GOO N E C E ! 
never was a man of folk! underftanding, whofe apprehen- 
fions are fober, and by a penfive infpeftion advifed, but 
that he hath found, by an irrefiftible necejjity, one true 
God and everlafting being. Ralegh. —Good-nature, or 
beneficence and candour, is the produft of right reafon ; 
which of necejjity will give allowance to the failings of 
others. Dryden. —Violence ; compulfion ; 
Never final 1 
Our heads get out; if once within we be, 
But Hay compell'd by ftrong necejitie. Chapman. 
By necejjity, in metaphyfics, we underftand whatever is 
done by a caufe or power that is irrefiftible ; in which 
ienfe it is oppofed to freedom. Man is a neceflary agent, 
if all his aftions be fo determined by thecaufes preceding- 
each aftion, that not one pall aftion could pofiibly not 
have come to pals, or have been otherwife than it hath 
been ; nor one future aftion can pofiibly not come to pal's, 
or be otherwife than it flia.ll be. But he is a free agent, if 
he be able, at any time, under the circumftances and 
caufes he then is, to do different things; or, in other 
words, if he be not unavoidably determined in every 
point of time, by the circumftances he is in, and the 
caufes he is under, to do that one thing he does, and not 
pofiibly to do any other thing. Whether man is a ne¬ 
ceflary or a free agent, is a queltion which has been de¬ 
bated with much ingenuity by .writers of the firil emi¬ 
nence, from Hobbes and Clarke, to Prieftley and Kant. 
See Metaphysics, vol. xv. p. 199, 230. and Predes¬ 
tination. 
Necessity, in mythology, a power fuperior to all other 
powers* and equally irrefiftible by gods and by men. 
Herodotus, as he is quoted by Cudworth, mentions an 
oracle which declared that “ God himfelf could not Ihun 
his deftined fate.” And among the fragments of Phile¬ 
mon collected by Le Clerc, is the following fentence : 
A ovXoi fiucnXeuv eapev, 01 jaaiXi 1? 9 ecov, 0 9 eo? avaynyiq. “ We 
are fubjeft to kings, kings to the gods, and God to Ne- 
ceflity.” Hence it is, that, in the Iliad, we find Jove him¬ 
felf, the fire of gods and men, regretting that he was 
reftrained by Necejjity, from refcuing his favourite fon 
from the fword of Patroclus. Nay, to fuch a height was 
this impiety carried in the earlieil ages of Greece, that we 
find Heliod and Homer teaching that the gods themfelves 
were generated by Necejjity of Night and Chaos. This 
power, though always reprelented as blind and unintel¬ 
ligent, was however worfhipped as a goddefs, bearing in 
her hand large iron nails, wedges, anchors, and melted 
lead, as emblems of the inflexible feverity of her nature. 
Horace, Ode 35. In the city of Corinth file had a temple, 
in which the goddefs Violence likewife refided, and into 
which no perlon was ever permitted to enter but the prieft 
who officiated. Panfanias in Corinth, cap. iv. 
Learned men have exercifed their ingenuity in vain 
attempts to trace this portentous notion to its origin. 
Some, who wifhed to interpret it in a pious fenfe, have 
fuppofed that the gods who are fubjeft to Neccjj'ity were 
only thofe who were the minifters of the fupreme Numen; 
and that by Necejjity itfelf was meant nothing more than 
Divine Providence. But this is notconfiftent with Hefiod 
and Homer’s Generation of the Gods, or with the epi¬ 
thets java necejfitas, dura necejitas, by which this power 
was perpetually diitinguiflied. Others, and among them 
Mofiieim, have fuppofed that this monftrous fable was in¬ 
vented by the pagan priefts, and diligently inculcated 
upon the minds of the people, in order to excufe the vil- 
lanies of the objefts of their worfiiip. For, fays he, who 
could be indignant at Jupiter’s nuinberlefs adulteries, 
after it was known that in all his aftions he was the fer- 
vant of blind Neceflity ? In the thefts of Mercury, the 
whoredoms of Venus, and the frequent l'quabbles of the 
other gods, there could be no moral turpitude, if they 
were under the influence of a fuperior power: 
Numina cum videos duris olnoxia fatis, 
Invidia pojj'is exonerate dcos. Martial, ix, 88, 
I S IT Y. 
