suffers us not to doubt of this truth when he assures us that we are made of the Bone and Flesh of J. C. and that we are his Members and that the Marriage of Adam and Eve was the Figure of J. C. and his Church LVI God might have form'd Men and Animals by ways as simple as the ordinary Generation is But seeing this way figured J. C. and his Church since it bore the Character of the Chief of God's Designs since it represented as I may say the well-beloved Son of his Father that Son by whom the whole Creation subsists God was obliged to prefer it before all others whereby to teach us that as intelligible Beauties consist only in the relation they have to eternal Wisdom so sensible Beauties must in some manner much unknown to us have some relation to the Truth incarnate LVII Doubtless there are many relations between the principal Creatures and J. C. who is their model and end For all is full of J. C. all expresses and figures him as far as the simplicity of the Laws of Nature will permit them but I dare not enter into the particulars of this For besides that I am afraid of deceiving my self and that I don 't sufficiently know either Nature or Grace the present or the future World to discover the relations thereof I am sensible that Mens Imaginations are so witty and delicate that one cannot by Reason lead them to God much less to J. C. without tyring them and exciting their railery The greatest part of Christians are accustom'd to a Philosophy which rather loves to shelter its self in fictions as extravagant as those of the Poets than have recourse to God and some are so little acquainted with J. C. that a Man shou'd pass with them for a visionary if he shou'd say the same things with S. Paul and not quote his words For 't is rather this great Name than the Sight of the Truth which engages them The Authority of the Scripture hinders them from blaspheming against that which they are ignorant of but seeing they think but little of it they can't thereby be much enlightned LVIII It is certain the Jews were a figure of the Church and the most holy and famous amongst the Kings Prophets and Patriarchs of this People did represent the true Messias our Saviour J. C. This truth can't be denied without undermining the Foundations of Christian Religion and making the most learned of the Apostles pass for the most ignorant of Men. J. C. not being yet come it was necessary he shou'd at least be prefigured He ought to be expected he ought to be desired he ought to disperse by his Figures some sort of Beauty in the World to make it pleasing to his Father Thus it was necessary he shou'd have been in some sense as ancient as the World it was necessary he shou'd die presently after Sin in the person of Abel Agnus occisus ab origine Mundi principium finis Alpha Omega heri hodie est erat venturus est These are the Qualifications which S. John gives to the Saviour of Men. LIX Now supposing that J. C. ought to be presigured it was expedient he shou'd chiefly be so by his Ancestors and that their History dictated by the H. Spirit shou'd in all times be preserv'd to the end that J. C. may still be compar'd with his Figures and acknowledg'd as the true Messias Of all the Nations of the Earth God loving that best which had most relation with his Son the Jews were to have been the Ancestors of J. C. according to the flesh and to have received this favour of God since they were the most lively and most express Representations of his Son LX. But if this Difficulty be further urg'd so as to demand a reason of the choice which God made of the Jews to be the principal Figures of J. C. I think I may and ought to affirm first That God always acting by the most simple ways and discovering in the infinite Treasures of his Wisdom all the possible Combinations of Nature with Grace chose that which wou'd make the Church most ample most perfect and most worthy of his Majesty and Holiness as I have already said In the second place I think I ought to answer That God foreseeing what wou'd happen to the Jews by a necessary consequence of natural Laws had more relation to the design which he had of representing J. C. and his Church than any thing which cou'd happen to any other Nation it was expedient that he shou'd chuse this People rather than any other For in conclusion the predestination to the Law is not like the predestination to Grace and tho' there is nothing in Nature which may oblige God to dispense his Grace equally to all People it seems to me that Nature might merit the Law in the sence wherein I here understand it LXI It is true that all that happen'd to the Jews who represented J. C. was not a necessary consequence of the order of Nature Miracles were necessary to render them the lively and express Images of the Church but Nature must have furnish'd the Fund and the Matter and perhaps the principal Stroaks in several things Miracles finish'd the rest But no other Nation wou'd have been so proper for so just and high a Design LXII It appears to me that we are oblig'd to think that God's Wisdom foreseeing all the Consequences of all the possible Orders and all their Combinations never works Miracles when Nature suffices and that thus he was oblig'd to chuse the Combination of Natural Effects which saving him as I may