N03467:16
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.
A great Objection that is made against the old Protestant Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, and the ⟨p. iii⟩Scheme of those Divines that have chiefly defended it, by those that value themselves upon the new fashioned Divinity, is, That the Scheme is too much incumber'd with speculative Niceties, and subtle Distinctions, that, they say, serve only to involve the Subject in endless Controversy and Dispute; whereas, their Scheme, they suppose, is a plain, easy, and natural Account of Things. But their Prejudice against Distinctions in Divinity, I humbly conceive, is carried to a great Extreme. So great, and general, and loud a cry has been raised by modern Philosophers and Divines, against the subtle Distinctions of the Schoolmen, for their learned Impertinence, that many are ready to start at any Thing that looks like nice Distinction, and to condemn it for Nonsense without Examination. Upon the same Account, we might expect to have St. Paul's Epistles, that are full of very nice Distinctions, called Nonsense, and unintelligible Jargon, had not they the good Luck, to be universally received by all Christians, as part of the holy Scriptures.
A great Objection that is made against the old Protestant Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, and the ⟨p. iii⟩Scheme of those Divines that have chiefly defended it, by those that value themselves upon the new fashion'd Divinity, is, That the Scheme is too much incumber'd with speculative Niceties, and subtil Distinctions, that, they say, serve only to involve the Subject in endless Controversy and Dispute; whereas, their Scheme, they suppose, is a plain, easy, and natural Account of Things. But their Prejudice against Distinctions in Divinity, I humbly conceive, is carried to a great Extreme. So great, and general, and loud a cry has been raised by modern Philosophers and Divines, against the subtil Distinctions of the Schoolmen, for their learned Impertinence, that many are ready to start at any Thing that looks like nice Distinction, and to condemn it for Nonsense without Examination. Upon the same Account, we might expect to have St. Paul's Epistles, that are full of very nice Distinctions, called Nonsense, and unintelligible Jargon, had not they the good Luck, to be universally received by all Christians, as part of the holy Scriptures.