N03467:195
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.
1 These Things being promised to our Virtue and Obedience, argues no more, than that there is a Connection between them and evangelical Obedience; which I have already observed is not the Thing in dispute. All that can be proved by Obedience and Salvation being connected in the Promise, is that Obedience and Salvation are connected in fact; which no body denies, and whether it be owned or denied, is as has been shown, nothing to the Purpose. There is no need that an Admission to a Title to Salvation, should be given on the Account of our Obedience, in order to the Promises being true. If we find such a Promise, that he that obeys shall be saved, or he that is holy shall be justified, all that is needful in order to such Promises being true, is that it be really so, that he that obeys shall be saved, and that Holiness and Justification shall indeed go together: That Proposition may be a Truth, that ⟨p. 85⟩he that obeys shall be saved, because Obedience and Salvation are connected together in fact; and yet an Acceptance to a Title to Salvation not be granted upon the Account of any of our own Virtue or Obedience. What is a Promise, but only a Declaration of future Truth, for the Comfort and Encouragement of the Person to whom it is declared? Promises are conditional Propositions; and as has been already observed, it is not the Thing in Dispute, whether other Things besides Faith mayn't have the Place of the Condition in such Propositions wherein Pardon and Salvation are the consequent.
1 These Things being promised to our Vertue and Obedience, argues no more, than that there is a Connection between them and evangelical Obedience; which I have already observed is not the Thing in dispute. All that can be proved by Obedience and Salvation being connected in the Promise, is that Obedience and Salvation are connected in fact; which no body denies, and whether it be own'd or denied, is as has been shewn, nothing to the Purpose. There is no need that an Admission to a Title to Salvation, should be given on the Account of our Obedience, in order to the Promises being true. If we find such a Promise, that he that obeys shall be saved, or he that is holy shall be justified, all that is needful in order to such Promises being true, is that it be really so, that he that obeys shall be saved, and that Holiness and Justification shall indeed go together: That Proposition may be a Truth, that ⟨p. 85⟩