Commentary upon the Prophecy of Isaiah

Some expound this place as if the Prophet should say, that this knowledge of Husbandry comes of the Lord: but I rather think it to be the application of the things that went before. For as he hath set forth Gods wisdom in the smallest matters, so would he now raise our minds higher, that we might learn with the greater reverence to consider of his secret and wonderful judgements. We may, and no doubt ought (by the way) to note, as touching that which is contained in the 26. verse, that not Husbandry alone, but ⟨p. 283⟩all other profitable arts also are the gifts of God,¹ who pours into their understandings, those artificial and cunning inventions. Men therefore ought in no case to wax proud of them, or to attribute the knowledge hereof unto themselves; as those of old time have done, who being unthankful unto God, have deified those whom they thought to be the devisers of arts. Thence came the heaps of so many gods which the heathen have forged unto themselves, out of the shop of their own brain. From out of this workhouse have proceeded the great Ceres, Triptoleme, Mercury, and infinite others more, so highly renowned by the words and writings of men. But our Prophet shows, that as these sciences were given them from God, so ought they to be referred to his glory, as to him that is the only author and master workman. And if this esteem be to be held of husbandry and other handicrafts, what shall we say of the noble and liberal sciences; as of Physic, Law, Astronomy, Geometry, Logic, and the like? Shall we not much more affirm, that these are the gifts of God?