THE MINISTRY

to say, that it is the least prominent of his faculties, namely, power.

I except neither the geometric proofs of Leibnitz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), a philosopher and mathematician who argued that God is the most "sufficient reason" for the universe., nor the fundamental axiom of Newton’s Isaac Newton (1642–1727), whose laws of motion were often used by theologians to argue for a "Great Architect" who set the world in motion. mechanics, nor the reasoning of Nieuwentyt Bernard Nieuwentijt (1654–1718), a Dutch thinker who used the complexity of anatomy and physics to prove God's existence. on this axiom, nor the superb observations of other distinguished authors, whether on the combination of chances to infinity—which nevertheless achieve nothing—or on motion which, tending to expand in all directions, is commanded in its direction by a superior force.

But I shall choose here only a single example of this kind, and it will be the objection of Crousaz Jean-Pierre de Crousaz (1663–1750), a Swiss mathematician who critiqued the idea that order could arise from random chaos over time., regarding the regular combination which would finally have had its turn in the infinite succession of ages, and which from then on would admit an infinite regularity within confusion, since this would be to suppose that all the different combinations to infinity would have followed one another in order.

The objection is undoubtedly strong, and although there is a long way from there to the point where one would want to lead the unbeliever original: "l’incrédule", I am nonetheless persuaded that it can hold him in check; but at the same time, I believe that it only draws its full advantage from the false supposition upon which it rests.

Unbelievers and atheists dwell little upon this long and vague series of combinations prior to the formation of things. Their minds, which need to fix upon a more determined point of view, would not long accommodate this dark overview, which even supposes some already existing power from which these series might receive their strength, their rank, and their course.