must be in every respect and intensely infinite. But if this complacency be intensely infinite, it cannot be derived from a finite and limited object; it must therefore flow from an unlimited and infinite object-but this actually infinite and unlimited object cannot but be God; consequently if there be in God infinite complacency in producing, it cannot come but from an intrinsic production, for which only it can be intensively infinite, and that from all eternity, and antecedently to the whole creation. I say, from all eternity, because the divine essence, which at no time can undergo either change or alteration, must exist from eternity. I say next, antecedently to the whole creation, because God cannot behold any outward being before beholding his own nature; since it is in his essence he beholds all things, but when he turns his own content, his own complacency and delight to his intrinsic production, this act of complacency causes it immediately to exist, or else it would not be infinitely perfect, and intensely infinite, since it would be destitute of the first of all perfections, which is to be existing and behold! thence it is eternal, immense, intelligent, most simple, the true real, and perfect image of the living God, the only light of the light, the great of the great, God of God.

:

CV. God not only is well pleased at the creating act by which he draws from nothing millions of created beings, but he likewise rejoices at and delights in their perpetual society, bearing them and preserving them most amorously in his bosom. If, therefore, the society of beings called from nothing into existence, of beings circumscribed and finite, of beings which, when compared with him, what perfection soever they may possess, are no more at most than a dim spark in comparison with the sun; if, I say, the society of such beings be so sweet and pleasant to him, how much ampler redundancy of joy, how much more extensive affluence of sweetness, will he enjoy in a production from his own indivisible nature, equal to him in all things, in eternity, in immensity, in omnipotence?

Let us reflect, that if this one production were not to exist in the divine nature, God would be wanting of that infinite

joy of which we are speaking; but this cannot be, joy as well as knowledge, being infinite in God, it follows, of course, that it is not conceivable that this one production, consubstantial to his uncreated producer, and for this reason, eternal, omnipotent, and immense, like himself, should not exist.

SECTION III.

The above Reasoning continued.

CVI. If we analyze the natural properties and qualities of the created beings, we find that they are all directed towards one end, viz. to the felicity which is proper and peculiar to each created being, there is not one among his creatures that indicates a direct intention of the Creator that it should be unhappy. We behold gifts and endowments scattered with a kind of profusion by the sovereign Creator, and we admire a certain, I had almost said, most generous and nobleminded prodigality, which replenishes every place with the bounty and beneficence of God, the giver of all good. Such a manner of acting gives us to understand, that in the essence of God there exists a certain connatural propensity to communicate graces, gifts, and endowments; for if God had not such a generous tendency he would not assuredly have dispensed so profusedly and superabundantly the treasures of his created magnificences to his creatures. This tendency, this kind and beneficent propensity in God, is a perfection, but if it be a perfection in God, must it not be infinite to the highest degree? and if it be infinite to the highest degree, must it not contain the good and the better? To be able to give, is assuredly estimable and praiseworthy, but actually to give, is still more worthy of esteem and more commendable. It is more noble to give or communicate a substantial, original, and eternal beauty, than one created from nothing, and in time; it is more suitable to and worthy of the supreme good to communicate his own and intrinsic best, than to form an outward and extrinsic one, which is as much inferior to him as the created

is beneath the uncreated, the finite beneath the infinite. If, therefore, such a propensity to give, must contain the good and the better, and if we have already admired the good in the creatures, we must needs affirm that the better must exist too, although incomprehensible to us. We must then affirm, that 'God has given, and is actually giving, all his own beautiful and best intrinsic, substantial and eternal to another, and this after an admirable manner, without dividing, diminishing, or losing it; and we must likewise say, that the creature made out of nothing, whatever may be its perfection, for the very reason that it is finite and circumscribed, is not and cannot be capable of receiving into itself all the amiable, all the divine essence, which in every respect is absolutely infinite, and that, of course, the receiver cannot be but of the same indivisible nature, equally noble, equally great, and equally infinite in all perfections, as the supreme donor and communinicator, God.

