N05401:148
Misrepresentations corrected, and truth vindicated. In a reply to the Rev. Mr. Solomon Williams's…
Misrepresentations corrected, and truth vindicated. In a reply to the Rev. Mr. Solomon Williams's book, entitled, The true state of the question concerning the qualifications necessary to lawful communion in the Christian sacraments. / By Jonathan Edwards, M.A. Minister of the Gospel at Stockbridge. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]Misrepresentations corrected, and truth vindicated. In a reply to the Rev. Mr. Solomon Williams's book, intitled, The true state of the question concerning the qualifications necessary to lawful communion in the Christian sacraments. / By Jonathan Edwards, M.A. Minister of the Gospel at Stockbridge. ; [Five lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland, 1752
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
But to examine this Matter, of the Lord's Supper being a converting Ordinance to ungodly Men professing Godliness, a little more exactly.— If Christ has appointed the Lord's Supper to be a converting Ordinance to some such ⟨p. 63⟩as these, then he has appointed it either only for such of them as are mistaken, and think themselves godly when they are not; or he has appointed it not only for such, but also for such as are sensible they are ungodly.
If the former, if it be appointed as a converting Ordinance only for such as are mistaken, & think themselves godly, or converted; then here is an Institution of Christ, which never can, in any one Instance, be made use of to the End for which he has appointed Men to use it. It can't be made Use of for this End by those who admit Members, and administer the Ordinance: For they, as Mr. W. says, must admit none but such as they are bound by the Rule of Christ to look upon as godly Men already, and to administer the Sacrament to 'em under that Notion, and with Respect to such a Character. Neither can it be made Use of to such a Purpose by any of the Communicants: For by the Supposition, they must be all such as think they are converted already, and also come under that Notion. So that by this Scheme of Things, here is an Institution appointed to be upheld and used in the Church, which the Institution itself makes void and impossible. For, as was observed before, the Notion of a converting Ordinance has not a Reference to any secret Decree of God, how He in his sovereign Pleasure will sometimes use it: But to his Institution given to Men, appointing the End for which they should use it. Therefore, on the present Supposition, the Institution appoints the Lord's Supper to be used in some Cases for the Conversion of Sinners, but at the same Time forbids its being either given or received under any other Notion than that of the Communicant's being converted already: Which is in Effect to forbid its being either given or received for the Conversion of the Communicant, in any one Instance. So that the Institution effectually destroys and disannuls it self.— But God forbid, that we should ascribe any such inconsistent Institutions to the divine Head of the Church!