A man being really set to choose between evil and good (he may be, for trial to show him what he is) is alike horrible and absurd, because it supposes the good and evil to be outside, and himself neither. If he is one or other in disposition, the choice is there. To have a fair choice, he must be personally indifferent; but to be in a state of indifference to good and evil is perfectly horrible. If a man has an inclination, his choice is not free; a free will is rank nonsense morally, because if he have a will he wills something. God can will to create. But will in moral things means either self-will, which is sin (for we ought to obey), or an inclination to something, which is really a choice made as far as will goes. In truth it is never so. Man was set in good, though not externally forced to remain so. He first exercised his will—free will, morally speaking—in eating the forbidden fruit, and was therein and thereby lost; and since then he has been inclined to evil.