THE
PREFACE
TO
THE READER.
THOUGH, I confess, I have seldom taken any great pleasure, in reading other mens Apologies, yet must I at this time make some my self. First therefore, I acknowledge, that when I engag'd the Press, I intended onely a Discourse concerning Liberty and Necessity, or to speak out more plainly, Against the Fatall Necessity of all Actions and Events; which upon whatsoever Grounds or Principles maintain'd, will (as We Conceive) Serve The Design of Atheism, and Vndermine Christianity, and all Religion; as taking away all Guilt and Blame, Punishments and Rewards, and plainly rendring a Day of Judgment, Ridiculous: And it is Evident that some have pursued it of late, in order to that End. But afterwards We consider'd, That this which is indeed a Controversy, concerning The True Intellectual System of the Universe, does, in the full Extent thereof, take in Other things; the Necessity of all Actions and Events being maintained by Several Persons, upon very Different Grounds, according to that Tripartite Fatalism, mentioned by us in the beginning of the First Chapter. For First, The Democritick Fate, is nothing but The Material Necessity of all things without a God: it supposing Sensless Matter, Necessarily Moved, to be the onely Original and Principle of all things: Which therefore is called by Epicurus, The Physiological; by us, the Atheistick Fate. Besides which, The Divine Fate is also Bipartite; Some Theists supposing God, both to Decree and Doe all things in us, (Evil as well as Good) or by his Immediate Influence to Determine all Actions, and so make them alike Necessary to us. From whence it follows, That his Will is no way Regulated or Determined, by any Essentiall and Immutable Goodness, and Justice; or that he hath nothing of Morality in his Nature, he being onely Arbitrary Will Omnipotent. As also That all Good and Evil Morall, to us Creatures are
