A treatise of nature and grace to which is added, the author's idæa of providence, and his answers to several objections against the foregoing discourse / by the author of The search after truth ; translated from the last edition, enlarged by many explications.

Answer.

I grant, that God doth not form his designs as Men do. He doth not, as they do, compare the means with the end, through weakness. He is not like unto an Architect, who has not Money enough

to finish his Edifice. He compares the designs with the ways, in wisdom, with respect to his attri∣butes, and in that love which he 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 un∣dertake 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 inlighten∣ed 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 al∣ways chuses both the work and the ways, which all together do most honour him.

But, 'tis 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. 'Tis 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 'tis not wise to will. And upon this account it is, that the practi∣cal wills of God are not ordinarily any other than general wills, whose efficacy is determined by the a∣ction 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; 'tis 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 no∣thing is more certain, than that 'tis by J. C. he sanctifies Men, and forms his Church: as it is also, that he governs the Nations by Angels, and pro∣duces Animals and Plants by other second Causes. At present, God acts no more, as he did at the Creation, immediately by himself. This is unde∣niable. 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, be∣cause they are perfectly agreeable with his Attri∣butes, as I have often repeated. When God crea∣ted 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, be∣cause, 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 attri∣butes.

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 'tis not to Honour his Power, but to Honour his Wisdom and his o∣ther 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 Attri∣butes, there being in it so many Miserable Persons, so many Sinners, so many Monsters, so many Disor∣ders, 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.

'Tis 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 natu∣ral 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 * 1.1 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 Phi∣losophers should explain to them, to stop their Mouths. Reason, as much as may be, should be reconciled with Religion. Hence it is that I Main∣tain 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 fu∣ture Church formed by the general Laws which God hath established for this end, than by an in∣finite 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 Ho∣nour his Perfections, both by the simplicity of his ways, and the excellency of his work.

Notes

• * 1.1

  See the Explicat. of Origi∣nal Sin, in the Search af∣ter Truth.