Philosophers according to their principles That God doth all that is real in the Creatures and that he permits nothing according to vulgar Ideas Principles which in my opinion it is impossible to overthrow and which I should be sorry to see overthrown because they are infinitely advantageous to Religion May I not make it appear that the word Permit bears a sense worthy of God which is not contrary to their Principles and yet destroys their Errors I cannot do it without taking another Method than St. Augustine has done May I not ought I not to quit the Reasons which he gives to silence the Manichees seeing that they are made use of by some Persons in defence of their Errors and insinuate them into the minds of Men provided that otherwise I use clear Principles and which at one blow overturns the Heresie of the Manichees as well as Libertinism For this I appeal to all equitable persons as Judges what esteem soever they have for St. Augustin I also appeal to * Epist 143 148. De Trin. Lib. 3. c. 1. St. Augustin himself when he directs his Readers how they ought to judge of his Writings Now 't is evident by my Principles that nothing is more ridiculous than the Manichees way of reasoning who pretended to prove the necessity of an Evil Principle by all those dismal effects which a beneficent and a wise God cannot directly and positively will and which he is said to permit rather than to have designedly brought them to pass tho ordinarily Men do not too well understand what they say when they assure us that God permits and doth not do them But if my Principles overturn the very Foundation of Manichism they also undeniably confute if I am not deceived the most dangerous Errours which the World is at present much more ready to embrace I say then without fear of blaspheming against the Power of God and in honour of his Wisdom that he doth not directly and positively will Monsters and that he doth not produce them but in consequence of his Laws the simplicity uniformity generality of which he ought not to disturb I boldly affirm with the Scripture that God hath no need of the wicked and that if he suffered the first Man to fall and to communicate to us his sin it is because * Treat of Nature and Grace Art 29 30 34. of the 2d Discourse Explicat of the 5th Chapter of the Search c. and of Original Sin Order required that he should not prevent it by the grace of sentiment seeing Adam had no concupiscence to overcome It is because God was obliged to cause Men to be born by the most simple ways of ordinary Generation that so his Conduct might agree with his Attributes and all his Works might have admirable relations to one another but by no means that Sin might be communicated and Monsters produced 'T is true it may be said against the Manichees that Monsters give a kind of Beauty to the World and that God makes use of the wicked and even Devils themselves for the execution of his purposes For all things even Disorder it self set forth the Order of Providence But Disorder always continues what it is God permits it because he can make it serve divers uses But he wills it not because he hath not established his Laws that it should happen and because he hath not made Man free that he should not love him Shadows are necessary in Painting and Dissonances in Musick Therefore Women ought to be abortive and bring forth Monsters What a Consequence is this I can confidently answer the Philosopers That these Monsters ordinarily come from modest Women and subsist but a few days So necessary are they to the beauty of the Vniverse There are many more wicked than good Men reprobate than elect So many Consonances are there in the Harmony of the Creatures Shall there be any Monsters in the future Church and wicked Men in the holy City Doubtless not Behold then the Painter's Cloth without Shades and an Harmony without Dissonances Thus all those dismal Effects which God permits in the World are not at all necessary to it And if there be Black with White Dissonances with Consonances this doth not give more * Force Boldness to the Picture or Sweetness to the Musick I mean this doth not at the bottom render the Work of God more perfect This on the contrary disfigures it and makes it disagreeable to all those who love Order For tho it may be said that Monsters give a kind of beauty to the World nothing is more evident than that this is only a beauty in appearance and that in truth the World is less perfect The weak sighted or the blind make the most stupid observe that they have two good eyes Thus blind Men serve to illustrate the perfection of Man But they do not I hope render Mankind more perfect Vice in respect of us makes Vertue more conspicuous but surely it neither adds to its perfection nor its merit God makes use of wicked Men for the tryal of the good but 't is because as I may say he finds them already made so to his hands for they are no ways necessary to him God did never positively and directly will such Shadows and such Dissonances tho he positively and directly wills that they shall be subservient to his Glory These are pretty Comparisons which please the Imagination but do not enlighten the Mind they are proper enough to inculcate that which is already believed but assuredly they cannot be used as a Principle whereby Libertinism may be destroyed with what Eloquence soever they may be laid forth This is what I should answer not to St. Augustin whose meaning was right and who deserves to be respected for his edifying Answers and such as were fitted to the capacity of those he desired to undeceive But this is what I would answer to those who abuse his Authority and draw from his Writings such Consequences as are fitted to overturn the very Foundations of Religion I grant with this holy Doctor that there is no Evil Principle which notwithstanding all the endeavours of a gracious God to the contrary proproduces all the irregularities of the Universe whether he will or no which was that which he designed to prove against the Hereticks of his time But I am not afraid to give new Proofs to convince the Hereticks of this Age that God sincerely wills that all Men should be saved that he is not the Author of Sin in a word that Monsters whether in Nature or Morality lessen the perfection of his Work that he wills them not and that if he permits them 't is because he wills that his Conduct should bear the Character of his Attributes I will never say that God had a direct and positive will to produce all those dismal effects which Piety and the Idea of a good wise and just God oblige us to say that he permits
