470 FREEDOM OF WILL. actly such a being as he is, then it is proper that he should have such ideas, such notions and sentiments, &c. and that he should live under such certain laws and rules of action. But perhaps several of these are not eternal laws or rules eitheir of nature, or motion, or morality_to other sorts of creatures, or other systems which God might have chosen to create. Therefore though we may assert some to be eternal laws or rules for all possible worlds, yet it is hard for us to say in all cases, how far these eternal fit- itesses extend. And wehave reason enough to suppose that many things even in our present system of nature are not determined from their eternal superior fitness ; but that thousands of possi- bles even in our system might he equally fit in themselves, and it was the will of God, the Creator, that sovereignly chose some particulars above others, and made them actually exist, and be- hold they are all very good. XVI. So when we consider God as a Governor in appoint, ing such positive laws and rules of duty for his creatures, which are not contained in the law of nature, there may be instances wherein among a thousand possible rules or laws each of them may be fit, and yet there is no superior fitness in one above the rest Then the will of God by and of itself determines and chuses what positive laws, what duties he will command or pre- scribe to his creatures, and he makes the thing which he pres scribes more fit and good for us to practise merely by his own choice, determination, and command: as whether the tabernacle of Moses should have just such a number of boards or curtains pins or tacks in it: whether every board or every curtaan should be justso long and so broad, to the thousandth part of an inch ; whether Me sacrifice of the paschal lamb, the red heifer, and the whole burnt-offering on the great day of atonement, should have every the least ceremony of washings, burnings, sprinklings, &c. belonging to them, so precisely adjusted in that very form as they are appointed in the books of Moses : In short, I would ask whether every point and tittle of every ceremony and posi- tive duty which God has appointed from the beginning of the world to this day, had in itself and in the nature of things, such a superior fitness, that it could not be determined otherwise I Surely it is much more becoming and proper for us to think and say, that.God has determined these things by his own will or self-determining power and free choice : For it seems to me a very harsh and bold affirmation, that not one of all these punc- tilios could ever have been otherwise appointed by God himself, as we shall take notice immediately. XVII. Thus whether we consider mari as a natural or a moral agent, and whether we consider God either as a Creator `or as a Governor, there seem to be several instances wherein there is no supérior fitness or unfitness of things, that appears
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