AST ESSAY. 4/I than the other; or, perhaps there might be secret poison in the one, and not in the other ; but I knew it not ,; they were equal to usein appearance, and therefore was not led todeterminemy choice by any superior appearance of fitness or goodness ; yet my will determined itself to chase oneof them because it is a self-deter- ng power, and bath perfect freedom of choice within itself and herein there is nothing foolish or criminal, even though I should happen to be poisoned by it, by taking that piece which was unfit for my nourishment. , IX. As there may be several things proposed to a very wise and intelligent being, wherein he can discern no superior,fitness or goodness, so there may be some things proposed wherein There is reallyno superior fitness or goodness at all ; yet it maybe fit at particular seasons that one of them should be chosen. This is a common case; as when two bricks, suppose them called A and B, lie before a'builder, which are equally fit to fill up such a vacancy in the wall, and both lie equally near his hand, and are equal in every other appearing circumstance ; the builder must not stay an hour to debate with himself, and to determine which brick to chuse for filling up this vacancy ; that would be folly indeed : But his will freely and of itself chusca the brick A, merely because'he will, and leaves B, or refuses it : Then, as I hinted before, this brickA becomes so far better by hischus- ingit, as that he approves of it in its place in the building above any other, and delights in his own choice or work. Or take another instance : Suppose a man be desired toshow his power in self-determination, or of pointing with his finger, and he points to the North, or to the East, to the heavens or to the earth ; here is no superior fitness or unfitness in the one or the other, but he points upward, or northward as he pleases ; his will determines for no other reason but because he will, and therebyshews his own self-determining power in all this ; though it be perfectly "arbitrary, yet there is nothing foolish or faulty. We may find instances ofthis kind inmoral actions as well as natural : Suppose God requires Abraham to offer a lamb out of his flock in sacrifice, and Abraham taking a survey of the twenty fattest lambs of his flock, cannot find which Is the best of them ; his own will must finally determine and chose any one of them for the altar. Or let it.be supposed that I have ten farthings in my purse, and 'I meet with a dozen beggars, all so equally poor and miserable, that I cannot discernwhich is the most or which is the least indigent : I must necessarily leave two of these men out of my distribution, but .my understanding cannot direct me which these two are, nor can it tell me which are the ten fittest objects of my charity. What can determine my choice here but my own will by its self-determining power,? The understanding in suet instances as-these, bas no pretence of power to direct ox
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=