N05663:368
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.
It were to be wished, that Dr. Whitby, and other Divines of the same Sort, had explained themselves, when they have asserted that That which is necessary, is not deserving of Praise; at the same Time that they have owned God's Perfection to be necessary, and so in Effect represented God as not deserving Praise. Certainly, if their Words have any Meaning at all, by Praise, they must mean the Exercise or Testimony of some Sort of Esteem, Respect, or honourable Regard. And will they then say, that Men are worthy of that Esteem, Respect, and Honour for their Virtue, small and imperfect as it is, which yet God is not worthy of, for his infinite Righteousness, Holiness, and Goodness? If so, it must be because of some Sort of peculiar Excellency in the virtuous Man, which is his Prerogative, wherein he really has the Preference; some Dignity, that is entirely distinguished from any Excellency, Amiableness or Honourableness in God; not in Imperfection and Dependence, but in Pre-eminence; which therefore he don't receive from God, nor is God the Fountain or Pattern of it; nor can God, in that Respect, stand in Competition with him, as the Object of Honour and Regard; but Man may claim a peculiar Esteem, Commendation and Glory, that God can have no Pretension to. Yea, God has no Right, by virtue of his necessary Holiness, to intermeddle with that grateful Respect and Praise, due to the virtuous Man, who chooses Virtue, in the Exercise of a Freedom ad utrumque; any more than a precious Stone, which can't avoid being hard and beautiful.
It were to be wished, that Dr. Whitby, and other Divines of the same Sort, had explain'd themselves, when they have asserted that That which is necessary, is not deserving of Praise; at the same Time that they have own'd God's Perfection to be necessary, and so in Effect represented God as not deserving Praise. Certainly, if their Words have any Meaning at all, by Praise, they must mean the Exercise or Testimony of some Sort of Esteem, Respect, or honourable Regard. And will they then say, that Men are worthy of that Esteem, Respect, and Honour for their Vertue, small and imperfect as it is, which yet God is not worthy of, for his infinite Righteousness, Holiness, and Goodness? If so, it must be because of some Sort of peculiar Excellency in the vertuous Man, which is his Prerogative, wherein he really has the Preference; some Dignity, that is entirely distinguish'd from any Excellency, Amiableness or Honourableness in God; not in Imperfection and Dependance, but in Pre-eminence; which therefore he don't receive from God, nor is God the Fountain or Pattern of it; nor can God, in that Respect, stand in Competition with him, as the Object of Honour and Regard; but Man may claim a peculiar Esteem, Commendation and Glory, that God can have no Pretension to. Yea, God has no Right, by vertue of his necessary Holiness, to intermeddle with that grateful Respect and Praise, due to the vertuous Man, who chuses Vertue, in the Exercise of a Freedom ad utrumque; any more than a precious Stone, which can't avoid being hard and beautiful.