Page:A Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty (3rd ed., 1735).djvu/79

 ther: which is all I intended to prove by this argument, taken from the consideration of the divine Prescience.

 V. A fifth argument to prove man a necessary agent, is as follows: If man was not a necessary agent, determin’d by pleasure and pain, there would be no foundation for rewards and punishments, which are the essential supports of society.

For if men were not necessarily determin’d by pleasure and pain, or if pleasure and pain were no causes to determine mens wills; of what use would be the prospect of rewards to frame a man’s will to the observation of the law, or punishments to hinder his transgression thereof? Were pain, as such, eligible, and pleasure, as such, avoidable; rewards and punishments could be no motives to a man, to make him do or forbear any action. But if pleasure and pain have a necessary effect on men, and if it be impossible for men not to chuse what seems good to them, and not to a