Chapter VIII.—Liberty and Necessity.

“But, you say, God ought to have made us at first so that we should not have thought at all of such things.  You who say this do not know what is free-will, and how it is possible to be really good; that he who is good by his own choice is really good; but he who is made good by another under necessity is not really good, because he is not what he is by his own choice.^11281128    [Comp. Recognitions, iii. 21, etc.  In that work the freedom of the will, as necessary to goodness, is more frequently affirmed.—R.]  Since therefore every one’s freedom constitutes the true good, and shows the true evil, God has contrived that friendship or hostility should be in each man by occasions.  But no, it is said:  everything that we think He makes us to think.  Stop!  Why do you blaspheme more and more, in saying this?  For if we are under His influence in all that we think, you say that He is the cause of fornications, lusts, avarice, and all blasphemy.  Cease your evil-speaking, ye who ought to speak well of Him, and to bestow all honour upon Him.  And do not say that God does not claim any honour; for if He Himself claims nothing, you ought to look to what is right, and to answer with thankful voice Him who does you good in all things.