Essays on the active powers of the human mind; An inquiry into the human mind on the principles of common sense; and An essay on quantity . ng him under any obligation to donothing beyond their sphere. He has sometimes acted contraryto them, in the case of miracles, and perhaps often acts with-out regard to them, in the ordinary course of his miraculous events, which are contrary to the physicallaws of nature, nor such ordinary acts of the Divine administra-tion as are without their sphere, are impossible, nor are theyeffects without a cause. Grod is the cause of them, and t
Essays on the active powers of the human mind; An inquiry into the human mind on the principles of common sense; and An essay on quantity . ng him under any obligation to donothing beyond their sphere. He has sometimes acted contraryto them, in the case of miracles, and perhaps often acts with-out regard to them, in the ordinary course of his miraculous events, which are contrary to the physicallaws of nature, nor such ordinary acts of the Divine administra-tion as are without their sphere, are impossible, nor are theyeffects without a cause. Grod is the cause of them, and to himonly they are to be imputed. That the moral laws of nature are often transgressed by man,is undeniable. If the physical laws of nature make his obedienceto the moral laws to be impossible, then he is, in the literal sense,born under one law, bound unto another, which contradicts everynotion of a righteous government of the world. But though this supposition were attended with no suchshocking consequence, it is merely a supposition ; and until itbe proved that every choice or voluntary action of man is deter- OF ARGUMENTS FOR NEC. mined by the physical laws of nature, this argument for necessityis only the taking for granted the point to be proved. Of the same kind is the argument for the impossibility ofliberty, taken from a balance, which cannot move but as it ismoved by the weights put into it. This argument, though urgedby almost every writer in defence of necessity, is so pitiful,and has been so often answered, that it scarce deserves to bementioned. Every argument in a dispute, which is not grounded on prin-ciples granted by both parties, is that kind of sophism whichlogicians call petitio principii; and such, in my apprehension,are all the arguments offered to prove that liberty of action isimpossible. It may farther be observed, that every argument of this classif it were really conclusive, must extend to the Deity, as wellas to all created beings ; and necessary ex
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