[ 394] Not onely the good but the bad also are imitable in things they do well.
IT is Christ's own comparison,* 1.1 that his second coming shall be like the stealing on of a Thief in the night,* 1.2 Et quod decuit Christum cur mihi turpe putem? nay, Christ bids us imit••t•• not onely the bad Steward in his providence,* 1.3 but the Serpent also in his wisdom.* 1.4 St. Paul borroweth se••tences out of the Heathen Poets; St. Augustine made use of a rule of interpreting the Scriptures from Tichonius the Donatist: Truth and goodness in whomsoever they are, they are God's, and therefore whether the point be speculative or pr••••tick, if it be of this kind, in whomsoever we find it, we may follow it, and in following it, we follow not men but God; It is too much pre∣ciseness to dislike something in our Church,* 1.5 because therein we follow the Church of Rome, as if all Principles of Religion and Reason were quite extinguished in them.