ON HOSEA XIV. -VERSE 9. 273 the proper conclusions deducible from those prin- ciples, and tending unto those ends. And next, wisdom in general and in perfection, which is of those principles, ends, and conclusions which are universally and most transcendently necessary unto a man's chief and most general good : and this the philosopher calleth the knowledge of the most excellent and honourable things, or of the last end, and chief good of man. Now the end by how much the more su- preme, perpetual, and ultimate it is, by so much the more it hath of excellency and goodness in it, as bearing thereby most exact proportion and conve- niency to the soul of man ; for the soul being im- mortal itself can have no final satisfaction from any good which is mortal and perishable : and being withal so large and Unlimited, as that the reasonings and desires thereof extend unto the whole latitude of goodness, being not restrained unto this or that kind, but capable of desiring and judging of all the different degrees of goodness which are in all the whole variety of things, it can therefore never finally acquiesce in any but the most universal and comprehensive good- ness, in the nearer or more remote participation whereof consisteth the different goodness of all other things. This supreme and absolute goodness can indeed be but one, all other things being good by the partici- pation of that. There is none good but one, that is God, Matt. xix. 17. But because there are two sorts of men in the world, righteous and wicked, the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent : therefore, consequently, there are two sorts of ends, which these men do differently pursue. The end of wicked men is a happiness which they out of their own corrupt judgments do shape themselves, and unto which they
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