N05663:163
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.
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 the•r Notion of Liberty, consisting in the Acts of th• W•ll being determined by the Will it self; Or ⟨p. 53⟩if they hold that the Acts of the Will are determined by Nothing at all that is prior to them, but that they are contingent in that Sense, that they are determined and fixed by no Cause at all; this also destroys their Notion of Liberty, consisting in the Will's determining it's own Acts.
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 Ch•ice, This also destroys the•r Notion of Liberty, consisting in the Acts of th• W•ll being determined by the Will it self; Or ⟨p. 53⟩if they hold that the Acts of the Will are determined by Nothing at all that is prior to them, but that they are contingent in that Sense, that they are determined and fixed by no Cause at all; this also destroys their Notion of Liberty, consisting in the Will's determining it's own Acts.