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.

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    never have any presence of mind, no attention to passing occasional occurrences, always thinking of something else, or having our wits running out a wool-gathering, and so be totally inapt for action ; or, could we do nothing at all, but after studied deliberation, then should we be often in a puzzle, at a stand, demur, and fumble a long time before we could act or will any thing. Aristotle himself deter- mines that /3ov\t], counsel, cannot be the first moving jii’inciple in the soul, because then we must consider, to consider, to consider infinitely. Again, the princi- ple of all actions, and therefore intellection itself is ends and good; every thing acting for the sake of some end and good. And concerning ends, the same Aristotle hath rightly observed, that they are ovk avOaipera aXkd (pvvai Set, that they are not chosen, studied out, or devised by us, but exist in nature, and preventively obtrude themselves upon us. Wherefore, we conclude that the to • irpcoTO}’; kivovv, that which first moveth in us, and is the spring and principle of all deliberative action, can be no other than a constant, restless, uninterrupted desire, or love of good as such, and hajipiness. Tliis is an ever bubbling fountain in the centre of the soul, an elater or spring of motion, both a primuni and per- petuuni mobile in us, the first wheel that sets all the other wheels in motion, and an everlasting and incessant mover. God an absolutely perfect being is not this love of indigent desire, but a love of overflowing fulness and redundancy, communicating