N03467:137
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.
It was a Thing infinitely honourable to God that a Person of infinite Dignity was not ashamed to call him his God, and to adore and obey him as such: This was more to God's Honour than if any mere Creature, of any possible Degree of Excellency and Dignity, had so done.
It was a Thing infinitely honourable to God that a Person of infinite Dignity was not ashamed to call him his God, and to adore and obey him as such: This was more to God's Honour than if any meer Creature, of any possible Degree of Excellency and Dignity, had so done.
'Tis absolutely necessary that in order to a Sinner's being justified, the Righteousness of some other should be reckoned to his Account; for 'tis declared that the Person justified is looked upon as (in himself) ungodly; but God neither will nor can justify a Person without a Righteousness; for Justification is manifestly a ⟨p. 58⟩forensic Term, as the Word is used in Scripture, and the Thing a judicial Thing, or the act of a Judge: So that if a Person should be justified without a Righteousness, the Judgment would not be according to Truth: The Sentence of Justification would be a false Sentence, unless there be a Righteousness performed that is by the Judge properly looked upon as his. To say, that God don't justify the Sinner without sincere, tho' an imperfect Obedience, don't help the Case; for an imperfect Righteousness before a Judge is no Righteousness. To accept of something that falls short of the Rule, instead of something else that answers the Rule, is no judicial Act, or act of a Judge, but a pure Act of sovereignty. An imperfect Righteousness is no Righteousness, before a Judge; For Righteousness [as one observes] is a relative Thing, and has always Relation to a Law: The formal Nature of Righteousness, properly understood, lies in a conformity of Actions to that which is the Rule and Measure of them. Therefore that only is Righteousness in the Sight of a Judge that answers the Law* ⟨p. 59⟩