A Body of Divinity, Vol. 1 (of 4): Wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion are explained and defended, being the substance of several lectures on the Assembly's Larger CatechismRidgley, Thomas
Religion
A Body of Divinity, Vol. 1 (of 4): Wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion are explained and defended, being the substance of several lectures on the Assembly's Larger Catechism
in knowledge? How thy garments are warm when he quieteth the earth by
the south-wind?_[11]
But that we may farther evince this truth, we shall lay down the
following arguments to prove the being of a God, which appears,
I. From those creatures that are endowed with a lower kind of life than
man.
1. No creature can produce a fly or the least insect, but according to
the fixed laws of nature; and that which we call life, or the principle
of their respective motion and actions, none but a God can give; so that
his being is plainly proved, from all living creatures below man, which
are subservient, many of them, to one another, and all to man, and that
not by our ordering; therefore this is done by the hand of him who is
the God of nature.
2. The natural instinct of living creatures, every one acting according
to its kind; and some of the smallest creatures producing things that no
human art can imitate, plainly proves a God. Thus the bird in building
its nest; the spider in framing its web; the bee in providing
store-houses for its honey; and the ant in those provisions which it
lays up in summer against winter; the silk-worm in providing cloathing
for man, and in being transformed into various shapes, and many others
of smaller sort of creatures, that act in a wonderful way, without the
exercise of reason or design, these all prove the being of God.
3. The greater, fiercer, or more formidable sort of living creatures, as
the lion, tiger, and other beasts of prey, are so ordered, that they fly
from man, whom they could easily devour, and avoid those cities and
places where men inhabit, that so we may dwell safely. They are not
chased into the woods by us; but these are allotted, as the places of
their residence by the God of nature.
4. Those living creatures that are most useful to men, and so subject to
them, _viz._ the horse, camel, and many others, these know not their own
strength, or power, to resist or rebel against them; which is ordered by
infinite wisdom: and there are many other instances of the like nature,
all which are very strong arguments to prove that there is a God, whose
glory shines forth in all his works.
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