N03467:157
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.
So that Christ's laying down his Life might be Part of that Obedience by which we are justified, tho' it was a positive Precept, not given to Adam. It was doubtless Christ's main Act of Obedience, because it was Obedience to a Command that was attended with immensely the greatest Difficulty, and so to a Command that was the greatest Trial of his Obedience; his Respect shown to God in it, and his Honour to God's Authority, was proportionably great: It is spoken of in Scripture as Christ's principal Act of Obedience. Philip. 2. 7, 8. But made himself of no Reputation, and took upon him the Form of a Servant, and was made in the Likeness of Man, and being found in Fashion as a Man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death, even the Death of the Cross Heb. 5. 8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he Obedience by the Things that he suffered. It was mainly by this Act of Obedience, that Christ purchased so glorious a Reward for himself; as in that Place in Philippians 2. 8, 9. He became obedient unto Death, even the Death of the Cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a Name, which is above every Name: And it therefore follows from what has been already said, that it's mainly by this Act of Obedience, that Believers in Christ also, have the Reward of Glory, or come to partake with Christ in his Glory. We are as much saved by the Death of Christ, as his yielding himself to die was an Act of Obedience, as we are, as it was a Propitiation for our Sins: For as it was not the only Act of Obedience that merited, he having performed meritorious Acts of Obedience through the whole Course of his Life; so neither was it the only Suffering that was propitiatory; all his Sufferings through the whole Course of his Life being propitiatory, as well as every Act of Obedience meritorious: Indeed this was his principal Suffering; and it was as much his principal Act of Obedience.
Hence we may see how that the Death of Christ did not only make Atonement, but also merited eternal Life; and hence we may see how by the Blood of Christ we are not only redeemed from Sin, but redeemed unto