N05035:56
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.
Indeed I can easily see, how that may seem visible, and appear probable to God's People by Reason of the imperfect and dark State they are in, and so may oblige their Charity, which yet is not real, and which would not appear at all probable to Angels, who stand in a clearer Light: And the different Degrees of Light, that God's Church stands in in different Ages, may make a Difference in this Respect: The Church under the New Testament being favoured by God with a vastly greater Light in divine Things, […] the Church under the old Testament, that might make some Difference, as to the Kind of Profession of Religion that is requisite, under these different Dispensations, in order to a Visibility of Holiness; also a proper Visibility may fail in the greater Number in some extraordinary Case, & in exempt Circumstances: But how those Signs can be a Ground of a rational Judgment that a Thing is, which, at that very Time, and under that Degree of Light we then have, we are sensible do oftener fail than not, and this ordinarily, I own my self much at a Loss. Surely nothing but appearing Reason is the Ground of a rational Judgment. And indeed it is impossible in the Nature of Things, to form a Judgment, which at that very Time we think to be not only without but against Probability.
Indeed I can easily see, how that may seem visible, and appear probable to God's People by Reason of the imperfect and dark State they are in, and so may oblige their Charity, which yet is not real, and which would not appear at all probable to Angels, who stand in a clearer Light: And the different Degrees of Light, that God's Church stands in in different Ages, may make a Difference in this Respect: The Church under the New Testament being favoured by God with a vastly greater Light in divine Things, 〈…〉 the Church under the old Testament, that might make some Difference, as to the Kind of Profession of Religion that is requisite, under these different Dispensations, in order to a Visibility of Holiness; also a proper Visibility may fail in the greater Number in some extraordinary Case, & in exempt Circumstances: But how those Signs can be a Ground of a rational Judgment that a Thing is, which, at that very Time, and under that Degree of Light we then have, we are sensible do oftner fail than not, and this ordinarily, I own my self much at a Loss. Surely nothing but appearing Reason is the Ground of a rational Judgment. And indeed it is impossible in the Nature of Things, to form a Judgment, which at that very Time we think to be not only without but against Probability.