Mystical bedlam, or the world of mad-men. By ThoMystical bedlam, or the vvorld of mad-men. By Tho

1. Ignorance

Is a cause of this madness; nay, it is madness it self. Supplicij causa est, suppliciumque sui. How mad are they then, that settling their corrupted souls on the lees of an affected ignorance, imagine it an excusatory mitigation of their sinfulness! But so it befalls them, as it doth the frantic: Hi dementiam, illi ignorantiam suam ignorant: These are ignorant of their own ignorance, as those of their madness., [Greek or Hebrew] & [Greek or Hebrew] are inseparable companions. Wickedness is folly; and ignorance of celestial things is either madness, or the efficient cause, (or rather deficient) whereupon madness ensueth.^a All the workers of iniquity have no knowledge. The wicked in the day of their confusion, shall confess, that the madness of their exorbitant courses, and their wildness erring from the way of truth, arose from their ignorance of the way of the Lord.^b Therefore have we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined upon us, &c. Will you hear their acknowledged reason? For the way of the Lord we have not known. So Wisd. 13.³ from the absent knowledge of the true God, & for want of understanding, and confessing by the works the workmaster, the madness of Idolatry is hatched.^c For health, he calleth upon that which is weak: for life, he prayeth to that which is dead: and for a good journey, he asketh of that which cannot set a foot forward. Through this error, they were so mad, as to ascribe, first to stocks and stones, insensible creatures; secondly, to men, dust and ashes; thirdly, to wicked men, the worst of those that had a reasonable soul; fourthly, to Devils, the malicious enemies of God and men, ^dthat incomparable name of God.