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The Freedom of the Will

by Jonathan EDWARDS (1703 - 1758)

IV.IX - Concerning that objection against the doctrine which has been maintained, that it makes god the author of sin

As religion is the great business, for which we are created, and on which our happiness depends; and as religion consists in an intercourse between ourselves and our Maker; and so has its foundation in God's nature and ours, and in the relation that God and we stand in to each other; therefore a true knowledge of both must be needful in order to true religion. But the knowledge of ourselves consists chiefly in right apprehensions concerning those two chief faculties of our nature, the Understanding and Will. Both are very important: yet the science of the latter must be confessed to be of greatest moment; inasmuch as all virtue and religion have their seat more immediately in the will, consisting more especially in right acts and habits of this faculty. And the grand question about the Freedom of the Will, is the main point that belongs to the science of the Will. Therefore I say, the importance of this subject greatly demands the attention of Christians, and especially of Divines. - Summary from the preface

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Listen next episodes of The Freedom of the Will:
Appendix , Conclusion , IV.X - Concerning sin's first entrance into the world , IV.XI - Of a supposed inconsistence of these principles, with God's moral character , IV.XII - Of a supposed tendency of these principles to atheism and licentiousness , IV.XIII - Concerning that objection against the reasoning, by which the Calvinistic doctrine is supported, that it is metaphysical and abstruse