Truth is the glory of time and the daughter of eternity, a title of the
highest grace, and a note of a divine nature. She is the life of
religion, the light of love, the grace of wit, and the crown of wisdom:
she is the beauty of valour, the brightness of honour, the blessing of
reason, and the joy of faith. Her truth is pure gold, her time is right
precious, her word is most gracious, and her will is most glorious. Her
essence is in God and her dwelling with His servants, her will in His
wisdom and her work to His glory. She is honoured in love and graced in
constancy, in patience admired and in charity beloved. She is the
angel's worship, the virgin's fame, the saint's bliss, and the martyr's
crown: she is the king's greatness and his counsel's goodness, his
subject's peace and his kingdom's praise: she is the life of learning
and the light of law, the honour of trade and the grace of labour. She
hath a pure eye, a plain hand, a piercing wit, and a perfect heart. She
is wisdom's walk in the way of holiness, and takes up her rest but in
the resolution of goodness. Her tongue never trips, her heart never
faints, her hand never fails, and her faith never fears. Her church is
without schism, her city without fraud, her court without vanity, and
her kingdom without villainy. In sum, so infinite is her excellence in
the construction of all sense, that I will thus only conclude in the
wonder of her worth:--She is the nature of perfection in the perfection
of Nature, where God in Christ shows the glory of Christianity.