Friday, October 21, 2016

A Voice from the Past - Calvin

But 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.

John Calvin, 1509-1564, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter V, 15, (translated by Henry Beveridge, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1975, Vol. 1, pp. 62, 63).

Can we learn about God from nature? What are the limits of this?

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