We may here inquire wherein lies the necessity of a cause opposed to a contingent cause? Its necessity lies in its nature, also. What is this nature? It is a nature in fixed correlation with certain objects, so that it is inconceivable that its phenomena might be different from those which long and established observation have assigned to it. It is inconceivable that fire might not burn when thrown amid combustibles; it is inconceivable that water might not freeze at the freezing temperature. But is this necessity a necessity _per se_, or a determined necessity? It is a determined necessity--determined by the creative will. If the creative will be under the law of necessity, then of course every cause determined by will becomes an absolute necessity. The only necessity _per se_ is found in that infinite and necessary wisdom in which Edwards places the determining motives of the divine will. All intuitive truths and their logical deductions are necessary _per se_. But the divine will is necessary with a determined necessity on Edwards's system,--and so of all other wills and all other causes, dependent upon will--the divine will being the first will determined. We must recollect, however, that on Edwards's theory of causation, a cause is always determined out of itself; and that consequently there can be no cause necessary _per se_; and yet at the same time there is by this theory, an absolute necessity throughout all causality. Now let us consider the result of making will a contingent cause. In the first place, we have the divine will as the first and supreme contingent cause. Then consequently in the second place, all causes ordained by the divine will, considered as effects, are contingent. They might not have been. They might cease to be. They might be different from what they are. But in the third place, these causes considered as causes, are not all contingent. Only will is contingent. Physical causes are necessary with a determined necessity. They are necessary as fixed by the divine will. They are necessary with a relative necessity--relatively to the divine will. They put forth their _nisus_, and produce phenomena by a fixed and invariable law, established by the divine will. But will is of the nature, being made after the image of the divine will. The divine will is infinite power, and can do everything possible to cause. The created will is finite power, and can do only what is within its given capacity. Its volitions or its efforts, or its _nisus_ to do, are limited only by the extent of its intelligence. It may make an effort, or volition, or _nisus_, to do anything of which it can conceive--but the actual production of phenomena out of itself, must depend upon the instrumental and physical connexion which the divine will has established between it and the world, external to itself. Of all the volitions or _nisus_ within its capacity, it is not necessitated to any