N05663:384
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.
6. It was impossible, that the Messiah should fail of persevering in Integrity and Holiness, as the first Adam did, because this would have been inconsistent with the Promises which God made to the blessed Virgin, his Mother, and to her Husband; implying, that He should save his People from their Sins, that God would give Him the Throne of his Father David, that He should reign over the House of Jacob forever; and that of his Kingdom there should be no End. These Promises were sure, and it was impossible they should fail. And therefore the Virgin Mary, in trusting fully to them, acted reasonably, having an immovable Foundation of her Faith; as Elisabeth observes, ver. 45. And blessed is she that believeth; for there shall be a Performance of those Things which were told her from the Lord.
7. That it should have been possible that Christ should sin, and so fail in the Work of our Redemption▪ does not consist with the eternal Purpose and Decree of God, revealed ⟨p. 145⟩in the Scriptures, that He would provide Salvation for fallen Man in and by Jesus Christ, and that Salvation should be offered to Sinners through the Preaching of the Gospel. Such an absolute Decree as this Arminians don't deny. Thus much at least (out of all Controversy) is implied in such Scriptures, as 1 Cor. ii.7. Eph. i.4, 5. and Ch. iii.9, 10, 11. 1 Pet. i.19, 20. Such an absolute Decree as this, Arminians allow to be signified in these Texts. And the Arminians Election of Nations and Societies, and general Election of the Christian Church, and conditional Election of particular Persons, imply this. God could not decree before the Foundation of the World, to save all that should believe in, and obey Christ, unless he had absolutely decreed that Salvation should be provided, and effectually wrought out by Christ. And since (as the Arminians themselves strenuously maintain) a Decree of God infers Necessity; hence it became necessary that Christ should persevere, and actually work out Salvation for us, and that He should not fail by the Commission of Sin.