N05663:376
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.
1. God had promised so effectually to preserve and uphold Him by his Spirit, under all his Temptations, that he should not fail of reaching the End for which He came into the World; —which he would have failed of, had he fallen into Sin. We have such a Promise, Isai. xlii.1, 2, 3, 4. Behold my Servant, whom I uphold; mine Elect, in whom my Soul delighteth: I have put my Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth Judgment to the Gentiles: He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his Voice to be heard in the Street.— He shall bring forth Judgment unto Truth He shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till he have set Judgment in the Earth; and the Isles shall wait for his Law. This Promise of Christ's having God's Spirit put upon Him, and his not crying and lifting up his Voice &c. relates to the Time of Christ's Appearance on Earth; as is manifest from the Nature of the Promise, and also the Application of it in the New Testament, Matth. 12.18. And the Words imply a Promise of his being so upheld by God's Spirit, that he should be preserved from Sin; particularly from Pride and Vain-glory, and from being overcome by any of the Temptations he should be under to affect the Glory of this World; the Pomp of an earthly Prince, or the Applause and Praise of Men: and that he should be so upheld, that he should by no Means fail of obtaining the End of his coming into the World, of bringing forth Judgment unto Victory, and establishing his Kingdom of Grace in the Earth.—And in the following Verses, this Promise is confirmed, with the greatest imaginable Solemnity. Thus saith the LORD, HE that created the Heavens, and stretched them out; He that spread forth the Earth, and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth Breath unto the People upon it, and Spirit to them that walk therein: I the Lord have called Thee in Righteousness, and will hold thine Hand; and will keep Thee, and give Thee for a Covenant of the People, for a Light of the Gentiles, to open the blind Eyes, to bring out the Prisoners from the Prison, and them that sit in Darkness out of the Prison-House. I am JEHOVAH, that is my Name, &c.
1. God had promised so effectually to preserve and uphold Him by his Spirit, under all his Temptations, that he should not fail of reaching the End for which He came into the World; —which he would have fail'd of, had he fallen into Sin. We have such a Promise,