Wesley Corpus

1. By liberty I mean an active, self-determining power, which does not choose things because they are pleasing, but is pleased with them because it chooses them. That God is endued with such a power I conclude: (1) Because nothing is good or evil, pleasing or displeasing, to Him, before He chooses it. (2) Because His will or choice is the cause of goodness in all created things. (3) Because if God had not been endued with such a principle, He would never have created anything. But it is to be observed, farther, that God sees and chooses whatever is connected with what He chooses in the same instant; and that He likewise chooses whatever is convenient for His creatures in the same moment wherein He chooses to create them. That man partakes of this principle I conclude: (1) Because experience shows it. (2) Because we observe in ourselves the signs and properties of such a power. We observe we can counteract our appetites, senses, and even our reason, if we so choose; which we can no otherwise account for than by admitting such a power in ourselves. 2. The more of this power any being possesses, the less subject he is to the impulses of external agents and the more commodious is his condition. Happiness rises from a due use of our faculties: if, therefore, this be the noblest of all our faculties, then our chief happiness lies in the due use of this -- that is, in our elections. And, farther, election is the cause why things please us: he therefore who has an uncontrolled power of electing may please himself always; and if things fall out contrary to what he chooses, he may change his choice and suit it to them, and so still be happy. Indeed, in this life his natural appetites will sometimes disturb his elections, and so prevent his perfect happiness; yet is it a fair step towards it that he has a power that can at all times find pleasure in itself, however outward things vary.