Of His own free-will, moreover, He exercised His divine
and human will. For free-will is assuredly implanted in every
rational nature. For to what end would it possess reason, if it
could not reason at its own free-will? For the Creator hath
implanted even in the unreasoning brutes natural appetite to compel
them to sustain their own nature. For devoid of reason, as they
are, they cannot guide their natural appetite but are guided by
it. And so, as soon as the appetite for anything has sprung up,
straightway arises also the impulse for action. And thus they do
not win praise or happiness for pursuing virtue, nor punishment for
doing evil. But the rational nature, although it does possess a
natural appetite, can guide and train it by reason wherever the laws of
nature are observed. For the advantage of reason consists in
this, the free-will, by which we mean natural activity in a rational
subject. Wherefore in pursuing virtue it wins praise and
happiness, and in pursuing vice it wins punishment.