Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/249

 ties; the cooperation refers mainly to the powers; the direction, to the powers and actions of the creatures. God preserves all the creatures of the world; he cooperates with the good only, and allows the evil ones to perform their evil activities; he also directs all. Not one of these actions is contained in the other: it is possible to preserve a being, without assisting and without directing it; it is possible to assist a being, without preserving and without directing it; it is possible to direct a being without preserving and without assisting it. But, on the other hand, it must be remarked that all three actions of the divine providence are distinguished and divided only by us, according to their different manifestations in the limited and diversified beings of the world and in consequence of the limitation of our mind, but in themselves they are not separable and form one unlimited action of God, because God, who ‘at the same time sees everything together and each in particular,’ performs everything by one simple, uncomplicated action. He inseparably preserves all his creations, and assists and directs them.

“Divine providence is generally divided into two kinds: into general providence and into particular providence. General providence is the one which embraces the whole world in general, and also the species and genera of beings; particular providence is the one which is extended over the particular beings of the world and over each of the entities, no matter how small they may appear. The Orthodox Church, believing that God ‘from the smallest to the largest knows everything precisely, and in particular provides for each creation,’ apparently admits both these kinds of providence.

“The ideas of divine providence, as expounded above, exclude: (a) the false doctrine of the Gnostics, Manicheans, and other heretics, who, submitting everything to fate, or recognizing the world as a product of an evil principle, or recognizing divine providence as superfluous for