This account of the matter is at Ieaft as plaufible as any 
other which is ufually given ; but the real cafe undoubt¬ 
edly was, that, when men “did not like to retain God in 
their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate 
mind, to do thofe things which are not convenient; when 
their foolifli heart was darkened, and, profeffing themfelves 
to be wife, they became fools.” See Fate, vol. vii. p. 271. 
Necessity, inlaw, as it implies a defedl of will, ex- 
cufes from the guilt of crimes. 
Compulfion and inevitable neceflity are a conftraint 
upon the will, whereby a man is urged to do that which 
his judgment difapproves; and which, it is to M be pre¬ 
fumed, his will (if left to itfelf) would rejedl. As 
punilhments are therefore only inflifted for the abufe 
of that free will which God has given to man, it is highly 
juft and equitable that a man fliould be excufed for 
thofe a£ts which are done through unavoidable force and. 
compulfion. 
1. Of this nature, in the firft place, is the obligation of 
civilfabjedion, whereby the inferior is conftrained by the 
fuperior to aft contrary to what his own reafon and in¬ 
clination would fuggeft : as when a legillator eftablilhes 
iniquity by a law, and commands the fubjeft to do an 
aft contrary to religion or found morality. How far this 
excufe will be admitted inforo confcicntice, or whether the 
inferior in this cafe is not bound to obey the divine 
rather than the human law, it is not our bufinefs to de¬ 
cide ; though, among the cafuifts, it is believed the 
queltion will hardly bear a doubt. But, however that 
may be, obedience to the laws in being is undoubtedly a 
fufficient extenuation of civil guilt before the municipal 
tribunal. The fheriff who burnt Latimer and Ridiey, in 
the bigotted days of queen Mary, waas not liable to pu- 
niflimentfrom Elizabeth for executing fo horrid an office; 
being juftified by the commands of that magiftracy w'hich 
endeavoured to reftore Superilition, under the holy 
aufpices of its mercilefs filler, Perfecution. 
As to perfons in private relations, the principal cafe 
where conftraint of a fuperior is allowed as an excufe for 
criminal mifconduft, is with regard to the matrimonial 
fubjeftion of the wife to her hufband : for neither a fon 
nor a fervant are excufed for the commiffion of any crime, 
whether capital or otherwife, by the command or coercion 
of the parent or mailer ; though in many cafes the com¬ 
mand or authority of the hufband, either exprefs or im¬ 
plied, will privilege the wife from punifhment, even for 
capital offences. And therefore, if a woman commit 
theft, burglary, or other civil offences againft the laws of 
fociety, by the coercion of her hufband, or even in his 
company, which the law conftrues a coercion, (lie is not 
guilty of any crime; being confidered as afting by com¬ 
pulfion, and not of her own will. This doftrine is at 
ieaft a thoufand years old in this kingdom, being to be 
found among the laws of Ina the Weft Saxon. And it 
appears, that, among the northern nations on the conti¬ 
nent, this privilege extended to any woman tranfgreffmg 
in concert with a man, and toany fervant that committed 
a joint offence with a freeman ■. the male, or freeman, only 
was punilhed, the female, or Have, difmiffed ; procid dubio 
quod alteram libertas, alterum necejfitas impelleret. But 
(befides that, in our law, which is a ftranger to flavery, 
no impunity is given to fervants, who are as much free 
agents as their mafters,) even with regard to wives, this 
rule admits of an exception in crimes that are mala inJ'e , 
and prohibited by the law of nature; as murder, and the 
like : not only becaufe thefe are of a deeper dye, but alfo, 
fince in a Hate of nature no one is in fubjeftion to another, 
it would be unreafonable to fcreen an offender from the 
punifhment due to natural crimes, by the refinements and 
fubordinations of civil fociety. In treafon alfo (the 
higheft crime which a member of fociety can, as fuch, be 
guilty of), no plea in coverture fliall excufe the wife; no 
prefumption of the hufband’s coercion fhall extenuate her 
guilt: as well becaufe of the odioufnefs and dangerous 
confequence of the crime itfelf, as becaufe the hufband, 
having 
