N03467:37
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.
I. I would explain the Meaning of the Doctrine, or show in what Sense I assert it, and would endeavour to evince the Truth of it: Which may be done in Answer to these two Enquiries, viz. 1. What is meant by being justified? 2. What is meant when it is said that this is by Faith alone, without any Manner of Virtue or Goodness of our own?
I. I would explain the Meaning of the Doctrine, or shew in what Sense I assert it, and would endeavour to evince the Truth of it: Which may be done in Answer to these two Enquiries, viz. 1. What is meant by being justified? 2. What is meant when it is said that this is by Faith alone, without any Manner of Vertue or Goodness of our own?
First. I would show what Justification is, or what I suppose is meant in Scripture by being justified. And here I would not at all enlarge, and therefore to answer in short.
First. I would shew what Justification is, or what I suppose is meant in Scripture by being justified. And here I would not at all enlarge, and therefore to answer in short.
A Person is said to be justified when he is approved of God as free from the Guilt of Sin, and it's deserved Punishment, and as having that Righteousness belonging to him that entitles to the Reward of Life. That we should take the Word in such a Sense, and understand it as the Judges accepting a Person as having both a negative, and positive Righteousness belonging to him, and looking on him therefore, as not only quit, or free from any Obligation to Punishment but also •s just and righteous, and so entitled to a positive Reward, is not only most agreeable to the Etymology, and natural Import of the Word, which signifies to make righteous, or to pass One for righteous in Judgment, but also manifestly agreeable to the Force of the Word, as used in Scripture.