The darknes of atheism dispelled by the light of nature a physico-theologicall treatise / written by Walter Charleton ...

SECT. IV.

Scruple 1.

THe Curiosity of some, (whether more insolent or vain, is hard to determine,) hath been so audacious, as to adventure upon this Quere; If God made the world, pray what instruments, tools, mechanick engines, what assistants did he make use of in the work?

The Satisfaction.

This is no green impiety (unless it hath lately budded forth again amongst those Human-devils, the Ranters; the report of whose prodigious blasphemies hath sometimes transported me to a hatred, at least a contempt of my self, for being in the same rank of (reatures; and made me wish for a second deluge) but almost half as old as Time, and may be traced as high as the Epoche of the Grecian learning; witness those many secret con∣vulsions of it by Plato (both in his Parmenides and T••m••us) while he frequently affirmes the divine Nature to be Inorganical, and the immediate operations of the universal cause to be above the necessity of Corporeal means: witness also Cicero (most of whose streams came out of the Grecian fountain) who (in 1. De Nat. Deor.) introducing the Atheist, Vellejus disputing a∣gainst Plato and the Stoicks, who held the divine essence to be the Author of the Universe; proposeth the scruple at large, in these Words: Quibus enim oculis intueri potuit vester Plato fabr••∣cam illam tanti operis, qua construi à Deo at que aedificari mu••∣dum facit? quae molitio? quae ferramenta? qui vectes? quae machinae? qui ministri tanti muneris fuerunt? &c. That bold∣ness is the daughter of ignorance, is herein plainly verified; for had these unhappy Pagans understood any thing of the majestick essence of divinity, or but apprehended the vast disparity between the efficiency of the Highest, and that of all other Subordinate causes; tis more then probable, they had not been so sawcy with his imperial Attribute, Omnipotence, nor run into that common mistake of flesh and bloud, of measuring the ways of God by the ways of man. True tis, that man hath need of instruments to the performance of any peice of Art, nor can the Geometrician draw his lines without a rule, or describe a circle without the help of his compass; the Carpenter work without his Axe, Saw, and other tools; the Smith without his fire, hammer, anvill, &c. all which the wit of man, sharpned by necessity, hath invented to compensate the insufficiency of his naked hands, made by na∣ture either too soft, too weak, or too obtuse for those difficult

uses: But yet what can impede our assurance of the eternal ex∣istence of a more Noble Essicient; whose Will is infinite Power, and that Power infinite Activity; whose single Let it be done, is both Cause and Means; and whose simple act of Volition not onely the Efficient, but also the Instrument? Do not we ob∣serve (that I may extract an Argument from the evidence of sense) how, in the twinckling of a lovers eye, that comely Arch of colours, the Rain-bow, is painted on the clouds; and yet with∣out either hand, compass, or pencill? doe we not behold whole mountains of ponderous Clouds piled one upon another; and yet neither vessels to lave up, nor engines to sustain that sea of water? And cannot these familiar observations instruct us with more knowledge, then to doubt the fabrication of the world without corporeal organs? Why is our reason so immodest, as to inquire into the ability of the First cause; when alas! it is not large enough to comprehend the efficacy of the weakest Secondary? if the meanest and most ordinary effect of Nature imports so much stupendious industry, as transcends the narrow capacity of man; what audacious ignorance is it in him, to question the e••er∣gie of that Principle, that made Nature her self, and prescribed her rules to act by: from which she cannot vary, without a mi∣raculous dispensation? We are willing forsooth, to profess, that we cannot understand by what artifice the delicate body of a Pismire is configurated▪ animated, and impowered for the noble actions of sense and voluntary motion, nay (for ought we know to the contrary) for that more noble and elaborate office of discourse also: and yet, when we come to contemplate the more magnificent form of the Ʋniverse, shall we degenerate into such impertinent Ideots, as to debate the Mathematick energie of its Creator, and demand how he could operate without Engines to transport, adfer, and winde up the materials, with scaffolds to advance the roof, or servants to assist in several offices requisite? Assuredly, as the frame of that slender Animal doth confess a certain Faculty, by which it was modelled, delineated, and compacted; though the reason and manner of its contexture re∣main in the dark to us: so also doth the huge machine of this visible World proclaim a certain Energeticall principle, of in∣finitly

