N05663:566
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.
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.
Arminians say, if it be so, that Sin and Virtue come to pass by a Necessity consisting in a sure Connection of Causes and Effects, Antecedents and Consequents, it can never be worth the while to use any Means or Endeavours to obtain the one, and avoid the other; seeing no Endeavours can alter the Futurity of the Event, which is become necessary by a Connection already established.
ARminians say, if it be so, that Sin and Vertue come to pass by a Necessity consisting in a sure Connection of Causes and Effects, Antecedents and Consequents, it can never be worth the while to use any Means or Endeavours to obtain the one, and avoid the other; seeing no Endeavours can alter the Futurity of the Event, which is become necessary by a Connection already established.
But I desire, that this Matter may be fully considered; and that it may be examined with a thorough Strictness, whether it will follow that Endeavours and Means, in order to avoid or obtain any future Thing, must be more in vain, on the Supposition of such a Connection of Antecedents and Consequents, than if the contrary be supposed.