HKB
14 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: will, choice, and freedom · sin, guilt, and repentance · the problem of evil and theodicy · justice as a virtue · fate, destiny, and necessity · conversion and faith · the nature and attributes of God · reason and the intellect · providence and divine governance · origin of evil · voluntary slavery to sin · vice as self-harm
Usually: argument (11) · detachment (5) · skepticism (5) · crisis of belief (4) · exhortation (4) · the test or trial (2) · censure (2) · commentary or gloss (1) · letter or document (1) · reflection (1)
“In Scripture they are called God's enemies who oppose His rule, not by nature, but by vice; having no power to hurt Him, but only themselves.” Augustine (Aurelius Augustine), Saint of Hippo, The City of God, Volume I · insight
“Speaking generally, it appears more reasonable and more fitting to say that obedience to God's precepts is always possible, even for the unregenerate; that the grace of God is always resistible, even in those most holy, and that freedom is exempt not only from constraint but also from necessity, although it be never without infallible certainty or without inclining determination.” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Freiherr von, Theodicy · precept
“For the rational creature is confirmed in righteousness through the beatitude given by the clear vision of God; and when once it has seen God, it cannot but cleave to Him Who is the essence of goodness.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) · insight
“God by cooperating with us, perfects what He began by operating in us, since He who perfects by cooperation with such as are willing, begins by operating that they may will.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) · insight
“this will Whereby we step right forward where desire Leads each man on, whereby the same we swerve In motions, not as at some fixed time, Nor at some fixed line of space, but where The mind itself has urged?” Titus Lucretius Carus, On the Nature of Things · insight
“From that time I drew, in my own mind, a clear distinction between the doctrine of circumstances and Fatalism; discarding altogether the misleading word Necessity.” John Stuart Mill, Autobiography · precept
“But aids, observe! Therefore, not by Will of man alone; but neither without the Will.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection; and, The Confessions of an Inqui · precept
Nietzsche calls the causa sui the best self-contradiction and rejects metaphysical free will as an impossible attempt to make oneself the ultimate cause, while also warning against materializing “cause” and “effect.”
24. O sancta simplicitas! In what strange simplification and falsification man lives! One can never cease wondering when once one has got eyes for beholding this marvel! How we have made everything around us clear and free and easy and simple! how we have been able to give our senses a passport to everything superficial, our thoughts a godlike desire for wanton pranks and wrong inferences!--how from the beginning, we…
Augustine says he still could not see the cause of evil without making God mutable, tries to locate evil in free will and punishment, and argues about angels and the devil without yet escaping confusion.
those who deserved wholly to be vomited out of the overcharged stomach; for they had no escape, without horrible blasphemy of heart and tongue, thus thinking and speaking of Thee. But I also as yet, although I held and was firmly persuaded that Thou our Lord the true God, who madest not only our souls, but our bodies, and not only our souls and bodies, but all beings, and all things, wert undefilable and unalterable…
Augustine argues that God’s enemies are enemies by free will and vice, not by nature, and that vice harms only the mutable good it corrupts, never unchangeable God.
enemies of God are so, not by nature but by will, which, as it injures them, injures a good nature; for if vice does not injure, it is not vice._ In Scripture they are called God's enemies who oppose His rule, not by nature, but by vice; having no power to hurt Him, but only themselves. For they are His enemies, not through their power to hurt, but by their will to oppose Him. For God is unchangeable, and wholly pro…
He describes his broader transition in thought, especially separating circumstances-based character formation from fatalism, and links the resulting distinction to his later chapter on Liberty and Necessity.
order of things in regard to their relations with one another, the St. Simonians, in common with Owen and Fourier, have entitled themselves to the grateful remembrance of future generations. In giving an account of this period of my life, I have only specified such of my new impressions as appeared to me, both at the time and since, to be a kind of turning points, marking a definite progress in my mode of thought. B…
Johnson replies to Edward Cave that the proposed commentary on Pope’s Essay cannot succeed, urges rapid progress on an Examen of Pope, and requests a dozen proposals for the next day.
'SAM. JOHNSON.' [Page 137: Impransus. Ætat 29.] 'To MR. CAVE. [No date.] 'SIR, 'I am pretty much of your opinion, that the Commentary cannot be prosecuted with any appearance of success; for as the names of the authours concerned are of more weight in the performance than its own intrinsick merit, the publick will be soon satisfied with it. And I think the Examen should be pushed forward with the utmost expediti…
Friday, 27 August, Boswell records Johnson’s conversation on evil, free will versus “machine” humans, poetry about toil, and sacrament tokens at Caldermanse, plus a skeptical appraisal of M’Aulay’s St Kilda history.
