N03467:106
Discourses on various important subjects, nearly concerning the great affair of the soul's eternal…
Discourses on various important subjects, nearly concerning the great affair of the soul's eternal salvation, viz. I. Justification by faith alone. II. Pressing into the Kingdom of God. III. Ruth's resolution. IV. The justice of God in the damnation of sinners. V. The excellency of Jesus Christ. : Delivered at Northampton, chiefly at the time of the late wonderful pouring out of the spirit of God there. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ in Northampton. ; [Three lines from Deuteronomy]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland and T. Green, 1738
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
'Tis several Ways manifest that the Apostle in this Text, by Works of Righteousness which we have done, don't mean only Works of the ceremonial Law. It appears by the 3d v. For we our selves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers Lusts and Pleasures, living in Malice and Envy, hateful, and hating one another. These are Breaches of the moral Law, that the Apostle observes they lived in before they were justified: and 'tis most plain that 'tis this that gives Occasion to the Apostle to observe as he does in the 5 ver. That it was not by Works of Righteousness which they had done, that they were saved or justified.
'Tis several Ways manifest that the Apostle in this Text, by Works of Righteousness which we have done, don't mean only Works of the ceremonial Law. It appears by the 3d v. For we our selves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers Lusts and Pleasures, living in Malice and Envy, hateful, and hating one another. These are Breaches of the moral Law, that the Apostle observes they lived in before they were justifyed: and 'tis most plain that 'tis this that gives Occasion to the Apostle to observe as he does in the 5 ver. That it was not by Works of Righteousness which they had done, that they were saved or justified.
But we need not go to the Context, 'tis most apparent from the Words themselves, that the Apostle don't mean only Works of the ceremonial Law: If he had only said, it is not by our own Works of Righteousness; what could we understand by Works of Righteousness, but only Righteous Works, or which is the same Thing, good Works? And to say that it is by our own righteous Works, that we are justified, tho' not by one particular kind of righteous Works, would certainly be a Contradiction to such an Assertion. But the Words are rendered yet more strong, plain, and determined in their Sense, by those additional Words, which we have done; which shows that the Apostle intends to exclude all our own righteous or virtuous Works universally. If it should be asserted concerning any Commodity, Treasure, or precious Jewel, that it could not be procured by Money, and not only so, but to make the Assertion the more strong, it should be asserted with additional Words, that it could not be procured by Money that Men possess; how unreasonable would it be after all to say, that all that was meant was, that it could not be procured with Brass Money?