N03467:259
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.
To justify has always, in common Speech, signified indifferently, either simply Approbation, or testifying that Approbation; sometimes one, and sometimes the other: And that because they are both the same, only as one is outwardly, what the other is inwardly. So we, and it may be all Nations, are wont to give the same Names to two Things, when one is only declarative of the other. Thus sometimes judging, intends only judging in our Thoughts; at other Times, testifying & declaring Judgment. So such Words a justify, condemn, accept, reject, prize, slight, approve, renounce, are sometimes put for mental Acts, at other Times for an outward Treatment. So in the Sense in which the Apostle James seems to use the Word justify, for manifestative Justification, a Man is justified not only by Faith, but also by Works; as a Tree is manifested to be good, not only by immediately examining the Tree, but also by the Fruit. Prov. 20 11. Even a Child is known by his D•ings, whether his Work be pure, and whether it be right.
The Drift of the Apostle don't require that he should be understood in any other Sense: For all that he aims at, as appears by a View of the Context, is to prove that good Works are necessary. The Error of those that he opposed was this, That good Works were not necessary to Salvation; that if they did but believe that there was but one God, and that Christ was the Son of God, and the like; and were baptised; […] they were safe, let them live how they would: which Doctrine greatly tended to Licentiousness. The evincing the contrary of this, is evidently the Apostle's Scope.
The Drift of the Apostle don't require that he should be understood in any other Sense: For all that he aims at, as appears by a View of the Context, is to prove that good Works are necessary. The Error of those that he opposed was this, That good Works were not necessary to Salvation; that if they did but believe that there was but one God, and that Christ was the Son of God, and the like; and were baptised; 〈…〉 they were safe, let them live how they would: which Doctrine greatly tended to Licentiousness. The evincing the contrary of this, is evidently the Apostle's Scope.