g els
but to self-love and Pride, which became a Provocation unto others, to
discover mutually their corruptions, which by reaction make them all
full of envie, of hatred, of evil surmises, and of malicious practices
one against another: so that no where Satan doth dwel and rule more
effectually, then in those Religious Houses, as they are falsly so
called. How much of this Monkish disposition doth remain as yet in the
formal Constitutions of Colleges, or in the Spirits of those that
partake of Collegial accommodations, is not a thing which I shall take
upon me to Judg; but I shall leav it to God, and to his daie to
discover; onely I would bee glad that all such as are true Israelites,
and know the end of their calling unto Christ, and are not willing to
burie their Talents, or to make them useless unto others, for whose
fakes they have received them would laie this matter to heart, that
their Aim in a Collegial life, should not bee to enjoie an easie
careless waie of subsistence by and for themselvs, to follow private
fancies in their Studies about matters of Learning; but that they
should minde the stewardship of their gifts and places, and the
advantages of their Association, whereby they might bee, (if they would
make use of it) able to elaborate som tasks, which otherwise cannot bee
brought to anie perfection, for the building up of the Citie of God in
our generations. There is no want of parts and abilities in the Spirits
of our men, but the waie to order them for publick life, and to bring
them together as stones fitly compacted to make up a perfect Palace, is
that which make's us all useless one to another; wee finde that now and
then, as it were by chance, som exquisite pieces of Learning, which som
have been hatching all their life time drop out; wherein appear's,
besides the usefulness of the Subject, or the uselesness thereof, som
inclination to bee found extraordinarie; but these endevors, disjointed
from publick Aims, advance little or nothing, the Happiness, which true
Learning rightly ordered in all the parts thereof; and Subordinate unto
Christianitie, is able to bring unto Mankind. Such pieces therefore serv
onely as a witness, to shew what wast there is of profitable time and
abilities, for want of loving combinations for publick Designs. It is
the observation of Forreigners concerning our Universities, that they
finde in them men of as great learning as any where els; but that they
lie as it were dead