But let us beware, lest we
think that our ideas anywise correspond to his perfections, or
that his attributes have any resemblance to these qualities among
men. He is infinitely superior to our limited view and
comprehension; and is more the object of worship in the temple,
than of disputation in the schools.
In reality, C/LEANTHES\, continued he, there is no need of
having recourse to that affected scepticism so displeasing to
you, in order to come at this determination. Our ideas reach no
further than our experience. We have no experience of divine
attributes and operations. I need not conclude my syllogism. You
can draw the inference yourself. And it is a pleasure to me (and
I hope to you too) that just reasoning and sound piety here
concur in the same conclusion, and both of them establish the
adorably mysterious and incomprehensible nature of the Supreme
Being.
Not to lose any time in circumlocutions, said C/LEANTHES\,
addressing himself to D/EMEA\, much less in replying to the pious
declamations of P/HILO\; I shall briefly explain how I conceive
this matter. Look round the world: contemplate the whole and
every part of it: You will find it to be nothing but one great
machine, subdivided into an infinite number of lesser machines,
which again admit of subdivisions to a degree beyond what human
senses and faculties can trace and explain. All these various
machines, and even their most minute parts, are adjusted to each
other with an accuracy which ravishes into admiration all men who
have ever contemplated them.
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