N03467:84
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 because the issue of the whole Argument from those Texts in St. Paul's Epistles depends on the determination of this Point, I would be particular in the discussion of it.
Some of our Opponents in this Doctrine of Justification, when they deny that by the Law, the Apostle means the moral Law, or the whole Rule of Life which God has given to Mankind, seem to choose to express themselves thus, that the Apostle only intends the Mosaic Dispensation: But this comes to just the same Thing as if they said that the Apostle only means to •••lude the Works of the Ceremonial Law; for when they say that 'tis intended only that we ben't justified by the Works of the Mosaic Dispensation, if they mean any Thing by it, it must be that we ben't justified by attending, and observing what is Mosaic in that Dispensation, or by what was peculiar to it, and wherein it differed from the Christian Dispensation; which is the same as that which is ceremonial and positive, and not moral, in that Administration—. So that this is what I have to disprove, viz. That the Apostle when he speaks of Works of the Law in this Affair, means only Works of the Ceremonial Law, or those Observances that were peculiar to the Mosaic Administration.
And here it must be noted, that no Body controverts it with them, whether the Works of the Ceremonial Law ben't included or whether the Apostle don't particularly argue against Justification by Circumcision, and other ceremonial Observances; but all that is in Question is, whether when he denies Justification by Works of the Law, he is to be understood only of the Ceremonial Law, or whether the moral Law ben't also implied and intended; And therefore those Arguments that are brought to prove that the Apostle meant the Ceremonial Law are nothing to the Purpose, unless they prove more than that, viz. that the Apostle meant those only.