it was before the sixth day, when as yet there was not a creature that
could conceive, or say there was a world. The wisdom of God receives
small honour from those vulgar heads that rudely stare about, and with a
gross rusticity admire His works; those highly magnify Him, whose
judicious inquiry into His acts, and deliberate research into His
creatures, return the duty of a devout and learned admiration. Therefore

Search where thou wilt, and let thy reason go
To ransom truth even to th' abyss below;
Rally the scattered causes: and that line
Which nature twists, be able to untwine;
It is thy Maker's will, for unto none,
But unto reason can He e'er be known.



ON THE SPIRIT OF GOD


However, I am sure there is a common spirit that plays within us, yet
makes no part in us; and that is the Spirit of God, the fire and
scintillation of that noble and mighty essence, which is the life and
radical heat of spirits, and those essences that know not the virtue of
the sun, a fire quite contrary to the fire of hell. This is that gentle
heat that brooded on the waters, and in six days hatched the world; this
is that irradiation that dispels the mists of hell, the clouds of horror,
fear, sorrow, despair; and preserves the region of the mind in serenity.
Whatsoever feels not the warm gale and gentle ventilation of this spirit
(though I feel his pulse), I dare not say he lives; for truly without
this, to me there is no heat under the tropic; nor any light, though I