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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.
Object. 5 'Ti• objected against the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, That Repentance is evidently spoken of in Scripture as that which is in a special Manner the Condition of Remission of Sins: But Remission of Sins is by all allowed to be that wherein Justification does, (at least) in great Part consist
But it must certainly arise from a Misunderstanding of what the Scripture says about Repentance, to suppose that Faith and Repentance are two distinct Things, that in like manner are the Conditions of Justification. For 'tis m•st plain from the Scripture that the Condition of Justification, or that in us by which we are justified, is but one, and that is Faith▪ Faith and Repentance are not two distinct Conditions of Justification, not are they two distinct Things, that together make one Condition of Justification; but Faith comprehends the whole of that by which we are justified, or by which we come ⟨p. 104⟩to have an Interest in Christ, and there is nothing else has a parallel Concern with it, in the Affair of our Salvation. And this the Divines on the other Side themselves are sensible of, and therefore they suppose that that Faith that the Apostle Paul speaks of, which he says we are justified by alone, comprehends in it Repentance.
And therefore, in Answer to the Objection, I would say, That when Repentance is spoken of in Scripture as the Condition of Pardon, thereby is not intended any particular Grace, or Act, properly distinct from Faith, that has a parallel Influence with it, in the Affair of our Pardon or Justification; but by Repentance is intended nothing distinct from active Conversion, (or Conversion actively considered,) as it respects the Term from which. Active Conversion is a Motion or Exercise of the Mind, that respects two Terms, viz. Sin and God: And by Repentance is meant this Conversion, or active Change of the Mind, so far as it is conversant about the Term from which, or about Sin This is what the Word Repentance properly signifies; which in the Original of the New Testament is Metanoia which signifies a Change of the Mind, or which is the same Thing, the turning or the Conversion of the Mind. Repentance is this turning, as it respects what is turned from