N05663:631
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.
'Tis possible, that the most minute Effects of the Creator's Power, the smallest assignable Differences between the Things which God has made, may be attended, in the whole Series of Events, and the whole Compass and Extent of their Influence, with very great and important Consequences. If the Laws of Motion & Gravitation, laid down by Sir Isaac Newton, hold universally, there is not one Atom, nor the least assignable Part of an Atom, but what has Influence, every Moment, throughout the whole material Universe, to cause every Part to be otherwise than it would be, if it were not for that particular corporeal Existence. And however the Effect is insensible for the present, yet it may in Length of Time become great and important.
To illustrate this, Let us suppose two Bodies moving the same Way, in strait Lines, perfectly parallel one to another; but to be diverted from this Parallel Course, and drawn one from another, as much as might be by the Attraction of an Atom, at the Distance of one of the furthest of the fixed Stars from the Earth; these Bodies being turned out of the […] of their parallel Motion, will, by Degrees, get further […] further distant, one from the other; and tho' the Distance may be imperceptible for a long Time, yet at Length it may become very great. So the Revolution of a Planet round the Sun being retarded or accelerated, and the Orbit of it's Revolution ⟨p. 249⟩made greater or less, and more or less elliptical, and so it's Periodical Time longer or shorter, no more than may be by the Influence of the least Atom, might in Length of Time perform a whole Revolution sooner or later than otherwise it would have done; which might make a vast Alteration with Regard to Millions of important Events. So the Influence of the least Particle may, for ought we know, have such Effect on something in the Constitution of some human Body, as to cause another Thought to arise in the Mind at a certain Time, than otherwise would have been; which in Length of Time (yea, and that not very great) might occasion a vast Alteration thro' the whole World of Mankind. And so innumerable other Ways might be mentioned, wherein the least assignable Alteration may possibly be attended with great Consequences.