But if the Almighty is Liberty of Will to this

pleafed to add a active Intellect,

and create Spirits endowed with a Power of voluntary Motion, then it seems neceflary that Almighty God should confer also upon fuch intelligent Spirits, fuch Faculties and Powers, as would enable them to be capable of perceiving Pleasure or Pain; fince nothing else, but a Senfe of one or other of thefe, feems capable of determining the Will to act. For if the Senfation of Pleafure or Pain be removed from the Will, there can be no Reafon or Caufe for it to prefer one Motion to another, and of consequence, no Direction or Determination.

XII. And hence may be deduced the following Obfervations: That to fuch a Being every thing may be called Good, that: giveth Pleasure; and every thing Evil, that produceth Pain. The highest Pleasure, which any Being is capable of enjoying, may be called its Happiness; and the highest Pain, Mifery. Now as the Ufe of all Pain is to determine our Motions, fo that when we feel or fear Pain, we may be thereby excited to new Actions, for our own Prefervation

fervation and Delight; hence it appears, that Evil takes its Origin from the Goodnefs of God, in which it will alfo be finally abforbed, when Pain fhall be no more. The Will cannot be at liberty to chufe Evil as Evil. But as Pain may be productive of Pleafure, or Pleafure be productive of Pain, hence it comes to pafs, that free Agents, by being deceived, through their Ignorance, or Paffions, may chufe Evil under the Appearance of Good; and herein confifts human Freedom; not in the Power of chufing Evil, but in the Power of chufing what seems Good from among a Variety of Good, whether real or apparent : And herein lies the Difference between the Freedom of God and of Man; that as fallible Men may chufe an ftead of a real one, to be deceived, are to chufe Evil, inftead of Good: Whereas God, who cannot be deceived, is only free to chufe out of that infinite Variety of real Good, which his Will and his Wisdom may dictate. And lastly, That Virtue, Wifdom, Prudence, &c. in Mankind, may be confidered only as various Names, for the feveral Powers given to them, and the different Methods

apparent Good, inthey, by being liable free, by that Means,

Methods used by them in the Attainment of Happiness, and avoiding of Mifery. And hence alfo Self-Love may be looked upon, in Nature, as the Principle of all voluntary Action; and the Foundation of all Morality.

XIII. We find, by Experience, that there are fome voluntary felf-moving Beings here upon Earth, which have but one or two Methods of furnishing their Minds with the Senfe of Pleasure, or of Pain; others have three; others four; others five; which are commonly known by the Name of Senfes, to which rational Beings have one more added, which is that of inward Reflection. And therefore, the Author of the Book of Ecclefiafticus, fpeaking of the Formation of Mankind, fays [8], They received the Ufe of the five Operations of the Lord, and in the fixth Place be imparted to them Understanding.

XIV. But, let their Number be never fo various, they may, in general, be reduced to these two. Firft, thofe Methods of Information, which the Mind of

[8] Exclus xvii. 5.

any Being,

com

compofed of Body and Spirit, is capable of being affected with, by the Intervention of the Senfes; which furnish the Mind with fuch Ideas as may be called Ideas of Senfation, because they are conveyed to the Mind through the Organs of Senfation. Or, fecondly, thofe Methods of Information, which the Spirit of any felf-moving Agent is capable of being affected with, by its own reflex Acts upon itself; by the Means of which, the Mind is furnished with fuch Ideas, as may properly be called Ideas of Reflexion.

XV. And indeed it is in these reflex Acts of the human Spirit, that is, in the Power which the human Spirit is endowed with, firft, in perceiving its own internal Operations in thinking; and, fecondly, in being able to turn back its perceptive Faculty, to its paft Perceptions, that the chief Difference feems to confift, between the Spirit of Man, and the Spirit of Brutes; or between the rational, and that which is commonly called the animal, Creation.

XVI. By the Affiftance, however, of these two Faculties, that is, of Senfation and Reflexion,

flexion, the Spirit of Man is furnished with all those Ideas, which fill the human Mind; and supply it with Objects of intellectual, as well as fenfual Pleafures. The latter of which it is, that strikes us fooneft and strongest, as being moft neceffary for the immediate Ufe, and Prefervation of Life. And accordingly, we find, that the human Mind requires a kind of Ripening, before it is capable of making any reflex Acts upon its own Operations, or having any Relifh for intellectual Pleafures. Upon which Account it must be acknowledged to have been one great Advantage, which Adam had over all his Pofterity, that his intellectual Faculties came with him into the World in their full Force; by which Means, he was free from that Biafs in favour of fenfual Pleasures, which all his Offspring have, ever fince, neceffarily, laboured under; by an Habit of being indulged in fenfual Gratifications, from their Infancy, till they come to a Maturity of Judgment; during which whole Time, the human Will hath no Relish for any Pleafures, but fuch as enter in by the Senfes.