say the expence of Miracles might nevertheless very faithfully execute his Intentions For example 'T is necessary that all Sins shou'd be punish'd but not always in this World Supposing nevertheless that it was expedient for the glory of J. C. and the establishment of Religion that the Jews shou'd be punish'd in the face of the whole Earth for putting to death the Saviour of the World it was convenient that J. C. came into the World towards the end of Herod's Reign supposing that according to the necessary consequence of the Order of Nature that People shou'd be divided amongst themselves about that time that Civil Wars and continual Seditions shou'd weaken them and that lastly the Romans shou'd destroy and scatter them abroad after the total destruction of their City and Temple It is true there seems to have been something extraordinary in the desolation of the Jews But since it argues more Wisdom in God to produce such surprising Effects by the most simple and general Laws of Nature than by particular Wills I know not whether on this occasion we ought to have recourse to a Miracle For my part I don't dispute of it here this is a thing which is not easie nor indeed very necessary to be cleared I give this Example for to make some application of my Principles and to make them the
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
may be inferred from these Truths XLV It must be observed that J. C. who alone is the meritorious cause of the good things which God gives us according to the order of Nature is sometimes the occasional cause of knowledge as well as of sentiment Nevertheless I believe that this is very rare because in truth it is not necessary J. C. as much as is possible makes Nature serve Grace For besides that Reason teaches us that order requires this as being the most simple way this sufficiently appears by his management upon Earth and by that order which he has founded and still preserves in his Church J. C. made use of preaching the Word for to enlighten the World and sent forth his Disciples two by two to prepare the people to receive him Luke X. 1. Eph. IV. 12. 12. He hath appointed Apostles Prophets Evangelists Doctours Bishops Priests for the Edification of the Church Is not this to make Nature serviceable to Grace and to communicate the knowledge of Faith to the minds of Men by the most simple and natural ways In truth it did not become J. C. upon Earth to enlighten Men by particular wills since he might instruct them as inward Truth and eternal Wisdom by the most simple and most fruitful Laws of Nature XLVI That which seems most dark in the order which God hath observed in founding his Church is doubtless the times the place and other circumstances of the Incarnation of his Son and the preaching of the Gospel For why should J. C. for whom the world was created be made man 4000. years after its creation Why should he be born among the Jews who was to reprove this miserable Nation Why chosen to be the Son of David when the House of David was fall'n from its Glory and not the Son of any of the Emperours who commanded all the Earth since he came to convert and enlighten all the World Why did he chuse low mean and ignorant persons for his Apostles and Disciples Preach to the Inhabitants of Bethsaida and Corazin who were resolved to continue in their incredulity and pass by Tyre and Zidon who would have been converted if they had had the same favour Hinder St. Paul from Preaching the word of God in Asia and command him to pass into Macedonia These and a thousand other circumstances which attended the preaching of the Gospel doubtless are Mysteries whereof 't is not possible to give clear and evident reasons neither is this my design I would only lay down some principles which may give some light to these and such like difficulties or at least make it appear that from them nothing can be concluded against what I have hitherto said concerning the Order of Nature and of Grace XLVII It is certain that natural effects are combined and mixed after infinite ways with the effects of Grace And that the order of Nature encreases or lessens the efficacy of the effects of the order of Grace according to the different manners by which these two orders are mixed one with another The Death which according to the general Laws of Nature sometimes happens to a good or evil Prince to a good or an evil Bishop causes a great deal of good or evil to the Church because such like accidents make great change in the consequence of effects which depend upon the order of Grace Now God would save all men by the most simple ways Therefore it may and it ought to be said in general that he hath chosen the times the place the manners which in succession of time and according to the general Laws of Nature and Grace will caeteris paribus cause the greatest number of the Predestinated to enter into the Church God does all for his Glory Therefore amongst all the possible combinations of Nature with Grace he by the infinite extension of his knowledge has chosen that which must make the Church most perfect and most worthy of his Majesty and Wisdom XLVIII It seems to me this already suffices to answer all difficulties relating to the circumstances of our Mysteries For if it be said that J. C. ought to