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

CHAPTER XII.

Element of the Will in complex Phenomena.—Natural Propensities—Sensation, Emotion, Desire, and Wish defined—Anger, Pride, Ambition, &c.—Religious Affections—Repentance—Love—Faith— Convictions, Feelings and external Actions, why required or prohibited— Our Responsibility in respect to such Phenomena—Feelings how controlled by the Will—Relation of Faith to other Exercises morally right

CHAPTER XIII.

Influence of the Will in Intellectual Judgments.—Men often voluntary in their Opinions—Error not from the Intelligence, but Will—Primary Faculties cannot err—So of the secondary Faculties—Assumptions— Pre-judgments—Intellect not deceived in Pre-judgments—Mind, how influenced by them—Influences which induce false Assumptions—Cases in which we are apparently, though not really, misled by the Intelligence

CHAPTER XIV.

Liberty and Servitude.—Liberty as opposed to moral Servitude—Mistake of German Metaphysicians—Moral Servitude of the race

CHAPTER XV.

Liberty and Dependence.—Common Impression—Spirit of Dependence—Doctrine of Necessity tends not to induce this Spirit—Doctrine of Liberty does—God controls all Influences under which Creatures act—Dependence on account of moral Servitude

CHAPTER XVI.

Formation of Character.—Commonly how accounted for—The voluntary element to be taken into the account—Example in Illustration— Diversities of Character

CHAPTER XVII.

Concluding Reflections.—Objection, The Will has its Laws—Objection, God dethroned from his Supremacy if the Doctrine of Liberty is true—Great and good Men have held the doctrine of Necessity—Last Resort—Willing and aiming to perform impossibilities—Thought at Parting

DEDICATORY PREFACE.

To one whose aim is, to “serve his generation according to the Will of God,” but two reasons would seem to justify an individual in claiming the attention of the public in the capacity of an author—the existence in the public mind of a want which needs to be met, and the full belief, that the Work which he has produced is adapted to meet that want. Under the influence of these two considerations, the following Treatise is presented to the public. Whether the author has judged rightly or not, it is not for him to decide. The decision of that question is left with the public, to whom the Work is now presented. It is doubtful, whether any work, prepared with much thought and pains-taking, was ever published with the conviction, on the part of the author, that it was unworthy of public regard. The community, however, may differ from him entirely on the subject; and, as a consequence, a work which he regards as so imperiously demanded by the public interest, falls dead from the press. Many an author, thus disappointed, has had occasion to be reminded of the admonition, “Ye have need of patience.” Whether the following Treatise shall succeed in gaining the public ear, or not, one consolation will remain with the writer, the publication of the work has satisfied his sense of duty. To his respected Associates in the Institution over which he presides, Associates with whose approbation and counsel the work was prepared, the Author would take this occasion publicly to express his grateful acknowledgments for the many important suggestions which he received from them, during the progress of its preparation.

Having said thus much, he would simply add, that, To the Lovers of Truth, the Work is now respectfully dedicated, with the kind regards of

THE AUTHOR.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.

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