A perfect indifference in the mind, not
determinable by its last judgment of the good or evil that is
thought to attend its choice, would be so far from being an
advantage and excellency of any intellectual nature, that it would
be as great an imperfection, as the want of indifferency. to act, or
not to act, till determined by the will, would be an imperfection on
the other side. A man is at liberty to lift up his hand to his head,
or let it rest quiet: he is perfectly indifferent in either; and it
would be an imperfection in him, if he wanted that power, if he were
deprived of that indifferency. But it would be as great an
imperfection, if he had the same indifferency, whether he would prefer
the lifting up his hand, or its remaining in rest, when it would
save his head or eyes from a blow he sees coming: it is as much a
perfection, that desire, or the power of preferring, should be
determined by good, as that the power of acting should be determined
by the will; and the certainer such determination is, the greater is
the perfection. Nay, were we determined by anything but the last
result of our own minds, judging of the good or evil of any action, we
were not free; the very end of our freedom being, that we may attain
the good we choose. And therefore, every man is put under a necessity,
by his constitution as an intelligent being, to be determined in
willing by his own thought and judgment what is best for him to do:
else he would be under the determination of some other than himself,
which is want of liberty.
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