N03467:47
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.
And if it were so, that Faith was the only Condition of Justification in this Sense, yet I don't apprehend that to say that Faith was the Condition of Justification, would express the Sense of that Phrase of Scripture of being Justified BY Faith: there is a Difference between being justified by a Thing, and that Thing universally, and necessarily, and inseparably attending, or going with Justification; for so do a great many Things that we ben't said to be justified by: it is not the inseparable connection with justification that the Holy Ghost would signify, (or that is naturally signified,) by such a Phrase, but some particular influence that Faith has in the Affair, or some certain Dependence that that Effect has on its Influence.
And if it were so, that Faith was the only Condition of Justification in this Sense, yet I don't apprehend that to say that Faith was the Condition of Justification, would express the Sense of that Phrase of Scripture of being Justified BY Faith: there is a Difference between being justified by a Thing, and that Thing universally, and necessarily, and inseparably attending, or going with Justification; for so do a great many Things that we ben't said to be justified by: it is not the inseparable connection with justification that the Holy Ghost would signify, (or that is naturally signified,) by such a Phrase, but some particular influence that Faith has in the Affair, or some certain Dependance that that Effect has on its Influence.
Some that have been aware of this have supposed that the influence or dependence might well be expressed by Faith's being the Instrument of our Justification; which has been misunderstood, and injuriously represented, and ridiculed by those that have denied the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, as tho' they had supposed that Faith was used as an Instrument in the Hand of God, whereby he performed, and brought to pass that Act of his, viz. Approving and Justifying the Believer: Whereas it was not intended that Faith was the Instrument wherewith God justifies, but the Instrument wherewith we receive Justification; not the Instrument where with the justifier acts in Justifying, but wherewith the receiver of Justification acts in accepting Justification. But yet it must be owned that this is an obscure way of Speaking, and there must certainly be some impropriety in calling of it an Instrument wherewith we receive or accept Justification; for the very Persons that thus explain the Matter speak