ii6 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



jight, of tlie intelligent mind"]": And when the mind perceives that 

 beauty in its own works, then it enjoys the higheft pleafurc that 

 even beauty can give it. The contemplation of beauty is what is 

 called the Beatific Vifiou^ the fupreme happinefs of man in his fu- 

 ture ftate, when he fhall know more of the works of God than he 

 can do here below, and which may be faid to have given pleafure to 

 God hinifelf when he faw that his works were bcaui'iful ; for lb it is 

 cxprefled in the Septuagint, not by the word good^ as in our tranf- 

 lation. 



And here I conclude this book on the intelligence of God; in 

 which I have taken occafion to treat of the doctrine of the Trinity, 

 the foundation of the Chriftian Religion, and of all Theology, and, 

 I may add, of the whole fyflem of nature ; for I think I have made 

 it evident, thas this dodtrine is not only the beft Theogony, but the befl 

 Cofmogony that can be imagined. The Second Perfon of the Tri- 

 nity, or the Principle of Intelligence, " made," as our Scripture tells 

 us, " every thing ;" and it is added, " that nothing was made with- 

 " out him." The meaning of which laft words, I take to be, that 

 every the leaft thing in the univerfe proceeds from intelligence: 

 And accordingly our Scripture tells us, " That not a hair of our 

 '■' heads falls to the ground without the will of God." 



* Page 71. and 72. and the pailliges tliere referred to. 



BOOK 



