the year 240 a person of great name in the church for piety and learning, who had wont to avail himself much against heretics by being conversant in their books; until a certain presbyter laid it scrupulously to his conscience, how he durst venture himself among those defiling volumes. The worthy man, loth to give offence, fell into a new debate with himself what was to be thought; when suddenly a vision sent from God-it is his own epistle that so avers it-confirmed him in these words: "Read any books whatever come to thy hands, for thou art sufficient both to judge aright and to 430 examine each matter." To this revelation he assented the sooner, as he confesses, because it was answerable to that of the Apostle to the Thessalonians: "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good. And he might have added another remarkable saying of the same author: ("To the pure all things are pure; not only meats and drinks, but all kinds of knowledge whether of good or evil; the knowledge cannot defile, nor consequently the books, if the will and conscience be not defiled. For books are as meats and viands are; some of good, some of evil substance; and yet God in that 440 unapocryphal vision said without exception, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat," leaving the choice to each man's discretion. Wholesome meats to a vitiated stomach differ little or nothing from unwholesome; and best books to a naughty mind are not unapplicable to occasions of evil. Bad meats 421. name, reputation. 422. had wont, was accustomed. Wont from A.S. wunian to be accustomed. 422. to avail himself, to strengthen his arguments. 423. conversant, well versed. 424. presbyter, elder in the Church, priest; from Greek presbyteros elder. 424. scrupulously, as a matter of scruple. 432. answerable to, in accordance with. 433. Thessalonians. I. THESSALONIANS V. 21. 433. Prove, try. Cf. "The exception proves (tries) the rule." 435, 436. To the pure, etc. Titus I. 15. 439. be not defiled, i.e., before reading. 441. unapocryphal, Acts X. 9-16. 441. without exception, i.e., making no distinction between clean and unclean. 450 460 will scarce breed good nourishment in the healthiest concoction; but herein the difference is of bad books, that they to a discreet and judicious reader serve in many respects to discover, to confute, to forewarn and to illustrate.) Whereof what better witness can ye expect I should produce, than one of your Own now sitting in Parlia-` ment, the chief of learned men reputed in this land, Mr. Selden, whose volume of natural and national laws proves, not only by great authorities brought together, but by exquisite reasons and theorems almost mathematically demonstrative, that all opinions, yea errors, known, read, and collated, are of main service and assistance toward the speedy attainment of what is truest. I conceive, therefore, that when God did enlarge the universal diet of man's body, saving ever the rules of temperance, He then also, as before, left arbitrary the dieting and repasting of our minds; as wherein every mature man might have to exercise his own leading capacity. How great a virtue is temperance! How much of moment through the whole life of man! Yet God commits the managing so great a trust, without particular law or prescription, wholly to the demeanour of every grown man. And therefore when He |