language from Spinoza we have not only the meaning of the foregoing but also a more striking parallel to Mrs. Eddy's position: “This seems to have been recognized by those who have asserted, that God's intellect, God's will, and God's power, are one and the same.”[1] Spinoza knew that some before him identified God's will with his power or might and again resolved his power into his intellect. It is easy to see that to those, who regard only the mental as real, all power must be simply intellectual energy. Spinoza, it seems, refers to the Neoplatonists. Mrs. Eddy holds that “all might is divine Mind.”[2] Proclus says: “If being willing to make his fabrications indissoluble, he (the Demiurgus or creator) does not possess the power of effecting this, we must separate his will from his power, which would be absurd.”[3]
Mrs. Eddy denies to God such knowledge as is commonly ascribed to men.
In connection with the above quotation from Spinoza and Proclus it should be recalled that in one of the quotations from Mrs. Eddy she denies “reason” to God. She does not mean by this term the highest kind of knowledge, which is understanding or consciousness, for this she in many places ascribes to God. If she knows what she is saying, which I grant, she is distinguishing between the “discursive reason”, or that kind of human knowledge which is obtained by a reasoning
- ↑ Eth. 1. 17, note.
- ↑ S. and H. p. 310.
- ↑ On Tim. Bk. 5 (Vol. II. p. 346.)
