N03467:189
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 as was before said of Faith, so may it be said of a child like, believing Obedience, it has no concern in Justification by any Virtue, or Excellency in it; but only as there is a Reception of Christ in it. And this is no more contrary to the Apostle's frequent Assertion of our being justified without the Works of the Law, than to say that we are justified by Faith; for Faith is as much a Work or act of christian Obedience, as the Expressions of Faith, in spiritual Life and Walk. And ⟨p. 84⟩therefore as we say that Faith don't justify as a Work, so we say of all these effective Expressions of Faith.
So that as was before said of Faith, so may it be said of a child like, believing Obedience, it has no concern in Justification by any Vertue, or Excellency in it; but only as there is a Reception of Christ in it. And this is no more contrary to the Apostle's frequent Assertion of our being justified without the Works of the Law, than to say that we are justified by Faith; for Faith is as much a Work or act of christian Obedience, as the Expressions of Faith, in spiritual Life and Walk. And ⟨p. 84⟩therefore as we say that Faith don't justify as a Work, so we say of all these effective Expressions of Faith.
This is the reverse of the Scheme of our modern Divines▪ who hold that Faith justifies only as an Act, or Expression of Obedience; whereas in Truth▪ Obedience has no concern in Justification, any otherwise than as an Expression of Faith.
I now proceed to the