Produced by Keith G Richardson EXAMINATION OF EDWARDS ON THE WILL. AN EXAMINATION OF PRESIDENT EDWARDS' INQUIRY INTO THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL. BY ALBERT TAYLOR BLEDSOE. "Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, does and understands as much as his observations on the order of nature, either with regard to things or the mind, permit him, and neither knows more, nor is capable of more."--_Novum Organum_. PHILADELPHIA: H. HOOKER, 16 SOUTH SEVENTH STREET. 1845. ENTERED, according to act of Congress, in the year 1845, by H. HOOKER, in the clerk's office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. King & Baird, Printers, 9 George St. TO THE REV. WILLIAM SPARROW, D. D. AS A TOKEN OF ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS, AND AFFECTIONATE REGARD FOR HIS VIRTUES, This little Volume IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS SECTION I. OF THE POINT IN CONTROVERSY SECTION II. OF EDWARDS' USE OF THE TERM CAUSE SECTION III. THE INQUIRY INVOLVED IN A VICIOUS CIRCLE SECTION IV. VOLITION NOT AN EFFECT SECTION V. OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF REGARDING VOLITION AS AN EFFECT SECTION VI. OF THE MAXIM THAT EVERY EFFECT MUST HAVE A CAUSE SECTION VII. OF THE APPLICATION OF THE MAXIM THAT EVERY EFFECT MUST HAVE A CAUSE SECTION VIII. OF THE RELATION BETWEEN THE FEELINGS AND THE WILL SECTION IX. OF THE LIBERTY OF INDIFFERENCE SECTION X. OF ACTION AND PASSION SECTION XI. OF THE ARGUMENT FROM THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD SECTION XII. OF EDWARDS' USE OF THE TERM NECESSITY SECTION XIII. OF NATURAL AND MORAL NECESSITY SECTION XIV. OF EDWARDS' IDEA OF LIBERTY SECTION XV. OF EDWARDS' IDEA OF VIRTUE SECTION XVI. OF THE SELF-DETERMINING POWER SECTION XVII. OF THE DEFINITION OF A FREE-AGENT SECTION XVIII. OF THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIOUSNESS INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. I ENTERED upon an examination of the "Inquiry" of President Edwards, not with a view to find any fallacy therein, but simply with a desire to ascertain the truth for myself. If I have come to the conclusion, that the whole scheme of moral necessity which Edwards has laboured to establish, is founded in error and delusion; this has not been because I came to the examination of his work with any preconceived opinion. In coming to this conclusion I have disputed every inch of the ground with myself, as firmly and as resolutely as I could have done with an adversary. The result has been, that the views which I now entertain, in regard to the philosophy of the will, are widely different from those usually held by the opponents of moral necessity, as well as from those which are maintained by its advocates.