N05663:222
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.
As 'tis very evident in it self, that the Acts of the Will have some Connection with the Dictates or Views of the Understanding, so this is allowed by some of the chief of the Arminian Writers: Particularly by Dr. Whitby and Dr. Samuel Clark.— Dr. Turnbull, tho' a great Enemy to the Doctrine of Necessity, allows the same Thing. In his Christian Philosophy (P. 196.) He with much Approbation cites another Philosopher, as of the same Mind, in these Words: No Man (says an excellent Philosopher) sets himself about any Thing, but upon some View or other, which serves him for a Reason for wh•t he does; and whatsoever Faculties he employs, the Understanding, with such Light as it has, well or ill informed, constantly leads; and by that Light, true or false, all her operative Powers are directed. The Will it self, how absolute and incontrollable soever it may be thought, never fails in it's Obedience to the Dictates of the Understanding. Temples have their sacred Images; and we see what Influence they have always had over a great Part of Mankind; But in Truth, the Ideas and Images in Men's Minds are the invisible Powers that constantly govern them; and to these they all pay universally a ready Submission.
As 'tis very evident in it self, that the Acts of the Will have some Connection with the Dictates or Views of the Understanding, so this is allowed by some of the chief of the Arminian Writers: Particularly by Dr. Whitby and Dr. Samuel Clark.— Dr. Turnbull, tho' a great Enemy to the Doctrine of Necessity, allows the same Thing. In his Christian Philosophy (P. 196.) He with much Approbation cites another Philosopher, as of the same Mind, in these Words: No Man (says an excellent Philosopher) sets himself about any Thing, but upon some View or other, which serves him for a Reason for wh•t he does; and whatsoever Faculties he employs, the Understanding, with such Light as it has, well or ill informed, constantly leads; and by that Light, true or false, all her operative Powers are directed. The Will it self, how absolute and incontroulable soever it may be thought, never fails in it's Obedience to the Dictates of the Understanding. Temples have their sacred Images; and we see what Influence they have always had over a great Part of Mankind; But in Truth, the Ideas and Images in Men's Minds are the invisible Powers that constantly govern them; and to these they all pay universally a ready Submission.