N05663:230
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.
Which at once utterly abolishes the Doctor's whole Scheme of Liberty of Will; and he, at one Stroke, has cut the Sinews of all his Arguments from the Goodness, Righteousness, Faithfulness and Sincerity of God, in his Commands, Promises, Threatenings, Calls, Invitations, Expostulations; which […] makes […] of, under the Heads of Reprobation, Election, Univer••• Redemption, sufficient and effectual Grace, and the Freedom of the Will of Man; and has enervated and made vain all those Exclamations against the Doctrine of the Calvinists, as charging God with manifest Unrighteousness, Unfaithfulness, Hypocrisy, Fallaciousness, and Cruelty; which he has over, and over, and over again, numberless Times in his Book.
Which at once utterly abolishes the Doctor's whole Scheme of Liberty of Will; and he, at one Stroke, has cut the Sinews of all his Arguments from the Goodness, Righteousness, Faithfulness and Sinc•rity of God, in his Commands, Promises, Threatnings, Calls, Invitations, Expostulations; which 〈…〉 makes 〈…〉 of, under the Heads of Reprobation, Election, Univer••• Redemption, sufficient and effectual Grace, and the Freedom of the Will of Man; and has enervated and made vain all those Exclamations against the Doctrine of the Calvinists, as charging God with manifest Unrighteousness, Unfaithfulness, Hypocrisy, Fallaciousness, and Cruelty; which he has over, and over, and over again, numberless Times in his Book.
Dr. Samuel Clark, in his Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, †to evade the Argument to prove the Necessity of Volition, from it's necessary Connection with the last Dictate of the Understanding, supposes the latter not to be diverse from the Act of the Will it self. But if it be so, it will not alter the Case as to the Evidence of the Necessity of the Act of the Will. If the Dictate of the Understanding be the very same with the Determination of the Will or Choice, as Dr. Clark supposes, then this Determination is no Fruit or Effect of Choice: And if so, no Liberty of Choice has any Hand in it: As to Volition or Choice, it is necessary; That is, Choice can't prevent it. If the last Dictate of the Understanding be the same with the Determination of Volition it self, then the Existence of that Determination must be necessary as to Volition; in as much as Volition can have no Opportunity to determine whether it shall exist or no, it having Existence already before Volition