CHAP. I. Neceffity defined: and its Confiflency, with voluntary Freedom, proved. ALIQUIS in omnibus, nullus in fingulis. The man, who concerns himself in every thing, bids fair not to make a figure in any thing. Mr. John Wesley is, precifely, this aliquis in omnibus. For, is there a single fubject, in which he has not endeavoured to fhine ?-He is alfo, as precisely, a nullus in fingulis. For, has he fhone in any one fubject which he ever attempted to handle ? Upon what principle can thefe two circumftances be accounted for? Only upon that very principle, at which he fo dolefully fhakes his head: viz. the principle of neceffity. The poor gentleman is neceffarily, an univerfal meddler: and, as neceffarily, an universal miscarryer. Can he avoid being either the one or the other? No. "Why, then, do you animadvert upon him?" 1. Because I myself am as neceffary an agent as he-2. Because I love to "fhoot folly as it flies:" -3. Because, as, on one hand, it is neceffary that there fhould be herefies among men; it is no less neceffary, on the other, that thofe herefies fhould be diffected and expofed. Mr. Wefley imagines, that, upon my own principles, I can be no more than "a clock." a clock." And, if so, how can I help ftriking? He himself has, feveral times, fmarted, for coming too near the pendulum. Mr. Wefley's incompetence to argument is never more glaringly confpicuous, than when he paddles in metaphyfics. And yet I fuppofe, that the man who has modeftly termed himfelf, and in print too, "The greatest minifter in the world;" does, with equal certainty, confider himfelf as the ableft metaphyfician in the world. But his examinations are far too hafty and fuperficial, to enter into the real merits offubjects foextremely abftrufe, and whofe concatenations are (though invincibly ftrong, yet) fo exquifitely nice and delicate. One refult of his thus exercifing himfelf in matters which are too high for him, is, that, in many cafes, he decides peremptorily, without having difcerned fo much as the true ftate of the queftion; and then fets himself to speak evil of things which, it is very plain, he does not understand. Or, (to borrow the language of Mr. Locke), he knows a little, prefumes a great deal, and fo jumps to conclufions." I appeal, at prefent, to his "Thoughts upon Neceffity." Thoughts, which, though crude and dark as chaos, are announced, according to cuftom, with more than oracular pofitivenefs: as though his own glandula pinealis was the fingle focus, wherein all the rays of divine and human wifdom are concentred. His thoughts open thus. 1. "Is man a free-agent, or is he not?"-Without all manner of doubt, he is; in a vaft number and variety of cafes. Nor did I ever, in converfation, or in reading, meet with a perfon, or an author, who denied it. But let us, by defining as we go, afcertain what free-agency is. All needlefs refinements apart, freeagency, in plain English, is neither more nor lefs, than voluntary agency. Whatever the foul does, with the full bent of preference and defire; in that, the foul acts freely. For, ubi confenfus, ibi voluntas, &, ubi voluntas, ibi libertas. I own myfelf very fond of definitions. I therefore premife, what the Neceffity is, whose cause I have undertaken to plead. It is exactly and diametrically opposite, to that which Cicero delivers concerning fortuna, or chance, luck, hap, accidentality, and contingency; invented by the the poets of fecond antiquity, and during many ages, revered as a Deity, by both Greeks and Romans. Quid eft aliud fors, quid fortuna, quid cofus, quid eventus; nifi quum fic aliquid cecidit, fic evenit, ut vel non cadere atque evenire vel aliter cadere atque evenire, potuerit *" i. e. Chance, fortune, accident, and uncertain event, are then faid to take place, when a thing fo comes to pats, as that it either might not have come to pafs at all; or might have come to pafs, otherwife than it does. On the contrary, I would define neceffity to be that, by which, whatever comes to pafs, cannot but come to pafs (all circumftances taken into the account); and can come to pafs in no other way or manner, than it does. Which coincides with Ariftotle's definition of neceffity (though, by the way, he was a freewiller himlelf): Το μη ενδεχόμενον ΑΛΛΩΣ EXED, avasaris paper t: We call that neceffary, which cannot be otherwife than it is. Hence the Greeks termed neceffity, Aran: becaufe vos, it reigns, without exception, over all the works of God; and becaufe avagy, it retains and comprizes all things within the limits of its own dominion. The Romans called it neceffe & neceffitas; quafine caffitas, because it cannot fail, or be made void : & quafi ne quaffitas, becaufe it cannot be moved, or fhaken, by all the power of men. *Cic. De Divinat. L. 2. + Apud Frommenium, Lib. 2. cap. 9.. I ac I The immediate parent, or caufa proxima, of neceffity, is fate; called, by the Greeks, pague: because it invincibly diftributes to every