N03467:114
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.
First, That the Apostle here speaks of the same two opposite Ways of Justification, one by the Righteousness which is of the Law, the other by Faith, that he had treated of in the former Part of the Epistle; and therefore it must be the same Law that is here spoken ⟨p. 48⟩of: The same Law is here meant as in the last Verses of the foregoing Chapter, where he says the Jews had not attained to the Law of Righteousness: Wherefore, because they sought it not by Faith, but as it were by the Works of the Law. As is plain, because the Apostle is still speaking of the same Thing, the Words are a Continuation of the same Discourse, as may be seen at first Glance, by any one that looks on the Context.
Secondly, 'Tis manifest that Moses when he describes the Righteousness which is of the Law, or the Way of Justification by the Law▪ in the Words here cited, He that doth those Things shall live in them, don't speak only, nor chiefly, of the Works of the ceremonial Law; For none will pretend that God ever made such a Covenant with Man, that he that kept the ceremonial Law should live in it, or that there ever was a Time that it was chiefly by the Works of the ceremonial Law, that Men lived and were justified. Yea, 'tis manifest by the forementioned Instance of David, mentioned in the 4th of Romans that there never was a Time wherein Men were justified in any Measure, by the Works of the ceremonial Law, […] has been just now shown. Moses therefore in those Words, which the Apostle says, are a Description of the Righteousness which is of the Law, can't mean only the ceremonial Law. And therefore it follows that when the Apostle speaks of Justification by the Works of the Law, as opposite to Justification by Faith, he don't mean only the ceremonial Law, but also the Works of the moral Law, which are the Things spoken of by Moses, when he says he that doth th•se Things shall live in them; and which are the Things […] the Apostle in this very Place is arguing that we can't be justified by; as is evident by the Context, the last Verses of the preceding Chapter, But Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness, hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness: Wherefore? Because they sought it not by Faith, but as it were by the Works of the Law, &c. And in the 3d v, of this Chap For they being ignorant of God's