A Treatise of the Laws of Nature. Richard Cumberland
Citizens may be happy like himself.159 Making a distribution of Things as it is fit and just”;160 (whence they style him νομος, from νέμα, to distribute;) the better Men have the better Part,161 and the Good are not afflicted without great Reason, and for wise and good Ends.162
The Doctrine of the Antients, concerning Fate, being somewhat intricate and perplex’d; and the Reverend Mr. John Jackson having, in my Opinion, set that Matter in a clear Light in his Defence of Human Liberty P. 150, &c.163 I believe it will not be unacceptable to the Reader, to lay it before him in Mr. Jackson’s Words, as follows.
“That there is such a Thing as Fate, and that many Events are effected by it, was the general Opinion of all Philosophers, Anaxagoras amongst the Gentiles, and the Sadducees among the Jews, only excepted; who were both of Opinion, that nothing was the Effect of Fate, and that it was a mere empty Name. And as these wholly deny’d Fate in every Sense, so it must be confess’d, that there were some others, who carried the Notion of it as far in the other Extreme, and taught, that every Thing, all Events, and even human Actions, were effected by the impulsive Necessity of it. I shall, therefore, shew the Reader, who those were, who really held the Sentiments of the Fatalists; and then set forth distinctly and particularly that Notion of Fate, or Necessity, which was the concurrent receiv’d Opinion of all Sects of Philosophers.
“Plutarch tells us, that Parmenides and Democritus held, ‘That all Things came to pass by Necessity; and that this Necessity was Fate, and Justice, and Providence, and the Maker of the World.’164 Heraclitus was of the same Opinion.165 To these Cicero joyns Empedocles, and, by mistake, Aristotle.166 That this was a mistake of Cicero’s, appears from Plutarch, in his Treatise of the Opinions of the Antient Philosophers, where he remarks no such Thing concerning Aristotle, tho’ he does observe, that Democritus and Heraclitus, to whom he adds Parmenides, were of that Opinion, which Cicero ascribes to them; and had Aristotle, who was so much more eminent than the others, been of the same Opinion, he could hardly have neglected to have taken notice of it. But farther; Hierocles expressly says, that Aristotle’s Philosophy agreed with Plato’s, and that the most learned Ammonius, who perfectly understood the Philosophy of both of them, shew’d that they agreed together.167 The concurrence of the Platonick and Aristotelian Philosophy he again insists on; and speaks with contempt of those who pretended they disagreed; and in particular declares, that they were of the same Opinion in the Notion of Fate, and that he himself agreed with them.168 ‘That it was not the senseless Necessity of the Fortune-tellers; nor the Stoical Compulsion—but that it was the judicial Operation of the divine Power, effecting Events according to the Laws of Providence, and determining the Order and Series of our Circumstances in the World, according to the free Purposes of our voluntary Actions.’169 And Aristotle himself expressly asserts and explains at large the Freedom of human Actions. He lays the Foundation of Praise and Dispraise in Mens voluntary Actions.170 He proves Freedom from Deliberation and Desire, which he makes to be the same with Choice.171 He expressly declares, that our Actions are Voluntary and by Choice; that the Practice of Virtue and Vice is in our own Power: And that this is evidently the Opinion, not only of all private Persons, but of Legislators themselves, who punish those who commit Evil, if they do it not through Compulsion, or involuntary Ignorance; and reward those who do well.172 And the learned Alexander Aphrodisius and Ammonius Hermias have wrote each a Treatise, to shew the Agreement of Aristotle with the Platonick Notion of Fate and human Liberty. It appears also from Cicero, that the antient Diodorus was a Fatalist, maintaining, that all Truths in Futurity, as well as those which are actual, are necessarily such, and cannot but be.173
“These are the principal Asserters of the Doctrine of absolute Fatality that we know of; and they who follow’d their Opinion, all founded the Arguments and Reasons of it in the Supposition of the Truth of the Material System, or that nothing existed but Body and Matter.
“First; Those of the Atomical Sect, who follow’d the Opinion of Democritus, alledg’d, that all Things, even human Actions, were effected by the eternal necessary Motion, and perpendicular Impulse, of self-existent corporeal Atoms, by whose fortuitous Concourse and Union all Things were form’d.174
“Secondly; Those amongst the Stoicks, who adher’d to the Doctrine of Heraclitus, were of three several Opinions.
“‘Some derived all Things from the first Cause of the Universe, which they said pervaded all Things, and not only gave Motion to, but was the Efficient Cause of, every Thing; styling it Fate, and the Supreme Cause, and supposing it to be itself all Things; and that, not only all other Things which exist, but even the inward Purposes of our Minds also, proceeded from the efficient Power of it, as the Members of an Animal are not mov’d of themselves, but by that governing Principle, which is in every Animal.’175 This was making no Agent in the World, but God only, and human Actions to be nothing but the Operations of God in Men, actuating them and every Thing else, as the Soul does the Body.
“Thirdly; The Astrological Notion of Fate was this; ‘That the Circumvolution of the Universe effected all Things by its Motion, and by the Position and Appearances of the Planets and fix’d Stars with respect to each other; and, founding upon these the Art of Prognostication, would have it, that every Thing came to pass thereby.’176 This is but another way of ascribing every Thing we do, our Purposes and Passions, our Wickedness and Appetites, to the Universe, or to God.
“Fourthly; Another Notion of Fatality was founded on the Supposition of ‘a mutual eternal Concatenation and Chain of Causes, whereby Things posterior always follow those which are antecedent, and are resolv’d into them, as existing by them; and are necessarily consequent to those which precede them: This was another way of effecting an absolute Fatality.’177 And this was the most plausible, and most insisted on by the Maintainers of Necessity; and was grounded on the Supposition, that every Motion was caus’d by an external impulse of Matter, and that there was no internal Principle, or Cause of Motion, or Action, in the Mind at all.
“These are the several Opinions of the antient Fatalists, which resolv’d into two; the one made every Thing the necessary Effect of the eternal Motion and Concourse of Atoms; the absurdity of which, as supposing an eternal Chain of Effects, without any original Cause, or Agent at all, evidently appears; and which, by inferring the Necessity of human Actions, and thereby taking away the Foundation and Distinction of Virtue and Vice, and the consequent Praise and Dispraise due unto them, was rejected by Epicurus himself on this very Account.178 The other made no Agent in the World but God, who was suppos’d to be infus’d, like a Soul, thro’ the whole Universe, and to act in every Thing by an eternal Chain of Causes, necessarily connected with each other; and all deriv’d from God (who was called Fate) as the original, or supreme Cause of all.
“This latter, tho’ more plausible than the former, yet so plainly inferr’d such a Fate as made Mens Actions necessary, (as both Plotinus and Cicero observe,179) whereby the Nature of Virtue and Vice, of Rewards and Punishments, were so wholly destroy’d, that it made the Notion it-self intolerable, as Cicero calls it; insomuch that the Defenders of it were forc’d to allow notwithstanding, (tho’ inconsistently with themselves,) that there was a Power of Action, or Free-Agency in Mens Minds; and durst not affirm, that human Actions were necessary: And the opposite Party was so averse to it on this Account, as to recur to the other Extreme, and maintain that the voluntary Motion, or Exertion of the Mind was not at all influenc’d by Fate, or antecedent Causes. These two rigid opposite Tenents, as they