Page:A Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty (3rd ed., 1735).djvu/75

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Human Liberty.
71

just a rule of truth; and what seems evil, as just a rule of good, as what seems good. Which are absurdities too great for any to affirm; especially if we consider, that there is a perfectly wise and good Being, who has given men senses and reason to conduct them.

Lastly, it is a perfection to be necessarily determin’d in our choices, even in the most indifferent things: because, if in such cases there was not a cause of choice, but a choice could be made without a cause; then all choices might be made without a cause, and we should not be necessarily determin’d by the greatest evidence to assent to truth, nor by the strongest inclination for happiness to chuse pleasure and avoid pain; to all which it is a perfection to be necessarily determin’d. For if any action whatsoever can be done without a cause; then effects and causes have no necessary relation, and by consequence we should not be necessarily determin’d in any case at all.


Fourth argument taken from the consideration of the divine prescience.IV. A fourth argument to prove man a necessary agent, shall be taken from the consideration of the divine prescience.