Robert Boyle got a brief mention in something I wrote many years ago. Since then, he has continually re-emerged in my consciousness, provoking within me both curiosity and disquiet as he does so.
The author of "The Christian Virtuoso" helped engineer the early modern understanding of the mechanical universe and associated that understanding with Protestant piety.
When we remember the Boyle family's motto - "God's Providence Is Mine Inheritance" -- and that family''s role in the English colonization of Ireland, we might see foreshadowed in Robert Boyle that combination of a sense of divine election, a belief in the right and duty to rule, and a confidence in the providential workings of a God in nature that would infuse so many English settlers around the world - especially those in what would later become the USA.
https://www.rct.uk/collection/405637/robert-boyle-1627-1691
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