This skill to observe and to subdue the earth is a gift from the Creator given to all mankind (Gen. 1:26–31). We should study these books with care, wrote Calvin. “If the Lord has willed that we be helped in physics, dialectic, mathematics, and other like disciplines, by the work and ministry of the ungodly, let us use this assistance. For if we neglect God’s gift freely offered in these arts, we ought to suffer just punishment for our sloths.”
