There is no Virtue that has a Name, but it curbs, regulates, or
subdues some Passion that is peculiar to Humane Nature; and therefore
to say, that God has all the Virtues in the highest Perfection, wants
as much the Apology, that it is an Expression accommodated to vulgar
Capacities, as that he has Hands and Feet, and is angry. For as God
has not a Body, nor any Thing that is Corporeal belonging to his
Essence, so he is entirely free from Passions and Fralities. With what
Propriety then can we attribute any Thing to him that was invented, or
at least signifies a Strength or Ability to conquer or govern Passions
and Fralities? The Holiness of God, and all his Perfections, as well
as the Beatitude he exists in, belong to his Nature; and there is no
Virtue but what is acquired. It signifies Nothing to add, that God has
those Virtues in the highest Perfection; let them be what they will,
as to Perfection, they must still be Virtues; which, for the aforesaid
Reasons, it is impertinent to ascribe to the Diety. Our Thoughts of
God should be as worthy of him as we are able to frame them; and as
they can not be adequate to his Greatness, so they oughts at least to
be abstract from every Thing that does or can belong to silly, reptile
Man: And it is sufficient, whenever we venture to speak of a Subject
so immensly far beyond our Reach, to say, that there is a perfect and
compleat Goodness in the Divine Nature, infinitely surpassing not only
the highest Perfection, which the most virtuous Men can arrive at, but
likewise every Thing that Mortals can conceive about it.
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