elusion that all force may be will force ; and thus the whole uni- verse is not merely dependent on, but actually is, the Will of higher intelligences or of one Supreme Intelligence." ^
This theory is substantially the same as that previously men- tioned. They differ only as to the extent of their application. According to the doctrine of " Absolute Dependence," God is the only agent in the universe ; according to the doctrine just stated, He is the only agent, or his will is the only energy in the material world. Matter is nothing. " It does not exist." It is nothing but force, and force is God ; therefore the external world is God. In other words, all the impressions and sensations made upon us, as we suppose, by things without us, are in fact made by the im- mediate power of God : there is no earth ; there are no stars ; no men or women ; no fathers or mothers. Men cannot believe this. By the constitution of our nature, which no man can alter, we are forced to believe in the reality of the external world ; that matter is, and that it is the proximate cause of the effects which we attrib- ute to its agency.
D. Theory of Preestablished Harmony. Another assumption made by philosophers is, that one substance cannot act upon another substance of a different kind ; what is ex- tended cannot act upon what is not extended ; matter cannot act on mind, nor mind on matter. It is, however, a fact of consciousness and of daily observation, that, apparently at least, material objects by which we are surrounded are the causes of certain sensations and perceptions, that is, they act upon our minds ; and it is no less a matter of consciousness that our minds do act, at least so it seems, upon our bodies. We can move, we can control the action of all our voluntary muscles. This, however, must be a delusion if matter cannot act on mind nor mind on matter. To account for the relation in which mind and matter stand to each other in this world, and for the apparent action of the one on the other, Leibnitz adopted the theory of a preestablished harmony. God created two independent worlds, the one of matter, the other of mind ; each has its own nature and its own principle of activity. All the changes in matter, all the actions of our bodies, are determined from a source within the matter and within our bodies, and would occur in the same order in which they actually take place if no created mind were in existence. In like manner, all the varying states of
1 Conlnhution to the Theory of Natural Selection, by Alfred Rusael "Wallace. London, 1870, p. 368.
598 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. XI. — Pkovidence.
the human mind, all its sensations, perceptions, and volitions are determined from within, and would be just what they are though the external world had no existence. We should see the same sights, hear the same sounds, have the same volitions to move this or that muscle, though there were nothing to see, hear, or move. These two worlds, thus automatically moved, coexist, and are made to act in harmony by a prearrangement divinely ordered. Hence the sensation of burning arises in the mind, not because fire acts on the body and the body on the mind, but because, by this preestab- lished harmony, these events are made to coincide in time and space. From eternity it was determined that I should have a volition to move my arm at a certain time ; and from eternity it was determined that the arm should move at that time. The two events therefore concur as immediate antecedent and consequent, but the volition stands in no causal relation to the motion. The voli- tion would have been formed had there been no arm to move ; and the arm would have moved, although the volition had never been formed. Leibnitz's hand would have written all his wonderful books, mathematical and philosophical, and conducted all his controversies with Bayle, Clarke, and Newton, though his soul had never been created.!
E. Doctrine of Concur sus. A far more widely adopted and permanently influential princi- ple is that no second cause can act until acted upon. Nothing created can originate action. This principle, carried to a greater or less extent, was adopted by Augustine, by the schoolmen, by the Thomists and Dominicans in the Latin Churcli, and by Protes- tants, whether Lutherans, Reformed, or Remonstrants. It was as- sumed as a philosophical axiom, to which all theological doctrines should be conformed. " Ad gubernationem concursus pertinet, quo Deus non solum dat vim agendi causis secundis et eam conser- vat, sed et easdem movet et applicat ad agendum. Prsecursus etiam dicitur, nam causae secundae non movent nisi motas." ^ "Pri- ma causa," says Turrettin, " est primum movens in omni actione, ideo causa secunda non potest movere, nisi moveatur, nee agere, T?isi acta a prima ; alioqui erit principium sui motus, et sic non amplius esset causa secunda, sed prima." ^ In the production of pvery effect, therefore, there is the efficiency of two causes, the r^rst and second. But this is mot to be considered as involving two
1 See his Systeme Nouveau de la Nature; Wo)-ks, edit. Berlin, 1840, p. 124. . 2 Mares, Collegium Theologicum, loc. iv. 29; Gri3ningen, 1659, p. 42, b. 8 I.ocus VI. qusestio, v. 7, edit. Edinburgh, 1847, vol. i. p. 455.