I

MMEDIATE are the acts of God, more swift Than time or motion, but to human ears Cannot without process of speech be told,

So told as earthly notion can receive.

PARADISE LOST, BOOK VII.

HAT if Earth

WH

Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things therein

Each to other like, more than on Earth is thought!

PARADISE LOSt, Book V.

THE

'HE power that did create can change the scene Of things, make mean of great, and great of

mean:

The brightest glory can eclipse with might,

And place the most obscure in dazzling light.

TRANSLATION FROM HORACE

THOSE who attribute the creation of everything to

nature, must necessarily associate chance with nature as a joint divinity; so that they gain nothing by this theory, except that in the place of that one God, whom they cannot tolerate, they are obliged, however reluctantly, to substitute two sovereign rulers of affairs, who must almost always be in opposition to each other. In short, many visible proofs, the verification of numberless predictions, a multitude of wonderful works have compelled all nations to believe, either that God, or that some evil power whose name was unknown, presided over the affairs of the world. Now that evil should prevail over good, and be the true supreme power, is as unmeet as it is incredible. Hence it follows as a necessary consequence, that God exists.

THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, BOOK I., CHAP. II.

THE providence of God is either ordinary or extraordinary. His ordinary providence is that whereby he upholds and preserves the immutable order of causes appointed by him in the beginning. This is commonly, and indeed too frequently, described by the name of nature; for nature cannot possibly mean anything but the mysterious power and efficacy of that divine voice which went forth in the beginning, and to which, as to a perpetual command, all things have since paid obedience.

The extraordinary providence of God is that whereby God produces some effect out of the usual order of nature, or gives the power of producing the same effect to whomsoever he may appoint. This is what we call a miracle. Hence God alone is the primary author of miracles, as he only is able to invert that order of things which he has himself appointed.

THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, BOOK I., CHAP. VIII.

PSALM CXXXVI.

LET us with a gladsome mind

Praise the Lord, for he is kind;
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

Let us blaze his name abroad,

For of gods he is the God;
For his, etc.

Who by his all-commanding might,
Did fill the new-made world with light;
For his, etc.

And caused the golden-tressed sun
All the day long his course to run;
For his, etc.

The horned moon to shine by night
Amongst her spangled sisters bright;
For his, etc.

All living creatures he doth feed,
And with full hand supplies their need;
For his, etc.

Let us, therefore, warble forth
His mighty majesty and worth;
For his, etc.

That his mansion hath on high,
Above the reach of mortal eye;
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

CHORUS. Just are the ways of God,
And justifiable to men ;

Unless there be who think not God at all:

If any be, they walk obscure;

For of such doctrine never was there school,
But the heart of the fool,

And no man therein doctor but himself.

Yet more there be who doubt his ways not just, As to his own edicts found contradicting; Then give the reins to wandering thought, Regardless of his glory's diminution; Till, by their own perplexities involved, They ravel more, still less resolved, But never find self-satisfying solution.

As if they would confine the interminable,
And tie him to his own prescript,

Who made our laws to bind us, not himself,
And hath full right to exempt

Whomso it pleases him by choice

From national obstriction, without taint

Of sin, or legal debt;

For with his own laws he can best dispense.

SAMSON AGONISTES