more potency and perfection, by which it was composed; though the manner and way of its composure be too abstruse and sublime for the discernment of our weak-sighted intellectuals. Now, whether you shall denominate that Energy, a Power di∣vine, or God; it is indifferent: but indispensably necessary, that you acknowledge it to be so great, as by incomputable intervals to exceed the comprehension of the minde of man; nor is it safe for us to attempt the commensuration of it by the unequal mo∣dule, or scale of particular finite Causes, since even from these our reason stands so remote, as to be able at most onely to con∣jecture their dimensions. Upon this consideration, if a Pilot, while he onely sits in the steerage and hands the helme, doth di∣rect the ship in its course, by a far more excellent industry, then all the rude officers inservient thereunto, that stretch their tougher sinewes to hoise and tack about her sayls, and toyle their tawny bodies in other inferior labours: if a Prince, who sits calmely in his throne, doth by a single nod of his sceptre awe millions of his subjects to obedience, and by the magick of a smile or frown con∣jure whole nations into joy or terror; if he, I say, doth govern his people, by a more mysterious and noble influence, then all his subordinate ministers of state, with all their tumultuous pains and travell, either in the transmission, or execution of his mandates: if an Architect, or master-builder, who in his closet onely draws the plat-form, and designes the figure of the structure; doth by his meer designation, operate more exquisitely, and by a more ex∣cellent artifice contribute to the perfection of the work, then all the swarm of bus••ling mechanicks imployd in squaring, or placing the materials: why should we not allow that mighty Pilot, Prince, and Architect of the World to be empowerd with a cer∣tain kind of Efficacy so eminent, that whatever can be thought most absolute and puissant in all other natures, must be infinitely inferior to it? And therefore when we, who have learned our lesson outof the sacred leaves of Moses, say that he made the universe solo nutu, at que simplici volitione, by one simple and entire act of his Will, exprest in that word, Fiat; we speak all that can be understood by us of that miracle.

As for the last part of the Atheists indecent expostulation; viz.

What coadyutors or ministers had God to attend him, and wha•• materials praeexistent and prepared to conform to his disposure? that may be soon resolved, by offering that supereminence, where∣by he is, by infinite excesses, above all other Efficients. For what were the Prerogative of Divinity, if it were subject to the want of the same means, or cooperating Causes, with us despi∣cable and impotent men? To conclude, it will not onely sup∣press all dangerous Curiosities of this kind, but also highly com∣mend our judgments; that we draw a large line of distinction betwixt the Almightiness of the Creator, and the restrained acti∣vity, or rather pure imbecillity of the Creature; ascribe to him a superlative and pancratical energie, or virtue paramont; and on our devout knees proclaim him more able to create, then want either ministers, or matter, whereby, whereon to accom∣plish his Will.

Scruple 2.

The other profane Scruple objected by the Atheist, is this; Cur Deus tamdiu à fabricatione mundi abstinuerit? If God were elder then Time, and the world made in the beginning of time; why did he so long suspend the Fabrication of it?

The Response.

This is also a poyson spit from the accursed jaws of that black Viper, Velleius, against the Stoicks (apud Ciceron. 1. de nat. Deor.) in this squallid stream; isto igitur tam immenso spatio, quaero, cur Pronoea vestra (so according to their own phrase he calls that Minde, or supreme Intelligence, to whom that sober sect of Philosophers justly ascribed the origination of all things except the material Principle, which they erroneously affirmed to have been the Ashes, or cynders of a former World, whose production also they conceived to have been, like that fabulous one of the Phoenix, out of the urne of its predecessor) cessaverit? laborémne fugiebat? and not lately wiped clean off, and its con∣tagious venome cured by the generous antidote of E••sebius, who

(in 1. de praep. Evang. 1.) most expresly, amply, and judicious∣ly opposed it. However, lest this poyson ferment afresh, and again exulcerate the impure Libertines of this Age (not more for its extraordinary Calamities, then unpattern'd Impieties, as well the wonder, as grief of our posterity) and since it cannot but be thought most pertinent to my present scope: I shall en∣devour the total extinction of it, by applying a smart Alexite∣rion of reason.

