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

I. The Will it self, and not only those Actions which are the Effects of the Will, is the proper Object of Precept or Command. That is, such or such a State or Acts of Men's Wills, is in many Cases, properly required of them by Command; and not only those Alterations in the State of their Bodies or Minds that are the Consequences of Volition. This is most manifest; for 'tis the Soul only, that is properly and directly the Subject of Precepts or Commands; that only being capable of receiving or perceiving Commands. The Motions or State of the Body are Matter of Command, only as they are subject to the Soul, and connected with it's Acts. But now the Soul has no other Faculty whereby it can, in the most direct and proper Sense, consent, yield to, or comply with any Command, but the Faculty of the Will; and 'tis by this Faculty only, that the Soul can directly disobey, or refuse Compliance: For the very Notions of Consenting, Yielding, Accepting, Complying, Refusing, Rejecting &c. are, according to the Meaning of the Terms, Nothing but certain Acts of the Will. Obedience, in the primary Nature of it, is the submitting and yielding of the Will of one to the Will of another. Disobedience is the not consenting, not complying of the Will of the commanded to the manifested Will of the Commander. Other Acts that are not the Acts of the Will, as certain Motions of the Body and Alterations in the Soul, are Obedience or Disobedience only indirectly, as they are connected with the State or Actions of the Will, according to an established Law of Nature. So that 'tis manifest, the Will it self may be required: And the Being of a good Will is the most proper, direct and immediate Subject of Command; and if this can't be prescribed or required by Command or Precept, nothing can; For other Things can be required no otherwise than as they depend upon, and are the Fruits of a good Will.

Corol. 1. If there be several Acts of the Will, or a Series of Acts, one following another, and one the Effect of another, the first and determining Act is properly the Subject of Command, and not only the consequent Acts, which are dependent upon it. Yea, 'tis this more especially which is that which Command or Precept has a proper Respect to; because 'tis this Act that determines the whole Affair: In this Act the Obedience or Disobedience lies, in a peculiar Manner;