GOTTFFRIED LEIBNIZ AND GOD
"For what greater
master can we find than God, the author of the od Existuniverse? And what more beautiful hymn can
we sing to Him than one in which the witness of things themselves expresses His praise.
But the more one can give reasons for His love, the more one loves God...Nor should we
think that anything is badly arranged in the universe or that God neglects those who honor
Him."
(Leibniz, 1976, 280)
"Therefore
power and knowledge are perfections and insofar as they belong to God, have no limits.
Hence it follows that God, who possesses supreme and infinite wisdom, acts in the most
perfect way and does this not only in a metaphysical but also in a moral sense. With
respect to ourselves we can also express this as follows: the more enlightened and
informed we are about the works of God, the more we shall be inclined to find them
excellent and in entire conformity with everything which might have been desired."
(Ibid, 304)
"I hold, instead,
that God does nothing for which He does not deserve to be praised."
(Ibid, 305)
"That the
love of God requires our entire satisfaction with and acquiescence in that which He has
done. The general knowledge of this great truth, that God always acts in the most perfect
and most desirable way possible, is in my opinion the basis of the love which we owe to
God above all things, since he who loves seeks his satisfaction in the felicity or
perfection of the object loved and of his actions."
(Ibid, 305)
"I believe that it is difficult to love God
truly if, having power to change his inclination, one is not inclined to will what He
wills. In fact, those who are not satisfied with what He does seem to me like discontented
subjects whose intentions are not very different from those of rebels."
(Ibid, 305)
"Since He is the
best of all masters, He never demands more than righteous intentions, and it is for Him to
know the proper hour and place for making our good designs successful."
(Ibid, 305)
"It is
enough, then, to have this confidence in God that He does everything for the best and that
nothing can harm those who love Him. But to understand the reasons in particular which
have moved Him to choose this order of the universe - to allow sin to be committed, to
dispense His saving grace in a certain way - this surpasses the powers of a finite mind,
especially if this mind has not yet attained the blessedness of the vision of God."
(Ibid, 305)
"But it is well to
understand that God does nothing without order. So Whatever passes for extraordinary is so
only in relation to some particular order established among creatures. For as concerns
universal order, everything is in conformity with it. So true is this that not only does
nothing happen in the world which is absolutely irregular but one cannot even imagine such
an event."
(Ibid, 306)
"Thus we may say that
no matter how God might have created the world, it would always have been regular and in a
certain general order."
(Ibid, 306)
___________________________________
Leibniz, G.
W. , Philosophical Papers and Letters. Boston: D. Reidel Publishing Co.,
1976.
