N04757:162
An humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of God's people in…
An humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and visible union of God's people in extraordinary prayer for the revival of religion and the advancement of Christ's Kingdom on earth, pursuant to Scripture-promises and prophecies concerning the last time. By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Minister of the Gospel at Northampton. ; With a preface by several ministers.
printed for D. Henchman, 1748
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.
Ans. 1. All open engaging in extraordinary Exercises of Religion, not expressly enjoined by Institution, is not Pharisaism, nor has ever been so reputed in the Christian Church. As when a particular Church or Congregation of Christians agree together to keep a Day of Fasting and Prayer, on some special Occasion; or when public Days of Fasting and Thanksgiving are kept, throughout a Christian Province or Country: And tho' it be ordinarily the Manner for the civil Magistrate to lead in the setting apart such Days; yet that alters not the Case: If it be Pharisaism in the Society openly •o agree in such extraordinary Exercises of Religion, it is not less Pharisaism, for the Heads of the Society leading in the Affair. And if that were now the Case with the Christian Church, that once was, for about three hundred Years together, that the civil Magistrate was not of the Society of Christians, nor concerned himself in their Affairs; yet this would not render it the less suitable for Christians, on proper Occasions, jointly, and visibly one to another, to engage in such extraordinary Exercises of Religion, and to keep Days of Fasting and Thanksgiving by Agreement.
Ans. 1. All open engaging in extraordinary Exercises of Religion, not expresly enjoined by Institution, is not Pharisaism, nor has ever been so reputed in the Christian Church. As when a particular Church or Congregation of Christians agree together to keep a Day of Fasting and Prayer, on some special Occasion; or when publick Days of Fasting and Thanksgiving are kept, throughout a Christian Province or Country: And tho' it be ordinarily the Manner for the civil Magistrate to lead in the setting apart such Days; yet that alters not the Case: If it be Pharisaism in the Society openly •o agree in such extraordinary Exercises of Religion, it is not less Pharisaism, for the Heads of the Society leading in the Affair. And if that were now the Case with the Christian Church, that once was, for about three hundred Years together, that the civil Magistrate was not of the Society of Christians, nor concern'd himself in their Affairs; yet this would not render it the less suitable for Christians, on proper Occasions, jointly, and visibly one to another, to engage in such extraordinary Exercises of Religion, and to keep Days of F•sting and Thanksgiving by Agreement.