Freedom of the will - Edwards - III - Part II continued

Required reading
Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edwards (available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Part II by reading Sections VII to X.

My summary
Today Edwards continues to show the inconsistencies in claims that the will is free.

In Section VII we see that using the term Indifference by Arminians brings no meaning to the discussion: 'I wish such refiners would thoroughly consider, whether they distinctly know their own meaning, when they make a distinction between an Indifference of the soul as to its power or ability of choosing, and the soul’s Indifference as to the preference or choice itself; and whether they do not deceive themselves in imagining that they have any distinct meaning at all.'

In Section VIII it is shown that the claim is false that there is no Necessity to what the Will does: 'On the whole, it is clearly manifest, that every effect has a necessary connexion with its cause, or with that which is the true ground and reason of its existence. And therefore, if there be no event without a cause, as was proved before, then no event whatsoever is contingent, in the manner that Arminians suppose the free acts of the will to be contingent.'

In Section IX it is noted that if Understanding influences the Will, then the Will is not free.

In Section X  we see that if Motives influence the Will, then the Will is not free: 'Now, if motives dispose the mind to action, then they cause the mind to be disposed; and to cause the mind to be disposed is to cause it to be willing; and to cause it to be willing is to cause it to will; and that is the same thing as to be the cause of an act of the Will.'

What grabbed me
Today Edwards indicates again the damage that Arminians do to the doctrine of God if they view the will as free: 'If this view of the Understanding be that alone which doth move the Will to choose or refuse, as the Doctor asserts, then every act of choice or refusal, from a man’s first existence, is moved and determined by this view; and this view of the Understanding exciting and governing the act, must be before the act. And therefore the Will is necessarily determined, in every one of its acts, from a man’s first existence, by a cause beside the will, and a cause that does not proceed from or depend on any act of the Will at all. Which at once utterly abolishes the Doctor’s whole scheme of Liberty of Will; and he, at one stroke, has cut the sinews of all his arguments from the goodness, righteousness, faithfulness, and sincerity of God, in his commands, promises, threatenings, calls, invitations, and expostulations; which he makes use of, under the heads of reprobation, election, universal redemption, sufficient and effectual grace, and the freedom of the will of man; and has made vain all his exclamations against the doctrine of the Calvinists, as charging God with manifest unrighteousness, unfaithfulness, hypocrisy, fallaciousness, and cruelty.'

Next week's reading
Conclude Part II by reading Sections XI to XIII.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.