Warton, Lord Lucan, Mr Burke junior, Lord Palmerston, Dr Burney, Sir William Hamilton, and Dr Warren, it will be acknowledged that we might establish a second university of high reputation.] We got at night to Banff. I sent Joseph on to Duff house: but Earl Fife was not at home, which I regretted much, as we should have had a very elegant reception from his lordship. We found here but an indifferent inn. [Footnote: …
In Question 100, Article 2, Aquinas argues that children would not have been born confirmed in righteousness, since confirmation requires the beatific vision, and because parents were not yet confirmed when begetting.
would have been confirmed in grace, so that with their offspring they would have been unable to sin any more." Therefore the children would have been born confirmed in righteousness. Obj. 3: Further, good is stronger than evil. But by the sin of the first man there resulted, in those born of him, the necessity of sin. Therefore, if the first man had persevered in righteousness, his descendants would have derived fro…
Aquinas argues grace is fittingly divided into operating and cooperating grace: God operates when the soul is moved, and grace cooperates when the will freely acts under God’s assistance.
I do he also shall do," says (Serm. clxix): "He Who created thee without thyself, will not justify thee without thyself." Therefore no grace ought to be called simply operating. Obj. 3: Further, to cooperate seems to pertain to the inferior agent, and not to the principal agent. But grace works in us more than free-will, according to Rom. 9:16: "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that…
Calvin refutes arguments for free will by denying that sin being necessary removes blame, and by insisting that human will is enslaved by sin from Adam’s revolt, while still acting voluntarily.
Free Will. Enough might appear to have been already said on the servitude of the human will, did not they, who endeavour to overthrow it with a false notion of liberty, allege, on the contrary, certain reasons in opposition to our sentiments. First, they collect together some absurdities, in order to render it odious, as if it were abhorrent to common sense; and then they attack it with testimonies of Scripture. Bot…
He answers Bayle’s maxim about free will by denying that God should withhold it: denying free will or preventing misuse would require eliminating rational creatures or constant miracles, which would violate the order of the universe.
for it; so that he would be more answerable for the unhappiness it would bring upon them than if he had only granted it in response to their importunate prayers.' What was said at the end of the remark on the preceding maxim ought to be repeated here, and is sufficient to counter the present maxim. Moreover, the author is still presupposing that false maxim advanced as the third, stating that the happiness of ration…
He argues that humans were created upright and free, but after the fall become voluntary slaves to sin and Satan; temptation comes from one’s lust, though Satan contributes by blinding unbelief.
pleases him so to be; he is a voluntary slave through his evil lust. Thus it is that free will and will in bondage are one and the same thing. 278. 'Let no man say, I am tempted of God'; 'but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed' (Jas. i. 13, 14). And Satan contributes thereto. He 'blindeth the minds of them which believe not' (2 Cor. iv. 4). But man is delivered up to the Devil by…
Lucretius links the atomic swerve to free will: motion arises from mind’s own initiative rather than fixed fate, illustrated by horses starting when their minds intend.
above, At least so far as thou canst mark; but who Is there can mark by sense that naught can swerve At all aside from off its road's straight line? Again, if ev'r all motions are co-linked, And from the old ever arise the new In fixed order, and primordial seeds Produce not by their swerving some new start Of motion to sunder the covenants of fate, That cause succeed not cause from everlast…
In a lengthy comment, Coleridge defines “in Christ” as Christian supernatural aids like the Spirit of Truth, rejects Calvinist necessitarianism, and contrasts different accounts of the will and spiritual responsibility.
COMMENT. By the phrase "in Christ," I understand all the supernatural aids vouchsafed and conditionally promised in the Christian dispensation; and among them the Spirit of Truth, which the world cannot receive, were it only that the knowledge of *spiritual* Truth is of necessity immediate and *intuitive*: and the World or Natural Man possesses no higher intuitions than those of the pure *Sense*, which are the subje…
He develops the distinction that reason is the sine qua non of free will, then returns to Taylor’s choice of “Original Sin,” arguing that name and concept must clarify whether the “evil” truly originates in the will.
For though Reason, in finite Beings, is not the Will--or how could the Will be opposed to the Reason?--yet it is the *condition*, the *sine qua non* of a *Free*-will. We will now return to the extract from Jeremy Taylor on a theme of deep interest in itself, and trebly important from its *bearings*. For without just and distinct views respecting the Article of Original Sin, it is impossible to understand aright any …