N05663:573
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.
So that the Objection we are upon, don't lie against the Doctrine of the Necessity of Events by a Certainty of Connection and Consequence: On the contrary, it is truly forcible against the Arminian Doctrine of Contingence and Self-determination; which is inconsistent with such a Connection. If there be no Connection between those Events wherein Virtue and Vice consist, and any Thing antecedent; then there is no Connection between these Events and any Means or Endeavours ⟨p. 223⟩used in order to them: And if so, then those Means must be in vain. The less there is of Connection between foregoing Things and following ones, so much the less there is between Means and End, Endeavours and Success; and in the same Proportion are Means and Endeavours ineffectual and in vain.
So that the Objection we are upon, don't lie against the Doctrine of the Necessity of Events by a Certainty of Connection and Consequence: On the contrary, it is truly forcible against the Arminian Doctrine of Contingence and Self-determination; which is inconsistent with such a Connection. If there be no Connection between those Events wherein Vertue and Vice consist, and any Thing antecedent; then there is no Connection between these Events and any Means or Endeavours ⟨p. 223⟩used in order to them: And if so, then those Means must be in vain. The less there is of Connection between foregoing Things and following ones, so much the less there is between Means and End, Endeavours and Success; and in the same Proportion are Means and Endeavours ineffectual and in vain.
It will follow from Arminian Principles, that there is no Degree of Connection between Virtue or Vice, and any foregoing Event or Thing: Or in other Words, That the Determination of the Existence of Virtue or Vice don't in the least depend on the Influence of any Thing that comes to pass antecedently, from which the Determination of its Existence is, as its Cause, Means, or Ground; because, so far as it is so, it is not from Self-determination: And therefore, so far there is nothing of the Nature of Virtue or Vice. And so it follows, that Virtue and Vice are not at all, in any Degree, dependent upon, or connected with any foregoing Event or Existence, as its Cause, Ground, or Means. And if so, then all foregoing Means must be totally in vain.