man his lot. They termed it alfo gwen, because it bounds, limits, marks out, adjufts, determines, and precifely af certains, to each individual of the human race, his affigned portion both of active and paffive life. Fate was likewife fometimes me tonymically ftiled poga, or the lot, i. e. the res ipfiffimas, or very actions and felicities and fufferings, themfelves, which fall to every man's fhare. The Latins called fate, fatum: either from fiat, i. e. from God's faying, Let fuch and fuch a thing come to pofs: or fimply, à fando; from God's pronouncing the existence, the continuance, the circumftances, the times, and whatever elle relates to men and things. If - I acquiefce in the old distinction of neceffity (a diftinction adopted by Luther *, and by moft of, not to fay by all, the found reformed divines), into a neceffity of compulfion, and a neceffity of infallible certainty. The neceffity of compulfion is predicated of inanimate bodies; as we fay of the earth (for inftance) that it circuits the fun, by compulsory neceffity and, in fome cafes, of reafonable beings themselves; viz. when they are forced to do or fuffer any thing, contrary to their will and choice.The neceffity of infallible certainty, is of a very different kind; and only renders the event inevitably future, without any compulsory force on the will of the agent. Thus, it was infallibly certain, that Judas would betray Chrift: he was, therefore, a neceffary, though a voluntary, actor, in that tremendous bufinefs. 2. "Are a man's actions free, or neceffary?"They may be, at one and the fame time, free and neceffary too. When Mr. Wefley is very hungry, or very tired, he is, neceffarily, and yet freely, difpofed to food, or reft. He can no more help being fo difpofed, than a falling ftone can help tending to the earth. But here lies the grand difference. The ftone is a fimple being, confifting of matter only: and confequently, can have no will either to rife or fall.-Mr. Wefley is a compounded being, made up of matter and fpirit.. Confequently, his fpirit, foul, If we diftinguish accurately, this feems to have been the order, in which the moft judicious of the antients confidered the whole matter. First, God:--then, his will:-then, fate; or the folemn ratification of his will, by paffing and establishing it into an unchangeable decree-then creation:-then, neceffity; i. c. fuch an indiffoluble concatenation of fecondary caufes and effects, as has a native tendency to fecure the certainty of all events, ficut unda impellitur undâ :-then, Providence; i. e, the omniprefent, omnivigilant, all-directing fuperintendency of divine wifdom and power, carrying the whole preconcerted fcheme into actual execution, by the fubfervient mediation of fecond caufes, which were created for that end. * Vide Luther. De Servo Arbitrio, Sect. 43.-Edit. Noremb. 1526. or or will, (for I can conceive no real difference between the will, and the foul itself) is concerned in fitting down to dinner, or in courting repose, when neceffity impels to either. And I will venture to affirm, what he himfeif cannot deny, that, neceffarily biaffed as he is to thofe mediums of recruit; he has recourse to them as freely (i. e. as voluntarily, and with as much appetite, choice, defire, and relish), as if neceffity was quite out of the cafe: nay, and with abundantly greater freedom and choice, than if he was not fo neceffitated and impelled. It would be easy, to inftance this obvious truth, in a thousand particulars; and in particulars of infinitely greater moment, than relate to common life. Let me juft, en paffant, illuftrate the point, from the moft grand important topic which the whole compass of reasoning affords. It was neceffary (i. e. abfolutely and intrinsically inevitable), 1. That the Meffiah fhould be invariably holy in all his ways, and righteous in all his works:2. That he fhould die for the fins of men. * Yet Chrift, though, 1. neceffarily good (fo neceffarily, that it was impoffible for him to be otherwife); was freely and voluntarily good elfe, he could not have declared, with truth, my meat and drink [i. e. my choice, my appetite, my defire] is, to do the will of him that fent me, and to finish his work-2. Though he could not avoid being put to * I never knew more than one Arminian, who was fo tremendoufly confiftent, as to maintain, explicitly and in words, that it was poffible for Chrift himself to have fallen from grace by fin, and to have perished everlaftingly. I muft, however, do this gentleman the juftice to add, that he has, for fome years paft, been of a better judgment. But the fhocking principle itfelf is neceffarily involved in, and invincibly follows upon, the Arminian fcheme of contingency; whether the afferters of that fcheme openly avow the confequence, or no. + Johniv. 34: To deny the neceffity of Chrift's fufferings, i. e. to confider them as unpredeftinated, and as things which might, or might not, have |