and ahle young men, who fear God and are seeking for
74 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTHINE. [BOOK II.
and who does not rather inquire after the source from which those things which he perceives to he true derive their truth, and from wliicli those others which he perceives to he unchangeahle also derive their truth and unchangeahleness, and who, mounting up Irom hodily appearances to the mind of man, and finding that it too is changeahle (for it is sometimes instructed, at other times uninstructed), although it holds a middle place hetween the unchangeahle truth ahove it and the changeahle things heneath it, does not strive to make all things redound to the praise and love of the one God from whom he knows that all things have their heing ;—the man, I say, who acts in this way may seem to he learned, hut wise he cannot in any sense he deemed.
Chap, xxxix.— To ichlch of Oie above-mentioned studies attention should he fjivtn, and in what sjiirit.
58. Accordingly, I think that it is well to warn studious and ahle young men, who fear God and are seeking for happiness of life, not to venture heedlessly upon the pursuit of the hranches of learning that are in vogue beyond the pale of the Church of Chris t, as if these could seciire for them the happiness they seek ; hut soberly and carefully to discriminate among them. And if they find any of those which have been instituted by men varying by reason of the varying pleasure of their founders, and unknown by reason of erroneous conjectures, especially if they involve entering into fellowship with devils by means of leagues and covenants about signs, let these be utterly rejected and held in detestation. Let the young men also withdraw their attention from such institutions of men as are unnecessary and luxurious. But for the sake of the necessities of this life we must not neglect the arrangements of men that enable us to carry on intercourse with those around us. I think, however, there is nothing useful in the other branches of learning that are found among the heathen, except information about objects, either past or present, that relate to the bodily senses, in which are included also the experiments and conclusions of the useful mechanical arts, except also the sciences of reasoning and of number. And in regard to all these we must hold by the maxim, " Not too much of anything ; " especially in the case of those which, per-