That the liberty for which Edwards contends, has nothing to do with the manner in which our actions or volitions come to pass; or, more properly speaking, with the kind of relation between motives and actions, we have his own express acknowledgment. "What is vulgarly called liberty," says he, "namely, that power and opportunity for one to do and conduct as he will, or according to his choice, is all that is meant by it; without taking into the meaning of the word _any thing of the cause of that choice; or at all considering how the person came to have such a volition;_ whether it was caused by some _external motive_, or _internal habitual bias;_ whether it was determined by some internal antecedent volition, or whether it happened without a cause; whether _it was necessarily connected with something foregoing, or not connected. Let the person come by his choice_ ANY HOW, yet if he is able, and there is nothing in the way to hinder his pursuing and executing his will, _the man is perfectly free_, according to the primary and common notion of freedom." This notion of liberty, it is easy to see, is consistent with the most absolute scheme of fatality of which it is possible to conceive. For, according to this idea of it, if we should come by our choice "any how," even by the most irresistible influence of external circumstances, yet we might be "perfectly free." Hence it is no wonder that we find the same definition of liberty in the writings of the most absolute fatalists. It is remarkable that Edwards has taken great pains to define his idea of philosophical necessity, and to distinguish it from the common sense of the word; and yet he supposes that the notion of liberty, about which the same dispute is conversant, is that which is referred to "in common speech," or that "which is vulgarly called liberty." He contends for a _philosophical necessity_, and especially for a necessary connexion between the influence of motives and volitions; but the _philosophical liberty_ which stands opposed to his scheme, which denies any such _necessary_ connexion, he has not deemed it worth his while to notice!