N03467:111
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.
10. The Apostle could not mean only Works of the ceremonial Law, when he says we are not justified by the Works of the Law, because 'tis asserted of the Saints, under the Old Testament, as well as new If Men are justified by their sincere Obedience, it will then follow that formerly, before the ceremonial Law was abrogated, Men were justified by the Works of the ceremonial Law, as w•ll as the moral. For if we are justified by our sincere Obedience then it alters not the Case, whether the Commands be moral, or positive, provided they be God's Commands, and our Obedience be Obedience to God: And so the Case must be just the same under the Old Testament, with the Works of the moral Law, and ceremonial, according to the measure of the Virtue of Obedience, there was in either. ⟨p. 46⟩'Tis true their Obedience to the ceremonial Law would have nothing to do in the Affair of Justification, unless it was sincere; and so neither would the Works of the moral Law: Obedience to the moral Law would have been concerned in the Affair of Justification, if sincere; and so would Obedience to the ceremonial. If Obedience was the Thing, then Obedience to the ceremonial Law, while that stood in Force, and Obedience to the moral Law, had just the same •ort of concern, according to the Proportion of Obedience that consists in each. As now under the New-Testament, if Obedience is what we are justified by, that Obedience must doubtless comprehend Obedience to all God's Commands now in Force, to the positive Precepts of Attendance on Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as well as moral Precepts. If Obedience be the Thing, it is not because 'tis Obedience to such a kind of Commands, but because 'tis Obedience. So that by this Supposition, the Saints under the Old Testament were justified, at least in Part, by their Obedience to the ceremonial Law.
10. The Apostle could not mean only Works of the ceremonial Law, when he says we are not justified by the Works of the Law, because 'tis asserted of the Saints, under the Old Testament, as well as new If Men are justified by their sincere Obedience, it will then follow that formerly, before the ceremonial Law was abrogated, Men were justified by the Works of the ceremonial Law, as w•ll as the moral. For if we are justified by our sincere Obedience then it alters not the Case, whether the Commands be moral, or positive, provided they be God's Commands, and our Obedience be Obedience to God: And so the Case must be just the same under the Old Testament, with the Works of the moral Law, and ceremonial, according to the measure of the Vertue of Obedience, there was in either.