infinite Wisdom of its Author Additions I use the example of the irregularity of ordinary rain to prepare the mind for another rain which is not given to the merits of men no more than the common rain which falls equally upon Lands that are Sown as well as those that lie Fallow I suppose it to be easily comprehended that it is because the rain falls in consequence of natural Laws that it is so ill distributed in relation to the necessities of the Earth But I think I ought to advise that they who don 't distinctly remember the proofs which I have given in the Search after Truth that it is God who does all that he does not communicate his power unto Creatures but by making them the occasional causes of determining the efficacity of the general Laws by which he executes his designs in a way worthy of him I think I say I ought to advise these persons to read and meditate upon at least the first explication which is at the end of the third discourse for to do it well recourse ought to be had to those places wherein I demonstrate my Principles XV. In truth I am perswaded that the Laws of motion necessary to the production and conservation of the EARTH and of all the STARS in the HEAVENS are reduced to these two The first that Bodies in motion endeavour to continue their motion in a right Line The second that when two Bodies meet one another their motion is distributed from one to another proportionably to their bulk so that afterwards they may be mov'd with an equal celerity These two Laws are the cause of all the motions which make that variety of form which we admire in nature XVI I confess nevertheless Search after Truth in the last C. of Method that the second does not always seem to be observ'd in the experiments which may be made upon this subject but this is because we see only that which happens to Bodies that are visible and that we think not at all upon the Invisible that surround them which by the efficacy of the same Law make the spring of visible Bodies thereby obliging them to recoil and not observe this same Law I must not in this place explain this any further XVII Now these two Laws are so simple so natural and at the same time so fruitful that tho there were no other reasons to judge that nature observes them yet we should have cause to believe that they are appointed by him who always acts by the most simple wayes in whose Action there is nothing irregular and who proportions it so wisely with his Work that he does infinite marvels by a very few Practical Resolutions Additions It would require a whole Book to prove that which I say here concerning the fruitfulness of these two general laws of the communication of motion It will be easily seen that I speak not at all adventures by those who are exactly well acquainted with the Physical principles of Mon. des Cartes But this is not essential to my subject It is sufficient that the Laws of Nature are general These three Articles may be looked upon as a kind of parenthesis XVIII We must not judge of the general cause as of particulars of the Infinite Wisdom as of limited understandings God foreseeing all that should follow the natural Laws even before their establishment could not have established them to overturn them The Laws of Nature are constant and Immutable they are general for all times and all places Two Bodies of such a magnitude and such a swiftness striking upon one another will be reflected after the same manner now as heretofore If the rain falls upon certain grounds and the Sun burns up others if a season favourable to the Fruits of the Earth be succeeded by a Prost which destroys them if a Child comes into the world with a monstrous and useless head which grows out of his breast and makes him miserable it is not because God intended to produce these effects by particular wills but because he has established the Laws of the communication of motions of which these effects are necessary consequences Laws otherwise so simple and withal so fruitful that they produce all that we see beautiful in the world and in a little time repair the greatest Mortality and Dearth XIX He that having built an house and then undermines the Foundation discovers his ignorance he that plants a Vineyard and immediately pulls up that which had taken root shews his folly Because he that wills and wills not wants either understanding or constancy of mind But it can't be said that God acts either by caprice or thro' Ignorance when an Infant comes into the world with superfluous members which hinder him from living or when an Hail-Storm destroys the Fruit almost ripe Thus if God makes the Fruit to fall by a Storm before it is ripe it is not because he wills and wills not For God acts not by particular wills as particular causes do He has not established the Laws of communication of motions with a design to produce Monsters or to make the Fruits Fall before they be ripe he appointed these Laws by reason of their Foecundity and not their Barrenness Thus that which once he willed he wills still and in general the world for which he made these Laws shall subsist eternally Additions I have not here proved a Posteriori or by the effects that the general cause acts by general Wills or Laws whose efficacy is determined by the action of occasional or particular causes tho' these sorts of proofs are very many and undeniable 1. Because I supposed in the Advertisement to the Reader that he had read what I have written against the pretended efficacy of second causes 2. Because none can want these sort of proofs for every one knows that a body is never mov'd before it be struck and that it is never stricken without being mov'd Every one knows it is day when the Sun is risen and that it is night when it is set and that thus God produces the motion and the light in consequence of the general laws of nature 3. To conclude because the proofs a priorit taken from the nature of the cause tho more abstracted appear to me clearer stronger and more proper to the subject I Treat of For if I had not proved only by the effects that God does all that we see in nature by simple general uniform and constant ways it might be answered 'T is true but in grace he does quite otherwise he there does all by particular wills Whereas having proved by the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect that he does all that we see by simple ways since God does not bely himself this proves that he does by the like wayes all that we do not see Thus men begin to reflect that God must act after such a manner as comports with his Divine Attributes Nevertheless at the end of this first Discourse
