This corrective spice, the mixture
whereof maketh knowledge so sovereign, is charity, which the Apostle
immediately addeth to the former clause; for so he saith, "Knowledge
bloweth up, but charity buildeth up;" not unlike unto that which he
deilvereth in another place: "If I spake," saith he, "with the
tongues of men and angels, and had not charity, it were but as a
tinkling cymbal." Not but that it is an excellent thing to speak
with the tongues of men and angels, but because, if it be severed
from charity, and not referred to the good of men and mankind, it
hath rather a sounding and unworthy glory than a meriting and
substantial virtue. And as for that censure of Solomon concerning
the excess of writing and reading books, and the anxiety of spirit
which redoundeth from knowledge, and that admonition of St. Paul,
"That we be not seduced by vain philosophy," let those places be
rightly understood; and they do, indeed, excellently set forth the
true bounds and limitations whereby human knowledge is confined and
circumscribed, and yet without any such contracting or coarctation,
but that it may comprehend all the universal nature of things; for
these limitations are three: the first, "That we do not so place
our felicity in knowledge, as we forget our mortality;" the second,
"That we make application of our knowledge, to give ourselves repose
and contentment, and not distaste or repining;" the third, "That we
do not presume by the contemplation of Nature to attain to the
mysteries of God.
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