Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Ver. 22. Professing themselves to be wise] Aristotle, nature's chief secretary, writeth many things most absurdly concerning God; as, that he is a living creature, that he worketh not freely, but by a kind of servile necessity; and that therefore he deserveth no praise or thanks from men for his many benefits, since he doth but what he must needs do. These are Aristotle's absurd assertions. And yet at Stuckard in Germany was found a doctor of divinity that preached to the people, that the Church might be sufficiently well taught and governed by Aristotle's ethics, though we had no Bible. And the Collen divines set forth a book, concerning Aristotle's salvation, and called him Christ's forerunner in naturals, as John Baptist had been in supernaturals. But what saith St Paul, 1 Corinthians 2:14; "The natural man receiveth not," &c. Gr. ψυχικος, the souly man, that doth excolere animam, improve of the mind, such as Aristotle, Cicero, &c., who the wiser they were, the vainer they were, and the further from God and his kingdom; their learning hung in their light, and served but to light them into utter darkness. a
a Quanto doctiores tanto nequiores, ut Syri venales apud Ciceronem. Athenaeus brings Plato bewailing his fond love to a filthy harlot.