themselves to his mind very clearly without putting him to any trouble Now the soul of J. C. is personally united to the Word and the Word as the Word contains all possible being with their relations he contains all immutable necessary eternal truths J. C. as man can no sooner think of any truths but they are instantly discovered to his mind J. C. therefore knows all Sciences he knows all possible things since he may without any effort of mind see all that the Word contains as the Word For the same reason J. C. knows all the divine Perfections since the Word is a substantial representation of the divine Nature and the Father communicates to his Son all his Substance He knows even the Existence the Modifications the relations of the Creatures but by a kind of revelation which the Father gives to him whensoever he desires him according to those words of J. C. himself I know O Father that thou always hearest me For since the creatures are not the necessary emanations of the Divinity the Word as the Word does truly represent their Nature or Essence but not their Existence for their Existence depends upon the free will of the Creator which the Word meerly as the Word does not contain seeing the Divine Decrees are common to all the three Persons Thus the Existence of the Creatures cannot be known but by a kind of Revelation J. C. therefore as man knows all things In him are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God but he does not actually think upon all things and this is evident For the soul of J. C. has not the capacity of an infinite mind And those who maintain that there are no succession of thoughts in J. C. and that he always knows whatsoever he does know thinking to attribute to the soul of J. C. a sort of immutability which is due only to God they necessarily make him liable to very great ignorance See the proof of this It is certain that natural effects are combined amongst themselves and with those of Grace after an infinitely infinite manner and that these combinations are every moment changed after infinite ways by reason of the mutability of Mens wills and the irregular course of the animal Spirits which change all our traces and all our Ideas in consequence of the Laws of Union of Soul and Body Now the capacity of thinking which the Soul of J. C. has as Man is finite Therefore if he knew or always actually thought upon that which he knows he must necessarily be ignorant of an infinite number of things Furthermore it is certain that the properties of numbers are not only infinite but infinitely infinite That in respect of Figures there may be for example an infinite number of Triangles of different kinds each of their sides being capable of being lengthned or shortned to infinity Now to say that J. C. knows not the properties of such Triangles or the relation of one of their sides or its Square or its Cube or its Quadrata-quadrate c. with other Sides or their Squares or their Cubes or their Quadrata-quadrates c. this is to suppose that J. C. is ignorant of that which the Geometricians know But if it be maintained that J. C. as Man always actually knows every thing that he knows it is necessary that he be ignorant of an infinite number of the properties of these Triangles Nevertheless let us suppose that Natural effects are not combined with the effects of Grace and that likewise all the thoughts of men their circumstances their combinations were something finite which the mind of man might discern all at once certainly to suppose that the Soul of J. C. does always think of them is to give unto him a very useless and troublesome knowledge It is troublesome for that which renders the soul of J. C. happy is the contemplation of the perfection of the Sovereign good Now the knowledge of all the Chimaeraes which do have and shall pass in our minds according to this supposition continually distracting the capacity of the soul of J. C. otherwise entertain'd in beholding the Beauties and tasting the sweetness of the chief Good would not be very agreeable to him For it must be observed that it is one thing to see God and another thing to see the Creatures and their modifications in God I think I have demonstrated that we see all in God in this life but this is not to see God or to enjoy him Thus it cannot be said that J. C. sees all our thoughts without dividing his capacity of thinking because he sees them all in God This actual knowledge therefore which some wou'd give to J. C. is troublesome for it is very irksome to think actually upon those things upon which we do not desire to think of A Geometrician who should have found out the Squaring of a Circle or any other more surprising Truth wou'd be very miserable should it be always present to his mind J. C. has an Object more worthy of his application than the modification of the Creatures therefore always to have an actual knowledge of our thoughts and needs pass'd and future would be very troublesome Moreover it would be altogether useless to him and to us Certainly it is sufficient that J. C. thinks of assisting me when I shall have need without thinking thereof for two or three Thousand years or rather from all Eternity For J. C. must actually think thereof from all Eternity if there be no succession of thoughts in his soul As in the Treatise of Nature and Grace which I composed for those Persons who are not over credulous I resolved not to propose any Principles which might be contested and since if I had supposed that the soul of J. C. had actually known all things my supposition might have been opposed by the reasons which I have produced and perhaps by others better I have therefore only supposed that J. C. has a clear Idea of the soul and the modifications of which it is capable to produce a noble effect in the Temple which he builds to the glory of his Father that which Reason and Faith do demonstrate Thus I suppose J. C. to act in consequence of this only supposition in the XIII XIV XV XVI Articles where I compare him to an Architect and to a Soul which should have power to form all the parts of its Body For as an Architect may form a Design and build an Edifice without concerning himself from whence the materials come he employs therein so J.C. by his union with the Word may form his designs and desires without thinking on the actual dispositions of all men He hath admonished them by his Counsels in his Gospel to put themselves in such a condition that Grace may not be useless to them It becomes him not to order his desires the distributive causes of his Graces according to the negligence or wickedness of men but according to the condition
