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You shall find in this little volume the questions concerning
_necessity_, _freedom_, and _chance_, which in all ages have perplexed
the minds of curious men, largely and clearly discussed, and the
arguments on all sides, drawn from the authority of Scripture, from the
doctrine of the Schools, from natural reason, and from the consequences
pertaining to common life, truly alleged and severally weighed between
two persons, who both maintain that men are free to _do_ as they _will_
and to _forbear_ as they _will_. The things they dissent in are, that
the one holdeth, that it is not in a man’s power now to choose the will
he shall have anon; that chance produceth nothing; that all events and
actions have their necessary causes; that the will of God makes the
necessity of all things. The other on the contrary maintaineth, that not
only the _man_ is free to choose what he will _do_, but the _will_ also
to choose what it shall _will_; that when a man willeth a good action,
God’s will concurreth with his, else not; that the will may choose
whether it will _will_, or not; that many things come to pass without
necessity, by chance; that though God foreknow a thing shall be, yet it
is not necessary that that thing shall be, inasmuch as God seeth not the
future as in its causes, but as present. In sum, they adhere both of
them to the Scripture; but one of them is a learned School-divine, the
other a man that doth not much admire that kind of learning.
This is enough to acquaint you withal in the beginning; which also shall
be more particularly explained by and by in the stating of the question,
and dividing of the arguments into their several heads. The rest you
shall understand from the persons themselves, when they enter. Fare ye
well.