"What is a church?" Let Truth and reason speak,
They would reply, "The faithful, pure and meek,
read more

"What is a church?" Let Truth and reason speak,
They would reply, "The faithful, pure and meek,
From Christian folds, the one selected race,
Of all professions, and in every place."

God never had a church but there, men say,
The devil a chapel hath raised by some wiles,
read more

God never had a church but there, men say,
The devil a chapel hath raised by some wiles,
I doubted of this saw, till on a day
I westward spied great Edinburgh's Saint Giles.

To Kerke the narre, from God more farre.

To Kerke the narre, from God more farre.

I never weary of great churches. It is my favourite kind of
mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily read more

I never weary of great churches. It is my favourite kind of
mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when
it made a cathedral.

The nearer the church, the further from God.

The nearer the church, the further from God.

Who builds a church to God, and not to Fame,
Will never mark the marble with his Name.

Who builds a church to God, and not to Fame,
Will never mark the marble with his Name.

There can be no church in which the demon will not have his
chapel.

There can be no church in which the demon will not have his
chapel.

Where Christ erecteth his church, the divell in the same
church-yarde will have his chappell.

Where Christ erecteth his church, the divell in the same
church-yarde will have his chappell.

An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat
countries with spire steeples, which, as they cannot read more

An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat
countries with spire steeples, which, as they cannot be referred
to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and
stars.