N05035:109
An humble inquiry into the rules of the Word of God, concerning the qualifications…
An humble inquiry into the rules of the Word of God, concerning the qualifications requisite to a complete standing and full communion in the visible Christian church. By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the First Church in Northampton. ; With an appendix by Mr. Foxcroft. ; [Ten lines of quotations]An humble inquiry into the rules of the Word of God, concerning the qualifications requisite to a compleat standing and full communion in the visible Christian church. By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the First Church in Northampton. ; With an appendix by Mr. Foxcroft. ; [Ten lines of quotations]
Boston: : Printed & sold by S. Kneeland in Queenstreet, 1749
Title page typeset from the transcription.
An Inquiry into the Qualifications for full Communion in the visibl… › Part 2
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 whoever don't make God the supreme Object of his Respect with a gracious Sincerity, certainly don't do it with any Sincerity. I fear, while leading People in many of our Congregations, who have no Thought of their having the least Spark of true Love to God in their Hearts, to say, publicly and solemnly, that They avouch God the Father, Son, and holy Ghost to be their God, and that They give themselves up to him, we have led 'em to say they know not what. To be sure, they are very obscure Expressions, if they mean any Thing that a carnal Man does, under the reigning Power of Sin and Enmity against God.
And whoever don't make God the supreme Object of his Respect with a gracious Sincerity, certainly don't do it with any Sincerity. I fear, while leading People in many of our Congregations, who have no Thought of their having the least Spark of true Love to God in their Hearts, to say, publickly and solemnly, that They avouch God the Father, Son, and holy Ghost to be their God, and that They give themselves up to him, we have led 'em to say they know not what. To be sure, they are very obscure Expressions, if they mean any Thing that a carnal Man does, under the reigning Power of Sin and Enmity against God.
Here possibly it may be objected, that it is unreasonable to suppose any such Thing should be intended, in the Profession of the Congregation in the Wilderness, as a gracious Respect to GOD, that which is the Condition of God's Covenant, when we have Reason to think that so few of them were truly gracious. But I suppose, upon mature Consideration this will not appear at all unreasonable. 'Tis no more unreasonable to suppose this People to make a Profession of that Respect to God, which they had not in their Hearts now, than at o••er Times when we are informed they did so, as in Ezek. xxxiii. 31. They come unto thee as the People cometh, and they sit before thee as my People [i. e. as tho' they were my Saints, as they profess to be] For with their Mouth they show much Love, but their Heart g••th after their Covetousness. So in the Apostles Time, that People professed that to be in their Hearts towards God, which was not there. The Apostle is speaking of them, when he says,