N05663:692
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 12: Of a supposed Tendency of these Principles to Atheism and Licentiousness.
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.
The Doctrine of Necessity, which supposes a necessary Connection of all Events, on some antecedent Ground and Reason of their Existence, is the only Medium we have to prove the Being of God. And the contrary Doctrine of Contingence, even as maintained by Arminians (which certainly implies or infers, that Events may come into Existence, or begin to be, without Dependence on any Thing foregoing, as their Cause, Ground or Reason) takes away all Proof of the Being of God; which Proof is summarily expressed by the Apostle, in Rom. i.20. And this is a Tendency to Atheism with a Witness. So that indeed it is the Doctrine of Arminians, and not of the Calvinists, that is justly charged with a Tendency to Atheism; it being built on a Foundation that is the utter Subversion of every demonstrative Argument for the Proof of a Deity; as has been shown, Part II. Sect. 3d.
The Doctrine of Necessity, which supposes a necessary Connection of all Events, on some antecedent Ground and Reason of their Existence, is the only Medium we have to prove the Being of God. And the contrary Doctrine of Contingence, even as maintain'd by Arminians (which certainly implies or infers, that Events may come into Existence, or begin to be, without Dependence on any Thing foregoing, as their Cause, Ground or Reason) takes away all Proof of the Being of God; which Proof is summarily express'd by the Apostle, in Rom. i.20. And this is a Tendency to Atheism with a Witness. So that indeed it is the Doctrine of Arminians, and not of the Calvinists, that is justly charged with a Tendency to Atheism; it being built on a Foundation that is the utter Subversion of every demonstrative Argument for the Proof of a Deity; as has been shown, Part II. Sect. 3d.
And whereas it has often been said, that the Calvinistic Doctrine of Necessity, saps the Foundations of all Religion and Virtue, and tends to the greatest Licentiousness of Practice: This Objection is built on the Pretence, that our Doctrine renders vain all Means and Endeavours, in order to be virtuous and religious, Which Pretence has been already particularly considered in the 5th Section of this Part; where it has been demonstrated, that this Doctrine has no such Tendency; but that such a Tendency is truly to be charged on the contrary Doctrine: inasmuch as the Notion of Contingence, which their Doctrine implies, in its certain Consequences, overthrows all Connection, in every Degree, between Endeavour and Event, Means and End.