N05663:232
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.
If Liberty consists in that which Arminians suppose, viz. in the Will's determining it's own Acts, having •ree Opportunity, and being without all Necessity; This is the same as to say, that Liberty consists in the Soul's having Power and Opportunity to have what Determinations of the Will it pleases or chooses. And if the Determinations of the Will, and the last Dictates of the Understanding be the same Thing, then Liberty consists in the Mind's having Power to have what Dictates of the Understanding it pleases, having Opportunity to choose it's own Dictates of Understanding. But this is absurd; for it is to make the Determination of Choice prior to the Dictate of Understanding, and the Ground of it; which can't consist […] the Dictate of Understanding's being the Determination […] Choice […] ▪
If Liberty consists in that which Arminians suppose, viz. in the Will's determining it's own Acts, having •ree Opportunity, and being without all Necessity; This is the same as to say, that Liberty consists in the Soul's having Power and Opportunity to have what Determinations of the Will it pleases or chuses. And if the Determinations of the Will, and the last Dictates of the Understanding be the same Thing, then Liberty consists in the Mind's having Power to have what Dictates of the Understanding it pleases, having Opportunity to chuse it's own Dictates of Understanding. But this is absurd; for it is to make the Determination of Choice prior to the Dictate of Understanding, and the Ground of it; which can't consist 〈…〉 the Dictate of Understanding's being the Determination 〈…〉 Choice 〈…〉 ▪
Here is no Way to do in this Case […] to the old Absurdity, of one […] another, and the Cause of it; and another before […] determining that; and so on in infinitum. If the last […] of the Understanding be the Determination of the Will it self, and the Soul be free with Regard to that Dictate, in the Arminian Notion of Freedom; thn the Soul, before that Dictate of it's Understanding exists, voluntarily and according to it's own Choice determines, in every Case, what that Dictate of the Understanding shall be; otherwise that Dictate, as to the Will, is necessary; and the Acts determined by it, must also be necessary. So that here is a Determination of the Mind prior to that Dictate of the Understanding, an Act of Choice going before it, choosing and determining what that Dictate of the Understanding shall be: and this preceding Act of Choice, being a free Act of Will, must also be the same with another last Dictate of the Understanding: And if the Mind also be free in that Dictate of Understanding, that must be determined still by another; and so on forever.