Produced by Keith G Richardson Contents Dedicatory Preface Footnotes DOCTRINE OF THE WILL. BY REV. A. MAHAN, PRESIDENT OF THE OBERLIN COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. "Not man alone, all rationals Heaven arms With an illustrious, but tremendous power, To counteract its own most gracious ends; And this, of strict necessity, not choice; That power denied, men, angels, were no more But passive engines void of praise or blame. A nature rational implies the power Of being blest, or wretched, as we please. Man falls by man, if finally he falls; And fall he must, who learns from death alone, The dreadful secret--That he lives for ever." YOUNG. NEW YORK: MARK H. NEWMAN, 199 BROADWAY. OBERLIN; OHIO: R. E. GILLET. 1845. Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by ASA MAHAN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. S. W. BENEDICT & CO., STER. & PRINT., 16 Spruce street. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.--Importance of the Subject--True and false Methods of Inquiry--Common Fault--Proper Method of Reasoning from Revelation to the System of Mental Philosophy therein pre-supposed--Errors of Method CHAPTER II. CLASSIFICATION OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES.--Classification verified CHAPTER III. LIBERTY AND NECESSITY.--Terms defined--Characteristics of the above Definitions--Motive defined--Liberty as opposed to Necessity, the Characteristic of the Will--Objections to Doctrine of Necessity--Doctrine of Liberty, direct Argument--Objection to an Appeal to Consciousness--Doctrine of Liberty argued from the existence of the idea of Liberty in all Minds--The Doctrine of Liberty, the Doctrine of the Bible--Necessity as held by Necessitarians--The term Certainty, as used by them--Doctrine of Ability, according to the Necessitarian Scheme--Sinful inclinations--Necessitarian Doctrine of Liberty--Ground which Necessitarians are bound to take in respect to the Doctrine of Ability--Doctrine of Necessity, as regarded by Necessitarians of different Schools CHAPTER IV. EXTENT AND LIMITS OF THE LIBERTY OF THE WILL.--Strongest Motive--Reasoning in a Circle CHAPTER V. GREATEST APPARENT GOOD.--Phrase defined--Its meaning according to Edwards--The Will not always as the Dictates of the Intelligence--Not always as the strongest desire--Nor as the Intelligence and Sensibility combined--Necessitarian Argument--Motives cause acts of the Will, in what sense--Particular Volitions, how accounted for--Facts wrongly accounted for--Choosing between Objects known to be equal, how treated by Necessitarians--Palpable Mistake CHAPTER VI. DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY AND THE DIVINE PRESCIENCE.--Dangers to be avoided--Mistake respecting Divine Prescience--Inconsistency of Necessitarians--Necessitarian Objection CHAPTER VII.