it monstrous or given it useless or ill proportioned members that being contrary to his wisdom which he loves invincibly It would not permit him also to act after certain ways for supposing that a work equally Perfect might be produced by ways unequally Simple Uniform Constant c. God is impotent in this sence that he cannot chuse the ways of acting which are less worthy of his Wisdom or which less resemble his Goodness his Immutability or his other Attributes X. Thus God is Almighty because he does every thing that he undertakes to do and because there is nothing without him which can resist him or hinder him from executing his design 'T is not because there is nothing how irregular soever which he cannot do or no ways of acting which he cannot observe But let us suppose God to act XI God cannot act but for himself if he will act 't is because he resolves to do something worthy of himself but no Creature can give unto God an Honour worthy of him All the Honour that meer Creatures can give cannot be worth the action by which he produces them It is unworthy of God to maintain that there is any thing in the Creature which can determine him to act God therefore will do nothing for he acts only for himself XII God cannot receive any Honour worthy of himself but from himself No Person can Honour himself God therefore can never be Honoured with an Honour worthy of him XIII Nevertheless I am sensible that I do actually exist Therefore I can give unto God an Honour worthy of him Therefore I am Eternal Uncreated Divine I am not made and God can make nothing XIV Further I know that I offend God and that I cannot satisfie him for my offences Now God would not be offended and would be fully satisfied Therefore I am not the work of god for if I was God only acting for his glory he would have been deceived in his designs XV. Nothing can satisfie God but God himself Now one and the same Person cannot make satisfaction to himself God therefore can never be satisfied for our offences The wicked therefore are not the work of God they subsist whether he will or no they cannot be annihilated Behold consequences altogether false But see them cleared up in two words by my Principles or rather the Principles of Christian Religion XVI God cannot be Honoured with an Honour worthy of himself He cannot be fully satisfied for our offences if he himself does not undertake for them Now no person Honours himself or satisfies himself Therefore there is in God a plurality of Persons This is also that which Faith teaches us XVII I am Created therefore I can render to God an Honour worthy of himself God is offended therefore he may be fully satisfied A Divine Person united to my nature may sanctifie my devotions and render them worthy of God A Divine Person united to a criminal nature may justifie and satisfie for it This is the solution wherewith Faith supplies Reason when she is Non-plus'd for Faith and Reason mutually sustain one another XVIII It is clear therefore that tho Man had not sinned a Divine Person would have been united to the work of God to sanctisie it and render it worthy of its Author since it is necessary it should subsist as I may say in a Divine Person to the end it might be worthy of him XIX Men offend God they cannot satisfie him for their offences God foresaw and permitted this Therefore he had in view the satisfaction of his Son which is full and entire therefore the work of God repair'd is more worthy of God and Honours him more than the same work before its corruption God therefore who acts for his glory must necessarily have permitted sin which he foresaw would come to pass All this is clear and I have proved it elswhere but I speak too much of it for at present 't is sufficient that the first and chief design of God was J. C. and his Church that the present World was for the future that the natural order was for the supernatural And I prove it thus XX. God made all things for his glory He loves that the most which most Honours him Now Jesus Christ Honours him more than all Creatures put together since J. C. is a Victim and a Sovereign Priest who infinitely Honours God Therefore the chief of Gods designs is J. C. and the Church which is his Body which with J. C. offers but one Victim and one Worship For all Creatures have access unto God and pay their Obligations unto him only in J. C. Therefore the Present World is for the Future the Natural Order for the Supernatural this Succession of Generations to supply the living Temple which J. C. raises to the glory of his Father with Materials Every thing passes away every thing tends to destruction every thing vanishes but Gods chief design the Object in which he is well pleased shall remain for ever XXI The great design therefore of God is to build to his own Honour a Spiritual Temple of which J. C. is the chief Corner-stone the Architect the Sovereign Priest and Victim His design is that this Temple should be as Large and Perfect as it can be as far as its greatness and Perfection can consist with one another Thus God wills that all Men should enter into this Spiritual Building for thereby it would become more ample God would that all Men should be saved 1 Tim. II. 4. He hath also sworn by his Prophet that he wills not the Death but the Conversion of the Wicked God also desires that Men shou'd merit the highest degrees of glory His will is our Sanctification 1 Thess IV. 3. His Temple would thus be more Perfect Certainly if God loves Men and the beauty of his work these Truths cannot be denyed Now all Men are not saved there either are none at all or very few Saints but are capable of the highest Rewards and of a more Illustrious Glory than that which they possess and no Creature even Man himself cannot hinder God from Converting and Sanctifying him if God undertakes his Conversion and Sanctification for God is the absolute Master of Hearts Therefore there must necessarily be something in God himself which hinders him from executing his wills or rather from forming certain designs or decrees XXII God in his infinite Wisdom saw all possible works and all possible ways of executing them He doth not blindly resolve upon any design but always compares the means with the end He loves his Wisdom and he consults it always Now there are some ways of acting more Simple more Uniform more Regular than others and the Conduct of a Wise and Immutable Being must carry in it the Character of Wisdom and immutability Therefore the Wisdom of God resists his wills in this sense that all his wills are not Practical wills I do thus further explain my self XXIII God loves all Men.
