Doctrine of the Will

"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.

DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY AND THE DIVINE PURPOSES AND AGENCY.--God's Purposes consistent with the Liberty of Creatures--Senses in which God purposed moral Good and Evil--Death of the Incorrigible preordained, but not willed--God not responsible for their Death--Sin a Mystery--Conclusion from the above

CHAPTER VIII.

OBLIGATION PREDICABLE ONLY OF THE WILL.--Men not responsible for the Sin of their progenitors--Constitutional Ill-desert--Present Impossibilities not required

CHAPTER IX.

STANDARD OF MORAL CHARACTER.--Sincerity, and not Intensity, the true Standard

CHAPTER X.

MORAL ACTS NEVER OF A MIXED CHARACTER.--Acts of Will resulting from a variety of Motives--Loving with a greater Intensity at one time than another--Momentary Revolutions of Character

CHAPTER XI.

RELATIONS OF THE WILL TO THE INTELLIGENCE AND SENSIBILITY, IN STATES MORALLY RIGHT, OR WRONG.--Those who are and are not virtuous, how distinguished--Selfishness and Benevolence--Common Mistake--Defective forms of Virtue--Test of Conformity to Moral Principle--Common Mistake--Love as required by the Moral Law--Identity of Character among all Beings morally Virtuous