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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.
In Rev. xvii.17. The agreeing of the Kings of the Earth to give their Kingdom to the Beast, tho' it was a very wicked Thing in them, is spoken of as a fulfilling God's Will, and what God had put it into their Hearts to do. 'Tis manifest, that God sometimes permits Sin to be committed, and at the same Time orders Things so, that if he permits the Fact, it will come to pass, because on some Accounts he sees it needful and of Importance that it should come to pass. Matt. xviii.7. It must needs be, that Offences come; but W• to that Man by whom the Offence cometh. With 1 Cor. xi.19. For there must also be Heresies among you, that they which are approved, may be made manifest among you.
Thus it is certain and demonstrable, from the holy Scriptures, as well as the Nature of Things, and the Principles of Arminians, that God permits Sin; and at the same Time, so orders Things, in his Providence, that it certainly and infallibly will come to pass, in Consequence of his Permission.
I proceed to observe in the next Place,