N05663:266
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.
2. Mr. Chubb himself, P. 317, speaks of Motives as the Ground and Reason of Action BY INFLUENCE, and BY PREVAILING INFLUENCE. Now, what can be meant by a Cause, but something that is the Ground and Reason of a Thing by it's Influence, an Influence that is prevalent and so effectual?
3. This Author not only speaks of Motives as the Ground and Reason of Action, by prevailing Influence; but expressly of their Influence as prevailing FOR THE PRODUCTION of an Action, in the same P. 317: which makes the Inconsistency still more palpable and notorious. The Production of an Effect is certainly the Causing of an Effect; and productive Influence is causal Influence, if any Thing is; And that which has this Influence prevalently, so as thereby to become the Ground of another Thing, is a Cause of that Thing, if there be any such Thing as a Cause. This Influence, Mr. Chubb says, Motives have to produce an Action▪ and yet he says, 'tis absurd and a Contradiction, to say they are Causes.
3. This Author not only speaks of Motives as the Ground and Reason of Action, by prevailing Influence; but expresly of their Influence as prevailing FOR THE PRODUCTION of an Action, in the same P. 317: which makes the Inconsistency still more palpable and notorious. The Production of an Effect is certainly the Causing of an Effect; and productive Influence is causal Inf•uence, if any Thing is; And that which has this Influence prevalently, so as thereby to become the Ground of another Thing, is a Cause of that Thing, if there be any such Thing as a Cause. This Influence, Mr. Chubb says, Motives have to produce an Action▪ and yet he says, 'tis absurd and a Contradiction, to say they are Causes.