_The General Magazine_, February, 1741
_Letter from Theophilus,
Relating to the Divine Prescience_
_To the Author of the_ GENERAL MAGAZINE.
SIR,
There is a Question in the Schools, and I think generally
resolved in the Affirmative; _Whether God concurs with all human
Actions or not?_ That is, Whether he be the principal efficient Cause
of every Action we produce? This Question, I say, is generally
resolved in the Affirmative: And the _Reason_ they give is this;
_Because,_ say they, _if God did not concur with every Action that's
produc'd, then there would be an Action, and consequently some Being,
independent of God, which is absurd: Therefore,_ &c.
It hath been the Opinion of many great and learned Men, that
second Causes have no proper Activity of their own; but that God acts
directly and immediately in them and by them; that he produces all
the Acts of Thinking, and all the Volitions or Acts of Willing; and
that he has from all Eternity decreed, _That he will do with such and
such a Creature, at such a Time, such and such Acts;_ which shall
_infallibly_ come to pass, the contrary whereof could not fall out
from any Principle in the Creature; that the Creature neither can nor
ought to have any thing real, nor positively do any Act but what God
produces in it.
There is no Possibility, they think, of defending the Doctrine
of the _Divine Prescience_, if this be deny'd.
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