N05663:36
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.
With respect to that grand Enquiry, What determines the Will, it would be very tedious and unnecessary at present to enumerate and examine all the various Opinions, which have been advanced concerning this Matter; nor is it needful that I should enter into a particular Disquisition of all Points debated in Disputes on that Question, Whether the Will always follows the last Dictate of the Understanding. It is sufficient to my present Purpose to say, — It is that Motive, which, as it stands in the View of the Mind, is the strongest, that determines the Will— But it may be necessary that I should a little explain my Meaning in this.
By Motive, I mean the whole of that which moves, excites or invites the Mind to Volition, whether that be one Thing singly, or many Things conjunctly. Many particular Things may concur and unite their Strength to induce the Mind; and when it is so, all together are as it were one complex Motive. And when I speak of the strongest Motive, I have Respect to the Strength of the whole that operates to induce to a particular Act of Volition, whether that be the Strength of one Thing alone, or of many together.
Whatever is a Motive, in this Sense, must be something that is extant in the View or Apprehension of the Understanding, or perceiving Faculty. Nothing can induce or invite the Mind to will or act any Thing, any further than it is perceived, or is some Way or other in the Mind's view; for what is wholly unperceived, and perfectly out of the Mind's view, can't affect the Mind at all. 'Tis most evident, that nothing is in the Mind, or reaches it, or takes any Hold of it, any otherwise than as it is perceived or thought of.
Whatever is a Motive, in this Sense, must be something that is extant in the View or Apprehension of the Understanding, or perceiving Faculty. Nothing can induce or invite the Mind to will or act any Thing, any further than it is perceived, or is some Way or other in the Mind's view; for what is wholly unperceived, and perfectly out of the Mind's view, can't affect the Mind at all. 'Tis most evident, that nothing is in the Mind, or reaches it, or takes any Hold of it, any otherwise than as it is perceiv'd or tho't of.