these Miracles but by general wills for if they had been performed by particular wills the Angels could not have wrought them by a power which God gave them of conducting his people Thus St. Michael and his Angels were to the Jews that which J.C. is to the Christians The Angels gave the old Law J.C. is the Angel of the new Law as the Prophet Malachy calls him Chap. III. 1. The new Convenant promises true goods therefore the Mediator of this Covenant must be the occasional or distributive cause of that Grace which gives a right to the possession of these goods But the Old Covenant promised only Temporal goods because the Angel the Minister of the Law could only bestow these goods All that relates to Eternity both goods and evils ought to be reserved to J.C. The Angels who are pure Spirits ought according to Order to have power over Bodies inferiour substances and by them upon the minds of Men For since sin the Soul depends upon the Body they may prepare for Grace as in St. John and remove the occasions of falling Lastly the Angel or rather the Arch-Angel St. Michael represented J.C. as the Old Law represents the New the Synagogue the Church Temporal goods Eternal Thus it appears that to prove the New Covenant more excellent than the Old St. Paul was obliged to prove as he has done in the beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews that J.C. who is the Minister thereof is infinitely exalted above the Angels It must therefore be granted from the arguments which I have drawn from the Idea of a Being infinitely Perfect from a thousand a thousand experiences that God executes his designs by general Laws But it is not easie to demonstrate that God acts upon such and such occasions by particular wills tho the H. Scripture which accommodates its self to our weakness represents God sometimes as a Man and often makes him act like Men. For tho all that which I have said of Angels should be absolutely false I might nevertheless suppose and should even have all reason to believe that God wrought the Miracles of the Old Law by certain general Laws tho I had no knowledge of them for we ought not to reject a truth clearly known because of some objections which may be drawn from our ignorance of many things Thus God forms and preserves the purely material World by the Laws of the communication of motions and makes the Bodies themselves the occasional causes which determine these Laws for 't is the striking of bodies upon one another which determine their efficacy A Body is never moved but when another strikes upon it and a Body is always moved when it is struck upon God preserves the life of Men and likewise Civil Society by the general Laws of the Union of Soul and Body and makes something in these two substances the occasional causes which determine the efficacy of these Laws Mine Arm is moved according to my desires my Soul suffers pain when a Thorn pricks me God builds up his great Work by the general Laws of Grace according to which he would save all Men in his Son and because all Men are born sinners God draws the occasional causes which determine the efficacy of his general Laws only from J.C. who is the Head which influences his Members the Mediator betwixt God and Men the Sovereign Priest of good things the true Solomon who has received Wisdom without measure to make a Work whereof the Jewish Temple was but the figure how Magnificent soever it was To Conclude God governed the Jews by general Laws the efficacy of which was determined by the Action of St. Michael and his Angels In truth intelligent Beings are necessary to conduct Men to reward and punish them that by the Laws of the communication of motions the Hail knocks down the Fruit which the Rain had made to grow this is not properly a disorder Bodies are not capable of good or evil of happiness or misery But to adjust Rewards and Merits one with another intelligent Beings are necessary In a word God has established all Powers second Causes visible and invisible Hierarchies immediately by himself or by the mediation of other powers that he may execute his designs by general Laws whose efficacy is determined by the action of these same Powers For he acts not like the Kings of the Earth who give out their Orders and do nothing else God in general doth all that which second causes do Matter has not in it self any moving virtue upon which depends its efficacy and there is no necessary connexion betwixt the wills of spirits and the effects which they produce God doth all but he acts by Creatures because he was pleased to communicate his power to them that he might accomplish his work by ways most worthy of himself Thus has God done all things with Wisdom I say with Wisdom for an infinite Wisdom is requisite to understand all the consequences of general Laws to rank and combine them one with another after the exactest manner and foresee that from thence would proceed a work worthy of himself 'T is an evidence of limited understandings to be able to do nothing but by compounded ways But a God who knows all things ought not to disturb the simplicity of his ways an immutable Being must always be uniform in his conduct a General Cause ought to act by particular wills God's Conduct must carry in it the Character of his Attributes if the immutable and necessary order of Justice do not oblige him to change For Order is an inviolable Law in respect of God himself He invincibly loves it and will always prefer it to the Arbitrary Laws by which he executes his Designs THE END THE Author's Idea of Providence SEcond causes of what nature soever have no proper efficacy of their own But All their power is communicated unto them by God in consequence of those general Laws which he has establish't Now All Philosophers and Divines agree that God governs the World and takes care of all things by second causes Therefore The Providence of God is Executed by general Laws Nevertheless his Providence is not blind and subject to chance For by his infinite Wisdom he knows the consequences of all possible general Laws And As Searcher of Hearts He foresees all the future determinations of free causes Therefore He proportions the means with the end free Causes as well as necessary with the effects which he intends they shall produce Therefore He combines Nature with Morality and with Divinity after the wisest manner that can be So that the effects of the combination and connection of causes may be most worthy of his Wisdom Goodness and other Attributes for God wills in particular all the good effects which he produces by general ways Nevertheless the immutable Order of Justice which God owes to himself and his own attributes requires or permits that he should sometimes act by particular wills But
