God
‹ 4 · Outline · 6 ›
5.God as creator and sustainer of the world
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 258–260The First Good, whose joy is in Himself, made man and this place.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 310Celestial Love overflows in bounty, and what comes immediately from it is free and eternal.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 232God is acknowledged as maker, governor and principal cause of all goodness.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 10–11God is the Heavenly Maker of the poet-maker, having made man in His likeness above all works of nature.read · scan
William Harvey, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in AnimalsVol. 38
- p. 97–98Galen credits 'our Maker' with instituting the supplementary membranes.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 309Nature is God's art; the making of the state parallels God's creating man.read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34
- p. 51First causes are sought considering only God, who created the world.read · scan
Abraham Cowley, Of AgricultureVol. 27
- p. 64The Most High created husbandry; men taught by nature to nourish bodies from earth.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 44–45God has stamped characters upon minds like shapes.read · scan
Daniel Defoe, The Education of WomenVol. 27
- p. 149A woman of sense is God's finest creation; withholding education is ingratitude.read · scan
Christopher Smart, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 488–490Seven pillars of divine wisdom, Word and Christ; God the cause of causes and creator of the universe.read · scan
George MacDonald, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1118–1119Child's origin is God's thought; God speaks and forms the ear, Love makes the limbs.read · scan
5a.Creation by God's word and out of nothing
See also: World 2a · Punishment 10e · Immortality 7d · Prophecy 9a
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 180Jehovah creates by his word, sees all men, fashions hearts, and his counsel stands forever.read · scan
- p. 235–236God as king who divided the sea, made day and night and summer and winter, and is judge who lifts up and puts down.read · scan
- p. 299–300Creator who fashioned man and established the earth; faithful to all generations; his judgments are righteous.read · scan
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 430–431The company prays to the Lord who made heaven, earth and sea, citing David on kings raging against his Anointed.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 11God as Creator who gave the infant senses, limbs and order, whose Unity is the mould of all things.read · scan
- p. 102–103God as almighty and sovereign Good who needs no pre-existing matter; the Wisdom directing the universe.read · scan
- p. 109–110God as unchangeable Light and Creator, above the soul because he made it, who renews all things.read · scan
- p. 110God made all things good, though not equal, and altogether very good.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 879God the merciful creator of man from blood, who taught the pen and sees all.read · scan
- p. 886The generous Lord created and fashioned man; on that day bidding belongs to God alone.read · scan
- p. 887–889God built and raised the heaven, spread the earth, set mountains; the Hour's time belongs to the Lord alone.read · scan
- p. 889God created man from contemptible water for a decreed term and made the earth for the living and dead.read · scan
- p. 890–891God creates and fashions man and is able to raise the dead.read · scan
- p. 895God asks whether man or He creates the seed man emits.read · scan
- p. 902–903Moses declares God the Lord of heavens, earth, east and west and of Pharaoh's fathers.read · scan
- p. 909–910God decrees by saying 'Be' and it is; He can take no son, and must be worshipped as the right way.read · scan
- p. 934–935God as creator of everything, the living One, Lord of the worlds, gracious though men give no thanks.read · scan
- p. 935–936God quickens and kills, creates by saying 'BE', and provides cattle and ships; His signs are undeniable.read · scan
- p. 953–954God creates by the word BE, decrees all things, sends Jesus with signs, and judges between disputing parties.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 5Opens with praise of God as merciful Creator who raised the heavens without pillars and spread the earth as a bed.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 340–341God's mighty power: he spoke and all things were made; God and man gives himself as inexhaustible food.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 318God created Eve from Adam's rib and instituted matrimony.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39
- p. 102–103God omnipotent creates out of nothing and can annihilate; not an artificer accommodating pre-given matterread · scan
Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3
- p. 160–161The king learned from the Hebrews that God created the world in six days.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 298–299God's voice will recall scattered ashes to their proper forms as at Creation.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 136God's word orders chaos; his wisdom is infinite and his causes hidden from created mind.read · scan
- p. 155God planted the garden and ordained its trees and waters.read · scan
- p. 180Abdiel argues God created all spirits through the Son, is good and provident, and honours the angelsread · scan
- p. 227God's acts are swifter than time; the Son creates in omnipotence and the angels praise his wisdom.read · scan
- p. 227God creates by his word; the Spirit broods over the abyss and angels hymn the Creator.read · scan
- p. 227God commands and the earth obeys; he sees that it is good.read · scan
- p. 227God ordains the lights for signs and seasons and blesses living creatures.read · scan
- p. 227The Father speaks with the Son to make man; Creator views his finished world as answering his Idea.read · scan
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37
- p. 272–273All things were in the beginning created by God.read · scan
- p. 278–279Corporeal substance produced by a Spirit's will seen as absurd; some thought Matter co-eternal with the Deity.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 860–861Renewal dates from the morning of the world when God dawned on Chaos.read · scan
5b.God's continuing sustenance of the creature
See also: Nature 4a
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 108–111Bildad and Job extol God's dominion; he hangs the earth on nothing and sets boundaries on the waters; we hear only a whisper of him.read · scan
