PROPOSALS for Printing by Subscription, in one Volume Octavo,
A Treatise Intitled,
A careful and strict Enquiry into the modern prevailing Notions of that Freedom of Will,
which is supposed to be essential to moral Agency, Vertue and Vice, Reward and Punish-
ment, Praise and Blame.
W
HEREIN are examined the main Foundations of the whole
Arminian
Scheme, as opposed to the Doctrines main-
tain’d by those that are called
Calvinistic
Divines, and the main Grounds of the pretended Demonstrations in which
the Defenders of that Scheme have so long gloried & vaunted themselves, insulting those of a contrary Perswasion.
The particular Arguments and Reasonings of their Authors who have been most celebrated, and esteem’d their greatest
Masters of Reason, are humbly, yet with careful Exactness enquired into, with their chief Objections and Exclamations
against Calvinists ; and particularly their boasted Arguments from
Common Sense
, and their Pretences that Calvinistic
Doctrines are supported by Nothing but abstruse, scholastic and metaphysical Subtilties and Distinctions, and unintelli-
gible Jargon, contrary to the plain Dictates of Reason, and the natural Notions of Mankind.
In this Discourse, Endeavours are used particularly to shew the Nature of
human Will
, and the Manner of its De-
termination ; the true Foundation and Essence of that
moral Agency
which renders Men the proper Subjects of moral
Government, Commands, Counsels, Invitations, Perswasions, Promises, Threatnings, Praise, Dispraise and Retribution,
according to the common Sense of Mankind, and the most demonstrable Evidence; shewing the palpable Absurdity of
the modern Notions of these Things, their manifold Inconsistence with themselves, and with common Sense.
Among many other Things here treated of, the following Particulars are distinctly handled ------ The Nature of
-- --
Necessity
and
Contingence, Ability
and
Inability
; The Nature of
Liberty
; How these Terms are used by Philosophers,
and how in common Speech ; The Distinction of
natural
and
moral Ability
, Inability and Necessity ; The Nature of
physical, unintelligible and inconsistent Notions of them. The Nature of GOD’s Fore-knowledge; The Evidence of
his certain Fore-knowledge of all future Events; Whether infallible Prescience don’t infer a Necessity of the Volitions of
moral Agents, as much as such a Decree as
Calvinists
suppose; The Nature of the Liberty of the divine Being, and that
of the Man C
hrist
J
esus
, and their Consequences ; The Consequences of such an Inability of fallen Man as
Arminians
confess ; What Inability properly renders Persons not the Subjects of Precept, Exhortation, Invitation, &c. and what
not, with the Reasons ; The Nature of
Sincerity
of Will and Endeavour; What Excuses in the Non-performance of a
good Thing required, and what not; Concerning the Agreement of the Doctrine of
Calvinists
with the
Stoical
Fate and
Hobbistical
Necessity ; The Grand Objection against the
Calvinistic
Scheme, that it makes GOD the Author of Sin; The
Nature of the divine Sovereignty in disposing Events, and how it reaches the Acts of moral Agents, with the Reasons;
The Cavils of
Arminians
concerning the Distinction
Calvinists
suppose between GOD’s secret and revealed Will, and con-
cerning the
Calvinistic
Doctrines being against the moral Perfections of GOD, and their Tendency to Libertinism and
Infidelity ; Concerning the Way of
Arminians
proving their Opinions, and confuting the
Calvinists
by Scripture, &c. &c.
, Ed. Paul Ramsey [
].
