Reflections on God and Religion

THE FIRST BOOK.

But through a first power; just as the staff moves a stone
By someone’s hand: thus one then arrives at a
Mover, who himself rests, and turns all the rings of heaven,
Which steadily, at God’s nod and will, went in a chorus, Vondel uses the term "reie" (choir/chorus), personifying the planets as dancers in a choreographed performance.
And dance round and round, with a harmony
That pleases the all-seeing eye, which guides their dance.
If two movers moved the moved sphere,
And this power were shared by equal capability;
Then they would both stand equal in power.
Now reason does not permit that one should strike the flag A nautical metaphor for surrender; reason dictates there can only be one supreme authority.
Before the other. If one then wishes to encounter the highest power,
Then whatever revolves must cast itself before its feet,
And cry out in awe: O power, who governs it all,
Moves, and drives it around, you are first before all others.

This solid fundamental proof of the supreme unmovingness
Of the All-mover original: "albeweger". The Aristotelian "Primum Mobile" or Prime Mover—the source of all motion who does not move Himself. nevertheless rolls and strikes against
Our shins, if one does not stop the antagonist,
Who borrows his apparent conclusion from the Arabian. Likely referring to Averroes (Ibn Rushd), whose commentaries on Aristotle suggested the heavens moved by their own nature or "intelligence" rather than a direct act of God.
He cannot deny the movement that is seen,
Whether Copernicus, or the honor of the Ptolemies Vondel notes that whether the Earth moves around the Sun (Copernicus) or the Sun around the Earth (Ptolemy), the philosophical necessity of a First Cause remains the same.
Turns the earth around the sun, or the sun around the earth;
The movement depends on one or the other, however one turns it.
If the first celestial ring pulls lower arcs with it,
And above the highest ring reason can perceive
No other, which drives her, and stands still at the same time,
Then one ascends, climbing into the unmoving realm,
The throne of the All-mover, neither to be shaken nor moved;
While he turns everything below him according to his laws.
To struggle free from this, the loose-minded folk devise
That an indwelling and powerful fundamental principle
In every celestial circle turns the stars, and orbits;
Or that the movement of one hangs bound to another;
Or finally that God, who was never moved,
Is not the driver of all that swirls around him.