have been born of a Roman Emperour and have wrought Miracles in the Capital City of the World that so the Gospel might have been more easily spread in the farthest distant Countries to this it may be answered boldly that whatsoever men think thereof this combination of Nature with Grace would not have been so worthy of the Wisdom of God as that which he hath chosen I grant that Religion would thus at first have been spread with more ease but its establishment would not have been so divine and so extraordinary and consequently not such an invincible proof of its solidity and certainty Thus according to this combination Religion perhaps would have been at present either destroyed or less spread in the World Moreover when it is said that God acts by the most simple ways an equality is always supposed in all things else especially in the glory which must redound to God by his Work Now the Church would not have been so perfect nor so worthy of the greatness and holiness of God if it had been form'd with so much ease For the Beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem consisting in the different rewards due to the different combate of Christians it was expedient that the Martyrs should shed their Blood as well as J. C. to enter into the glory which they possess In a word this principle that amongst all the infinite combinations of the orders of Nature and Grace God has chosen that which would produce an effect most worthy of his Majesty and Wisdom is sufficient in general to answer all the difficulties which may be made concerning the circumstances of our Mysteries In like manner to justify the orders of Nature and Grace in themselves it s enough to know that God being infinitely Wise he does not form his designs but upon the admirable relation of Wisdom and fruitfulness which he sees in the ways capable to execute them as I have already shewn in the first Discourse XLIX Since the generality of men judge of God by themselves they imagine that he first resolves upon a design and afterwards consults his Wisdom how to bring it to effect for our wills every moment go before our reason so that our designs are scarce ever perfectly reasonable For God does not act as Men do Behold how he acts if I have well consulted the idea of an infinitely perfect being God by the infinite knowledge of his wisdom and in the same wisdom sees all possible works and at the same time all ways of producing each of them He sees all the relation of the means to their ends he compares all things by an eternal immutable necessary foresight and by the comparison which he makes of relations of the wisdom and fruitfulness which he discovers betwixt his designs and the ways of executing them he freely forms the design But the
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.
be blasted and will it for very good reasons We must know the designs of Men to understand whether they forsake them and want constancy and firmness of mind or not For they may have a design to do at different times things quite opposite to one another But who knoweth the designs of God This would be a very fit Principle to justifie the Reproach which Pagans cast out against Christians That their God shews himself to be inconstant by abolishing the ancient Sacrifices which he himself had appointed This appears by Marcellinus's Letter to St. Augustin where he acquaints this Father That the Change of the first Sacrifices was one of the things which stuck most with Volusianus Maxime says he quia ista varietas inconstantiae Deum possit arguere This Objection would have been a convincing Reason against the Christian Religion if it be true that it is always a mark of inconstancy to unmake at one time what is made at another Answer I do not say that to unmake at one time what is made at another is not always a mark of inconstancy Nay in respect of God this I say is never a mark thereof The reason is because God doth not ordinarily act by particular wills For I maintain that God doth not by such wills make a Straw for example turn a 1000 times about but only by the Wind in consequence of the natural Laws which are his general Wills I endeavour by the uniformity of God's Conduct and the simplicity of his Ways to reconcile infinite Contradictions which we meet with in his Work and thereby I silence the Manichees and Philosophers who judge of God by themselves those attributing to a blind Nature and these to a malevolent God those natural Effects which contradict one another The Lions eat the Wolves and the Wolves the Sheep and the Sheep the Grass which God makes to grow and all this because the Laws of Nature tho simple and always exactly observed are fruitful enough to cover the Earth with Flowers and Fruits and furnish to the Sheep and an infinite number of other Animals their food to the end that they themselves may be nourishment to those which are their Superiours either by strength or cunning I omit other Reasons not proper to my Subject All this I say again is done in consequence of general Laws insomuch that all these Effects which contradict one another do not imply any contradiction in the Cause which produces them because this Cause doth not act and ought not to act by particular wills Nevertheless I have said and do say it again