N05663:32
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 1 › Section 2: Concerning the Determination of the Will.
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.
SECTION II. Concerning the Determination of the Will.
BY determining the Will, if the Phrase be used with any Meaning, must be intended, causing that the Act of the Will or Choice should be thus, and not otherwise: And the Will is said to be determined, when, in Consequence of some Action, or Influence, its Choice is directed to, and fixed upon a particular Object. As when we speak of the Determination of Motion, we mean causing the Motion of the Body to be such a Way, or in such a Direction, rather than another.
BY determining the Will, if the Phrase be used with any Meaning, must be intended, causing that the Act of the Will or Choice should be thus, and not otherwise: And the Will is said to be determined, when, in Consequence of some Action, or Influence, its Choice is directed to, and fix'd upon a particular Object. As when we speak of the Determination of Mot•on, we mean causing the Motion of the Body to be such a Way, or in such a Direction, rather than another.
To talk of the Determination of the Will, supposes an Effect, which must have a Cause. If the Will be determined, there is a Determiner. This must be supposed to be intended even by them that say, the Will determines itself. If it be so, the Will is both Determiner & determined; it is a Cause that acts and produces Effects upon it self, and is the Object of its own Influence and Action.