Is it becauſe others tending buſily _Churches preferment_ neglect _ſtudy_? Or had the _Church_ of _Rome_ ſhut up all our wayes, till the _Lutherans_ broke downe their _uttermoſt ſtubborne doores_, and the _Calviniſts_ picked their _inwardeſt_ and _ſubtleſt lockes_? Surely the _Devill_ cannot be ſuch a _Foole_ to hope that he ſhall make this ſtudy _contemptible_, by making it _common_. Nor that as the _Dwellers_ by the River _Origus_ are ſaid (by drawing infinite _ditches_ to ſprinkle their _barren Country_) to have exhauſted and intercepted their _maine channell_, and ſo loſt their more profitable courſe to the _ſea_; ſo we, by providing every _ones ſelfe, divinity_ enough for his _own uſe_, ſhould neglect our _Teachers_ and _Fathers_. Hee cannot hope for better _hereſies_ then hee hath had, nor was his _Kingdome_ ever ſo much advanced by _debating Religion_ (though with ſome _aſperſions_ of _Error_) as by a _dull_ and _ſtupid ſecurity_, in which many _groſe things_ are ſwallowed. Poſſible out of ſuch an _ambition_ as we have now, to ſpeake _plainely_ and _fellow-like_ with _Lords_ and _Kings_, wee thinke alſo to acquaint our ſelves with _Gods ſecrets_: Or perchance when we ſtudy it by _mingling humane_ reſpects, _It is not Divinity_. [Decoration] 6. _Why hath the common Opinion afforded Women Soules?_ It is agreed that wee have not ſo much from them as any _part_ of either our _mortall ſoules_ of _ſenſe_, or _growth_, and we deny _ſoules_ to others equal to them in all but in _ſpeech_ for which they are beholding to their _bodily inſtruments_: For perchance an _Oxes_ heart, or a _Goates_, or a _Foxes_, or a _Serpents_ would ſpeake juſt ſo, if it were in the _breaſt_, and could move that _tongue_ and _jawes_. Have they ſo many _advantages_ and _meanes_ to hurt us (for, ever their _loving_ deſtroyed us) that we dare not _diſpleaſe_ them, but give them what they will? And ſo when ſome call them _Angels_, ſome _Goddeſſes_, and the _Palpulian Heretikes_ made them _Biſhops_, wee deſcend ſo much with the ſtreame, to allow them _ſoules_? Or doe we ſomewhat (in this dignifying of them) flatter _Princes_ and _great Perſonages_ that are ſo much governed by them? Or do we in that _eaſineſſe_ and _prodigality_, wherein we daily loſe our owne _ſoules_ to we care not whom, ſo labour to perſwade our ſelves, that ſith a _woman_ hath a _ſoule_, a _ſoule_ is no great matter? Or doe wee lend them _ſoules_ but for _uſe_, ſince they for our ſakes, give their _ſoules_ againe, and their _bodies_ to boote? Or perchance becauſe the _Deuill_ (who is all _ſoule_) doth moſt _miſchiefe_, and for _convenience_ and _proportion_, becauſe they would come neerer him, wee allow them ſome ſoules; and ſo as the _Romanes_ naturalized ſome _Provinces_ in revenge, and made them _Romans_, onely for the _burthen_ of the _Common-wealth_; ſo we have given _women_ ſoules onely to make them capable of _damnation_? [Decoration] 7. _Why are the Faireſt, Falſeſt?_