N05663:172
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.
This is as much as to say, that we first begin to prefer many Things, now ceasing any longer to be indifferent with Respect to them, purely because we have preferred and chosen them before.—These Things must needs be spoken inconsiderately by this Author. Choice or Preference can't be before it self, in the same Instance, either in the Order of Time or Nature: It can't be the Foundation of it self, or the Fruit or Consequence of it self. The very Act of choosing one Thing rather than another, is preferring that Thing, and that is setting a higher Value on that Thing. But that the Mind sets an higher Value on one Thing than another, is not, in the first Place, the Fruit of it's setting a higher Value on that Thing.
This is as much as to say, that we first begin to prefer many Things, now ceasing any longer to be indifferent with Respect to them, purely because we have prefer'd and chosen them before.—These Things must needs be spoken inconsiderately by this Author. Choice or Preference can't be before it self, in the same Instance, either in the Order of Time or Nature: It can't be the Foundation of it self, or the Fruit or Consequence of it self. The very Act of chusing one Thing rather than another, is preferring that Thing, and that is setting a higher Value on that Thing. But that the Mind sets an higher Value on one Thing than another, is not, in the first Place, the Fruit of it's setting a higher Value on that Thing.
This Author says, P. 36. The Will may be perfectly indifferent, and yet the Will may determine it self to choose one or the other. And again in the same Page, I am entirely indifferent to either; and yet my Will may determine it self to choose. And again, Which I shall choose must be determined by the mere Act of my Will. If the Choice is determined by a mere Act of Will, then the Choice is determined by a mere Act of Choice. And concerning this Matter, viz. that the Act of the Will it self is determined by an Act of Choice, this Writer is express, in P. 72. Speaking of the Case, where there is no superior Fitness in Objects presented, he has these Words: There it must act by it's own CHOICE, and determine it self as it PLEASES. Where it is supposed that the very Determination, ⟨p. 58⟩