N05035:224
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 3
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.
I answer; By a common Figure of Speech the prevailing Part of a Nation are called the Nation, and what is done to them is said to be done to the Nation, and what is done by them is said to be done by that Nation: And it is to be hoped, that the Time is coming when the prevailing Part of many Nations, yea of every Nation under Heaven, will be regularly brought into the visible Church of Christ. And if we by Nations in these Prophecies understand any other than the prevailing Part, and it be insisted on that we must understand it of all the People belonging to those Nations; there never yet has been any Nation in this Sense regularly brought into the visible Church of Christ, even according to the Scheme of those whom I oppose: For there never yet has been an whole Nation that were outwardly moral. And besides, what Mr.Blake says in his Treatise of the Covenant (pag. 238.) may be applied here, and serve as an Answer to this Objection. The Prophecies of the old Testament (says he) of the Glory of the New Testament-Times, are in Old Testament Phrases, by Way of Allusion to the Worship of those Times, set forth to us. In Rev.xxi. 24. Nations are spoken of, as having an Interest in the New-Jerusalem, which yet is represented as perfectly pure, without the least Degree of Pollution and Defilement. ver. 27. And as for the Command to the Apostles, to disciple all Nations, it was a Direction to them as to what they should attempt, or do as much towards as they could; not a Prediction of what they should bring to pass in their Day: for they never brought one half of any one Nation into the visible Christian Church, nor any at all in one half of the Nations in the World, it's very probable.
I answer; By a common Figure of Speech the prevailing Part of a Nation are called the Nation, and what is done to them is said to be done to the Nation, and what is done by them is said to be done by that Nation: And it is to be hoped, that the Time is coming when the prevailing Part of many Nations, yea of every Nation under Heaven, will be regularly brought into the visible Church of Christ. And if we by Nations in these Prophecies understand any other than the prevailing Part, and it be insisted on that we must understand it of all the People belonging to those Nations; there never yet has been any Nation in this Sense regularly brought into the visible Church of Christ, even according to the Scheme of those whom I oppose: For there never yet has been an whole Nation that were outwardly moral. And besides, what Mr.Blake says in his Treatise of the Covenant (pag. 238.) may be applied here, and serve as an Answer to this Objection. The Prophecies of the old Testament (says he) of the Glory of the NewTestament-Times, are in Old Testament Phrases, by Way of Allusion to the Worship of those Times, set forth to us. In