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

  • Walter Charleton
Date:
1652
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The darknes of atheism dispelled by the light of nature. A physico-theologicall treatise / Written by Walter Charleton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    And therefore the Author re¬ trains the rea¬ ders expectati¬ on'onely to a demonftration of the Exilienee of God, in this Chapter fub- ne Cling a fhort fcheme of his prefenc defigne and Method- The Exifence of G od demon fir ated. ^—-—i——. . . . «- — i - This’eir^duly,perpended, our Reader needs no other adver- nfement, that in this Demonfiratiom of the exigence of. God from the Idea of him engraven by his oven hand on the minds of man, he is ot to expeft any bold and vain attempt of the dejeruption of the Formality or fimple Quiddity of that fupreme Being ( which is. the Fountain of all other Efences, and Soul of all other Caufes :) and it remains onely on our part, that we tender, him an account both of our defigneor fcope, and of the me¬ thod our pen obferves in the purfuance thereof. Though we are fully periwaded , with Plato ( L1b.10.de fcgib.p- 871.) upon the conviction of thole innate dictates,, which the reafon of every man whilpers in the cares of his corv feience ( which proved the louder thunder of the two, and ipoke more terror to the mifercant Emperor) that time never produced fuch a prodigy, as an Abfolute Atheifl, i. e.fuch a fool, as durft indubitate the exiftence of a Grand-fat her Principle, oxfirjt Intelligence, from whom, as from the main fpring hi a Watch,, or other Automatons Engine, all motion is derived, and which conftantly animates the great machine of the World : yet have we too- much ground to fulpeCV, that the accurfcd fpermc of the Giants is not yet extindd, that every age can turmfh us with a - precedent of Theomachy, nor need we look beyond our own Annals for a fecond to Caligula,,or want a parallel.lor Epicu¬ rus. Who, .though they profeft the ncce(% of a Duty, yet fottiftily ran into delufions equivalent to the downright dcnyali thereof, and fnned as high as blafphemy, in their endevours to cut off’thole two cardinall and inieparable Attributes of the forme Efence, viz. Omnipotence, and Omnifcient-cmnipre- fence, or ABiv e-ubiquity ; not allowing the Creation of the World, out of nothing, to the one, nor the confervation, or Gc- vernment of the fame to the other. And having made reflexi¬ ons upon the unfuccesfull progrefs many have made, in their enterprises of confuting this lort ol implicite Atheifme, by theper- 1 wall on of Scripture only; we became of opinion that to enter the lifts rt'ith a Lucian, or Lucretius, and there contend with him concerning the.extent cf Gods Providence even to every Angle and individuallnaturc, urging no other proof of the Affirmative but I
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