Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Quote Guessing Round 4

If this guy is right, 21st century Calvinists are waaaaay too nice.
But lest I should really be an occasion of injury to some persons, I would here give notice, that though I generally speak of that doctrine, concerning free will and moral agency, which I oppose, as an Arminian docrine; yet I would not be understood as asserting, that every divine or author whom I have occasion to mention as maintaining that doctrine, was properly an Arminian, or one of that sort which is commonly called by that name. Some of them went far beyond the Arminians; and I would by no means charge Arminians in general with all the corrupt doctrine which these maintained . . .

. . . And, on the other hand, though I suppose this notion to be a leading article in the Arminian scheme, that which, if pursued in its consequences, will truly infer, or naturally lead to all the rest; yet I do not charge all that have held this doctrine with being Arminians. For whatever may be the consequences of the doctrine really, yet some that hold this doctrine may not own nor see these consequences; and it would be unjust, in many instances, to charge every author with believing and maintaining all the real consequencs of his avowed doctrines . . .

. . . [T]hat particular Arminian doctrine which [the well-known author of an essay] maintained is never the better for being held by such an one; nor is there less need of opposing it on that account; but rather is there the more need of it; as it will be likely to have the more pernicious influence, for being taught by a divine of his name and character; supposing the doctrine to be wrong, and in itself to be of an ill tendency.
It occurred to me that I should clarify the google rule. Google however you want without googling the text of the quote. That should be a reasonable approach.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Augustus Toplady

Andy Efting said...

I think Toplady is a good guess, but I'm going with George Whitefield.

Anonymous said...

It is clearly written by Christopher Marlowe

Ben said...

nope to all

Whitefield was my guess for who would be the first guess. Even though he was the second, I'm still awarding myself a t-shirt.

Anonymous said...

The grounds for awarding yourself the t-shirt strike me as dubious.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, just to make sure that t-shirt deal is on the up-and-up can we get an audit?

Speaking of which, usually I don't give to Christian organizations that don't bear the EFCA's imprimatur. Do we need a knew PFCA for paleoevangelical organizations? How's that work?

Ben said...

unk,

You can file an official protest at www.crymeariver.info, where an independent arbitrator will review it.

michael c,

You're making a contribution? How much? You might be surprised what imprimatur's I'll post for a substantial contribution. The whole "Paleoevangelical" thing is just a hook. When it gets down to it, I'm all about the $$$$$$.

Anonymous said...

They said they weren't taking any more protests about this site . . .

Ben said...

Maybe that's cuz I always won the arbitration.

You guys get really whiney when you don't know the answer. I thought sure the 7.2 commas per sentence would give this one away.

This is taken from the introduction/foreword from a book, the subject of which is pretty consistent with these selections. I think this book uses the word "Arminian" more than any other I've ever read.

Anonymous said...

AW Pink

Anonymous said...

Edwards!

Matt Mitchell said...

John Owen?

Anonymous said...

Taking nothing from the commas hint, would it be Packer from the preface to "The Death of Death" by Owen?

Ben said...

We have a winner!

J Dubya nails it with Edwards. (I'm assuming you meant Jonathan Edwards, not former NC senator and Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards. I think he has a book on how to make millions as a trial lawyer and still manage to run for office as a commoner, but there isn't much theology in it.)

Anyway, it's from Jonathan Edwards The Freedom of the Will. It's tough reading, for me anyway, but I was enouraged when I heard Iain Murray say that he also finds Edwards tough to read. I don't remember a day that I've been able to digest more than 15 pages.

I think he does an amazingly thorough job of exposing inconsistencies in the arguments that responsibility necessitates ability and a plethora of similar logical fallacies in anti-Calvinist thinking.