inaBivity of Matter, &c. 205

evil, is again inconsistent with freedom: tobe not agents , but mere puppets , played with•wires and springs , incapable of virtue itself.

-—Thus, unless we would have the naturesof things violated , that is, an impostibilitywrought to please us, our condition with re-spect to freedom and necejjity , is absolutelythe best and most advantageous we couldhave been placed in.

XXXIV. As to God Almighty’s support-ing the mechanism of our bodies, while anevil action is committed by us, and actingupon matter then with the fame constant im-pulse of gravity, attraction, cohesion, &c. asat other times; let us consider that the baremateriality of the action, that is, in so far asit is performed by the motion of matt er , is initself neither morally good nor evil; for thesame material action, which at one time isevil, is good at another, according to the dif-ference of the circumstances: that is, thegood or evil doth not lie in it, but in some-rthing else; namely, the will and design, ashas been said. If we were creatures that hadno communication with matter at all, or ifthe motion of that substance were unconcern-