The forbidden fruit· or A treatise of the tree of knovvledge of good & evill of which Adam at first, & as yet all mankind doe eate death. Moreover, how at this day it is forbidden to every one as well as to Adam; and how this tree, that is the wisedome of the serpent planted in Adam, is that great image, and that many headed beast, mentioned in Daniel and the Apocalyps, whom the whole world doth worship. Lastly, here is shewed what is the tree of life, contrary to the wisdome, righteousnesse, and knowledge of all mankind: with a description of the majestie and nature of Gods Word. By August: Eluthenius [sic]. Translated out of Latine into English.

CHAPTER X. An ansvver to certaine obiections, that we ought to be wise, and not fooles; and how we ought to be wise, and how foolish. (Book 10)

But you wil say, that the learned shall shine as the Starres or Sunne in Heaven, and in a thousand places wee are com∣manded to apply our hearts unto wis∣dome, as in the Proverbs and Eccles. wise men are commended?

To which I answer, that it is rightly spoken, if it be rightly understood, to wit, of the tree divine & heavenly know∣ledge, which God himselfe doth worke & teach in those that are poore in spirit; I say, it is understood of the wisdome of the tree of life; and not of the deadly and foolish wisdome of the Flesh, which is the knowledge of good and evill; and the Scriptures will have us to acknowledge our folly, and to be made fooles in our owne judgement, (and indeed we are so,

but we would not be accounted so) and forget all things wherby we may become truely wise, and receive the influence of divine knowledge into our soules; For we are all foolish & wicked, and we will not see and perceive it, nor beleeve it; and therfore God would have us by con∣fessing our folly in true simplicity, to give a farewell unto it, & by submitting our selves over unto God, be made truely wise and learned by him.

Hereupon it is that Solomon calls them fooles, whom Paul calls wise & prudent; Solomon calls them what they are in∣deed in the sight of God; but Paul calls them what they seeme to be in their own eyes, and in the sight of men: We must unlearne, and therein strive to be fooles in that wherin we learne and strive to be wise in; But as it is given us of God, so it can be learned from none but God; and as the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, begets a mutuall love of him againe; Even so Gods knowing of us, be∣gets in us a knowledge of him, as Paul witnesseth to the Gal: after that ye knew God, or rather are knowne of him.

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As also to the Phill. I desire to know▪ as I am knowne. And also 1. Ioh. 3. He first loved us. Also in another place: if any man love God, he is borne of God. Out of all these places I gather, that God is never knowne, loved, sought, or found of us, untill we be knowne, loved, sought and found of God; as Christ saith to the Pharises: the Kingdome of God is in you; and Paul to the Athenians: Hee is not farr off from every one of us; for in him we live, move, & have our being. But this is most miserable and lamen∣table, that those who professe themselves to know God, know him not as they ought; as Paul testifies of the world: If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And againe: if any man seeme to know any thing, he know∣eth nothing as he ought.

VVe should know this, that by nature we know nothing, but are altogether blind, dead, and foolish in spirituall things; and th••s knowledge should make us nothing, foolish and Children in our owne eyes; But wee desire to know, and seeme wise, whereby it comes to

passe that we know not how, or for what end we ought to learne knowledge, for wisdome is not given unto us for this purpose, that thereby being puffed with pride, we extoll our selves, and become something in the eyes of the world, but on the contrary to make us nothing. This is the knowledge of God, that makes us Fooles and Children to our selves and the world: it doth not puffe us up, making us seeme wise in our own opinion; Noe, for that is the knowledge of the Serpent, both most devilish and deadly.

Thus you see that the whole world knowes not what, how, and for what end they should desire to know, but alwayes strives against God in their knowledge; and know not of what things they ought to be ignorant off, but cheifly are desi∣rous to know those things they ought to be ignorant off; and so by their owne art and knowledge make themselves Fooles.

Breefly, that which they doe know and doe desire to know, that they should learne to unknow; and what they resist

to know that they should learn to know, otherwise God will never acknowledge them for his owne, because God hath de∣termined never to acknowledge, crowne or reward any thing in us, but his owns guifts and workes, that is never to love or accept any thing in us but himselfe: For he alone is the Light, Life, the way, and the truth, so that whosoever is not in him, or he in them, they alwayes wander in the pathes of errour and shadow of death. Now every man knows what it is to walk in darknes. The walls of Ierusa∣lem were not to be opened before the Sunne did rise; even so should no man intend to goe forth before the Sonne of righteousnesse arose in his heart; since all things depends upon him, and bee should be our Teacher and Example, by whose instruction we should learne, and by whose Example wee should walke, as the Scriptures testify.

