and Agreeableness, with respect to certain Things and Circumstances, which were fo conformable to the Infinite Rectitude of his own Will, and which Infinite All-comprehending Reafon and Penetration, must neceffarily fee and difcover in the Profundity of its own Effence. Now EVIL is a Deviation, from those Measures, of unerring ETERNAL ORDER and REASON. This is EVIL; not to chuse and not to approve, what is in it felf agreeable, and therefore worthy to be chofen, and is accordingly chofen and approv'd of, by SUCH A MIND, and SUCH A WILL, as the Divine. So that, together with a Breach of Intrinsick Original Right and Order; it includes, a Contradiction or Oppofition, to the Reason and Rectitude of an Infinite Mind, which judges and neceffarily approves of that Order.

1.

Now for the bringing this about, there is no more neceffary, than the exerting certain Acts of that Power, which we call by the Name of FREEWILL.

For by this we are enabled to chufe or to refuse, and can determine our felves to Action and Practice accordingly. And when our Choice is made one way, we do what is GOOD; when the contrary, we do EVIL. And therefore, without having recourse to any ill Genius or Demon, we may fairly and folidly account for the Origin of Evil, from the Poffibility of a various Ufe or Application of our Liberty: even as that Capacity or Poffibility it felf, is ultimately founded on the Defectibility and Finitenefs of a Created Nature.

I can by no means fee any juft and regular Steps, by which a Man fhould come to any fuch Conclufion as this; That 'tis the Divine Will alone, that MAKES RIGHT and GOOD; or that Things are fit and agree

Kk 4

able,

able, only because God wills them, and not that be wills them, because they are really and intrinfically fo.

'Tis a mere Jeft, to alledg, that otherwise there would be fomething Prior to, Independent on, and fo a Caufe of, the Will of God.

GOD'S WILL, IS HIS PURE, PERFECT, AND SIMPLE ESSENCE; in the Immenfity of which alone, he beholds all Truth, Order, and Fitness; nor can he possibly have any Reason or Motive out of himself, fince all is comprehended in his own Abfolute Infinity. So that to argue any thing of Priority to, or Caufality upon, the Will of God; if he wills Things because of their Fitnefs, and does not make them fo by Willing; amounts to the making a Suppofition, that is a flat Contradiction, to the Nature of an Infinite Allcomprehending Effence.

For it intimates as if those Agreeablenesses or Fitneffes, were fomething that was intrinfick or foreign to God, and not what he comtemplates in his own Effence. Whereas, 'tis here, in this boundless Perfection, this abfolute Immenfity, that he discovers all the poffible Relations and Agreements of Things; here, I fay, where nothing is or can be prior or pofterior, causing or caused; but all is comprehended in one view, and by one fimple perfect Act. Take the Matter thus, which is certainly the right and genuine Way of taking it; and then I think, there's no room for any Objection that deferves any notice, upon this head.

SECT.

N what Sense foever it can be said or understood, that Infinite Reafon and Infinite Goodness MUST NECESSARILY contrive, make, and difpofe, all things in the BEST Manner, and to the BEST advantage, and for the BEST Ends and Purposes; in that fame Senfe, and that only, can it be faid, that it was NECESSARY, the World fhould be fuch as it is; or that God fhould contrive, make and difpofe of it, and all particular Beings and Events, in and relating to it, in that Order and Manner, that he has contriv'd, made and does actually dispose of it, and them: and in that fame Senfe likewife, and that only, can it be faid, that the Structure and Contrivance of the whole, IS OF ALL, THE BEST, THAT COULD BE; or that it could not be any otherwise than it is; with many other fuch like Confequences. A Man may without any Scruple or Hefitation, own and affert such a Neceffity as this; and give any Atheist, Deift or Fatalist leave, to make their best Earnings of the Conceffion. For Neceffity which proceeds from PERFECT KNOWLEDG of what is fittest to be done, and from PERFECT GOODNESS and WILL, to chufe what is known to be fittest; is infinitely remote from all BLIND MECHANICAL Neceffity, and from FATE and DESTINY, in the vulgar Senfe and Acceptation of those Words. And as nothing of the Eternity, or Self-existence of MATTER, can ever poffibly be infer'd from it; fo neither does it involve any thing inconfiftent with a compleat and perfed LIBERTY; the Notion of Liberty being duly ftated, and abstracted from all Imperfections.

There

Therefore none of all thofe People, can ever make any use (in the way of fair and just Reasoning) a Conceffion of SUCH NECESSITY as this, in order to establish any Notion or Scheme, with respect to the OPERATIONS OR PRODUCTIONS OF A FIRST CAUSE; that will at all clash with any Article that we profess to believe, concerning the Being and Perfections of God: I fay, they can't do it, in the way, of fair and just Reasoning! For when they once come to Gueffes and Hypothefis, or mere Probabilities, Verifimilitudes, and the like; the Argument is at an end, and we have no more to say. But let them infer what they will, in the strict and allow'd way of drawing Confequences; and I believe we need not fcruple offering to stand by them.

It is most certain, that the Formal Nature, or Effence of Liberty, does not lie in A SUSPENSE, AN INDIFFERENCE, OR INDETERMINATION AD OPPOSITA.

There is no doubt to be made, but that there is fuch a Phenomenon in Human Nature, as this Indifference or Indetermination: And I have fhewn exprefly in PART II. what Ufes we are able to make of it, and how far we can extend and carry it, with respect to Objects that are propos'd to us.

But then, 'tis one thing to fpeak of an Effect or Branch, or perhaps an Imperfection or Defect of Liberty; and another, to speak of the very Formality or Intrinsick Nature of Liberty it felf.

Now we are affur'd, from the Knowledge and Experience we have of OUR OWN CONSTITUTIONS, that in a vaft Number of Cafes that occur, wherein we act from a RATIONAL NECESSITY, and are determin'd only one way, by the prevailing Motives of FITNESS, GOODNESS, AND AGREEABLENESS; that yet we ACT

FREELY,

FREELY, or with a true and proper Liberty; and that, because there is all the Complacency and Delight, all the pleafing Tendency and Acquiefcency of Mind, all the Harmony and Confent of Thought, that we ever experience on any Occafions, wherein we can reckon our felves to act with the truest Freedom, or that we can conceive to be necessary, in order to the making or denominating a Power, to be a Power of ACTING FREELY.

If the real Intrinfick Nature of Liberty, does not lie here or hereabouts; if this be not sufficient, in the Nature and Reafon of Things, to denominate ACTIONS FREE; then no Actions that WE can ever exert, let them be what they will, can poffibly be either justly REWARDABLE OR PUNISHABLE, BY GOD OR MAN: and if we once come to that, we need not dif pute about Liberty, or any thing elfe.

So that I fay, here we must fix, and fit down with this Conclufion, That the Divine Being, who acts from Perfect Knowledg, and Perfect Goodness and Rectitude of Nature; is alfo the most perfectly and compleatly Free, in all his Operations, and Productions.

After what has been faid here, and in other – Parts of this Discourse, I need not spend time in demonftrating, that MATTER CANNOT BE A NECESSARY SELF-EXISTENT SUBSTANCE: Nor that the MATERIAL WORLD, WAS NOT PRODUCED BY A MERE SIMPLE OR ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF NATURE.

For if there be in the Nature of Things, fuch a Power or Principle, as Liberty: If this could no more arife from, or be the Effect of Abfolute Neceffity, than Figure can be the Effect of Motion, or Material Extension of fimple Indivifibility, or a Power of Thinking can arife from, or be made up of,

that