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that which the light of nature, common discretion, and judgment of itself directeth them unto; on the other side, this doctrine teaching them that so to do were to sin against their own souls, and that they put forth their hands to iniquity, whatsoever they go about, and have not first the sacred Scripture of God for direction; how can it choose but bring the simple a thousand times to their wit's end. How can it choose but vex and amaze them? For in every action of common life, to find out some sentence clearly and infallibly setting before our eyes what we ought to do (seem we in Scripture never to expect), would trouble us more than we are aware. In weak and tender minds, we little know what misery this strict opinion would breed, besides the stops it would make in the whole course of men's lives and actions. Make all things sin which we do by direction of nature's light, and by the rule of common discretion, without thinking at all upon Scripture; admit the position, and parents shall cause their children to sin, as oft as they cause them to do any thing, before they come to years of capacity, and be ripe for knowledge in the Scripture. Admit this, and it shall not be with masters as it was with him in the gospel; but servants being commanded to go, shall stand still till they have their errand warranted unto them by Scripture. Which, as it standeth with Christian duty in some cases, so in common affairs to require it were most unfit.

ZEAL AND FEAR IN RELIGION.

Two affections there are, the forces whereof, as they bear the greater or lesser sway in man's heart, frame accordingly to the stamp and character of his religionthe one zeal, the other fear. Zeal, unless it be rightly guided, when it endeavoureth most busily to please God, forceth upon him those unseasonable offices which please him not. For which cause, if they who this way swerve, be compared with such sincere, sound, and discreet as Abraham was in matter of religion, the service of the one is like unto flattery, the other like the faithful sedulity of friendship. Zeal, except it be ordered aright, when it bendeth itself unto conflict with all things either indeed, or but imagined to be, opposite unto religion, useth the razor many times with such eagerness, that the very life of religion itself is thereby hazarded; through hatred of tares the corn in the field of God is plucked up. So that zeal needeth both ways a sober guide. Fear, on the other side, if it have not the light of true understanding concerning God, wherewith to be moderated, breedeth likewise superstition. It is therefore dangerous, that, in things divine, we should work too much upon the spur either of zeal or fear. Fear is a good solicitor to devotion. Howbeit, sith fear in this kind doth grow from an apprehension of Deity endued with irresistible power to hurt, and is, of all affections (anger excepted), the unaptest to admit any conference with reason, for which cause the wise man doth say of fear, that it is a betrayer of the forces of reasonable understanding; therefore, except men know beforehand what manner of service pleaseth God, while they are fearful they try all things which fancy offereth. Many there are who never think on God but when they are in extremity of fear; and then, because what to think or what to do, they are uncertain; perplexity not suffering them to be idle, they think and do, as it were in a phrensy, they know not what. Superstition neither knoweth the right kind, nor observeth the due measure, of actions belonging to the service of God, but is always joined with a wrong opinion touching things divine. Superstition is, when things are either abhorred or observed, with a zealous or fearful, but erroneous relation to God. By means whereof, the superstitious do sometimes serve, though the true God, yet with needless offices, and defraud him of duties necessary, sometimes load others than him with such honours as properly are his.

DEFENCE OF REASON.

But so it is, the name of the light of nature is made hateful with men; the star of reason and learning, and all other such like helps beginneth no otherwise to be thought of, than if it were an unlucky comet; or as if God had so accursed it, that it should never shine or give light in things concerning our duty any way toward him, but be esteemed as that star in the revelation, called Wormwood, which, being fallen from heaven, maketh rivers and waters in which it falleth so bitter, that men tasting them die thereof. A number there are who think they can not admire as they ought the power and authority of the word of God, if in things divine they should attribute any force to man's reason; for which cause they never use reason so willingly as to disgrace reason. Their usual and common discourses are unto this effect. First, 'the natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,' &c. &c. By these and the like disputes, an opinion hath spread itself very far in the world; as if the way to be ripe in faith, were to be raw in wit and judgment; as if reason were an enemy unto religion, childish simplicity the mother of ghostly and divine wisdom.

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To our purpose, it is sufficient that whosoever doth serve, honour, and obey God, whosoever believeth in him, that man would no more do this than innocents and infants do but for the light of natural reason that shineth in him, and maketh him apt to apprehend those things of God, which being by grace discovered, are effectual to persuade reasonable minds, and none other, that honour, obedience, and credit, belong aright unto God. No man cometh unto God to offer him sacrifice, to pour out supplication and prayers before him, or to do him any service, which doth not first believe him both to be, and to be a rewarder of them who in such sort seek unto him. Let men be taught this, either by revelation from heaven, or by instruction upon earth; by labour, study, and meditation, or by the only secret inspiration of the Holy Ghost; whatsoever the mean be they know it by, if the knowledge thereof were possible without discourse of natural reason, why should none be found capable thereof but only men; nor men till such time as they come unto ripe and full ability to work by reasonable understanding? The whole drift of the Scripture of God, what is it, but only to teach theology? Theology, what is it, but the science of things divine? What science can be attained unto, without the help of natural discourse and reason? Judge you of that which I speak, saith the apostle. In vain it were to speak any thing of God, but that by reason men are able somewhat to judge of what they hear, and by discourse to discern how consonant it is to truth. Scripture, indeed, teacheth things above nature, things which our reason by itself could not reach unto. Yet those also we believe, knowing by reason that the Scripture is the word of God. * * The thing we have handled according to the question moved about it, which question is, whether the light of reason be so pernicious, that, in divising laws for the church, men ought not by it to search what may be fit and convenient? For this cause, therefore, we have endeavored to make it appear, how, in the nature of reason itself, there is no impediment, but that the self-same spirit which revealeth the things that God hath set down in his law, may also be thought to aid and direct men in finding out, by the light of reason, what laws are expedient to be made for the guiding of his church, over and besides them that are in Scripture.

