ouer all the moral partes, good examples, and precepts of life (by which as well the simple as learned might be much edified) & only in a maner, occupie them selues in dogmatical, mystical, high, and hidden secretes of Gods counsels, as of Predestination, reprobation, election, prescience, forsaking of the Iewes, vocation of the gentiles, & other incomprehensible mysteries, Languishing about questions1. Tim. 6. of onely faith, fiduce, new phrases and figures, euer learning,2 Tim. c. 3 but neuer comming to knowledge, reading and tossing in pride of witte, conceit of their owne cunning, and vpon presumption of I can tell what spirit, such bookes specially and Epistles, as S. Peter foretold that the vnlearned and instable would depraue to their owne damnation.Euery simple artificer among them readeth much more the deepest & hardest questiōs of holy Scripture, then the moral partes.
They presuppose no difficulties, which al the learned fathers felt to be in the Scriptures.They delight in none more then in the Epistle to the Romans, the Cantica canticorum, the Apocalypse, which haue in them as many mysteries as wordes. they find no difficultie in the sacred bookeApoc. 5, 1. clasped with seuē seales. they aske for no expositorAct. 8. with the holy Eunuch. they feele no such depth of Gods science in the scriptures, as S. Augustine did, when he cried out, Mira profundit as eloquiorum tuorum, mira profundit as (Deus meus) mira profundit as: horror est intendere in eam, horror honoris, & tremor amoris.Confeß. lib. 12. cap. 14. that is, O wonderful profoundnes of thy wordes: wonderful profoundnes, my God, wonderful profoundnes: it maketh a man quake to looke on it: to quake for reuerence, and to tremble for the loue thereof.See ep. 3. Aug. they regard not that which the same Doctor affirmeth, that the depth and profunditie of wisedom, not only in the wordes of holy Scripture, but also in the matter & sense, is so wonderful, that, liue a man neuer so long, be he of neuer so high a witte, neuer so studious, neuer so feruet to attaine the knowledge thereof, yet when he endeth, he shall confesse he doth but begin. they feele not with S. Hierom, that the text hath a hard shel to be broken before we come to the kirnel.Hiero. ep. 13. c. 4. they will not stay them selues in only reading the sacred Scriptures thirtene yeres together, with S. Basil & S. Gregorie Nazianzene, before they expound them, nor take the care (as they did) neuer otherwise to interpret them, then by the vniforme consent of their forefathers and tradition Apostolike.Ruff. Ec. hist. li. 2. c. 9.
Maners and life nothing amended, but much worse, since this licentious tossing of holy Scriptures.If our new Ministers had had this cogitation and care that these and all other wise men haue, and euer had, our countrie had neuer fallen to this miserable state in religion, & that vnder pretence, colour, and coūtenance of Gods word: neither should vertue and good life haue bene so pitifully corrupted in time of such reading, toiling, tumbling and translating the booke of our life and saluation: whereof the more pretious the right and reuerent vse is, the more pernicious is the abuse and prophanation of the same: which euery man of experience by these few yeres proofe, and by comparing the former daies and maners to these of ours, may easily trie.
Looke whether your men be more vertuous, your women more chast, your childrē more obedient, your seruants more trustie, your maides more modest, your frendes more faithful, your laitie more iust in dealing, your Cleargy more deuout in praying: whether there be more religion, feare of God, faith and conscience in al states now, then of old, when there was not so much reading, chatting, and iangling of Gods word, but much more sincere dealing, doing, and keeping the same. Looke whether through this disorder, women teach not their husbands, children their parents, yong fooles their old and wise fathers, the scholers their maisters, the sheepe their pastor, and the People
