The Drunkards Character, Section 161
§ 161.Iudeed, though the divell makes fooles of them, yet he makes them wise enough to make fooles of any that will trust them▪
ANd thus you have the wisdome of humanists and Politicians decyphered, together with the wisdome of Gods people: you see the difference betweene them, and therein, as I suppose, that the former are none of the wisest, and that the later, viz. the vvisest politician upon earth, the most ample and cunning Machevilian that lives, be he a doctor in that deep reaching faculty, is a starke foole, in six main particulars: ergo, not so vvise as the godly man, nor so vvise as the vvorld reputes him, or he himselfe. Yea, he is vvorse then a foole, for, saith Saint Augustine, If the Holy Ghost tearmes him a foole, that only laid up his owne goods, Luke 12. 18. 20. find out a name for him, that takes away other mens.
Yet by the way, mistake me not, I am farre from advising thee to trust them ever the more, for their simplicity: I would rather wish thee to beware them; for though the Divell makes fooles of them, yet withall, he makes them wise enough, to make fooles of us; and though they be but one eyed, with Gorgon, yet have they also iron talons; and though with the Osprey, a ravenous bird, they have one flat hand to stroake, yet have they another with clawes, which wil cruelly gripe; yea, though they have the faces and tongues of men, yet they have the talons of Gryffons, full of rapine, cruelty, and oppression.
But you will tell me, that the world is of another Judgement.
I answer. So shall we if we looke upon them sidewayes, as most men doe, (like as Apelles pictured Antigonus, making shew only of that halfe of his face, which was perfect, but hiding the other side, wherein he was blind and deformed) then we shall take them for wise men, and so be mistaken.
I confesse,They are wise men in foolish things, and foolish men in wise things. the one speak Latine, Greek and Hebrew; the other Statutes, History, and Husbandry well enough, to make their neighbours think them wise men; but the truth is, they seeme wiser then they are, as we use to say of the Spanyards: whereas the godly, like the French, are wiser then they seeme; as thus, they are wise men in foolish things, and foolish men in wise things; sharp eyed, as Eagles, in the things of the earth, but as blind as Beetles, in the matters of heaven; and may be compared to Bats, Night-crowes, Owles, and Cats, which can see better in the darke, then in the light: their wisdome is like that of Moles, which will dig under ground with great dexterity; but are blind when they come into the Sunne; or Cats (especially the later sort) that are onelyonly gifted to catch Mice, being in every thing else the simpliest creatures that live: or the fish Polypus, which is a most stupid and foolish fish, yet useth great skill, in taking of other fishes: yea, these are directly like witches, and that in foure particulars. First, a witch is rarely pregnant in doing that which is evill, 2. a witch neither can, nor will doe good: 3. a witch will sell her soule to the divel, that shee may a little excell others in mischiefe; 4. both they, and these, are indeed blind and in darknesse, as having their beginning from Sathan, the Prince of darknesse, and their end in hell, which is the pit of darknes: for as they and witches, do the same worke; so they shall have the same wages, because they are wise to evill, their wisdome shall have but an evill end.
Againe, if innocency be acknowledged meere simplicity, then none are so simple as the religious; for, as it seemes, their ignorance will not suffer them to doe evill. Yea, as Plistonax the Sonne of Pausanias, when an Orator of Athens said, the Lacedaemonians were unlearned and ignorant: answered, thou sayest true, for we only, of all the Grecians, have learned none of thine ill conditions: so may I say to these; the godly, of all others, have learnt none of your Atheisticall practises.
But let the Holy Ghost determine, that knowes better how to judge then any: and then, he is most wise, that is most holy: for goodnesse, in the Scripture, is tearmed wisdome; and vice, folly; sinners and fooles, Synomina, Prov. 1. 7. In the dialect of the wise man it is plaine, that the greatest sinner is the greatest foole: and David thinkes there is no foole to the Atheist, Psa. 53. 1. whose wayes utter his foolishnesse, Ps. 49. 13. And though worldly men call the simple, fooles, yet God calls the crafty, fooles, Ieremiah 8. 9. Luke 12. 18. 20 Mat. 6. 23. and of all Atheists, which seeme wise, there bee no such fooles in the world, as they which love money better then themselves.
To conclude, the feare of the Lord, is wisdome; and to depart from evill, is understanding, Iob 28. 28. and hee that is truly wise, thinks that to be wisdome and folly, which God thinks so.