N05663:567
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.
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.
For Endeavours to be in vain, is for 'em not to be successful; that is to say, for 'em not eventually to be the Means of the Thing aimed at, which can't be, but in one of these two Ways; either, First, That altho' the Means are used, yet the Event aimed at don't follow: Or, Secondly, If the Event does follow, it is not because of the Means, or from any Connection or Dependence of the Event on the Means, the Event would have come to pass, as well without the Means, as with them. If either of these two Things are the Case, then the Means are not properly successful, and are truly in vain. The Successfulness or Unsuccessfulness of Means, in order to an Effect, or their being in vain or not in vain, consists in those Means being connected, or not connected, with the Effect, in