A. Cowley

The Holy Book, like the Eighth Sphere [177] , does shine

With thousand lights of truth divine:

So numberless the stars, that to the eye

It makes but all one galaxy: --

Yet Reason must assist too, for in seas

So vast and dangerous as these,

Our course by stars above we cannot know,

Without the compass too below.

Though Reason cannot through Faith's mysteries see,

It sees that there and such they be;

Leads to Heaven's-door, and there does humbly keep,

And there through chinks and key-holes peep.

Though it, like Moses, by a sad command

Must not come into th' Holy Land,

Yet thither it infallibly does guide,

And from afar 'tis all descried.

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Footnotes:

[177] Eighth Sphere, that of the fixed stars in old astronomy