Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

A second Ground of vexation from knowledge is The Defects and Imperfections of it. That which is wanting cannot be numbered. There are many thousand conclusions in nature which the most inquisitive Judgement is not able to pierce into, nor resolve into their just principles. Nay still the more a man knows, the more discoveries he makes of things which he knows not.

A second Ground of vexation from knowledge is The Defects and Imperfections of it. That which is wanting cannot be numbred. There are many thousand conclusions in nature which the most inquisitiue Iudgement is not able to pierce into, nor resolve into their just principles. Nay still the more a man knowes, the more discoveries he makes of things which he knowes not.

Thirdly, in much wisdom is much grief, and he that ⟨p. 70⟩increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. In civill wisdom, the more able a man is the more service is cast upon him, the more businesses run through him, the less can he enjoy his time or liberty. His Eminence lodes him with envy, jealousies, observation, suspicions, forceth him oftentimes upon unwelcome compliancies, upon colours and inventions to palliate unjust counsels, and stop the clamours of a gainsaying Conscience, fills him with fears of miscarriage and disgrace, with projects of honour and plausibility, with restless thoughts touching discoveries, preventions, concealments, accommodations, and the like, in one word is very apt to make him a stranger to God and his own soul. In other learning, let a man but consider, First, The confusion, uncertainty, involvednesse, perplexities of causes and effects by mans sin; Secondly, The pains of the body, the travel of the mind, the sweat of the brain, the tugging and plucking of the understanding, the very drudgery of the soul to break through that confusion, and her own difficulties; Thirdly, the many invincible doubts and errors which will still blemish our brightest notions; Fourthly, the great charges which the very instruments and furniture of learning will put men to; Fifthly, the general disrespect which, when all is done, it finds in the world, great men scorning it as pedantry, ordinary men unable to take notice of it, and great scholars fain to make up a theatre amongst themselves; Sixthly, the Insufficiency thereof to perfect that which is amiss in our nature, the malignant property thereof to put sin into armour, to contemn the simplicity and purity of Gods Word; And lastly, the near approach thereof to its own period, the same death that attendeth us being ready also to bury all our learning in the grave with us: these and infinite the like considerations must needs mingle much sorrow with the choicest Learning.