It is an easie thing to say, that the world is in darknesse, and uncapable of the spirit of truth: but no man will either acknowledge or beleeve himselfe to be the world, or that the whole world to

God is all Fleshe as the Sonnes of Adam all were naturall men, with the universall righteousnesse, reason, and wisdome therein; but by the world men thinke to be understood, the Turkes, Gentles, & Heathens; and I know not what people of the farthest parts of the world, attri∣buting so much to arts, tongues & Scrip∣tures, which they almost preferre above the spirit; and if a man doe reade and have a Bible, they thinke it enough, and that by which they may easily obtaine the Holy Ghost; not considering that either the Holy Ghost must bee their guide, and enlighten them in the know∣ledge of the word, or otherwise it is but a dead Letter; and is so farre from bringing Life with it, that it mortifies & kills the Reader: as Paul implies, where he sayth, the spirit quickens and not the Letter.

The Iewes in auncient times, and so men in these dayes doe boast themselves of the word of God, & are strongly per∣swaded, that out of it they are able to gather Life to their soules; but they are farre deceived.

Wherefore Christ sayes: In whom thinke ye to have Life. As for the Scrip∣tures his testimony of them is this, that they are them which testify of him.

Therefore all arts and knowledges are no wayes the cause of Life; but the know∣ledge of Life to know him in and with God; wicked nature hath alwayes a per∣verse end, proposed to it selfe, and there∣fore it desires to know all things, not for God but for its owne sake; therefore all things are to the flesh (as it is its self) vaine and perverse, if the learning of so many arts had beene necessary to salva∣tion, God had created and taught them in the beginning; Neither would bee have suffered that men should so long have wanted that, without which they were not able to attaine to Life; but because they were formed out by men, and still are found out by them, though no man be any whitt the more unhappie, if so be he never know any thing of them; Yea hee were more happie if he could unlearne them, though with greater dif∣ficulty then he learned them; you may by the Tree conjecture what the Fruit

is, what humane arts and sciences are: to witt, the Fruit of the forbidden Tree; How then can they conduce any thing unto Life, being the only precepts & in, ventions of men.

Therefore very well in praise of that word of God doth Cornelius Agrippa call all arts and actions of men meere igno∣rant fables and foolishnes, in his Booke de vanitate Scientiarum. The beginning and end whereof wee have putt in this Booke, that wee may not seeme alone with Ernestinus to contemne arts and praise folly.

Wherefore if thou leane unto arts, please and boast thy selfe in them, having any hope or accounting thy selfe any thing better for them, they will prove death unto thee, for they doe no more conduce to thy happines then garments, time, place, or such like circumstances: But as they are the inventions of the flesh, so doe they produce no other thing in thee then the workes and Fruits of the flesh, to witt, selfe-love, pride of spi∣rit, contempt, disdaine, security, & such like; And this is verified by experience,

for no men are more perverse, craftie, & covetous, then these wordly wise and learned men bee, being men drowned in their owne selfe-love, esteemed of them∣selves worthy to be beloved and reve∣renced of all; full of rash judgement, lovers of all pleasures, and so full of all vices: that the whole world gives cre∣ditt to no men lesse, speakes worse of no men more: being full of taunting & reproaching proverbs against them; such as these, the better learned, the worser mannered, the better Scoller the worser Christian. No man scapes scotfree out of the clawes of a preist. He that wil have an honest house, must keepe it free from Preists, Apes, & Doves. A monk dare doe as much as he dare thinke. These & such like proverbs are common in every mans mouth; which arise from this that they are so swollen with the poyson of the fruit of the forbidden tree, so puft up with the false opinion of their owne wisdome and righteousnesse, that no rich man is more insolent by reason of his riches, then these perverse wise men are by reason of their arts & knowledge; So that it is as easie to

remove Cyrus out of his Kingdome, as one of these wise men out of his opinion and tenent; And truely it cannot be but by how much a man is more wise in the art of the forbidden tree, by so much hee is more miserable, as Christ witnesseth in the gospell: that the multitude of their arts and knowledge is an impediment why they come not into the Kingdome of God, and publicans and harlots enter in before them.

Therfore these men are to perish with their arts, & to depart empty, and so farr is any of them from leaving his art, wis∣dome, knowledge, & righteousnesse, that he esteemeth these to be the good and riches of the soule, which neither theevs can steale, nor moathes corrupt, when in very deed they are nothing but the in∣ventions of Satan, fruits of the forbidden tree, and the death of the soule; For the life of the soule is the true knowledge of God, which himselfe doth work & teach in us, to wit, the fruit of the Tree of life, whose fruit is that it makes a man gentle, loving, humble, lowly, meeke, &c. By this let a man examine himselfe, with what witt and righteouseesse hee is endued;

For if day by day, he be lesse in his own eyes and in the judgement of the world; if he seeme still more foolish in himselfe, and a Child in his owne thoughts, his knowledge is divine the Seede of the VVoman, a Fruit of the Tree of Life; but if hee finde contrary effects in him∣selfe, then is all his wisdome Devilish, the Seede of the Serpent and Fruit of the Forbidden Tree, and so the death of the soule.