For liberty is a virtue, or
excellence. Whatever, therefore, convicts a man of weakness cannot be
ascribed to his liberty. And so man can by no means be called free,
because he is able not to exist or not to use his reason, but only in so
far as he preserves the power of existing and operating according to the
laws of human nature. The more, therefore, we consider man to be free,
the less we can say, that he can neglect to use reason, or choose evil
in preference to good; and, therefore, God, who exists in absolute
liberty, also understands and operates of necessity, that is, exists,
understands, and operates according to the necessity of his own nature.
For there is no doubt, that God operates by the same liberty whereby he
exists. As then he exists by the necessity of his own nature, by the
necessity of his own nature also he acts, that is, he acts with absolute
liberty.
8. So we conclude, that it is not in the power of any man always to use
his reason, and be at the highest pitch of human liberty, and yet that
everyone always, as far as in him lies, strives to preserve his own
existence; and that (since each has as much right as he has power)
whatever anyone, be he learned or ignorant, attempts and does, he
attempts and does by supreme natural right. From which it follows that
the law and ordinance of nature, under which all men are born, and for
the most part live, forbids nothing but what no one wishes or is able to
do, and is not opposed to strifes, hatred, anger, treachery, or, in
general, anything that appetite suggests.
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