ordinarily it is then only and in those circumstances when one only Miracle i. e. an effect which cannot be the consequence of natural Laws doth happily adjust a great many events and the most that can be For his prescience being infinite he doth not work two Miracles when one will suffice So that in the Divine Providence there is nothing that is not Divine or which doth not bear the character of the Divine Attributes for God acts according to what he is He is wise his foreknowledge is infinite Now to establish general Laws and to foresee that from thence a work will arise worthy of these Laws is a mark of such a Wisdom as hath no bounds and to act by particular wills is to act as Men who can foresee nothing Therefore God acts by general Laws God is the Searcher of Hearts Now to make use of free Causes for the execution of his designs without determining these Causes after an invincible manner is to be the Searcher of Hearts and it is not necessary to have this quality for the execution of his designs if he did determine causes after an invincible manner Therefore God ordinarily leaves J.C. Angels and Men to act according to their natures He doth not communicate to them his power that he may destroy their liberty He gives them part in the glory of his work and thereby augments his own For leaving them to act according to their natures and nevertheless executing by them designs worthy of himself he makes it admirably appear that he is Searcher of Hearts Nevertheless the limitation of Angels the malice of Devils and both these qualities in good and evil Men and many other reasons may oblige God to act sometimes by particular wills For a limited spirit tho perfectly united to Order cannot foresee the connection of free causes which is necessary to bring the work of God to its perfection So that where Order permits God must determine Angels by particular wills and make even the sins of Men and the malice of Devils to enter into the order of his Providence And proportionably the same must be said of Jesus Christ considered as Man and Head of the Church and as Architect of the Eternal Temple God is immutable now immutability in his Conduct imports immutability in his nature to change Conduct every moment is a mark of inconstancy So that God must follow general Laws with respect to this attribute if none of his other attributes do otherwise require that he cease to observe it For God acts not but for himself but for that love which he bears unto himself but to Honour his attributes both by the Divinity of his ways and the Perfection of his work In a word the immutable Order of Justice which he owes to himself and his own perfections is a Law with which he never can dispence Thus experience teaches us that God governs the purely Corporeal World by the general Laws of the communications of motions By these it is that he makes the admirable Vicissitude of Night and Day Summer and Winter Rain and Fair weather By them also it is that he covers the Earth with Fruits and Flowers that he gives to Animals and Plants their growth and nourishment Experience also teaches us that God governs Men by the general Laws of Union of Soul and Body For by these Laws he doth not only unite the Soul to the Body for the conservation of Life but thereby he also diffuses it as I may say over all his works and so makes it admire the beauties thereof It is by these that he forms Societies and makes as I may say but one body of all People It is by them that he teaches Men the truths of Religion and Morality And Lastly by them it is that he makes Christians absolves Penitents Sanctifies the Elect and makes them merit all those degrees of glory which makes up the beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem When I say that it is by them he doth all this it is easily perceived that I mean they are subservient thereunto in the Order of Divine Providence For it is cheifly by the general Laws which give power to J.C. and the Angels that GOD doth build his Church Further Faith teaches us that it is by general Laws that God punishes and rewards men since Angels who are the distributers of Temporal goods have no efficacy of their own It is by them that God provides for the necessities of his Elect and resists the pernicious use which Wicked Men and Devils make of that Power which they have to tempt and afflict us in consequence also of certain general Laws But all Powers are submitted to that which J.C. has in consequence of the general Laws of the Order of Grace for at present the Angels themselves who command others for there is a certain subordination among them according to the most probable and received opinion are submitted to J.C. their Head and Lord. It is under him that they labour in the building of his Temple They do not now as under the Law proportion Rewards to Merits For the treasures of Grace are opened by the entrance of J.C. into the Sanctuary For it is true that by afflictions the Saints are purified So that it is better that J.C. give unto Men true goods than that Angels should deliver them from their miseries for if good Men were not afflicted in this World J.C. could not give them the form they must necessarily have to be placed in his building Lastly further yet it is by general Laws that God exercises his Providence over his Church that is to say by the Laws which make the Order of Grace Laws which give unto J.C. as Man Sovereign power in Heaven and in Earth It is by J. C that God hath established the different orders which do externally govern his Church 'T is by him that he spreads abroad inward Grace in Souls It is by him that he sanctifies his chosen people that he will govern them in Heaven and recompence them according to their deserts It is by him that he will judge the Devils and the Damned and condemn them to that fire whose eternal efficacy shall only be the effect of general Laws which shall be observed for ever more By him I say enlightned to this end by eternal wisdom and also subsisting in this wisdom by him being advertised by a revelation whose Laws are unknown of all that which Order requires that he should know and of all that he desires to know of what passes in the World to bring his work to its perfection by him lastly acting by practical desires by prayers by endeavours or actions of an infinite merit but of a limited virtue and proportionable to a finite and a stinted work but by him perfectly free absolutely Master of his desires and actions submitted only to immurable Order the inviolable rule of his will as well as of his Fathers and if I be not deceived very rarely determined after
