N05663:719
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.
And as the Doctrines of efficacious Grace and absolute Election do certainly follow from Things which have been proved in the preceding Discourse; so some of the main Foundations of the Doctrine of Perseverance are thereby established. If the Beginning of true Faith and Holiness, and a Man's becoming a true Saint at first, don't depend on the self-determining Power of the Will, but on the determining efficacious Grace of God; it may well be argued, that it is so also with Respect to Men's being continued Saints, or persevering in Faith and Holiness. The Conversion of a Sinner being not owing to a Man's Self-determination, but to God's Determination, and eternal Election, which is absolute, ⟨p. 292⟩and depending on the sovereign Will of God, and not on the free Will of Man; as is evident from what has been said: And it being very evident from the Scriptures, that the eternal Election which there is of Saints to Faith and Holiness, is also an Election of them to eternal Salvation; hence their Appointment to Salvation must also be absolute, and not depending on their contingent, self-determining Will. From all which it follows, that it is absolutely fixed in God's Decree, that all true Saints shall persevere to actual eternal Salvation.
And as the Doctrines of efficacious Grace and absolute Election do certainly follow from Things which have been proved in the preceeding Discourse; so some of the main Foundations of the Doctrine of Perseverance are thereby established. If the Beginning of true Faith and Holiness, and a Man's becoming a true Saint at first, don't depend on the self-determining Power of the Will, but on the determining efficacious Grace of God; it may well be argued, that it is so also with Respect to Men's being continued Saints, or persevering in Faith and Holiness. The Conversion of a Sinner being not owing to a Man's Self-determination, but to God's Determination, and eternal Election, which is absolute, ⟨p. 292⟩and depending on the sovereign Will of God, and not on the free Will of Man; as is evident from what has been said: And it being very evident from the Scriptures, that the eternal Election which there is of Saints to Faith and Holiness, is also an Election of them to eternal Salvation; hence their Appointment to Salvation must also be absolute, and not depending on their contingent, self-determining Will. From all which it follows, that it is absolutely fix'd in God's Decree, that all true Saints shall persevere to actual eternal Salvation.