opling of paradise the Almighty had never laid so strict
a charge on our father Adam to refrain from _eating of the tree of
knowledge_ except he had thereby forewarned that the taste of knowledge
would be the bane of all happiness. St. Paul says expressly, that
_knowledge puffeth up, i.e._, it is fatal and poisonous. In pursuance
whereunto St. Bernard interprets that _exceeding high mountain_ whereon
the devil had erected his seat to have been the mountain of knowledge.
And perhaps this may be another argument which ought not to be omitted,
namely, that Folly is acceptable, at least excusable, with the gods,
inasmuch, as they easily pass by the heedless failures of fools, while
the miscarriages of such as are known to have more wit shall very hardly
obtain a pardon; nay, when a wise man comes to sue for an acquitment
from any guilt, he must shroud himself under the patronage and pretext
of Folly. For thus in the twelfth of Numbers Aaron entreats Moses to
stay the leprosy of his sister Miriam, saying, _alas, my Lord, I beseech
thee lay not the sin upon us wherein we have done foolishly_. Thus,
when David spared Saul's life, when he found him sleeping in a tent
of Hachilah, not willing to _stretch forth his hand against the Lord's
anointed, Saul excuses his former severity by confessing, _Behold, I
have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly_. David also himself in
much the same form begs the remission of his sin from God Almighty with
this prayer, _Lord, I pray thee take away the iniquity of thy servant,
for I have done very foolishly_; as if he could not have hoped otherwise
to have his pardon granted except he petitioned for it under the covert
and mitigation of Folly. The agreeable practice of our Saviour is
yet more convincing, who, when he hung upon the cross, prayed for his
enemies, saying, _Father, forgive them_, urging no other plea in their
behalf than that of their ignorance, _for they know not what they do_.
To the same effect St. Paul in his first epistle to Timothy acknowledges
he had been a blasphemer and a persecutor, _But (saith he) _I obtained
mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief_. Now what is the meaning
of the phrase [_I did it ignorantly_] but only this? My fault was
occasioned from a misinformed Folly, not from a deliberate malice. What
signifies [_I obtained mercy_] but only that I should not otherwise have
obtained it had not folly and ignorance been my vindication? To the same
purpose