bears to himself All the ways of executing his designs are equally easie to him but they are not equally wise equally simple equally divine A wise Man will never undertake a design which dishonours him how easily soever it may be executed And of two designs the execution of which will unequally honour him he will always chuse that which will honour him the most because his self-love is always inlightened by his Wisdom Thus tho God be Almighty he neither doth nor can act but by the love which he bears to himself and his own attributes he always chuses both the work and the ways which all together do most honour him But 't is said the ways of God are his wills It is enough for him to will that what he wills may be done I confess it The ways of God are nothing but his practical wills 'T is sufficient for him to will the doing of any thing to the end it may be done But God cannot have two practical wills when one is enough God cannot will when 't is not wise to will And upon this account it is that the practical wills of God are not ordinarily any other than general wills whose efficacy is determined by the action of occasional causes God loves Men. He would save them all He desires that all should know and love him For order requires this and order is his law This will is agreeable to his attributes But God will not do all that is necessary to the end that all may infallibly be brought to know and love him because order permits him not to have such practical wills as are proper to this end It is because he ought not to disturb the simplicity of his ways 't is because he must fit his ways to the work and chuse the work and the ways which honour him the most Altho God need only to will that the Church should be formed to the end it might be so tho he needed only to will that Men should receive grace to the end they might receive it yet nothing is more certain than that 't is by J. C. he sanctifies Men and forms his Church as it is also that he governs the Nations by Angels and produces Animals and Plants by other second Causes At present God acts no more as he did at the Creation immediately by himself This is undeniable He acts by Creatures in consequence of that power which he has communicated unto them by the establishment of his general Laws Thus his Laws or his general practical Wills are his Ways and his Ways are simple uniform and constant they are perfectly worthy of him because they are perfectly agreeable with his Attributes as I have often repeated When God created the World Men Animals Plants organized Bodies which contain in their Seeds wherewithal to furnish all Ages with their kind he did this by particular wills This was convenient for several reasons and indeed this could not be otherwise For particular wills were necessary to begin the determination of motions But seeing this way of acting was as I may say mean and servile because in one sense it resembled that of a limited understanding God quitted it as soon as he could dispense with himself from following it as soon as he could pitch upon another more simple and Divine way for the goverment of the World At present he rests not that he ceases to act but because he doth no more act after a servile manner something like unto that of his Ministers Because he acts most agreeably to his Divine attributes Thus tho God be Almighty and all his wills efficacious it doth not follow that he ought not to compare the simplicity of the ways with the perfection of the works for 't is not to Honour his Power but to Honour his Wisdom and his other Attributes that he doth all things immediately by himself In truth what wisdom wou'd it be even to save all Men and to make a World infinitely more Beautiful than that which we inhabit if he had made and govern'd it by particular wills What should we think of his Goodness and other Attributes there being in it so many Miserable Persons so many Sinners so many Monsters so many Disorders so many Damned In a word things being as we see they are he saith that he has no need of the Wicked and yet the World is full of them He hath not made Death and yet all Men are subject thereunto 'T is the sin it may be said of the first Man by which it entred into the World Very well But why did not he hinder his Fall Why did he not prevent it Why did he establish those natural relations betwixt Eve and her Children which communicate sin unto them Why did he make all descend from corrupted Parents In a word why did he not form our bodies by particular wills or by such wills did not suspend the general Laws by which the brain of the Mother acts upon that of her Child and thereby * See the Explicat of Original Sin in the Search after Truth corrupts its mind and makes its heart irregular Why I say did he not do this if it be indifferent to God to act or not to act by particular wills This is that which the Libertines demand and this is what Christian Philosophers should explain to them to stop their Mouths Reason as much as may be should be reconciled with Religion Hence it is that I Maintain it to be more worthy not of the Power but of the Wisdom and other Divine Attributes that the World should be governed and the future Church formed by the general Laws which God hath established for this end than by an infinite number of particular wills Hence it is that I assert that God has not made the World absolutely as perfect as it might have been but as perfect as he could with relation to the ways most worthy of his Attributes but has chosen the work and the ways which do most Honour him For God cannot and ought not to act but to Honour his Perfections both by the simplicity of his ways and the excellency of his work Object III. Whence is it then that a thing so evident was never perceived by any of the Fathers or the most subtil Divines Whence is it that St. Augustine who has written so much against the Manichees made no use of this Reason that God acts not by particular wills that thereby he might have proved that there is no necessity of attributing the destruction of his works one by another the generation of Monsters or other effects which are thought to disfigure his Work to an evil principle On the contrary it is certain that never any person did more than this Father own that nothing was done in all this but by Gods particular orders c. Answer 'T is not just to urge the Fathers and the Divines against me when neither the one nor the other are against me If St. Augustine