that to make and unmake and make again the same things a thousand times in a day is a sufficient sign of inconstancy and if otherwise we did not know that there is no defect in God we should naturally be inclined to think there is If my Principle should be rejected That God acts not by particular Wills but in consequence of general Laws I maintain that the ways of God ought to bear the Character of his Attributes and that his practical Wills should be the same till the work for which they were appointed be atchieved the same I say with respect to his immutability if the justice which he owes to his other Attributes doth not oblige him to change But I never said that God could not undo that to morrow which he doth to day without giving Men occasion to accuse him of inconstancy because the same general Laws do produce an infinite number of different Effects in the World The Night the Day the Seasons of the Year every thing says St. Augustine is subject to change but the Laws which God observes in the course of his Providence change not Haec omnia mutantur nec mutatur Divinae Providentiae ratio qua fit ut ist a mutentur The ways of God that is his practical wills are always the same there has been no essential change in the general Laws since their first establishment the Bodies which strike upon one another are reflected now as they were four thousand Years ago the Laws of union of the Soul and Body and those of the union of the Mind with universal Reason are still the same now they were in Adam's time the sin of the first Man has only deprived us of the power which he had of suspending the action of these first Laws by that strict union which he then had with universal Reason in consequence of other Laws which still subsist and make our wills the occasional causes of the Ideas which are presented to our minds Lastly The Laws by which God has given unto good and bad Angels the power to act upon bodies and by them upon our minds are still the same in the main tho the bad ones cannot make use of this power as they would by reason of the resistance of our tutelary Angels and for other reasons little understood Thus I am of the opinion that the ways of God always carry in them the character of his immutability and that he never changes any thing in them till his work shall be finished if the Law of Order requires not that they should have the Character of some other of his Attributes Once more I never said that what God makes unmakes and makes again implies any change in his Conduct since according to my opinion all these effects are the consequences of the simplicity and fruitfulness of his ways I only maintain that if God should act by particular wills what he doth would signifie inconstancy in his designs since there are things which he makes unmakes and makes again an hundred times in a day without any apparent profit or necessity for surely it is a mark of inconstancy to undo that which one has done to make it again what it was before And 't is in my thoughts to speak of God very much after the manner of Men and very unworthily of his Attributes to ascribe unto him as many particular Designs or practical Wills as there are little Straws which are whirl'd about with the Wind or Leafs and Fruits which the Rain nourishes and the Frost destroys for experience teaches us that these Effects are only the Consequences of the Natural Laws which God hath established to make the World as perfect as it can be acting as becomes himself The Objection which the Pagans made by asking Whether the God of the Christians was not the same with him of the Old Testament and if so why he had abolished his ancient Sacrifices This Objection I say touches me the least of any one so far is it according to my Principle from being a convincing Reason of the falseness of Religion for tho the ways of God be always the same the effects thereof may and ought to be different according to different times God gave to Angels the power of governing the Nations especially the Jews in consequence of general Laws which are his ways So that it is rather the Laws of Angels which
God by particular wills did again form Plants and Animals in the Seas which the first Proposition of the proposed Objection imports the difficulty would be more considerable But I maintain and always have maintained that the Germes of Animals increase and Plants are unfolded in consequence of the general Laws of Nature I hold that all organized Bodies were formed at the beginning of the World so as to draw their nourishment and come to perfection by the Laws of the Communication of Motions and that it is for this reason and the relations which God hath made betwixt the Mother's Brain and that of the Fruit she bears in her Womb. It is plain enough that I here speak only of the primitive parts for which we have no name and which are unknown to us Upon these accounts I say it is that there are to be found so many Irregularities and Monsters among Animals For I never said or thought that God by particular wills forms every day the Bodies of Animals and Plants That which follows viz. That according to my Principles God ought to have formed a World without any other organized Bodies but those of Men that he might have made it by the most simple ways shews that