N05663:48
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.
2. The apparent Degree of Pleasure or Trouble attending the Object, or the Consequence of it. Such Concomitants and Consequents being viewed as Circumstances of the Object, are to be considered as belonging to it, and as it were Parts of it; as it stands in the Mind's View, as a proposed Object of Choice.
2. The apparent Degree of Pleasure or Trouble attending the Object, or the Consequence of it. Such Concomitants and Consequents being view'd as Circumstances of the Object, are to be considered as belonging to it, and as it were Parts of it; as it stands in the Mind's View, as a proposed Object of Choice.
3. The apparent State of the Pleasure or Trouble that appears, with Respect to Distance of Time; being either nearer or farther off. 'Tis a Thing in it self agreeable to the Mind, to have Pleasure speedily; and disagreeable, to have it delayed: So that if there be two equal Degrees of Pleasure set in the Mind's View, and all other Things are equal, but only one is beheld as near, and the other far off; the nearer will appear most agreeable, and so will be chosen. Because, tho' the Agreeableness of the Objects be exactly equal, as viewed in Themselves, yet not as viewed in their Circumstances; one of them having the additional Agreeableness of the Circumstance of Nearness.
3. The apparent State of the Pleasure or Trouble that appears, with Respect to Distance of Time; being either nearer or farther off. 'Tis a Thing in it self agreable to the Mind, to have Pleasure speedily; and disagreable, to have it delayed: So that if there be two equal Degrees of Pleasure set in the Mind's View, and all other Things are equal, but only one is beheld as near, and the other far off; the nearer will appear most agreable, and so will be chosen. Because, tho' the Agreableness of the Objects be exactly equal, as view'd in Themselves, yet not as view'd in their Circumstances; one of them having the additional Agreableness of the Circumstance of Nearness.