N05663:581
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 VI. Concerning that Objection against the Doctrine which has been maintained, that it agrees with the Stoical Doctrine of Fate, and the Opinions of Mr. Hobbes.
SECTION VI. Concerning that Objection against the Doctrine which has been maintain'd, that it agrees with the Stoical Doctrine of Fate, and the Opinions of Mr. Hobbes.
WHEN Calvinists oppose the Arminian Notion of the Freedom of Will, and Contingence of Volition, and insist that there are no Acts of the Will, nor any other Events whatsoever, but what are attended with some Kind of Necessity; their Opposers cry out of them, as agreeing with the ancient Stoics in their Doctrine of Fate, and with Mr. Hobbes in his Opinion of Necessity.
WHEN Calvinists oppose the Arminian Notion of the Freedom of Will, and Contingence of Volition, and insist that there are no Acts of the Will, nor any other Events whatsoever, but what are attended with some Kind of Necessity; their Opposers cry out of them, as agreeing with the antient Stoicks in their Doctrine of Fate, and with Mr. Hobbes in his Opinion of Necessity.
It would not be worth while, to take Notice of so impertinent an Objection, had it not been urged by some of the chief Arminian Writers.— There were many important Truths maintained by the ancient Greek and Roman Philosophers, and especially the Stoics, that are never the worse for being held by them. The Stoic Philosophers, by the general Agreement of Christian Divines, and even Arminian Divines, were the greatest, wisest and most virtuous of all the Heathen Philosophers; and in their Doctrine and Practice came the nearest to Christianity of any of their Sects. How frequently are the Sayings of these Philosophers, in many of the Writings and Sermons, even of Arminian Divines, produced, not as Arguments of the Falseness of the Doctrines which they delivered, but as a Confirmation of some of the greatest Truths of the Christian Religion, relating to the Unity and Perfections of the Godhead, a future State, the Duty and Happiness of Mankind, &c. as observing how the Light of Nature and Reason in the wisest and best of the Heathen, harmonized with, and confirms the Gospel of Jesus Christ.