the question of free-will was too subtle for Erasmus, who was no philosopher; which makes him often contradict himself.[1]
The late Bishop of Sarum,[2] though he contends, Every man experiences Liberty; yet owns that great difficulties attend the subject on all hands, and that therefore he pretends not to explain or answer them.
The famous Bernard Ochin, a great Italian wit, has written a most subtle and ingenious book, entitled, Labyrinths concerning Free-will and Predestination, etc., wherein he shows that they who assert that man acts freely are involved in four great difficulties; and that those who assert that man acts necessarily, fall into four other difficulties. So that he forms eight labyrinths, four against Liberty and four against Necessity. He turns himself all manner of ways to get clear of them; but not being able to find any solution, he constantly concludes with a prayer to God to deliver him from these abysses. Indeed, in the progress of his work, he endeavors to furnish means to get out of this prison; but he concludes that the only way is to say, with Socrates, Hoc unum scio quod nihil scio. We ought, says he, to rest contented, and conclude that God requires neither the affirmative nor negative of us. This is the title of his last chapter, Quâ viâ ex omnibus supradictis Labyrinthis citò exiri possit, quæ doctæ ignorantiæ via vocatur.
A famous author,[3] who appeals to common experience for a proof of Liberty, confesses that the question of Liberty is the most obscure and difficult question in all philosophy; that the learned are fuller of contradictions to themselves, and to one another, on this than on any other subject: and that he writes against the common notion of Liberty, and endeavors to establish another notion, which he allows to be intricate.
