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

EVERY Act of the Will has a Cause, or it has not. If it has a Cause, then, according to what has already been demonstrated, it is not contingent, but necessary; the Effect being necessarily dependent and consequent on it's Cause; and that, let the Cause be what it will. If the Cause is the Will itself, by antecedent Acts choosing and determining; still the determined and caused Act must be a necessary Effect. The Act that is the determined Effect of the foregoing Act which is it's Cause, can't prevent the Efficiency of it's Cause; but must be wholly subject to it's Determination and Command, as much as the Motions of the Hands and Feet: The consequent commanded Acts of the Will are as passive and as necessary, with Respect to the antecedent determining Acts, as the Parts of the Body are to the Volitions which determine and command them. And therefore, if all the free Acts of the Will are thus, if they are all determined Effects, determined by the Will it self, that is, determined by antecedent Choice, then they are all necessary; they are all subject to, and decisively fixed by the foregoing Act, which is their Cause: Yea, even the determining Act it self; for that must be determined and fixed by another Act, preceding that, if it be a free and voluntary Act; and so must be necessary. So that by this all the free Acts of the Will are necessary, and can't be free unless they are necessary: Because they can't be free, according to the Arminian Notion of Freedom, unless they are determined by the Will; which is to be determined by antecedent Choice; which being their Cause, prove▪ 'em necessary. And yet they say, Necessity is utterly inconsistent ⟨p. 132⟩with Liberty. So that, by their Scheme, the Acts of the Will can't be free unless they are necessary, and yet cannot be free if they be not necessary!

EVERY Act of the Will has a Cause, or it has not. If it has a Cause, then, according to what has already been demonstrated, it is not contingent, but necessary; the Effect being necessarily dependent and consequent on it's Cause; and that, let the Cause be what it will. If the Cause is the Will itself, by antecedent Acts chusing and determining; still the determined and caused Act must be a necessary Effect. The Act that is the determined Effect of the foregoing Act which is it's Cause, can't prevent the Efficiency of it's Cause; but must be wholly subject to it's Determination and Command, as much as the Motions of the Hands and Feet: The consequent commanded Acts of the Will are as passive and as necessary, with Respect to the antecedent determining Acts, as the Parts of the Body are to the Volitions which determine and command them. And therefore, if all the free Acts of the Will are thus, if they are all determined Effects, determined by the Will it self, that is, determined by antecedent Choice, then they are all necessary; they are all subject to, and decisively fixed by the foregoing Act, which is their Cause: Yea, even the determining Act it self; for that must be determined and fixed by another Act, preceding that, if it be a free and voluntary Act; and so must be necessary. So that by this all the free Acts of the Will are necessary, and can't be free unless they are necessary: Because they can't be free, according to the Arminian Notion of Freedom, unless they are determined by the Will; which is to be determined by antecedent Choice; which being their Cause, prove 'em necessary. And yet they say, Necessity is utterly inconsistent