N03467:174
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.
And there is the same Reason why Faith, the uniting Qualification, should remain, in order to the Union's remaining, as why it should once be, in order to the Union's once being.
So that altho' the Sinner is actually, and finally justified on the first Act of Faith, yet the Perseverance of Faith, even then, comes into Consideration, as one Thing on which the Fitness of Acceptance to Life depends▪ God in the Act of Justification, which is passed on a Sinner's first believing, has Respect to Perseverance, as being virtually contained in that first Act of Faith; and 'tis looked upon and taken by him that justifies, as being as it were a Property in that Faith that then is: God has Respect to the Believer's Continuance in Faith, and he is justified by that, as tho' it already were, because by divine Establishment it shall follow; and it being ⟨p. 78⟩by divine Constitution connected with that first Faith, as much as if it were a Property in it, it is then considered as such, and so Justification is not suspended; but were it not for this it would be needful that it should be suspended, till the Sinner had actually persevered in Faith.
So that altho' the Sinner is actually, and finally justified on the first Act of Faith, yet the Perseverance of Faith, even then, comes into Consideration, as one Thing on which the Fitness of Acceptance to Life depends▪ God in the Act of Justification, which is passed on a Sinner's first believing, has Respect to Perseverance, as being virtually contain'd in that first Act of Faith; and 'tis looked upon and taken by him that justifies, as being as it were a Property in that Faith that then is: God has Respect to the Believer's Continuance in Faith, and he is justified by that, as tho' it already were, because by divine Establishment it shall follow; and it being ⟨p. 78⟩by divine Constitution connected with that first Faith, as much as if it were a Property in it, it is then consider'd as such, and so Justification is not suspended; but were it not for this it would be needful that it should be suspended, till the Sinner had actually persevered in Faith.