"For instance, reason defines her general conception, thus, Man is a rational creature with two feet; which, though it be a general idea, yet every person knows that man, thus defined, is perceivable both by the imagination and the senses; notwithstanding that in this instance reason does not make use either of the imagination or the senses, but employs her own proper faculty of perception."
"Whatever comprehends and possesses at the same time, the fulness of an unlimited life; which catches hold of the future, and from which nothing that is past is escaped; that... alone, is truly eternal: for what is eternal must be in nothing defective; must enjoy itself; and must have the infinite succession of time clearly and perfectly under its perception."
"৳ No... for if every thing were moved by compulsion, the effects of art would be vain and fruitless."
"৳ Gods foreknowledge of all events... seems... inconsistent with the free-will of man: for if God foresees all things, and cannot possibly be deceived, then, that which he foresees to happen in future, must necessarily happen: if from eternity God had foreseen not only the actions of men, but their designs and wills, there would be no liberty of choice; as in this case men have it not in their power to do any action, nor to form any will, but those which have been foreseen by Gods infallible Providence. In fact, if things could be wrested in such a manner, as to happen otherwise than they have been foreseen, the prescience of God, in regard to futurity, would not be sure and unerring; it would be nothing more than an uncertain opinion: but I esteem it impious to entertain such an idea of God; nor do I at all approve the reasoning made use of by some, for the solution of this perplexing question."
"Homer, in mellifluous lays, Sings the suns all-piercing rays.— Phœbus beams, whom men adore. Only stream the surface oer, Reach not Tellus hidden caves. Pierce not Oceans rolling waves. But th Eternal from on high, With his all-perceiving eye, Sees his wide creation through— Starting open to his view; (While her sable mantles, Night Vainly spreads to bar his sight) Darteth He, with piercing ray, Where Sols beams can never stray; Sees—whats hid in earths dark caves, Sees—what lurks beneath the waves: All events at once doth see, Present, past, and what shall be. Him the Sun then rightly call— God, who sees and lightens all."
"৳ But it is preposterous thus to attribute the eternal prescience of God to the event of temporal things: for what difference is there in imagining, that God doth foresee future events because they are to happen; and to suppose that what hath actually happened in time past was the cause of his sovereign prescience? Moreover, as a thing necessarily is, when I know it be, so it will necessarily be when I know it is; the event therefore of a thing foreseen, must necessarily befal."
"৳ "Things, say they, do not necessarily befal, because the Divine Providence hath foreseen they were to happen; but rather, because they were to happen. Providence could not be ignorant of them.""