CVII. Is not such a communication the greatest? does it not go as far as it can extend? What can God give more than his own nature, than all his beautiful, all his amiable, all his great and perfect, in a word, than all himself? or to speak more properly, what can God give more than the fulness of all beauty, of all excellence, of all amiability? Amiability, excellency, and beauty, so extensive and so great, that the most penetrating and most sublime created understanding will never, by itself, reach so far as to form the most distant idea of it? Ah! surely not to have nor wish to retain the least beauty, without communicating it and rendering it common with another, is a greatness which deserves all the praises and applauses of all created and possible intelligences.

And behold, without being aware, as it were, we see ourselves compelled to admit in the divine nature one that gives all his substance, and another that receives it, without in the least dividing the indivisible nature, and without destroying the perfect unity; the nature of the one being the nature of the other; and the intelligence, the bounty, and the perfection of the one, that of the other. The one and the other is God,

but one only divinity, common to both. The one as well as the other is immense, but the immensity is only one; nay, the divinity, and immensity, and every other attribute, are God himself.

We shall clear up, as far as possible, the abstruseness of these observations, and the very same human reason, which we are foolishly told rises up in contradiction to them, shall steadily walk before us, and serve us as an escort and a light to guide our steps. Reason shall never depart from our side, nor abandon us, until, conscious of its own imbecility and insufficiency, it point out to us a higher and surer light, and then leave us.

SECTION IV.

The Plurality of Persons in the Supreme Unity of God.

CVIII. Our mode of reasoning has insensibly conducted us to admit in the divine nature, two persons, one that communicates all his beauty, all his essence, and another which receives it, that is to say, a producer and a produced. Let us continue.

The divine essence is infinite, indivisible and most simple : having no parts, it cannot be communicated but whole, nor be received but whole; and being indivisible, it is necessary that the producer and the produced have one only and the same numerical nature, one only and the same most simple substance, who differ in no other way than that one is the giver, and the other the receiver; the first having the essence of himself, and the other of the first. But in as far as the producer, considered as producer, is not the produced, and the produced, in as far as he is produced, is not the producer, there is between them a true and real distinction, not in nature, but in persons, because the one is not the other, although they have the same divinity, the same identical essence. For as the essence of God cannot communicate itself but whole, nor be received but whole, it being simple and indivisible, it follows, by a necessary consequence, that the producer has communicated all his beauties, all his grandeurs, all his perNo. IV.

21

fections to the produced, and as the supreme being and sovereign communicator has nought within himself but what is infinitely amiable and perfect, and as he has communicated it whole and entire, without losing it, because in the same indivisible nature, it consequently follows, that what the producer has, the produced likewise has, and that which the produced has, the producer has also in a supreme and perfect equality.

Therefore the produced and the producer are perfectly and substantially equal, and there is no other difference between them, than that the one is the producer and the other the produced. But on account of this difference it does not follow, that the produced is less than the producer, for the producer and the produced have one and the same undivided numerical nature, the same beauties, the same sublimity, the same perfections.

CIX. But at least, some or other will reply, at least they will not be co-eternal; and the producer will be at least an instant older than the produced, since he must first exist, and then only produce.

If we take creatures and the ideas which result from them, for the rule of our judgment, this objection will no doubt appear insoluble and victorious. But if, devested of prejudices, we soar to the solidity of a true reasoning, to the exalted and sublime essence of God, the matter will appear quite otherwise to us. Creatures are subject to a succession of time, one day they were not, then they are, and bring forth other creatures like unto themselves; but for the divine essence, there is no succession of time, the divine essence is pure: IT IS, therefore it always was, and will always be for each and every instant what it is; if it be eternal, as we have demonstrated it to be, it must be entirely eternal; must always have been as it is. had been but for one, even the produced, in that one smallest instant the divine, immutable essence would not have been what it is at present, with its produced, and, of course, it would not have been in every moment such as it is; therefore, either the divine essence is not al

nay, its very mode of existing But if the inward producer smallest instant, without the