Chap. XXI.

‘Power.

129

one Ability another Ability; a Queltion at lirlt ﬁght too grolly abfiird to make a Difpiite,or need an Anfxver. For who is it that fees not,that Power: belong only to Agents, and are Attribute: only oJfXY/zlt/lcznces, and not of Power: tliemfelvesl So_ that this way of putting the (lueltion, viz. whether the Wzll bejree, is in eﬁect to ask, whether the 117/1 be a Subltance, an Agent, or at lealt to (u ppofe it, ﬁnce Freedom can proper: ly be attributed to nothing elfe. It Freedom can with any propriety oi Speech be applied to Powei-nt may be attributed to the Powentliiit 1S in a Man, to produce, or lorbear producing Motion in parts of his Body, by choice or piefeience ; which is that which denominates him free, and is Freedom it felt. But it any one fhould ask, whether Freedom were free, he would be fufpected, not to underltand well whathe faid ; and he would be thought to dcferve Mid/tis Ears, who knowing that Rich was a denomination iiom the pollellion ofRichesJhould demand whether Riches themfelves were rich.

§. 17. HPWCVCF the mime Faculty, which Men have given to this Power call d the _Wc/l, and whereby they have been led into a way of talking of theWill as acting, may, by an appropriation that difguifes its true fenle, ferve a little to palliate the abfurdity; yet the Will in truth, ﬁgniﬁes nothing but a Power, or Ability, to prefer or chufe: And when the Wl/l, under the name of a Faculty, is conﬁdered, as it is, barely as an ability to do fotnething, the abfurdity, in faying it is free, or not free, will eaﬁly difcover it felf. For if it be reafonable to fuppofe and talk of Faculties, as diltinct Beings, that can act, (as we do, when we fa thel/Vill orders, andthe Wtill is free) ’tis ﬁt that we fhould make a peaking Faculty, and a walking Fcccilty, and a dancing Faculty, by which thofe Actions are produced, which are but feveral Modes of Motion ; _as well as ‘we make the Wtll and ‘Dialer/landing to be Facultzer, by which the Actions 0t Chuiing and Perceiving are pro- duced, which are ‘but feveral Modes of Thinking: And we may as pro- perly fay, that tis the ﬁnging Faculty ﬁngs, and the dancing Fztcult] dances; as that the I/Vzll chufes, or that the Underltanding conceives; or, as is ufual, that the Will directs the Underltanding, or the Under- ltanding obeys, or obeys not the Will.- It being altogether as proper and intelligible to fay, that the power of Speaking directs the power of Singing, or the power of Singing obeys or difobeys the power of S eakin . \

P§.1 8. gfhis way of talking, neverthelefs, has prevailed, and,as I guefs, produced great confulion. For thefe being all dilTerent Powers in the Mind, or in the Man,to do feveral Actions, he exerts them as he thinks ﬁt: But the power to do one Action, is not operated on by the po\ver of doing another Action. For the power ofThinking operates not on the power of C hufing,nor the power ofChuling on the power oFTliiiik- ing; no more than the power of Dancing operates on the power of Singing, or the power ofSingiiig on the power ofDancing, as any one, who reﬂects on it, will ealily perceive : And yet this is it which we f2y,v\V‘l;C-l/1}\\'§ thus lplfallgy/phat !/1e l-Vill operate: 0n the Uttdetjlatrrlir/ , or t 8 71 er 471 Z77 077 e Z .

§.19. I grant? that this or that actual Thought may be the occalion olVolition,or exerciling the power a Man has to chulie ; or the aiﬂual choice of the Mind, the caufe of actual thinking on tl1lS‘Ol‘ that thing: As the actual linging of fucli a '1 une, may be the occalion 0t dancing fuch a Dance, and the actual dancing of fuch a Dance, the occaﬁon of ﬁnging fuch a Tune. But in all thefe, it is not one power that operates S (‘l1