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
“II. He would reflect, that though the watch before him were, _in some
sense_, the maker of the watch, which was fabricated in the course of
its movements, yet it was in a very different sense from that, in
which a carpenter, for instance, is the maker of a chair; the author
of its contrivance, the cause of the relation of its parts to their
use. With respect to these, the first watch was no cause at all to the
second: in no such sense as this was it the author of the constitution
and order, either of the parts which the new watch contained, or of
the parts by the aid and instrumentality of which it was produced. We
might possibly say, but with great latitude of expression, that a
stream of water ground corn: but no latitude of expression would allow
us to say, no stretch of conjecture could lead us to think, that the
stream of water built the mill, though it were too ancient for us to
know who the builder was. What the stream of water does in the affair,
is neither more nor less than this: by the application of an
unintelligent impulse to a mechanism previously arranged, arranged
independently of it, and arranged by intelligence, an effect is
produced, _viz._ the corn is ground. But the effect results from the
arrangement. The force of the stream cannot be said to be the cause or
author of the effect, still less of the arrangement. Understanding and
plan in the formation of the mill were not the less necessary, for any
share which the water has in grinding the corn: yet is this share the
same, as that which the watch would have contributed to the production
of the new watch, upon the supposition assumed in the last section.
Therefore,
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