N05663:313
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.
If God did not foreknow the Fall of Man, nor the Redemption by Jesus Christ, nor the Volitions of Man since the Fall; then He did not foreknow the Saints in any Sense; neither as particular Persons, nor as Societies or Nations; either by Election, or mere Foresight of their Virtue or good Works; or any Foresight of any Thing about them relating to their Salvation; or any Benefit they have by Christ, or any Manner of Concern of their's with a Redeemer.
If God did not foreknow the Fall of Man, nor the Redemption by Jesus Christ, nor the Volitions of Man since the Fall; then He did not foreknow the Saints in any Sense; neither as particular Persons, nor as Societies or Nations; either by Election, or meer Foresight of their Vertue or good Works; or any Foresight of any Thing about them relating to their Salvation; or any Benefit they have by Christ, or any Manner of Concern of their's with a Redeemer.
ARG. III. On the Supposition of God's Ignorance of the future Volitions of free Agents, it will follow, that God must in many Cases truly repent what He has done, so as properly to wish He had done otherwise: by Reason that the Event of Things, in those Affairs which are most important, viz. the Affairs of his moral Kingdom, being uncertain and contingent, often happens quite otherwise than he was aware beforehand. And there would be Reason to understand That, in the most literal Sense, in Gen. vi.6. It repented the Lord, that he had made Man on the Earth, and it grieved him at his Heart. And that, 1 Sam. xv.11. contrary to that, Numb. xxiii.19. God is not the Son of Man, that he should repent. And, 1 Sam. xv.15, 29. Also the Strength of Israel will not lie, nor repent: for he is not a Man that he should repent. Yea, from this Notion it would follow, that God is liable to repent and be grieved at his Heart, in a literal Sense, continually; and is always exposed to an infinite Number of real Disappointments, in his governing the World; and to manifold, constant, great Perplexity and Vexation: But this is not very consistent with his Title of God over all, blessed for evermore; which represents Him as possessed of perfect, constant and uninterrupted Tranquillity and Felicity, as God over the Universe, and in his Management of the Affairs of the World, as supreme and universal Ruler. See