The mischiefs of self-ignorance and the benefits of self-acquaintance opened in divers sermons at…

— Illa liberalium artium consectatio molestos, intempestivos, verbosos, sibi placentes facit, & ideo non discentes necessaria, quia super-vacua didicerunt] [What good will it do me, that I should be solicitous to know when Saturn and Mars will stand in opposition?—This diligent study of the liberal ⟨p. 138⟩arts, doth make men troublesome, unseasonable, wordy, self-pleasing, and such as therefore learn not things necessary, because they have learned things superfluous.]

When our nearer greater works are done, then those that are more distant will be seasonable, and useful, and excellent in their proper places. When men understand the state and affairs of their souls, and have made sure of their everlasting happiness, they may then seasonably and wisely manage Political and Economical affairs, and prudently order and prosecute their temporal concernments: when they first seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, subordinate things may be seasonably considered. But for a man to be taken up about matters of Law, or Trade, or Pleasure, when he mindeth not the matters of his salvation; and to study languages, Arts and Sciences, when he studieth not how to escape damnation, is not to be Learned, but to dote; nor to be honourably or prudently employed, but to walk as a noctambulo, a man in a dream, and live besides the Reason of a man, as well as below the faith of a Christian: These seemingly wise and honourable worldlings, that labour not to know what state and relation they stand ⟨p. 139⟩in towards God, and his Judgement, do live in a more pernicious distraction then he that is disputing in mood and figure while his house is burning over his head, or he that is learning to fiddle or dance, when he is assaulted by an enemy, or to be tried for his life.

When our nearer greater works are done, then those that are more distant will be seasonable, and usefull, and excellent in their proper places. When men understand the state and affairs of their souls, and have made sure of their everlasting happiness, they may then seasonably and wisely manage Political and Oeconomical affairs, and prudently order and prosecute their temporal concernments: when they first seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, subordinate things may be seasonably considered. But for a man to be taken up about matters of Law, or Trade, or Pleasure, when he mindeth not the matters of his salvation; and to study languages, Arts and Sciences, when he studieth not how to escape damnation, is not to be Learned, but to dote; nor to be honourably or prudently employed, but to walk as a noctambulo, a man in a dream, and live besides the Reason of a man, as well as below the faith of a Christian: These seemingly wise and honourable worldlings, that labour not to know what state and relation they stand