Demonstration of the Atheist's Folly, Part Four

In the first place, simply that creatures are testifies to their Creator. "All things that are demonstrate something from whence they are." A statue testifies to the existence of a sculptor; a garden testifies to the existence of a gardener; a book testifies to the existence of a writer.

Furthermore, all creatures had a beginning. There was a time when they were not. The world is not eternal or from eternity, so someone or something had to bring it into existence. This "cause" of creation must itself be in being before it created--"that which is not cannot act."

Charnock elaborates two additional arguments here. He first observes that time itself cannot be infinite (the kalam argument familiar to the Christian apologist) else now could not have yet arrived. Therefore the world is not eternal. He specifically argues from the finitude of past heavenly revolutions, meaning that the planets have accomplished a finite number of orbits around the sun, and the moon a finite number of orbits around the earth--there cannot be an endless stretch backwards in time. Secondly, generations of living things cannot be infinite or from eternity because they develop or mature and thus require time. And because in the current state of things we experience decay and death, an eternal generation of creatures would necessitate an eternity of corruption; in this, Charnock was likely anticipating the concept of entropy.