or any other Father had considered my opinion and afterwards refuted it then he would truely have been against me and his authority might have been urged against my sentiment But where can it be found that St. Augustine and St. Thomas have opposed that which I lay down probably neither the one nor the other ever thought of it And therefore neither the one nor the other could approve or disapprove it They answered the objections of HERETICKS and LIBERTINES after another manner than I do I grant it But are we forbidden to prove Religion by all ways possible St. Augustine answered the Manichees according to the principles which these Hereticks received and I answer the Hereticks of these times according to those principles which they receive Ought we not to speak unto Men according to their Ideas The Treatise of Nature and Grace I have often said was not made for all Men I pretend only to justifie the Wisdom and Goodness of God in the Construction of his Work to the minds of some certain Philosophers notwithstanding all the Disorders which may be observed therein and the Damnation of the greatest number of Men. Neither St. Augustine nor St. Thomas have written any thing either for or against the Cartesians of whom they had no knowledge How then should we find any thing in their works either condemning or approving the Reasons which I have drawn from the principles of these Philosophers to convince them that God sincerely wills the Salvation of all Men and that if he doth not save all it is because he loves his Wisdom more than his Work Assuredly it is to abuse the simplicity of the Readers and the respect which they have for the Fathers to raise prejudices in them by a many citations out of great men and endeavour by their suffrages to condemn those principles which probably were not known to them so far were they from rejecting them as untrue For at the bottom all such passages tho different from what I say tend to prove the same truths of Faith which I maintain for I have not and never shall I hope quit this Maxim of the Search after Truth That novelty in matter of Divinity is a sign of Error I distinguish the Truths of Faith from those of Reason and shall always seek for Theological Doctrines in Tradition But I shall endeavour to prove these Doctrines to others by those Philosophical principles which they receive or however those whereby I may hope to be able to convince them St. Augustine has not answered the same objectijections as I do What follows from hence That they did not come into his mind Not at all That he did not approve them By no means That he has condemned them as contrary to the Faith Still less 'T is because he did not perhaps think them proper to perswade those against whom he wrote For had I lived in St. Augustine's time and had written for all men and not for some particular Men who are accustom to certain Principles I should not have spoken as I have done in the Treatise of Nature and Grace because common sense requires that we should speak to Men according to their Ideas in a Language which they well understand and willingly hearken unto No person can think that the Principles which I suppose in the Treatise were known to the Manichees so that it would have been an odd undertaking to have perswaded them of the truth thereof that afterwards they might be convinc't by these Principles that they were in Error Moreover all Men are not capable to understand these principles to this end a great deal of time and application is necessary without mentioning several other requisite qualifications which all Men have not In truth the greatest part of publick Disputes such as those were which St. Augustine had with the Manichees will not permit Men to make use of abstracted notions to give light to the Truth It was therefore better done to deny for example That Monsters made the Work of God less Perfect by comparing them to the Dissonances in Musick and the Shades in Painting which give more Body and Life to the Figures It was much the shorter way for the Manichees to shew them that the mind of Man is too weak to judge of the Designs of God and compare all the parts of the World together thereby to discover the just relations of them than to explain to them those principles which are necessary to make Men comprehend that certain dismal effects are the necessary consequences of the simplicity of the ways by which God executes his designs These Hereticks would perhaps have learnt nothing by these principles and their rebellious imagination was to be humbled by sensible Reasons and suitable to their capacity And if this was not enough to content the understanding and convince by light and evidence it was however sufficient to oblige them to silence restrain their Pride and to give satisfaction to the Catholicks who assisted at St. Augustine's Conferences or read his works with a pious disposition of mind I should my self fear that I should be wanting to Religion if I should use such like Reasons to satisfie those who should make such objections to me if I saw that they could not attend unto Truths much abstracted and yet that it was necessary to satisfie them with respect to their doubts wherewithal they were intangled And assuredly it would be unjust for any man thence to conclude either that I contradict my self in my works or that I have not those sentiments of which I am convinc't For we ought to satisfie all Men the Simple as well as the Philosophers and keep both the one and other in that submission which they owe to the Truths of Faith This certainly was St. Augustine's design in his writings against the Manichees and 't is also of all the Fathers and of all Divines They all laboured only to maintain the Faith by reasons fitted to the capacity of those they had to deal with and according to such Principles as they received But if some Philosophers full of sublime Metaphisicks come and tell me that God as positively and directly wills evil as he doth the good that he doth not truely will the Beauty of the Universe and by no means the particular perfection of any of his Creatures That the World is an Harmony whereof Monsters are the necessary dissonances That God wills there should be Sinners as well as just Persons and that as the Shades in Painting make the Face to appear and gives as it were body to the Picture So the the wicked are absolutely necessary in the work of God that the virtue of good Men may be more remarkable And that thus God himself is the Author of Sin who wills it and works it in us and by us as truely as our good works and that Free-will is no more than a vain title of Honour wherewithal Men generally flatter themselves What shall I answer to these