This wisdom was the great evil root, at which the reforming ax should have been laid, and must be laid, before the church can be again that virgin spouse of Christ, which it was at the beginning. "If any man," says St. Paul, "will be wise, let him become a fool in this world." This admits of no exception, it is a maxim as universal and unalterable, as that which says, "If any man will follow Christ, let him deny himself." For no man has any more to deny than that, which the wisdom and spirit of this world are, and do in him. For all that is in this world, the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, are the very things in which alone the wisdom of this world lives, and moves, and has its being. It can be no other, can rise no higher, nor be any better, than they are and do. For as heavenly wisdom is the whole of all heavenly goodness, so earthly wisdom has the whole evil of all the earthly nature.