It Is Not Wisdom But Authority That

For If I Should Not Believe All That Is Written By Historians, Of The Glorious Acts Of Alexander, Or Caesar; I Do Not Think The Ghost Of Alexander, Or Caesar, Had Any Just Cause To Be Offended; Or Any Body Else, But The Historian. If Livy Say The Gods Made Once A Cow Speak, And We Believe It Not; We Distrust Not God Therein, But Livy. So That It Is Evident, That Whatsoever We Believe, Upon No Other Reason, Then What Is Drawn From Authority Of Men Only, And Their Writings; Whether They Be Sent From God Or Not, Is Faith In Men Only.

Opinion Of Ghosts, Ignorance Of Second Causes, Devotion To What Men Fear, And Talking Of Things Casual For Prognostics, Consisteth The Natural Seeds Of Religion

I Mean By The Universe, The Aggregate Of All Things That Have Being In Themselves; And So Do All Men Else. And Because God Has A Being, It Follows That He Is Either The Whole Universe, Or Part Of It. Nor Does His Lordship Go About To Disprove It, But Only Seems To Wonder At It.

A Naturall Foole That Could Never Learn By Heart The Order Of Numerall Words, As One , Two , And Three , May Observe Every Stroak Of The Clock, And Nod To It, Or Say One, One, One; But Can Never Know What Houre It Strikes.

The Law Is More Easily Understood By Few Than Many Words. For All Words Are Subject To Ambiguity, And Therefore Multiplication Of Words In The Body Of The Law Is Multiplication Of Ambiguity. Besides, It Seems To Imply (by Too Much Diligence) That Whosoever Can Evade The Words Is Without The Compass Of The Law.