, 1880-07-04

welfare OF thousands ana ntll1ons OF SOUS.
Man. since Adams fall, is born i'll Il stnte Of
moral inAbility,-a kind Of spiritual he1n1plcgla.
He Is competent, as we have seen, to commit I'M
perform the least sood la action. 10 % lie is hateful to
his Maker. cx oflicio, as human being. 1t iSfno
wonder that Edwards uses hard words about
such being. This is IL specimen from one Of
those sermons to which the long-sudcring people
of Northampton listened for twenty-four years:
You have never loved God, who is inlnitly
glorious and lovely; and why then is God under
obligations to love YOU, who are all over de-
formed and loa.hsOme as filthy worm, or rather
hateful yiper?'' and on the very mex: page he
returns to his epithets and comparisons, paying
his respects to his felow-creaturcs in tue to-
lowing words: Seeing you thus disrcgnrd SO
great God; IS it q hei9ous thing, for God to
Il worm. mere nothing and less than nothing; u
vile insect that has risen up III contempt agaiusr
the Majesty Of Heaven and earth?'' We Gun
hardly help remarkiny Just here TINT this kind
OF language will seem to most persons an un-
wholesome rhetoric for preacher to indulge
thoughts, and not unlikely to produce irritation
in some Of his more excitable hearers. hut ne
was led, rs it will soon appear, into the use Of
expressions still more fitted to disturb tho feel
Jugs Of all persons Of common scnsibility. and
especially OF the fathers and mothers, who lis
tened TO him. Such was Edwards estimate of
humanity.
Hisopinion of the Deril is hardly more respect
ful than that which be entertnins Of l1,Hn:
hnagh IL the Devl IS H. = x srafty and
fools and btockheads in tho world. as tho
subtcst of wicked men arc" But for
u very important part Edwards thinks in
the great events OF the worlds history: He was
ina dreadful. rage just before the llood, He
ing MEN and women there so rs to get them out
OF the way of the Gospel. Thus he WIS. accord
Ing to Edwar1S the true Pil$rim rim Father of the
vail against two rcvivals Of roligion in this
country. The personal presence Of the great
enemy of mankind WAS as real to Edwards ns the
which the soldiers fired at but could not hit.were
to Cotton Mather and his reverend corre-
@ How the sPeeay Of ne
fectly clear, except thut one executes what the
other orders. the Evil Angel finding pleasure in
uhicting torture, and - Justice uttainlng the
end known to theologinus us '' satisfaction In
seeing it inflicted. And rs Edwards couples his
supreme principle with an epithct correspond
Of it ~ "revenEns JUSTICE. eau have some
idea Of what satisfaction - means III the light
Of the common saying that It revenge is sweet;
but the explanation does not leave the soul IN
sernphic harmony with the music Of the spheres
or the keynote of its own being.
The full title Of the work on which Edwards
reputation us Il thinker mainly rests is. a care
ful und strict Inquiry into the modern prevail
ing notions of that Freedom of the Will which is
supposed to be essential 10 moral agency,
virtue and vice, reward and punishment, praise
aud hlane."
Edwards thinks it necessary to meet those
who object to reasontnss like his that they run
Unto nice scholastic distinctions and abstruso
metaphysical subticties, and set these In oppos-
tion to eoln,non-sense, But nn essay which
est befure he was nine years old must have Il
good deal in 1t which comes within tho compass
Of moderate unde;stan.lings; The truth is, s hls
admirable ingenuity, is nothing but careful
evolution Of the impossibilities involved iu the
idea Of that od SCHOLASTIC thesis hest X known IN
books Tame de Buridan, and in common speech
!" the ass between two bundles Of hay,""---or, us
Leibnitz has it. between two pastures. The OBJ
ject Of Edwards was to prove that such state
of equilibrium, supposed by his Arninlun oppo-
nents to be necessary to account for huInnn
freedom and responsibility, does not and cannot
exist Lcibnitz had already denied its possibili-
ty without III express act Of the Creator.
