n8 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



cfllntial to his nature, that he is called by Plato the ra 'ayaOov. And 

 our Saviour has faid, that God only is good* : Of which the mean- 

 ing no doubt is, That he is eminently good, that is, he \% goodnefi it- 

 felf, and no other being is good^ but in fo far as he partakes, more 

 or Icfs, of the Divine goodncls, the Divinity being the fource of all 

 gooJnefs. 



As it is from the works of God that we muR learn to know his 

 attributes, and even his exiftence, as I think I have proved!, I will 

 ihow from the material world, in which we live, (by which only, as 

 I have fiud, we can know the being and attributes of God), that he 

 is mod: pcrfcdly good as well as moft perfeQly intelligent and wife. 

 And thefe works i will confider in a more extenfive view than they 

 have been confidercd by thofe that have v^-ritten upon the fubjetft. 



That the works of God arc perfeiltly beautiful, I have faid In the 

 lall chapter of the preceding book, by fliowing that they form a 

 mofl: perfeil fyftem : But there is a difference betwixt beauty and 

 goodnejs^ as I have fhown in the preceding volume of this work ij: ; 

 where I have faid, " That the beautiful belongs to the formal 

 " caufe of every thing; as it is by the union of parts, and by their 

 " connedlion with one another, that every thing is formed, and is 

 " more or lefs beautiful. But the good belongs to the final caufe, 

 " being that for the fake of which every thing is formed, both by 

 " God and nature, and by man; fo that what we call good is nothing 

 " elfc but that which makes the thing proper to anfwer the end for 

 " which it is intended." — Now, that every thing in the fyftem of 

 the univerfe, is proper to anfwer the end for which it is intended, is 

 evident : For the whole fyftem confifts of ends propofed, and means 

 devifed to execute thefe ends; and, indeed, without both thefe the 

 univerfe would be no fyftem: Whereas, I think, I have moft clearly 



proved 



* St Matthew, Chap. xix. v. 17. f Page 2. % Page 137. 



