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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
Part 4 › Section 11: Of a supposed Inconsistence of these Principles, with GOD's moral Character.
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 XI. Of a supposed Inconsistence of these Principles, with GOD's moral Character.
THE Things which have been already observed, may be sufficient to answer most of the Objections, and silence the great Exclamations of Arminians against the Calvinists, from the supposed Inconsistence of Calvinistic Principles with the moral Perfections of God, as exercised in his Government of Mankind. The Consistence of such a Doctrine of Necessity as has been maintained, with the Fitness and Reasonableness of God's Commands, Promises and Threatenings, Rewards and Punishments, has been particularly considered: The Cavils of our Opponents, as tho' our Doctrine of Necessity made God the Author of Sin, have been answered; and also their Objection against these Principles, as inconsistent with God's Sincerity, in his Counsels, Invitations and Persuasions, has been already obviated, in what has been observed, respecting the Consistence of what Calvinists suppose concerning the secret and revealed Will of God: By that it appears, there is no Repugnance in supposing it may be the secret Will of God, that his Ordination and Permission of Events should be such that it shall be a certain Consequence, that a Thing never will come to pass; which yet it is Man's Duty to do, and so God's preceptive Will, that he should do; and this is the same Thing as to say, God may sincerely command and require him to do it. And if he may be sincere in commanding him, he may for the same Reason be sincere in counselling, inviting and using Persuasions with him to do it. Counsels and Invitations are Manifestations of God's preceptive Will, or of what God loves, and what is in it self, and as Man's Act, agreeable to his Heart; and not of his disposing Will, and what he chooses as a Part of his own infinite Scheme of Things. It has been particularly shown, Part III. Section IV. that such a Necessity as has been maintained, is not inconsistent with the Propriety and Fitness of divine Commands; and for the same Reason, not inconsistent with the Sincerity of Invitations and Counsels, in the Corollary at the End of that Section. Yea, it hath been shown, Part III. Sect. 7. Coral. 1. that this Objection of Arminians,