N03467:254
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.
2. If there be no more Difficulty in varying the Sense of one of these Terms than another, from any Thing in the Text it self, so as to make the Words suit with either Scheme, then certainly that is to be chosen, that is most agreeable to the Current of Scripture, and other Places where the same Matter is more particularly and fully treated of; and therefore that we should understand the Word Justify, in this Passage of James, in a Sense in some Respect diverse from that in which St. Paul uses it. For by what has been already said it may appear, that there is no one Doctrine in the whole Bible is more fully asserted, explained, and urged than the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, without any of our own Righteousness.
2. If there be no more Difficulty in varying the Sense of one of these Terms than another, from any Thing in the Text it self, so as to make the Words sute with either Scheme, then certainly that is to be chosen, that is most agreable to the Current of Scripture, and other Places where the same Matter is more particularly and fully treated of; and therefore that we should understand the Word Justify, in this Passage of James, in a Sense in some Respect diverse from that in which St. Paul uses it. For by what has been already said it may appear, that there is no one Doctrine in the whole Bible is more fully asserted, explained, and urged than the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, without any of our own Righteousness.
3. There is a very fair Interpretation of this Passage of St James, that is no Way inconsistent with this Doctrine of Justification, which I have shown that other Scriptures do so abundantly teach, which Interpretation the Words themselves will as well allow of, as that which the Objectors put upon them, and much better agrees with the Context; and that is, that Works are here spoken of as justifying as Evidences. A Man may be said to be justified by that which clears him, or vindicates him, or makes the Goodness of his Cause manifest. When ⟨p. 117⟩a […] has a Cause tried in a civil Court, & is justified or […] he may be said in different Senses to be justified or cleared, by the Goodness of his Cause, & by the Goodness of the Evidences of it. He may be said to be cleared by what evidences his Cause to be good; but not in the same Sense as he is by that which makes his Cause to be good. That which renders […] Cause good, is the proper Ground of his Justification […] 'tis by that that he is himself a proper Subject of it […] but Evidences justify, only as they manifest that his Cause is good in Fact, whether they are of such a Nature as to have any Influence to render it so or no. 'Tis by Works that our Cause appears to be good; but by Faith our Cause not only appears to be good, but becomes good; because thereby we are united to Christ. That the Word Justify should be sometimes understood to signify the former of these, as well as the latter, is agreeable to the Use of the Word in common Speech; as we say such an one stood up to justify another, i. e. he endeavoured to show or manifest his Cause to be good. And 'tis certain that the Word is sometimes used in this Sense in Scripture, when speaking of our being justified before God: as where it is said we shall be justified by our Words;