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

this is no Argument that he is sinful, or his Operation Evil, or has any Thing of the Nature of Evil; but on the contrary, that He, and his Agency, are altogether good and holy, and that he is the Fountain of all Holiness. It would be strange arguing indeed, because Men never commit Sin, but only when God leaves 'em to themselves, and necessarily sin, when he does so, that therefore their Sin is not from themselves, but from God; and so, that God must be a sinful Being: As strange as it would be to argue, because it is always dark when the Sun is gone, and never dark when the S•• is present, that therefore all Darkness is from the Sun, and that his Disk and Beams must needs be black.

IV. It properly belongs to the supreme and absolute Governor of the Universe, to order all important Events within his Dominion, by his Wisdom: But the Events in the moral World are of the most important Kind; such as the moral Actions of intelligent Creatures, and their Consequences.

These Events will be ordered by something. They will either be disposed by Wisdom, or they will be disposed by Chance; that is, they will be disposed by blind and undesigning Causes, if that were possible, and could be called a Disposal. Is it not better, that the Good and Evil which happens in God's World, should be ordered, regulated, bounded and determined by the good Pleasure of an infinitely wise Being, who perfectly comprehends within his Understanding and constant View, the Universality of Things, in all their Extent and Duration, and sees all the Influence of every Event, with Respect to every individual Thing and Circumstance, throughout the grand System, and the whole of the eternal Series of Consequences; than to leave these Things to fall out by Chance, and to be determined by those Causes which have no Understanding or Aim? Doubtless, in these important Events, there is a better and a worse, as to the Time, Subject, Place, Manner and Circumstances of their coming to pass, with Regard to their Influence on the State and Course of Things. And if there be, 'tis certainly best that they should be determined to that Time, Place, &c. which is best. And therefore 'tis in its own Nature fit, that Wisdom, and not Chance, should order these Things. So that it belongs to the Being, who is the Possessor of infinite Wisdom, and is the Creator and Owner of the whole System of created Existences, and has the Care of all; I say, it belongs to him, to take Care of this Matter; and he would not do what is proper for him, if he should neglect it. And it is so far from being unholy in him, to undertake this Affair, that it would rather have been unholy to neglect it; as it would have been a neglecting what fitly appertains to him; and so it would have been a very unfit and unsuitable Neglect.