by evill. As therefore the ftate of man now is; what wifdome can there be to choofe, what continence to forbeare without the knowledge of evill? He that can apprehend and confider vice with allher baits and seeming pleafures, and yet abftain, and yet diftinguish, and yet pre-fer that which is truly better, he is the true warfaring Chriftian. I cannot praise a fugitive and cloister'd vertue, unexer-- ́ cis'd and unbreath'd, that never fallies out and fees her adverfary, but flinks out of the race, where that immortall garland is to be run for, not without: duft and heat. Affuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather that which purifies us is triall, and trial is by what is con-"

trary.

trary. That vertue therefore which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evill, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and res jects it, is but a blank vertue, not a pure; her whiteneffe is but an excremen→ tall whiteneffe; Which was the reafon why our fage and ferious Poet Spencer; whom I dare be known to think a better teacher then Scotus or Aquinas, defcribing true temperance under the perfon of Guion, brings him in with his palmer through the cave of Mammon, and the bowr of earthly bliffe that he might fee and know,, and yet abftain. Since therefore the knowledge and furvay of vice is in this world fo neceffary to the conftituting of human vertue, and the fcanning of

error

error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more fafely, and with leffe danger scout into the regions of fin and falfity then by reading all manner of tractats, and hearing all manner of reafon ? And this is the benefit which may be had of books promifcuoufly read.. But of the harm that may refult hence three kinds are ufually reckn'd. First, is fear'd the infection that may fpread; but then. all human learning and controverfie in. religious points must remove out of the world, yea the Bible itfelf; for that ofttimes relates blafphemy not nicely, it defcribes the carnall fenfe of wicked men not unelegantly, it brings in holieft men paffionately murmuring against providence through all the arguments

of

of Epicurus: in other great disputes it anfwers dubioufly and darkly to the common reader: And ask a Talmudift what ails the modefty of his marginall Keri, that Mofes and all the Prophets cannot perfwade him to pronounce the textuall Chetiv. For thefe caufes we all know the Bible it felfe put by the Papist into the first rank of prohibited books. The ancienteft Fathers must be next remov'd, as Clement of Alexandria, and that Eufebian book of Evangelick preparation, tranfmitting our ears through a hoard of heathenifh obfcenities to receive the Gof

pel. Who finds not that Irenæus, Epiphanius, Jerom, and others, difcover, more herefies then they will confute, and that oft for herefie which is the truer

opinion.

>

opinion. Nor boots it to fay for thefe, and all the heathen Writers of greateft infection, if it must be thought fo, with whom is bound up the life of human learning, that they writ in an unknown tongue, fo long as we are fure those languages are known as well to the worst of men, who are both most abłe, and mroft diligent to inftill the poison they fuck, first into the Courts of Princes, acquainting them with the choifeft delights, and criticisms of fin. As perhaps did that Petronius whom Nero call'd his Arbiter, the Mafter of his revels; and that notorions ribald of Arezzo, dreaded, and yet dear to the Italian Courtiers. I name not him for pofterities fake, whom Harry the 8. nam'd