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

For Instance, the coming into Existence of those particular Men, who have been the great Conquerors of the World, which under God have had the main Hand in all the consequent State of the World, in all after-Ages; such as Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, Pompey, Julius Cesar, &c. undoubtedly depended on many Millions of Acts of the Will, which followed, and were occasioned one by another, ⟨p. 109⟩in their Parents. And perhaps most of these Volitions depended on Millions of Volitions of Hundreds and Thousands of others, their Contemporaries of the same Generation; and most of these on Millions of Millions of Volitions of others in preceding Generations.— As we go back, still the Number of Volitions, which were some Way the Occasion of the Event, multiply as the Branches of a River, 'till they come at last, as it were, to an infinite Number. This will not seem strange, to any one who well considers the Matter; if we recollect what Philosophers tell us of the innumerable Multitudes of those Things which are as it were the Principia, or Stamina Vitae, concerned in Generation; the Animalcula in Semine masculo, and the Ova in the Womb of the Female; the Impregnation, or animating of one of these in Distinction from all the rest, must depend on Things infinitely minute, relating to the Time and Circumstances of the Act of the Parents, the State of their Bodies, &c. which must depend on innumerable foregoing Circumstances and Occurrences; which must depend, infinite Ways, on foregoing Acts of their Wills; which are occasioned by innumerable Things that happen in the Course of their Lives, in which their own, and their Neighbour's Behaviour, must have a Hand, an infinite Number of Ways. And as the Volitions of others must be so many Ways concerned in the Conception and Birth of such Men; so, no less, in their Preservation, and Circumstances of Life, their particular Determinations and Actions, on which the great Revolutions they were the Occasions of, depended. As for Instance, When the Conspirators in Persia, against the Magi, were consulting about a Succession to the Empire, it came into the Mind of one of them, to propose, that he whose Horse neighed first, when they came together the next Morning, should be King. Now such a Thing's coming into his Mind, might depend on innumerable Incidents, wherein the Volitions of Mankind had been concerned.

For Instance, the coming into Existence of those particular Men, who have been the great Conquerors of the World, which under God have had the main Hand in all the consequent State of the World, in all after-Ages; such as Nebuchadzezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, Pompey, Iulius Cesar, &c. undoubtedly depended on many Millions of Acts of the Will, which followed, and were occasion'd one by another,