A careful and strict enquiry into the modern prevailing notions of that freedom of…

Dr. Whitby (Disc. on five Points. P. 302, 303) denies, that Men, in this World, are ever so given up by God to Sin, that their Wills should be necessarily determined to Evil; tho' He owns, that hereby it may become exceeding difficult for Men to do Good, having a strong Bent, and powerful Inclination to what is Evil.—But if we should allow the Case to be just as he represents, the Judgment of giving up to Sin will no better agree with his Notions of that Liberty, which is essential to Praise or Blame, than if we should suppose it to render the avoiding of Sin impossible. For if an Impossibility of avoiding Sin wholly excuses a Man; then, for the same Reason, it's being difficult to avoid it excuses Him in Part; and this just in Proportion to the Degree of Difficulty.— If the ⟨p. 155⟩Influence of moral Impossibility or Inability be the same, to excuse Persons in not doing, or not avoiding any Thing, as that of natural Inability, (which is supposed) then undoubtedly, in like Manner, moral Difficulty has the same Influence to excuse with natural Difficulty. But all allow, that natural Impossibility wholly excuses, and also that natural Difficulty excuses in Part, and makes the Act or Omission less blameable, in Proportion to the Difficulty. All natural Difficulty, according to the plainest Dictates of the Light of Nature, excuses in some Degree, so that the Neglect is not so blameable, as if there had been no Difficulty in the Case: and so the greater the Difficulty is, still the more excusable, in Proportion to the Increase of the Difficulty. And as natural Impossibility wholly excuses and excludes all Blame, so the nearer the Difficulty approaches to Impossibility, still the nearer a Person is to Blamelessness, in Proportion to that Approach. And if the Case of moral Impossibility or Necessity, be just the same with natural Necessity or Co-action, as to Influence to excuse a Neglect, then also, for the same Reason, the Case of natural Difficulty don't differ in Influence, to excuse a Neglect, from moral Difficulty, arising from a strong Bias or Bent to Evil, such as Dr. Whitby owns in the Case of those that are given up to their own Hearts Lusts. So that the Fault of such Persons must be lessened, in Proportion to the Difficulty, and Approach to Impossibility.

Dr. Whitby (Disc. on five Points. P. 302, 303) denies, that Men, in this World, are ever so given up by God to Sin, that their Wills should be necessarily determined to Evil; tho' He owns, that hereby it may become exceeding difficult for Men to do Good, having a strong Bent, and powerful Inclination to what is Evil.—But if we should allow the Case to be just as he represents, the Judgment of giving up to Sin will no better agree with his Notions of that Liberty, which is essential to Praise or Blame, than if we should suppose it to render the avoiding of Sin impossible. For if an Impossibility of avoiding Sin wholly excuses a Man; then, for the same Reason, it's being difficult to avoid it excuses Him in Part; and this just in Proportion to the Degree of Difficulty.— If the