N05663:162
A careful and strict enquiry into the modern prevailing notions of that freedom of…
A careful and strict enquiry into the modern prevailing notions of that freedom of will, which is supposed to be essential to moral agency, virtue and vice, reward and punishment, praise and blame. By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the church in Stockbridge. ; [One line from Romans]A careful and strict enquiry into the modern prevailing notions of that freedom of will, which is supposed to be essential to moral agency, vertue and vice, reward and punishment, praise and blame. By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the church in Stockbridge. ; [One line from Romans]
printed by S. Kneeland, 1754
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And if it should be supposed, that the Soul determines it's own Acts of Will some other Way, than by a foregoing Act of Will; still it will not help the Cause of their Liberty of Will. If it determines them by an Act of the Understanding, or some other Power, then the Will don't determine it self; and so the Self-determining Power of the Will is given up. And what Liberty is there exercised, according to their own Opinion of Liberty, by the Soul's being determined by something besides it's own Choice? The Acts of the Will, it is true, may be directed, and effectually determined and fixed; but it is not done by the Soul's own Will and Pleasure: There is no Exercise at all of Choice or Will in producing the Effect: And if Will and Choice are not exercised in it, how is the Liberty of the Will exercised in it?
And if it should be supposed, that the Soul determines it's own Acts of Will some other Way, than by a foregoing Act of Will; still it will not help the Cause of their Liberty of Will. If it determines them by an Act of the Understanding, or some other Power, then the Will don't determine it s•lf; and so the S•lf-determining Power of the Will is given up. And what L•berty is there exercised, according to their own Opinion of Liberty, by the Soul's being determined by something besides it's own Choice? The Acts of the Will, it is true, may be directed, and effectually determined and fix'd; but it is not done by the Soul's own Will and Pleasure: There is no Exercise at all of Choice or Will in producing the Effect: And if Will and Choice are not exercised in it, how is the Liberty of the Will exercised in it?
So that let Arminians turn which Way they please with their Notion of Liberty, consisting in the Will's determining it's own Acts, their Noti•• destroys it self. If they hold every free Act of Will to […] determined by the Soul's own free Choice, or foregoing […] Act of Will; foregoing, either in the Order of Time, or Nature; It implies that gross Contradiction, that the first free Act belonging to the Affair, is determined by a free Act which is before it. Or if they say that the free Acts of the Will are determined by some other Act of the Soul, and not an Act of Will or Choice, This also destroys ther Notion of Liberty, consisting in the Acts of th Wll being determined by the Will it self; Or