N05035:277
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.
If a Man should come to 'em, proposing to join with the Church, and tell 'em, tho' indeed he was something afraid whether he believed the Doctrine of the Trinity with all his Heart, (meaning in a moral Sense) yet that he had often examined himself as to that Matter with the utmost Impartiality and Strictness he was capable of, and on the whole he found Reasons of probable Hope, and his preponderating Thought of himself was, that he was sincere in it; would they think such an One ought to be rejected, or would they advise him not to come to the Sacrament, because he did not certainly know he had this Sincerity, but only thought he had it!
ANSW. 3. If we suppose sanctifying Grace to be requisite in order to a being properly qualified, according to God's Word, for an Attendance on the Lord's Supper; yet it will not follow, that a Man must know he has this Qualification, in order to his being capable of conscientiously attending it. If he judges, that he has it, according to the best Light he can obtain, on the most careful Examination, with the Improvement of such Helps as he can get, the Advice of his Pastor, &c. he may be bound in Conscience to attend. And the Reason in this; Christians partaking of the Lord's Supper is not a Matter of mere Claim, or Right and Privilege, but a Matter of Duty and Obligation; being an Affair wherein another (even God) has a Claim and Demand on us. And as we ought to be careful, on the one Hand, that we proceed on good Grounds in taking to our selves a Privilege, le•t we take what we have no good Claim to; so we should be equally careful, on the other Hand, to proceed on good Grounds in what we with-hold from another, lest we don't with hold that from him which is his Due, & which he justly challenges from us. Therefore in a Case of this complex Nature, where a Thing is both a Matter of Right or Privilege to us, & also a Matter of Obligation to another, or a Right of his from us, the Danger of proceeding without Right and Truth is equal both Ways; and consequently, if we can't be absolutely sure either Way, here the best Judgment we can form, after all proper Endeavours to know the Truth, must govern and determine us; otherwise we shall designedly do that whereby, according to our own Judgment, we run the greatest Risk; which is certainly contrary to Reason. If the Question were only what a Man has a Right to, he might forbear 'till he were sure: But the Question is, not only whether he has Right to attend the Supper, but whether God also has not a Right to his