A treatise of freewill / by Ralph Cudworth ; now first edited from the original MS and with notes by John Allen.

  • Cudworth, Ralph, 1617-1688.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise of freewill / by Ralph Cudworth ; now first edited from the original MS and with notes by John Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    17/110 (page 5)
    no other evil is to be feared by a man, comparatively to the evil of fault, according to that Stoical doctrine that the truest and greatest goods and evils of rational beings, consist eV tol<; TrpoatpeTr/cot?, or eV to?? * €(f) ■^fjuv, in their own free willed actions or things in their own power. Wherefore, according both to the genuine instincts of nature, rightly interpreted, and the tenour of the Christian religion, we are to conclude that there is something e^’ ij/xZv, in our own power, and that absolute necessity does not reign over all human actions, but that there is something of contingent liberty in them. This being an article of Christ’s faith, that God hath appointed a day in which he %vill judge the world, and render rewards and pun- ishments to men for their actions past in this life, good and evil. Glory, honour, and power, to every man that hath done well, but tribulation and anguish to every soul of man that hath done evil. We cannot possibly maintain the justice of God in this, if all men’s actions be necessary either in their own nature, or by Divine decrees and influx. That is, we cannot possibly maintain the truth of Christianity without a liberty from necessity. II. Notwithstanding which, there have not wanted some in all ages who have contended that there is no such thing as liberum arhitrium, nothing in our own power, no contingent liberty in human