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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
The year 1958 marked the two-hundredth anniversary of the death of the celebrated Puritan divine, Jonathan Edwards. Edwards stands out as the one figure of real greatness in the intellectual life of colonial America. He was born, bred, and passed his whole life on the verge of civilisation; yet he has made his voice heard wherever men have concerned themselves with that great topic—God's sovereignty and the human will. We shall consider, in spite of twentieth-century philosophical prejudice, his most important piece of scholarship—Freedom of the Will.
page 1 note 1 Edwards, Jonathan, Freedom of the Will, ed. Ramsey, Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957), pp. 430–431.Google Scholar
page 2 note 1 Edwards, op. cit., p. 137.
page 2 note 2 ibid., p. 141.
page 2 note 3 ibid., p. 181.
page 3 note 1 ibid., p. 164.
page 3 note 2 ibid., p. 163.
page 3 note 3 ‘A Letter on the Sin Against the Holy Ghost’, The Writings of James Arminius, trans. Nichols, James (3 vols.; Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1956), Vol. II, pp. 525–526.Google Scholar
page 3 note 4 ‘The Great Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Defended’, The Works of President Edwards (4 vols.; New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1881), Vol. II, pp. 476–477.Google Scholar
page 4 note 1 Edwards, op. cit., p. 172.
page 4 note 2 Miller, Perry, Jonathan Edwards (‘The American Men of Letters Series’; New York: William Sloane Assoc., 1949) p. 258.Google Scholar
page 4 note 3 Edwards, op. cit., p. 2O3n.
page 5 note 1 Edwards, op. cit., pp. 290–1.
page 5 note 2 ibid., p. 253.
page 6 note 1 Edwards, op. cit., p. 265.
page 6 note 2 ibid., p. 431.
page 6 note 3 ibid., p. 357.
page 7 note 1 Edwards, op. cit., p. 162.
page 9 note 1 Kant laboured in vain to establish that ‘ought implies can’, while Brunner maintains that ‘ought’ implies ‘cannot’. ‘If I feel I ought to do right, it is a sign that I cannot do it. If I could really do it, there would be no question of “ought” about it at all. The sense of “ought” shows me the Good at an infinite, impassable distance from my will.’ Brunner, Emil, The Divine Imperative (trans. Wyon, OlivePhiladelphia: The Westminster Press, 1947), p. 74.Google Scholar
page 9 note 2 Edwards, Jonathan, ‘God Glorified in Man's Dependence’, The Development of American Philosophy (ed. Muelder, Walter G. and Sears, Laurence, New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1940), p. 18.Google Scholar
page 10 note 1 Romans 9.19–24 (trans. J. B. Phillips). Observe the distinction between the passive participle καγηρτισμ⋯να (negative reprobation) and the active πρoητo⋯μασεν (election)—the vessels of wrath are said to be fitted, as broken pieces, for that destruction which man deserved when he broke with God; whereas God Himself is expressly said to have prepared His chosen vessels of mercy for glory.
page 11 note 1 Baillie, Donald M., ‘Philosophers and Theologians on the Freedom of the Will’, Scottish Journal of Theology, IV, No. 2 (June 1951), p. 121.Google Scholar
page 11 note 2 The theory of John Locke, that knowledge was based on experience and sensation and not on innate ideas, held a strong fascination for Edwards from early years. His emphasis on experience is well marked in his demand for conversion. Sensation, however, to Edwards was not the same as Locke's idea. The latter taught about the impact of material things upon the senses. To Edwards, sensation was the impact of God upon the soul. (See Edwards' sermon ‘A Divine and Supernatural Light’.)
page 11 note 3 Ness, Christopher, An Antidote Against Arminianism (Swengel [‘Union Co.’], Pennsylvania: Bible Truth Depot, 1946), p. 49.Google Scholar
page 12 note 1 Boettner, Loraine, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdrnans Publishing Co., 1934), p. 280.Google Scholar
page 13 note 1 Ramm, Bernard, Protestant Biblical Interpretation (Boston: W. A. Wilde Co., 1950), P. 95.Google Scholar