I am reading “Freedom of the Will” by Jonathan Edward. It is dry, but I recommend it as it is well worth persevering through-- if you have the time. Here is a quote I read tonight followed by some personal observations.
“Moral inability consists in the opposition or want of inclination. It is the same thing as being unable through the want of an inclination, or the prevalence of a contrary inclination in such circumstances and under the influence of such views.”
“Moral inability consists in the opposition or want of inclination. It is the same thing as being unable through the want of an inclination, or the prevalence of a contrary inclination in such circumstances and under the influence of such views.”
He gives several example, but I appreciated his final analysis
“… a strong habit of virtue, may cause a moral inability to love wickedness in general , and may render a man unable to take complacence in wicked persons or things; or to choose a wicked in preference to a virtuous life. And on the other hand, a great degree of habitual wickedness may lay a man under an inability to love and choose holiness, and render him utterly unable to love an infinitely holy being, or to choose and cleave to him as his chief good.”
He makes it plain that we are un-able to choose the right and good thing because we have prevalence or more inclined toward doing the wrong thing. Or, we would more choose to do the right deed or the good thing because we have less of an inclination to do the wrong thing. The above instances give an example of a lack in inclination and an example of a prevalent inclination ---in which case I have said the same thing. This follows a “moral inability “consists in the lack of inclination is the same thing as the need for an inclination.
The reason this interest me, is the Christian ought to have a God given inclination to do the right thing—ie a prevalent inclination toward good. The non-Christian, one would think, would be the opposite. However, we find that Christians are capable of doing and are doing heinous sins while non-Christians are capable of doing extremely good things. Why is this so?
Of course, I do not mean this universally. Christians do great things even Godly things.
However, based upon choosing the wrong action over the right, I am concerned why is it becoming harder to tell the Christian from the Non-Christian?
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