The reader of this celebrated treatise may well
nacity with which the kcen-sccntcd rcasoncr
follows the devious trucks Of his adversaries;
yet he can hardly help feeling that vast num-
and t o aros @ as='.;s, a propoa;sion shsb p.by
tho grcat logician, Is sef-eyidcnt; In fact, Ed
wards has moro than once stated hts own arEu-
mcnt with contemptuous brcyity. as il he felt
that he had been paying out in farthtngs what
he could easily hand out in the form Of ii shill-
ing. Here is one of his condensed statements:
"Tkerei Is no high degree of refinement nhd abb
tr,ise speculation in determining that thing is
not before il is, and 50 cannot be the cause OF OF
another act of free choice going before that to
excite or direct it; or in determining that NO
choice can be made While the T,nd r.
that preference aud equilibrium never coexist;
and that therefore no choice is made ~ state
of liberty consisting in indiff and that so
far us the Will is determined by motives. cx-
hibiting aud operating previous to the act OF the
WILL 81 far it is not determined by the Aet OF the
viii itself: that nothing can begin to be, which
before was not, without Il cause, or some ante
cedeut ground or reason why it then begins to
be; that effects depend on their causes, and are
connected with them: that virtue is not the
worse nor sin the BETTER for the strength OF in
clination with which it is practiced, and the dill
enty Which + nrlsfs IF 99n LEY M
thing will be, it is not contingent whether It Will
ever he or no; or that 1t can be truly said: not,
withstanding, that it is not necessary it should
be, but it either may be, or may not be.
This subject of the freedom of the will is one
which we can hardly touch without becoming
perts in the matter Of volition. We may have
read much or little; We may have made 1t u
special subject Of thought or not; each OF US
has ut any rate been using his will during every
waking hour of his life, and must hnve some
practical acquaintance with its working within
him.
that, though we are free to follow our will, We
are not free to forul un act Of vuiition but that
this of necessity obeys the strongest motive. AS
the natural man-that is, every man since the
fail of Adnua-is corrupt in all his tendencies, it
follows that his motives, and consequently his
moral voiitions, are all evil until changed by
gruce which is q free gift to such as are elected
from eternity according to Gods good pleasure.
1.-The doctrine of Il self-detcrmtnlng will as the
ground OF I'LL moral POQG anu Gfl1 LGuuS u pEC-
vent any proper exercises of faith In God and
Christ in the affair Of our salvation, as it tends
to prevent all dependence upon them
In spite of any general assertions OF Edwards
to the contrary, we find our wills tied up hand
and foot in tho logical propositions which ho
knots inextricably about them; and yet, when
we lay down the book, we feel as il there was
something left free after all. We cnn-
not help saying, Z pur 81 muove. we
arc DISPOSED to settle the matter as
magisteriaiy as DR.. johnson did. Sir" said
he we k7lolU our will is free, and there's an end
ont"
Not so certainly do we know this, perhaps, as !;
the great dognatist alirnls = "a wooten top,
says Hobbies, - that Is lashed by the boys, ana
runs about sometimes to one wall, sometimes 10
another, sometimes spinning, sometimes hitting
men on the shins, If it were sensible OF its own
motion would think it proceeded from its own
will, unless it felt what lashed it. And Is Il man
any wiser when he runs to one place tpra
benctice to another for u bargain, md troubles
the world with writing errors ana requiring
answers, because he thinks he does 1t without
other cause than his own will. and seetn not y
what nre the lashngs that cause that WIZ!
And in the same way Leibnltz SPEAKS OF !ne
magnetic needle: if it took pleasure IN turning
to the north it would suppose itself to be uctlng
independently, not knowing anything OF the
magnetic currents.
The more we study the will in the way OF anal
ysis the more strictly does 1t appeur to be deter
miued By the inf1nitly varied conditions OF the
Individual At the bottom OF all these lies Inc
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