That earth and that heaven, which spent God himself, Almighty God, six days in
finishing, Moses sets up in a few syllables, in one line: In the beginning God created
heaven and earth.

If a Livie or a Guicciardine, or such extensive and voluminous authors had had this
story in hand, God must have made another world, to have made them a library to hold their
books, of the making of this world.

Into what wire would they have drawn out this earth! Into what leaf-gold would they
have beat out these heavens!

It may assist our conjecture herein, to consider, that amongst those men, who proceed
with a sober modesty and limitation in their writing, & make a conscience not to clog
the world with unnecessary books, yet the volumes which are written by them, upon the
beginning of Genesis, are scarce less than infinite.

God did no more but say, Let this & this be done; and Moses doth no more but say,
that upon God’s saying it was done. God required not Nature to help him to do it; Moses
required not Reason to help him believe.

… John Donne (1573-1631), XXVIII in Fifty Sermons

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CQOD Compilation Copyright 1999, Robert McAnally Adams, Curator

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