John Calvin on the Seed of Divine knowledge

"While man must bear the guilt of corrupting the seed of divine knowledge so wondrously deposited in his mind, and preventing it from bearing good and genuine fruit, it is still most true that we are not sufficiently instructed by that bare and simple, but magnificent testimony which the creatures bear to the glory of their Creator.  For no sooner do we, from a survey of the world, obtain some slight knowledge of Deity, than we pass by the true God, and set up in his stead the dream and phantom of our own brain, drawing away the praise of justice, wisdom, and goodness, from the fountain-head, and transferring it to some other quarter.  Moreover, by the erroneous estimate we form, we either so obscure or pervert his daily works, as at once to robe them of their glory and the author of them of his just praise" (John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion).