N03467:98
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.
But it is said that boasting is excluded, as Circumcision was excluded, which was what the Jews especially used to glory in, and value themselves upon, above other Nations.
To this I answer, that the Jews were not only used to boast of Circumcision, but were notorious for boasting of their moral Righteousness. The Jews of those Days were generally Admirers, and followers of the Pharisees, who were full of their Boasts of their moral Righteousness, as we may see by the Example of the Pharisee mentioned in the 18th of Luke, which Christ mentions as describing the general Temper of that Sect; Lord, says he, I thank thee, that I am not as other Men, an Extortioner nor Unjust, nor an Adulterer. The Works that he boasts of were chiefly moral Works: He depended on the Works of the Law for Justification; and therefore Christ tells us that the Publican, that renounced all his own Righteousness, went down to his House justified rather than he. And elsewhere we read of the Pharisees praying in the corners of the Streets and sounding a Trumpet before 'em when they did A•ms: But those Works which they so vainly boasted of were moral Works▪ And not only so, but what the Apostle, in this very Epistle, is condemning the Jews for▪ is their boasting of the moral Law. Chap. 2. 22, 23. Thou that sayeth a Man should not commit Adultery dost thou commit Adultery! Thou that abhorrest Idols, dost thou commit Sacrilege. Thou that makest thy boast of the Law, through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God The Law here mentioned that they made their boast of, was that of which Adultery, ⟨p. 39⟩Idolatry, and Sacrilege, were the breaches, which is the moral Law: So that this is the boasting which the Apostle condemns them for; and therefore if they were justified by the Works of this Law, then how comes he to say that their boasting is excluded? And besides, when they boasted of the Rites of the ceremonial Law, it was under a Notion of it's being a Part of their own Goodness or Excellency, or what made them holier and more lovely in the sight of God than other People; and if they were not justified by this Part of their own supposed Goodness, or Holiness, yet if they were by another, how did that exclude boasting? How was their boasting excluded, unless all Goodness or Excellency of their own was excluded?