Chap. XXI. A N T I E N T M E T A P H Y S I C S. 301 



brute above mentioned, which are commonly known by the name of 

 inftincl\ or, it muft be a more fimple principle ftill, without fenfe, ap- 

 petites, or defires, and without pain or pleafure. Such is the moving 

 principle in the vegetable, and in all unorganized bodies. 



And here w^ may fee what it is that conftltutes 2ifree agent. It is 

 being governed by reafon, and determined in all our adions and pur- 

 fuits by notions of what is good or ill. When, therefore, at any time, 

 we are led to do a thing from mere appetite or paffion, without confi- 

 dering whether it ht good 01 ill^ we cannot then be faid, with propri- 

 ety, to ivill what we do ; but we adl like the brute, by an impulfe 

 altogether irrational, and worfe than the brute in this refpecSt, that his 

 impulfes are diredted by Superior Wifdom, ours too often by vicious 

 habits that we have contracted. 



The more perfe£l our reafon is, the more perfect our liberty or 

 freedom ; and, where reafon is abfolutely perfect, there liberty is 

 mofl: perfed. The Deity, is, therefore, of all agents, the moft free ; 

 whereas man, though he be no doubt a free agent, as often as he adls 

 with choice and deliberation, and according to what he thinks reafon- 

 able ; yet, if his reafon be difturbed by paffion, if it be weak and in- 

 firm, or ra(h and prefumptuous, his freedom is far from being perfed, 

 and he is not improperly faid to be a flavetothofe follies and paffions 

 which, under the appearance of reafon, miilead him : But ftill, as 

 his motives are from within, and his adions the refult of that deter- 

 mination of the undcrflanding, called iJoilU they are 'voluntary adions* 

 which cannot be faid properly of any adion of the brute. 



But, though the will of man be eflentially free, his adions are not 

 always fo ; for, though we be free to ivilU we are often not free to 

 ad according to our ivill\ and it is only the Deity, with whom, to 



^will and to ^^, is the fame thing. 



Thus, 



