permits vice to raise its head in his dominions, intending to punish it
after having tolerated it for a long time, his affection for virtue is not
the greatest of which we can conceive; _it is then not infinite_." This
has been the great standing argument of atheism in all ages of the world.
This argument, as held by the atheists of antiquity, is presented by
Cudworth in the following words: "The supposed Deity and Maker of the
world was either willing to abolish all evils, but not able; or he was
able but not willing; or else, lastly, he was both able and willing. This
latter is the only thing that answers fully to the notion of a God. Now
that the supposed Creator of all things was not thus both able and willing
to abolish all evils, is plain, because then there would have been no
evils at all left. Wherefore, since there is such a deluge of evils
overflowing all, it must needs be that either he was willing, and not able
to remove them, and then he was impotent; or else he was able and not
willing, and then he was envious; or, lastly, he was neither able nor
willing, and then he was both impotent and envious." This argument is, in
substance, the same as that presented by Bayle, and relied upon by
atheists in all subsequent times.

To the argument of Bayle, the following reply is given by Leibnitz: "When
we detach things that are connected together,--the parts from the whole,
the human race from the universe, the attributes of God from each other,
his power from his wisdom,--we are permitted to say that _God can cause
virtue to be in the world without any mixture of vice, and even that he
many easily cause it to be so_."(143) But he does not cause virtue to
exist without any mixture of vice, says Leibnitz, because the good of the
whole universe requires the permission of moral evil. How the good of the
universe requires the permission of evil, he has not shown us; but he
repeatedly asserts this to be the fact, and insists that if God were to
prevent all evil, this would work a greater harm to the whole than the
permission of some evil. Now, is this a sufficient and satisfactory reply
to the argument of the atheist?

It certainly seems to possess weight, and is entitled to serious
consideration. Bayle contends, that as evil exists, the Creator and
Governor of the world cannot be absolutely perfect. He should have
concluded with me, Leibnitz truly says, that as God is absolutely perfect,
the existence of evil is necessa