ther: which is all I intended to prove by this argument, taken from the consideration of the divine Prescience.
Fifth argument taken from the nature and use of rewards and punishments in societyV. A fifth argument to prove man a necessary agent, is as follows: If man was not a necessary agent, determin’d by pleasure and pain, there would be no foundation for rewards and punishments, which are the[1] essential supports of society.
For if men were not necessarily determin’d by pleasure and pain, or if pleasure and pain were no causes to determine mens wills; of what use would be the prospect of rewards to frame a man’s will to the observation of the law, or punishments to hinder his transgression thereof? Were pain, as such, eligible, and pleasure, as such, avoidable; rewards and punishments could be no motives to a man, to make him do or forbear any action. But if pleasure and pain have a necessary effect on men, and if it be impossible for men not to chuse what seems good to them, and not to a
- ↑ Solon rempublicam contineri dicebat duabus rebus, præmio & pœnâ. Cicero Epist. 15. ad Brutum.
