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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
Part 2 › Section 11: The Evidence of GOD's certain Foreknowledge of the Volitions of moral Agents.
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.
And all the Predictions of Christ and his Apostles, to the like Purpose, must be without Knowledge: As those of our Saviour comparing the Kingdom of God to a Grain of Mustard-Seed, growing exceeding great, from a small Beginning; and to Leaven, hid in three Measures of Meal, 'till the whole was leavened, &c.—And the Prophecies in the Epistles concerning the Restoration of the Nation of the Jews to the true Church of God, and the bringing in the Fullness of the Gentiles; and the Prophecies in all the Revelation concerning the glorious Change in the moral State of the World of Mankind, attending the Destruction of Antichrist, the Kingdoms of the World becoming the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and it's being granted to the Church to be arrayed in that fine Linen, white and clean, which is the Righteousness of Saints, &c.
And all the Predictions of Christ and his Apostles, to the like Purpose, must be without Knowledge: As those of our Saviour comparing the Kingdom of God to a Grain of Mustard-Seed, growing exceeding great, from a small Beginning; and to Leaven, hid in three Measures of Meal, 'till the whole was leaven'd, &c.—And the Prophecies in the Epistles concerning the Restoration of the Nation of the Iews to the true Church of God, and the bringing in the Fulness of the Gentiles; and the Prophecies in all the Revelation concerning the glorious Change in the moral State of the World of Mankind, attending the Destruction of Antichrist, the Kingdoms of the World becoming the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and it's being granted to the Church to be arrayed in that fine Linnen, white and clean, which is the Righteousness of Saints, &c.
Corol. 1. Hence that great Promise and Oath of God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so much celebrated in Scripture, both in the Old Testament and New, namely, That in their Seed all the Nations and Families of the Earth should be blessed, must be made on Uncertainties, if God don't certainly foreknow the Volitions of moral Agents. For the Fulfilment of this Promise consists in that Success of Christ in the Work of Redemption, and that Setting up of his spiritual Kingdom over the Nations of the World, which has been spoken of. Men are blessed in Christ no otherwise than as they are brought to acknowledge Him, trust in Him, love and serve Him, as is represented and predicted in