N05035:281
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.
As to the Case of the Priests, that could not find their Register (Ezra ii.) alleged in the Appeal to the Learned (pag. 64.) it appears to me of no Force in this Argument; for if those Priests had had never so great Assurance in themselves of their Pedigree being good, or of their being descended from Priests, and should have professed such Assurance; yet it would not have availed, nor did they abstain from the Priesthood, because they wanted Satisfaction themselves, but they were subject to the Judgment of the Sanhedrin; whose Rule to judge of the Qualification spoken of, God had never made any Profession of the Parties themselves, but the Visibility of the Thing and Evidence of the Fact to their own Eyes: this Matter of Pedigree being an external Object, ordinarily within the View of Man; and not any Qualification of Heart. But this is not the Case with Regard to requisite Qualifications for the Lord's Supper, which ⟨p. 112⟩being many of them internal invisible Things, seated in the Mind and Heart, such as the Belief of a supreme Being, &c. God has made a credible Profession of these Things the Rule to direct in Admission of Persons to the Ordinance: Who in making this Profession are determined and governed by their own Judgment of themselves, and not by any Thing within the View of the Church.
As to the Case of the Priests, that could not find their Register (Ezra ii.) alledged in the Appeal to the Learned (pag. 64.) it appears to me of no Force in this Argument; for if those Priests had had never so great Assurance in themselves of their Pedigree being good, or of their being descended from Priests, and should have professed such Assurance; yet it would not have availed, nor did they abstain from the Priesthood, because they wanted Satisfaction themselves, but they were subject to the Judgment of the Sanhedrim; whose Rule to judge of the Qualification spoken of, God had never made any Profession of the Parties themselves, but the Visibility of the Thing and Evidence of the Fact to their own Eyes: this Matter of Pedigree being an external Object, ordinarily within the View of Man; and not any Qualification of Heart. But this is not the Case with Regard to requisite Qualifications for the Lord's Supper, which ⟨p. 112⟩