The Existence and Attributes of God, Volumes 1 and 2Charnock, Stephen
Religion
The Existence and Attributes of God, Volumes 1 and 2
Charnock, Stephen
God (Christianity) -- Attributes; Providence and government of God -- Christianity
Secondly, As the production of the world, so the harmony of all
the parts of it declare the being and wisdom of a God. Without the
acknowledging God, the atheist can give no account of those things.
The multitude, elegancy, variety, and beauty of all things are steps
whereby to ascend to one fountain and original of them. Is it not a
folly to deny the being of a wise agent, who sparkles in the beauty
and motions of the heavens, rides upon the wings of the wind, and is
writ upon the flowers and fruits of plants? As the cause is known by
the effects, so the wisdom of the cause is known by the elegancy of
the work, the proportion of the parts to one another. Who can imagine
the world could be rashly made, and without consultation, which, in
every part of it, is so artificially framed? No work of art springs up
of its own accord.[67] The world is framed by an excellent art, and,
therefore, made by some skilful artist. As we hear not a melodious
instrument, but we conclude there is a musician that touches it,
as well as some skilful hand that framed and disposed it for those
lessons; and no man that hears the pleasant sound of a lute but will
fix his thoughts, not upon the instrument itself, but upon the skill
of the artist that made it, and the art of the musician that strikes
it, though he should not see the first, when he saw the lute, nor see
the other, when he hears the harmony: so a rational creature confines
not his thoughts to his sense when he sees the sun in its glory, and
the moon walking in its brightness; but riseth up in a contemplation
and admiration of that Infinite Spirit that composed, and filled them
with such sweetness. This appears,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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