the Objector doth not comprehend my meaning For besides that God might have great reason to form such bodies by particular wills I hold that it being at that time necessary to determine the first motions of matter by such like wills the conduct which he then observed became nevertheless simple by this way of acting and doubtless his work is thereby made more perfect for the wisdom of the Creator is most visible in organized bodies The Objector doth not observe that the difference of bodies proceeds from the various motion of the neighbouring parts and that therefore to form all organized Bodies it was enough for God to give divers motions to the divers parts of matter from the beginning of the World But to do this 't was necessary he should act by particular wills 't is true but it was likewise necessary for him to imploy such like wills to begin the Chaos and divide matter into such parts as would have been fit to have form'd a World without Animals Thus it comes to the same thing as to the simplicity of the ways But on the other side to have formed all organized bodies at once for all ages shews an infinite wisdom whereas to have moved the parts of matter indifferently on all sides to have form'd a World without Animals successively and by little and little would have been no sign of knowledge In a word I affirm and it ought well to be observed that there needs no more particular wills to form Animals than to divide the parts of matter But tho infinitely many more were requisite besides that these wills were necessary when the World was formed they could not disturb the simplicity of God's ways since they preceded the general Laws and the striking of bodies upon one another which is the occasional cause of them But the general Laws being once established God cannot without great reasons cease to observe them Thus we see that God in consequence of his Laws kills an infinite many Animals and that he preserves none of them by particular wills Lastly Tho it should be proved that God doth yet at this day form Insects by particular wills this would make nothing against the main Principle of the Treatise For St. Paul teaches us that Men do not receive Grace but by the intercession of J. C. in consequence of the general Law by which God would sanctifie and save all in his Son and by his Son as I think I have proved in several places and chiefly in the Second Discourse of this Treatise Object VIII The Author says that the passages of Scripture which destroy the efficacy of Second Causes should be taken literally Now these very passages so understood prove that God doth all by particular wills Therefore God for example clothes the Lillies and feeds the young Ravens causes it to rain and preserves even the least Hair of our Heads by particular wills For this is the greatest contradiction in the World that the same words of the holy Spirit should be explained strictly and according to the Letter where Second Causes are to be discarded and that they should not then be taken literally but look'd upon as Anthropologies when we would have it believed that God acts not by particular wills Answer This Objection is surely the weakest in the World For why is it the most plain contradiction in the World that the same passage ought and ought not to be explained strictly and according to the Letter in divers respects The Scripture tells us that God makes the Lillies to grow and clothes them Why may not this and many such like passages be explained literally against the self-efficacy of Second Causes and favourably and not so as to exclude the necessary condition of these same Causes God makes the Plants to grow he forms the Children in the Mother's Womb says the Scripture The rigour of the Letter therefore signifies that God doth this by his own proper efficacy but it doth not exclude the Conditions which he hath prescribed unto himself that he may act after an uniform manner God makes the Plants to increase by his own power but it is in consequence of his Laws by the heat of the Sun and a great deal of Rain This passage and several such like neither speak of natural Laws nor the Sun nor the Rain but if they be rigorously interpreted as if God made the Plants to grow by particular wills and not in consequence of his Laws a Man must renounce common sense and the Scripture it self which in a thousand places speaks of Second Causes as the ordinary means of Providence It is objected That we sind no places of Scripture which prove that God acts ordinarily in consequence of his Laws and I am seriously blamed for producing no such Texts But it seemed to me that I should have rendered my self ridiculous should I have concern'd my self to shew that which no person doubts of For supposing only that the Philosopher's Nature is but a Chymera as I have often proved there is no truth more confirmed in the Holy Scripture For all those passages which seem to favour the efficacy of Second Causes are certain proofs thereof I have if I am not deceived demonstrated in the Explication of the Efficacy of Second Causes that my Opinion perfectly well agrees with the Holy Scripture and that it agrees much better with Religion than that which the prejudices of the Senses and Pagan Philosophy has introduced into the World FINIS