- p. 121–122God's spirit made Elihu; God, not man, may vanquish Job.read · scan
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 182–185God's lovingkindness and faithfulness reach the heavens; he is fountain of life and preserver of man and beast.read · scan
- p. 219–221God hears prayer, forgives transgressions, stills the seas, and waters and enriches the earth with grain.read · scan
- p. 272Jehovah as great creator, clothed in majesty, sustaining all creatures and ruling the elements.read · scan
- p. 272–275God gives food to all creatures, takes away breath, sends his Spirit to create and renew; his glory endures.read · scan
- p. 327–328Jehovah is creator, reigns forever, upholds the oppressed, counts and names the stars, controls weather, gives his statutes to Israel alone.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 21Thanks to the Creator and Governor who gave being, life, senses and memory; He is the good that made him.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 885God provides food from the earth for man and cattle and raises the dead.read · scan
- p. 895–897God as creator and provider: He decreed death, makes crops bear seed, sends water, and gives fire; man should give thanks.read · scan
- p. 936God raised heavens without visible columns, subjected sun and moon to appointed courses, and governs the affair.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 88God gave the loadstone its secret property and alone knows the quantity of iron on the mountain.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 246The primal Mover turns with joy on the work of nature and breathes in new spirit.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 340–341Divine light flows from God, remains one and unalterable, and is mirrored in new existencesread · scan
- p. 395–397The Maker is admired by the first soul, Adam, within the rays; God tends all created things.read · scan
- p. 403–404Dante sees the divine point on which heaven and all nature hang, moved by intense love.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 48He attributes his happy temperament and facility to a special gift from the God of nature.read · scan
John Calvin, Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian ReligionVol. 39
- p. 45–47God the Father's creation, conservation and government of all things through omnipotence.read · scan
- p. 47–48Book one treats God as Creator, Preserver and Governor, the Trinity, and the divine perfections mirrored in creation.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39
- p. 104–106Proclus: world is joined to divine unity by infinite power it receives moment by momentread · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34
- p. 38God's sustaining action equals his creation; the world could have arisen from chaos by laws without discredit to creation.read · scan
Hymns of the Christian Church: Hymns Based on PsalmsVol. 45
- p. 540God's power founded the earth and his bountiful care, mercy and love sustain frail creatures as Maker, Defender, Redeemer.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 269–271God is the true cause of all; his concourse subdivides into the actions of each thing, sustaining every essence.read · scan
- p. 326Only God is truly alone and one, subsisting by Himself; all creatures are many and depend on His upholding.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 34Pascal cannot forgive Descartes for using God only to set the world in motion.read · scan
- p. 159God made heaven and earth and beings who know their happiness, a body of thinking members under the universal soul.read · scan
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37
- p. 251–252Things exist in an omnipresent eternal Mind that comprehends all and exhibits them by ordained rules, the laws of nature.read · scan
- p. 256–257Unthinking beings are perceived by the infinite mind of God, in whom we live and move.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 69God gives motion to the body and ideas to the soul; one acts and thinks in God.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 426–428Graces addressed to God of Nature who provides for every creature and in whom we live and move.read · scan
Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a CandleVol. 30
- p. 163–165Respiration is provided for by the Author of all things.read · scan
George Long, The Philosophy of AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 326Nature acts by power given by the Deity; God holds the beginning, middle and end of all things, accompanied by justice.read · scan
- p. 327–328The first cause continues as the cause of all things past, present and future, not abandoning them to laws of Nature.read · scan
Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1057Man lives by the presence of the power of God.read · scan
5c.God and natural causes: laws, occasionalism and special creation
See also: Cause 4c
Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20
- p. 260The stream flows from an undecaying fountain by the will omnific, unlike earthly rivers fed by vapour.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 361–363God paints the eagle without guide; the Sovran Mind is source of the star's virtueread · scan
Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3
- p. 153–154The wise man's prayer addresses God as creator whose miracles serve divine ends and whose laws of nature he exceeds only for great cause.read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34
- p. 35God established the laws of nature and impressed notions of them on our minds.read · scan
- p. 35God creates matter and only lends ordinary concurrence to nature acting by his laws.read · scan
- p. 35Founds his reasoning on God's infinite perfection; the laws would hold in any world God created.read · scan
- p. 42–44The body is a machine made by God, better arranged than any human machine.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 266God works through nature like a skilful artist or geometrician, sometimes departing from its course to show his prerogative.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 164Gravity and the flood are attributed to God's positive will and power altering the earth's centre of gravity.read · scan
George Berkeley, Three Dialogues Between Hylas and PhilonousVol. 37
- p. 237–238Hylas grants God is the Supreme Cause; matter is proposed as a limited cause under the Supreme Agent.read · scan
- p. 257–258Scripture presents God as sole immediate author of effects heathens ascribe to Nature, Matter or Fate.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 342Occasionalists say the Deity by particular volition moves the second billiard ball, making natural objects mere occasions.read · scan