Lecture the Seventeenth.

SIR FRANCIS BACON-RICHARD GRAFTON-JOHN STOW-RAPHAEL HOLINSHEDJOHN HOOKER-FRANCIS BOTEVILLE-WILLIAM HARRISON-RICHARD HAKLUYT -SAMUEL PURCHAS-JOHN DAVIS-GEORGE SANDYS-WILLIAM LITHGOW.

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UR remarks in the last lecture embraced a sketch and illustrations of four very eminent and distinguished men among the early prose writers of the age of Elizabeth. But great as they unquestionably were, they were immeasurably surpassed by the transcendant genius of Bacon, successively made Lord High Chancellor of England, Baron Verulam, and Viscount St. Albans.

FRANCIS BACON was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the great seal, and was born in London on the twenty-second of January 1561. In his childhood he had, from his father's position, free access to the court, and he there displayed such vivacity of intellect, and sedateness of conduct, that Queen Elizabeth was accustomed to call him her young lord-keeper. At the age of thirteen he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where the rapidity and solidity of his literary and scientific attainments, more than realized the brilliant promise of his childhood. Before he was sixteen years of age he became disgusted with the Aristotelian philosophy, which at that time held unquestioned sway in the great English schools of learning. This dislike of the philosophy of Aristotle, Bacon, as he himself declares, fell into not for the worthlessness of the author, to whom he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of the way; being a philosophy only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren of the production of works for the benefit of the life of man.'

After having passed about four years at Cambridge, and when not yet seventeen years of age, Bacon's father called him from the university to attend, into France, the queen's ambassador, Sir Amyas Pawlet. The esteem and confidence of this minister he so thoroughly gained, that he soon after charged him with a mission to the queen, which he executed with the entire approbation of both parties, and then returned again to France to finish his travels. The result of his observation abroad afterward appeared in a work

entitled, Of the State of Europe, and which was, perhaps, his first literary performance.

The sudden death of his father, which occurred in 1579, compelled Bacon to return hastily to England, and engage in some secular employment. After in vain soliciting his uncle, lord Burleigh, to procure for him such a provision from government as would allow him to devote his time to literature and philosophy, he entered Gray's Inn, where he spent several years in the study of the law. While engaged in practice as a barrister, however, he did not forget philosophy; as it appears that he sketched, at an early period of life, his great work called The Instauration of the Sciences. In 1590, Bacon obtained the post of Counsel Extraordinary to the queen; and three years after sat in Parliament for the county of Middlesex. As an orator he is spoken of by Ben Jonson, and other contemporaries in terms of the highest praise. In one of his speeches, he distinguished himself by taking the popular side in a question respecting some large subsidies demanded by the court; but finding that he had given great offence to her majesty, he at once altered his tone, and condescended to apologize with that servility which unhappily appeared in too many of his subsequent actions. To lord Burleigh and his son Robert Cecil, Bacon continued to crouch in the hope of advancement, till at length, finding himself disappointed in that quarter, he attached himself to Burleigh's rival, Essex, who, with the utmost ardor of a generous friendship, endeavored to procure for him, in 1594, the office of attorney general, which was then vacant. In this attempt he was, however, defeated through the influence of the Cecils, who were jealous of both him and his friends; but he, in some degree, soothed Bacon's disappointment by presenting to him an estate at Twickenham, with two thousand pounds. It is painful to relate the manner in which Bacon repaid such benefits. When Essex was brought to trial for a conspiracy against the queen, the friend whom he had so largely obliged, and in whom he had entirely confided, not only deserted him in the hour of need, but unnecessarily appeared as counsel against him, and by every art and distorting ingenuity of a pleader, endeavored to magnify his crimes. He complied, moreover, after the Earl's execution with the queen's request that he would write A Declaration of the Practices and Treasons Attempted and Committed by Robert, Earl of Essex; which was published by authority. Into such conduct, which indicates a lamentable want of high moral principle, courage and self-respect, Bacon was, in some measure, led by pecuniary difficulties, into which his improvident and ostentatious habits, coupled with the relative inadequacy of his revenues, had plunged him. By maintaining himself in the good graces of the court, he hoped to secure that professional advancement which would not only fill his empty coffers, but gratify those ambitious longings that had arisen in his mind. But temptations of this sort, though they may palliate, can never excuse such immoralities as those which Bacon, on this, and on several future occasions, showed himself capable.

On the accession of James the First to the crown of England, the fortunes

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