The works of George Swinnock, M.A

I Wish that I may in solitude,² when I have no men to discourse with, converse with other creatures, and spell the name of my creator out of them. It is my privilege, that I may with Sampson, get honey and sweetness by occasional meditation, out of the carcass of every creature; The whole world is a great vast library, and every creature in it a several Book, wherein he that runs may read, the power, and goodness, and infinite perfections of its Maker; Every object is as a Bell, which if but turned, makes a report of the great Gods honour and renown. Some have compared the Creation to a musical instrument; sure I am, every individual in it, is a string, which if touched by serious consideration, will loudly and sweetly proclaim its Authors praise; He that hath much stock, may well trade high; They who by every sight, by every sound, by every thing felt or tasted, are minded of their Father and Fountain, may well be taken up with frequent apprehensions and admirations of him; For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God head, Rom. 1. 20. The Highest and Lowest, the Kings and Worms, the Sun and Stone, the Cedar and Hyssop, the smallest ⟨p. 452⟩inanimate & irrational creatures read to me dumb lectures of my Gods might and love; they are so many Masters to instruct me, though silently, in his greatness and wisdom. The world below is a glass, in which I may see the world above. The works of God are the Shepherds Calendar, the Plough-mans Alphabet, the King of Heavens Divinity Professors, and why not my Catholic Preachers? Certainly those several varieties, choice rarities, and excellent contrivances which appear in them, were made as well for my inward soul, as outward senses, and chiefly for my soul through my senses. The word of God is food for faith, and so may the works of God nourish faith by sense. Faith seeth God in himself, sense seeth God in his creatures, and thereby may be helpful to faith. Take a view O my soul of thy beloved in those pictures, which are always before thee, representing his glorious and eminent perfections; Ah, how strange is it, that he who is so near to thy senses, should be so far from thy thoughts!

I Wish that I may in solitude,