I say,
moreover, that, in this naked {253} conception of things,
divested of words, there will not be found any notion of what you
call the
. You may indeed raise
a dust with those terms, and so lengthen our dispute to no
purpose. But I entreat you calmly to look into your own thoughts,
and then tell me if they are not a useless and unintelligible
jargon.
. I own I have no very clear notion annexed to them.
But what say you to this? Do you not make the existence of
sensible things consist in their being in a mind? And were not
all things eternally in the mind of God? Did they not therefore
exist from all eternity, according to you? And how could that
which was eternal be created in time? Can anything be clearer or
better connected than this?
. And are not you too of opinion, that God knew all
things from eternity?
. I am.
. Consequently they always had a being in the Divine
intellect.
. This I acknowledge.
. By your own confession, therefore, nothing is new,
or begins to be, in respect of the mind of God.
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