which have unhinged the brains of better heads, they have never
stretched the membranes of mine. Methinks there be not impossibilities
enough in religion for an active faith; I love to lose myself in a
mystery, to pursue my reason to an _O altitudo!_ I can answer all the
objections of Satan and my rebellious reason with that odd resolution of
Tertullian: "It is certain because it is impossible."


_II.--THE DIVINE WISDOM_


In my solitary and retired imagination I remember I am not alone; and
therefore forget not to contemplate Him and His attributes who is ever
with me, especially those two mighty ones, His wisdom and eternity. With
the one I recreate, with the other I confound, my understanding; for who
can speak of eternity without a solecism, or think thereof without an
ecstasy?

In this mass of Nature there is a set of things that carry in their
front, though not in capital letters, yet in stenography and short
characters, something of divinity; which, to wiser reasons, serve as
luminaries in the abyss of knowledge, and to judicious beliefs as scales
to mount the pinnacles of divinity.

That other attribute wherewith I recreate my devotion is His wisdom, in
which I am happy; and for the contemplation of this only, do not repent
me that I was bred in the way of study. The advantage I have of the
vulgar, with the content and happiness I conceive therein, is an ample
recompense for all my endeavours in what part of knowledge soever.
Wisdom is His most beauteous attribute; no man can attain unto it; yet