in and again,
and which became the sacred text for all the members of the school--"the
spirit of man is a candle of the Lord."[29] This Proverb is for
Whichcote a key that fits every door of life, and the truth which it
expresses is for him the basal truth of religion, as the following
Aphorisms will sufficiently illustrate:

"Were it not for light we should not know we had such a sense as sight:
Were it not for God we should not know the Powers of our souls which have
an appropriation to God."[30]

"God's image is in us and we belong to Him."[31]

"There is a capacity in man's soul, larger than can be answered by
anything of his own, or of any fellow-creature."[32]

"There is nothing so intrinsically rational as Religion is."[33]

"The Truths of God are connatural to the soul of man, and the soul of man
makes no more resistance to them than the air does to light."[34]

"Religion makes us live like men."[35]

"We worship God best when we resemble Him most."[36]

"Religion is intelligible, rational and accountable: It is not our burden
but our privilege."[37]

Something is always wrong, he thinks, if Religion becomes a burden: "It
is imperfection in Religion to _drudge_ in it, and every man drudges in
Religion if he takes it up as a task and carries it as a burden."[38]
The moment we follow "the divine frame and temper" of our inmost nature
we find our freedom, our health, our power, and our joy; as one of the
Aphorisms puts it: {298} "When we make nearer approaches to God, we have
more use of ourselves."[39]

This view is beautifully expressed in Whichcote's Prayer printed at the
end of the _Aphorisms_: "Most Blessed God, the Creator and Governor of
the World; the only true God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
thy Creatures were made to seek and find, to know and reverence, to serve
and obey, to honour and glorify, to imitate and enjoy Thee; who art the
Original of our Beings, and the Centre of our Rest. Our Reasonable
Nature hath a peculiar Reservation for Thee; and our Happiness consists
in our Assimilation to, and Employment about, Thee. The nearer we
approach unto Thee, the more free we are from Error, Sin, and Misery; and
the farther off we are from Thee, the farther off we are from Truth,
Holiness, and Felicity. Without Thee, we are sure of nothing; we are not
sure of ourselves: but through Thee, there is Self-Enjoyment in the mind,
when there is nothing but Confusion, and no Enjoyment of t