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The nearer the church, the further from God.

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

Oh! St. Patrick was a gentleman, Who came of decent people; He built a church in Dublin town, And on it put a steeple.

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

To support those of your rights authorized by Heaven, destroy everything rather than yield; that is the spirit of the Church. [Fr., Pour soutenir tes droits, que le ciel autorise, Abime tout plutot; c'est l'esprit de l'Eglise.]

Where God hath a temple, the devil will have a chapel.

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.

"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."

"What is a church?"--Our honest sexton tells, 'Tis a tall building, with a tower and bells.

Whenever God erects a house of prayer The devil always builds a chapel there; And 'twill be found, upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation.

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.

The church alone beyond all question Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion. [Ger., Die Kirch' allein, meine lieben Frauen, Kann ungerechtes Gut verdauen.]

It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church.

No sooner is a Temple built to God but the Devill builds a Chappell hard by. [No sooner is a Temple built to God but the Devil builds a chapel hard by.]

When once thy foot enters the church, be bare. God is more there than thou: for thou art there Only by his permission. Then beware, That leads from earth to heaven.

Well has the name of Pontifex been given Unto the Church's head, as the chief builder And architect of the invisible bridge That leads from earth to heaven.

In that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried, in the Great Abbey, which has during many ages afforded a quiet resting-place to those whose minds and bodies have been shattered by the contentions of the Great Hall.

A beggarly people, A church and no steeple.

As like a church and an ale-house, God and the devell, they manie times dwell neere to ether.

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