- p. 342–344Occasionalist philosophers make the Deity immediate cause of mind-body union and all sensations; Hume says this diminishes God's grandeur.read · scan
- p. 344–345Hume argues we have no more idea of the Supreme Being's power than of bodies', so ignorance cannot favor the theory of universal divine energy.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 286–287God is best displayed by the fixed order of nature, not by many miracles unworthy of him.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, On Poesy or ArtVol. 27
- p. 256Nature is called the art of God.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11
- p. 12–13The Vestiges' author places the progression of living forms under the providence of God.read · scan
- p. 13Creative power and a first Creative Cause invoked as origin of species.read · scan
- p. 17Huxley denies separate creative acts have support in tradition, revelation or analogy of nature.read · scan
- p. 61Species conceived as separate acts of creation is criticized as an assumption.read · scan
- p. 166Independent creation would make the works of God a mockery and deception, like fossil shells created in stone.read · scan
- p. 180–181Special creation dismissed as merely restating the fact in dignified language.read · scan
- p. 192Separate acts of creation are rejected as leaving the facts unintelligible.read · scan
- p. 399Rejects special creation of like species in like conditions, since similar countries have utterly dissimilar inhabitants.read · scan
- p. 453Independent creation by a Creator pleased to use a uniform plan is rejected as explanation.read · scan
- p. 454–455Questions why the Creator would build unrelated purposes on the same pattern challenge the ordinary view of creation.read · scan
- p. 498Cites a divine's view that it is as noble to believe God created a few self-developing forms as to believe in repeated acts of creation.read · scan
- p. 505The Creator impressed laws on matter, better accorded with by secondary causes than special creations.read · scan
- p. 506Life was originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or one.read · scan
5d.The creation as God's praise and manifestation
See also: Astronomy and Cosmology 7b
The Book of PsalmsVol. 44
- p. 160–164God as redeemer and vengeful deliverer; creation and law both show his glory.read · scan
- p. 330–332All creation, heavens, earth, beasts and peoples are summoned to praise Jehovah, whose name alone is exalted and whose decree endures.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 61–62Augustine offers his confession to God, who sees the hidden heart; all creation ceaselessly praises the Creator.read · scan
- p. 111–112All creatures praise God; Augustine sees God as infinite, not through the flesh.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 899God's bounties: He taught the Quran, created man and jinn, set the heavens and seas; refrain: which will ye deny?read · scan
- p. 916–917Insists on one God, condemns associating other gods, and declares all creation celebrates His praise.read · scan
- p. 942All creation praises God as King, holy, mighty and wise; He gives grace to whom He wills.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 100–101The captain bids them wonder at what God hath done to his creatures and pray to be spared his anger.read · scan
- p. 243Merchants extol the perfection and power of God, the Omnipotent, at the beautiful island.read · scan
- p. 243–244He wonders at the works of God and extols Him who sleeps not.read · scan
- p. 249He wonders at what God has created and recounts events as by God's will.read · scan
- p. 294–295Closing praise of God as Creator of heaven, earth, land and seas.read · scan
- p. 352The birds in the garden sing the praises of their glorious Creator.read · scan
- p. 384The people glorify God the Creator at the sight.read · scan
- p. 388–389The crowd extols the Creator for such noble creation.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 407God, dwelling in eternity beyond time, created new natures out of eternal love to manifest His glory, not to gain.read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35
- p. 238Exotic plants are God's good gifts, created for man's service, and God is to be glorified in them.read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33
- p. 283–285The creatures should lead us to glorify God who replenished the earth for man's use.read · scan
Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3
- p. 161–162Study of nature gives God more glory in his workmanship, and men more fruit in its use.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George HerbertVol. 15
- p. 379–380God's majesty is said to be theme enough to dry oceans of ink; nature itself speaks his praise.read · scan
William Habington, To Roses in the Bosom of Castara; Nox Nocti Indicat ScientiamVol. 40
- p. 252–253The silent stars eloquently declare the Creator and teach heavenly knowledge.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 136God's works, man as his chief favour, and the Creator praised; Satan's fall is described as just.read · scan
- p. 180Hymn praises the Almighty, Parent of good, seen dimly in his works.read · scan
- p. 180Universal Lord and Maker praised by sun, moon, elements and creatures.read · scan
- p. 227Angels hymn Jehovah's infinite power; creating is greater than destroying, and he turns rebels' evil to good.read · scan
- p. 243The heavens' vastness declares the Maker's magnificence and omnipotence; Man is shown he does not own the whole edifice.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise RegainedVol. 4
- p. 384God made all things to show his goodness and requires glory as thanks; man has nothing of his own to boastread · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 342–343God's works declare his power, wisdom and goodness; man's works are as puppets to God's reality.read · scan
Joseph Addison, HymnVol. 40
- p. 400The heavens proclaim their Creator's power and divine origin.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 707–708Hymn asks who made the mountain, torrents and streams; the mountain leads to worship of the Invisible.read · scan
- p. 708–710The frozen torrents, ice-falls and hills are called to answer and utter God; earth praises God.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1326–1328Stars called the thoughts of God, though man has ceased to marvel and worship.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 506Forests are temples filled with productions of the God of Nature.read · scan
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