2. From the Elegance and Craftmanship of individual created things, which argues τέχνην/handiwork, not τύχην/chance. The very Gentiles by this argument tried to induce everyone to acknowledge the Existence of God: comprehensively review CICERO, citing also the words of Aristotle, book II de Natura Deorum, chapter XXXVII, and chapters XXXVIII-LXVII. And also chapter VI, in which he urges Chrysippus’[1] argumentation upon this matter. Sacred Scripture itself in a great many passages commands us to direct the keenness of our minds to this, so that we might recognize God as present in His creatures; see some passages cited and also vindicated in Chapter I, § 13; Job 12:7-10; Psalm 19:1-6; Romans 1:20. In diligently considering all the words of nature, one ought to cry out from Psalm 104:24, How manifold are thy works, Jehovah, etc. In the macrocosm, the microcosm, Man, is worthy of our special attention, and his Body, the very structure of which and the disposition and proportion of its individual members we perceive; so that nothing is able to be thought more neatly arranged, nothing more perfectly accommodated either to the use that each member ought to furnish, or to the end for which man was made, so that the Sacred Writer justifiably exclaims, Psalm 139:14, 15, I will praise thee, because in admiring the means, etc.: compare GALEN,[2] de Usu Partium, book III, chapter X, opera Hippocratis[3] et Galeni ex editione Charterii,[4] tome 4, pages 360, 361. Both the Soul and its most excellent faculties, which argue a Father of Spirits[5] and Spirit itself, far more perfect than any finite Spirit. And the marvelous Nexus of both, that is, of the Soul and Body, the perception of which, much less the workmanship, far surpasses our understanding, and proclaims a Workman, of whose intelligence there is no limitation. The Most Eminent NIEUWENTYT,[6] in his Cosmotheoria, most excellently pursues this argument, where, in chapter II, he summarily sets forth the argument for the Existence of God both from the soul of man, from the body of man, from the origin of both, and from the preservation of human nature. But he with the utmost diligence pursues the argument for proving Deity from the human Body, considering closely its individual parts, chapters III-XII. Then he separately teaches that the five Senses argue the same, chapters XIII-XV; and confirms the Existence of God chiefly from the Rational Soul, especially if you are willing to consider this in its Union with the Body, and add Memory and Imagination, chapter XVI. See also REIMARUS’ over de voornaamste Waarheden van den natuurlichen Godtsdienst, Essay 2, pages 73-121. REIMARUS stops to contemplate the marvelous Wisdom of God, manifesting itself in a stupendous manner in the Animal kingdom, over de voornaamste Waarheden van den natuurlichen Godtsdienst, Essay 5, pages 289-409. The force of the argument for the Existence of God sought from this Universe because of the Relationship between Cause and Effect, Hume rather stupidly denies;[7] see LELAND’S Beschouwing van de Schriften der Deisten, part 2, section I, epistles I, II, pages 1-36.
[1] Chrysippus (c. 280 BC-c. 207 BC) was a Greek, Stoic philosopher.
[2] Claudius Galenus of Pergamum (129-200 AD) was an innovative Greek physician.
[3] Hippocrates of Kos (c. 460-c. 370 BC) was a Greek physician, known as “The Father of Medicine.”
[4] René Chartier (1572-1654) was a French physician. He produced an edition of Hippocrates’ and Galen’s works in Greek and Latin.
[5] Hebrews 12:9.
[6] Bernard Nieuwentyt (1654-1718) was a Dutch Reformed theologian and Cartesian philosopher.
[7] David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish empiricist. His empiricism moved him to deny the cosmological and teleological arguments for the existence of God.