N05663:555

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

Name: A careful and strict enquiry into the modern prevailing notions of that freedom of…
Author: Jonathan Edwards

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]

Jonathan Edwards 1703–1758printed by S. Kneeland, 1754

[2], vi, [4], 294, [14] p. ; 20 cm. (8vo) · 127k words · Evans 7187

Title page: Princeton Theological Seminary Library copy, digitized by the Internet Archive (opens the Internet Archive in a new tab)

Part 4 › Section 4: It is agreeable to common Sense, and the natural Notions of Mankind, to suppose moral Ne…Part 4 › Section 4: It is agreable to common Sense, and the natural Notions of Mankind, to suppose moral Ne…

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.

[ Earlier:552–567 of 753

:552p. 214

The common People, in their Notion of a faulty or praise-worthy Deed or Work done by any one, do suppose that the Man does it in the Exercise of Liberty. But then their Notion of Liberty is only a Person's having Opportunity of doing as he pleases. They have no Notion of Liberty consisting in the Will's first acting, and so causing it's own Acts; and determining, and so causing it's own Determinations; or choosing, and so causing it's own Choice. Such a Notion of Liberty is what none have, but those that have darkened their own Minds with confused metaphysical Speculation, and abstruse and ambiguous Terms. If a Man is not restrained from acting as his Will determines, or constrained to act otherwise; then he has Liberty, according to common Notions of Liberty, without taking into the Idea that grand Contradiction of all the Determinations of a Man's free Will being the Effects of the Determinations of his free Will.—Nor have Men commonly any Notion of Freedom consisting in Indifference. For if so, then it would be agreeable to their Notion, that the greater Indifference Men act with, the more Freedom they act with; whereas the Reverse is true. He that in acting, proceeds with the fullest Inclination, does what He does with the greatest Freedom, according to common Sense. And so far is it from being agreeable to common Sense, that such Liberty as consists in Indifference is requisite to Praise or Blame, that on the contrary, the Dictate of every Man's natural Sense thro' the World is, that the further he is from being indifferent in his acting Good or Evil, and the more he does either with full and strong Inclination, the more is he esteemed or abhorred, commended or condemned.

The common People, in their Notion of a faulty or praise-worthy Deed or Work done by any one, do suppose that the Man does it in the Exercise of Liberty. But then their Notion of Liberty is only a Person's having Opportunity of doing as he pleases. They have no Notion of Liberty consisting in the Will's first acting, and so causing it's own Acts; and determining, and so causing it's own Determinations; or chusing, and so causing it's own Choice. Such a Notion of Liberty is what none have, but those that have darken'd their own Minds with confused metaphysical Speculation, and abstruse and ambiguous Terms. If a Man is not restrain'd from acting as his Will determines, or constrain'd to act otherwise; then he has Liberty, according to common Notions of Liberty, without taking into the Idea that grand Contradiction of all the Determinations of a Man's free Will being the Effects of the Determinations of his free Will.—Nor have Men commonly any Notion of Freedom consisting in Indifference. For if so, then it would be agreable to their Notion, that the greater Indifference Men act with, the more Freedom they act with; whereas the Reverse is true. He that in acting, proceeds with the fullest Inclination, does what He does with the greatest Freedom, according to common Sense. And so far is it from being agreable to common Sense, that such Liberty as consists in Indifference is requisite to Praise or Blame, that on the contrary, the Dictate of every Man's natural Sense thro' the World is, that the further he is from being indifferent in his acting Good or Evil, and the more he does either with full and strong Inclination, the more is he esteemed or abhorred, commended or condemned.

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The book

Title as printed

Author

Jonathan Edwards 1703–1758

Printer

S. Kneeland

Year

1754

Size

[2], vi, [4], 294, [14] p. ; 20 cm. (8vo)

Words

127,416

Catalogue

Evans 7187

Text

Evans-TCP N05663

Passages

753

Sections

Title page

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

SECTION V. Concerning those Objections, that this Scheme of Necessity renders all Means and Endeavours for the avoiding of Sin, or the obtaining Virtue and Holiness, vain, and to no Purpose; and that it makes Men no more than mere Machines in Affairs of Morality and Religion.

SECTION V. Concerning those Objections, that this Scheme of Necessity renders all Means and Endeavours for the avoiding of Sin, or the obtaining Vertue and Holiness, vain, and to no Purpose; and that it makes Men no more than meer Machines in Affairs of Morality and Religion.

Transcription key

Reformers309

Puritans1,782

Westminster Assembly24

Evangelicals36

SECTION V. Concerning those Objections, that this Scheme of Necessity renders all Means and Endeavours for the avoiding of Sin, or the obtaining Virtue and Holiness, vain, and to no Purpose; and that it makes Men no more than mere Machines in Affairs of Morality and Religion.

SECTION V. Concerning those Objections, that this Scheme of Necessity renders all Means and Endeavours for the avoiding of Sin, or the obtaining Vertue and Holiness, vain, and to no Purpose; and that it makes Men no more than meer Machines in Affairs of Morality and Religion.

Transcription key