N05035:226
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 would inquire, What any one can intend by this Objection? Whether it be this, viz. That we ought to insist on no higher or better Qualifications, in admitting Persons as Members of the Christian Church, and to all its Privileges, than the whole Nation of the Jews, of that Generation which lived in Christ's Time, were possessed of, 'till they had obstinately persisted in their Rejection of him? If this is not intended, the Objection is nothing to the Purpose: Or, if this be intended, neither then is it to the Purpose of those with whom I have especially to do in this Controversy, who hold Orthodoxy, Knowledge of the Fundamental Doctrines of Religion, moral Sincerity, and a a good Conversation, to be Qualifications, which ought to be insisted on, in order to a visible Church-State: For a very great Part of those Jews were destitute of these Qualifications; Many of them were Sadducees, who denied a future State; others of them Herod•ans, who were occasional Conformists with the Romans in their Idolatries; the prevailing Sect among them were Pharisees, who openly professed the false Doctrine of Justification by the Works of the Law and external Privileges, that Leaven of the Pharisees, which Christ warns his Disciples to beware of: Many of them were scandalously ignorant, for their Teachers had taken away the Key of Knowledge: Multitudes were grossly vicious, for it was a Generation in which all Manner of Sin and Wickedness prevailed.
I would inquire, What any one can intend by this Objection? Whether it be this, viz. That we ought to insist on no higher or better Qualifications, in admitting Persons as Members of the Christian Church, and to all its Privileges, than the whole Nation of the Jews, of that Generation which lived in Christ's Time, were possessed of, 'till they had obstinately persisted in their Rejection of him? If this is not intended, the Objection is nothing to the Purpose: Or, if this be intended, neither then is it to the Purpose of those with whom I have especially to do in this Controversy, who hold Orthodoxy, Knowledge of the Fundamental Doctrines of Religion, moral Sincerity, and a a good Conversation, to be Qualifications, which ought to be insisted on, in order to a visible Church-State: For a very great Part of those Jews were destitute of these Qualifications; Many of them were Sadducees, who denied a future State; others of them Herod•ans, who were occasional Conformists with the Romans in their Idolatries; the prevailing Sect among them were Pharisees, who openly professed the false Doctrine of Justification by the Works of the Law and external Privileges, that Leaven of the Pharisees, which Christ warns his Disciples to beware of: Many of them were scandalously ignorant, for their Teachers had taken away the Key of Knowledge: Multitudes were grosly vicious, for it was a Generation in which all Manner of Sin and Wickedness prevailed.