N05663:324
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.
I. 'Tis very evident, with regard to a Thing whose Existence is infallibly and indissolubly connected with something which already hath, or has had Existence, The Existence of that Thing is necessary. Here may be noted,
1. I observed before, in explaining the Nature of Necessity, that in Things which are past, their past Existence is now necessary: having already made sure of Existence, 'tis too late for any Possibility of Alteration in that Respect: 'Tis now impossible, that it should be otherwise than true, that that Thing has existed.
2. If there be any such Thing as a divine Foreknowledge of the Volitions of free Agents, that Foreknowledge, by the Supposition, is a Thing which already has, and long ago had Existence; and so, now it's Existence is necessary; it is now utterly impossible to be otherwise, than that this Foreknowledge should be, or should have been.
3. 'Tis also very manifest, that those Things which are indissolubly connected with other Things that are necessary; are Themselves necessary. As that Proposition whose Truth is necessarily connected with another Proposition, which is necessarily true, is itself necessarily true. To say otherwise, would be a Contradiction; it would be in Effect to say, that the Connection was indissoluble, and yet was not so, but might be broken. If That, whose Existence is indissolubly connected with something whose Existence is now necessary, is it self not necessary, then it may possibly not exist, notwithstanding that indissoluble Connection of it's Existence.— Whether the Absurdity be not glaring, let the Reader judge.