From an Agent infinite in Wisdome, Power, and Liberty, such as we must allow God to be, no account either of Motives, Means, or Time, ought to be required. It was, according to their measure of time, about six thousand years from the nativity of the Universe, when the unhappy disciples of Epicurus disse∣minated this uncivil interrogation: but had it been created many myriads of myriads of thousands sooner then it was, tis open to conjecture, that they would have insisted on the same sawey de∣mand; since eternity compared to more myriads of years, then all the figures of Arithmetick can amount to the computation of, must yet import a vast tract or slux of Time (for other idi∣ome to express this notion, I could not either recognize, or ex∣cogitate) below the foot of that accompt; and that precedent space might have afforded room enough for the intrusion of the same frivolous quaere. And therefore it becomes us, either not to enquire, why the world was produced, rather then not produced; or allowing its production, to esteem it all one, whether it were produced then, before, or after, in this so great a latitude of Eter∣nity. For the same question now proposed, why God did not de∣termine in himself to create the World, ten millions of years sooner then he did; may also be revived hereafter, concerning these times of ours, if another rand of ten millions more should be un∣ravelled. From whence this modest and truly humane lesson fair∣ly infers it self; that it is oraculous in the greatest wisdome to say, God Created the World in that article of eternity (we may now call it Time) which seemed most opportune to his Wisdom. For, that he had some important reasons so long to deferr the creation, and then onely to contrive and finish it, when he did; though those reasons be cryptick and ignote to us: we may more then

conjecture, from the consideration of his inexhaustible and ever moving abyss of his Prudence, which is the rule to all other his actions. And truely, if Princes ground many of their designe•• upon profound reasons of State, the knowledge whereof is never diffused among their subjects, but lockt up in the cabinet of their own heart: why may not God, who is all Counsel and Prudence, be afforded the prerogative of having some weighty respects, that moved him to create the World, then when he did, rather then either sooner or later? Which respects, for ought we can explore, is Mercy in him to conceal from us: sure I am, tis a pride not much beneath, if not equal to that of Lucifer, in us to dare to enquire. Tis a confest truth, that no man can know the thoughts of another, who is constant to his resolve to reserve them sealed up within his own breast; and can any man be so incurably over∣run with the itch of vanity, when he despaires of pretending cer∣tainly to divine the cogitations of his familiar friend, whose in∣clinations he hath so frequently read in the book of his conversa∣tion: yet to arrogate to himself an ability of searching into the abscondite counsels of him, whom neither Minde nor Sense can touch? Wherefore tis our duty to reclaim our wild curiosities, to set bounds to our inquisitions, and gratefully sate our boulimie of science with this wholsome morsel; that from hence, that the World was once created, we may safely inferre, that the Creator was pleased to declare himself so Potent, that no im∣pediment could intervene betwixt his eternal decree, and the op∣portune execution thereof: so Free, as to be above the impulsion or constraint of any necessity: so Wise, as to prevent all temerity and collusion of Fortune: so Good, that the prescience of mans fu∣ture ingratitude, and so the infertility of his masterpeice, could not dehort him from fulfilling his purpose of conferring that in∣estimable blessing of Existence both upon him, and all things else for his sake.

As for the last clause of this foolish demand, An vigilarit tanto aeternitatis spatio, an verò dormierit mundi opifex? Whe∣ther God continued vigilant, or dormant from eternity, untill he set about the fabrick of this vast All? This includes a manifest incongruity, and speaks a contradiction loud enough to answer

and refute it self. For those two terms, Sleep and Divinity, stand at open defiance, and placed in one notion reciprocally deny each other; the one importing an Affection of a Body, or the effect of the Concidence, or Augustation of the ventricles of the brain, and slender conduits of the nerves in an Animal, caused either by a deficiency, or quiet of the spirits inservient to the Animal Facul∣ties, and causing a temporary and periodical cessation from the offices of sense and Arbitrary motion: the other expres∣sing an Eternal simple Essence, neither opprest with corporeity, nor (therefore) subject to defatigation upon any exolution or wast of spirits; and consequently not capable of sleep. However, to manifest the extreme stupidity of their reply; viz. that if he were perpetually awake, yet we must grant him to have been con∣stantly idle, before he began his work of Creation: I shall vouchsafe them that judicious rejoynder of many Fathers (whose studies were also not rarely infested with these vermine) that in all that precedent tract of eternity (mortality will excuse the ne∣cessary solecisme) he was fully imployed in the most blissfull contemplation of himself. Which is an operation most easie, most quiet, most pleasant; as all Philosophers, who ever have, by the steps of abstracted meditation, advanced their minds so high as token that perfection of beatitude, have observed.

Notes

• Article 1. That Antique absurd expostu∣lation, what Instruments Auxiliants, materials pre∣disposd, God made use of, in his act of Fabrication of the Universe, cop••ously satisfied: and the energie of the divine Will commonstrated superior to the indigence of either.
• Article 2? A second im∣modest inter∣rogation, wherefore God so long defer∣red the creati∣on, resolved: with a detecti∣on of the un∣reasonableness of undecent cur••osity.