N03467:177
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 besides, if no other Act of Faith could be concerned in Justification but the first Act, it will then follow that Christians ought never to seek Justification by any other Act of Faith. For if Justification is not to be ⟨p. 79⟩obtained by after Acts of Faith, then surely it is not a Duty to seek it by such Acts: And so it can never be a Duty for Persons after they are once converted, by Faith to seek to God; or believingly to look to him for the Remission of Sin, or Deliverance from the Guilt of it, because Deliverance from the Guilt of Sin is Part of what belongs to Justification. And if it ben't proper for Converts by Faith to look to God through Christ for it, then it will follow that it is not proper for them to pray for it, for christian Prayer to God for a Blessing is but an Expression of Faith in God for that Blessing; Prayer is only the Voice of Faith. But if these Things are so, it will follow that that Petition of the Lord's Prayer, for give us our Debts, is not proper to be put up by Disciples of Christ, or to be used in christian Assemblies, and that Christ improperly directed his Disciples to use that Petition, when they were all of them, except Judas, converted before. The Debt that Christ directs his Disciples to pray for the Forgiveness of, can mean nothing else, but the Punishment that Sin deserves, or the Debt that we owe to divine Justice, the ten thousand Talents we owe our Lord. To pray that God would forgive our Debts, is undoubtedly the same Thing as to pray that God would release us from Obligation to due Punishment; but releasing from Obligation to the Punishment due to Sin, and forgiving the Debt that we owe to divine Justice, is what appertains to Justification.
And besides, if no other Act of Faith could be concerned in Justification but the first Act, it will then follow that Christians ought never to seek Justification by any other Act of Faith. For if Justification is not to be ⟨p. 79⟩obtain'd by after Acts of Faith, then surely it is not a Duty to seek it by such Acts: And so it can never be a Duty for Persons after they are once converted, by Faith to seek to God; or believingly to look to him for the Remission of Sin, or Deliverance from the Guilt of it, because Deliverance from the Guilt of Sin is Part of what belongs to Justification. And if it ben't proper for Converts by Faith to look to God through Christ for it, then it will follow that it is not proper for them to pray for it, for christian Prayer to God for a Blessing is but an Expression of Faith in God for that Blessing; Prayer is only the Voice of Faith. But if these Things are so, it will follow that that Petition of the Lord's Prayer, for give us our Debts, is not proper to be put up by Disciples of Christ, or to be used in christian Assemblies, and that Christ improperly directed his Disciples to use that Petition, when they were all of them, except Judas, converted before. The Debt that Christ directs his Disciples to pray for the Forgiveness of, can mean nothing else, but the Punishment that Sin deserves, or the Debt that we owe to divine Justice, the ten thousand Talents we owe our Lord. To pray that God would forgive our Debts, is undoubtedly the same Thing as to pray that God would release us from Obligation to due Punishment; but releasing from Obligation to the Punishment due to Sin, and forgiving the Debt that we owe to divine Justice, is what appertains to Justification.