A careful and strict enquiry into the modern prevailing notions of that freedom of…

(2.) If any should say, that the determining Act is not before the determined Act, either in the Order of Time, or of Nature, nor is distinct from it; but that the Exertion of the Act is the Determination of the Act; That for the Soul to exert a particular Volition, is for it to cause and determine that Act of Volition: I would on this observe, that the Thing in Question seems to be forgotten, or kept out of Sigh•, in a Darkness and Unintelligibleness of Speech; unless such an Objector would mean to contradict himself. The very Act of Volition it self is doubtless a Determination of Mind; i. e. it is the Mind's drawing up a Conclusion, or coming to a Choice between two Things, or more, proposed to it. But determining among external Objects of Choice, is not the same with determining the Act of Choice it self, among various possible Acts of Choice. The Question is, What in••uenc••, directs, or determines the Mind or Will to come ⟨p. 39⟩to such a Conclusion or Choice as it does? or what is the Cause, Ground or Reason, why it concludes thus, and not otherwise? Now it must be answered, according to the Arminian Notion of Freedom, that the Will influences, orders and determines it self thus to act. And if it does, I say, it must be by some antecedent Act. To say, it is caused, influenced and determined by something, and yet not determined by any Thing antecedent, either in Order of Time or Nature, i• a Contradiction. For that is what is meant by a Thing▪ being prior in the Order of Nature, that it is some Way the Cause or Reason of the Thing, with Respect to which it is said to be prior.

If the particular Act or Exertion of Will, which comes into Existence, be any Thing properly determined at all, then it has some Cause of it's existing, and of it's existing in such a particular determinate Manner, and not another; some Cause, whose Influence decides the Matter: which Cause is distinct from the Effect, and prior to it. But to say, that the Will or Mind orders, influences and determines it self to exert such an Act as it does, by the very Exertion it self, is to make the Exertion both Cause & Effect; or the exerting such an Act, to be a Cause of the Exertion of such an Act. For the Question is, What is the Cause and Reason of the Soul's exerting such an Act? To which the Answer is, the Soul exerts such an Act, and that is the Cause of it. And so, by this, the Exertion must be prior in the Order of Nature to it self, and distinct from it self.