SECT.  LXIX.  A Character of the Deity, both in the Dependence and Independence of Man.

Let us now put together these two truths equally certain.  I am dependent upon a First Being even in my own will; and nevertheless I am free.  What then is this dependent liberty? how is it possible for a man to conceive a free-will, that is given by a First Being?  I am free in my will, as God is in His.  It is principally in this I am His image and likeness.  What a greatness that borders upon infinite is here!  This is a ray of the Deity itself: it is a kind of Divine power I have over my will; but I am but a bare image of that supreme Being so absolutely free and powerful.

The image of the Divine independence is not the reality of what it represents; and, therefore, my liberty is but a shadow of that First Being, by whom I exist and act.  On the one hand, the power I have of willing evil is, indeed, rather a weakness and frailty of my will than a true power: for it is only a power to fall, to degrade myself, and to diminish my degree of perfection and being.  On the other hand, the power I have to will good is not an absolute power, since I have it not of myself.  Now liberty being no more than that power, a precarious and borrowed power can constitute but a precarious, borrowed, and dependent liberty; and, therefore, so imperfect and so precarious a being cannot but be dependent.  But how is he free?  What profound mystery is here!  His liberty, of which I cannot doubt, shows his perfection; and his dependence argues the nothingness from which he was drawn.