N03467:181
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.
But in as much as a Sinner, in his first Justification, is forever justified and freed from all Obligation to eternal Punishment, it hence of necessity follows, that future Faith and Repentance are beheld in that Justification, as virtually contained in that first Faith and Repentance; because Repentance of those future Sins, and Faith in a Redeemer, with Respect to them, or, at least, the Continuance of that Habit and Principle in the Heart, that has such an actual Repentance and Faith, in it's Nature and Tendency, is now made sure by God's Promise.
If Remission of Sins, committed after Conversion, in the order of Nature, follows that Faith and Repentance that is after them, then it follows that future Sins are respected in the first Justification, no otherwise than as future Faith and Repentance are respected in it. And ⟨p. 82⟩future Repentance and Faith are looked upon by him that justifies, as virtually implied in the first Repentance and Faith, in the same Manner as Justification from future Sins, is virtually implied in the first Justification; which is the Thing that was to be proved.
On the whole, it appears that the Perseverance of Faith is necessary, even to the Congruity of Justification, and that not the less, because a Sinner is justified, and Perseverance promised on the first Act of Faith, but God in that Justification has Respect not only to the past Act of Faith, but to his own Promise of future Acts, and to the fitness of a Qualification beheld as yet only in his own Promise.