N05401:159
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.
However, if there were any such Thing, as a being heartily willing to accept of Christ, and a giving all our Hearts to Christ, without a saving Sincerity, this would not be a complying with the Terms of a Covenant of Salvation. For it's Self-evident, that 'tis only something which is saving, that is a Compliance with the Terms of Salvation. Now Mr. W. himself often allows (as has been observed) that Persons must comply with the Terms of the Covenant of ⟨p. 67⟩Grace, in Order to come to Sacraments.— Yet because he also in Effect denies it, I shall say something further in Confirmation of it.
(1.) The Sacraments are Covenant Privileges. Mr. W. himself calls them so. (P. 5. a. b.) Covenant-Privileges are Covenant-Benefits, or Benefits Persons have a Right to by the Covenant. But Persons can have no Right to any of the Benefits of a Covenant, without Compliance with its Terms. For that is the very Notion of the Terms of a Covenant, viz. Terms of an Interest in the Benefits of that Covenant. 'Tis so in all Covenants whatsoever; if a Man refuses to comply with the Conditions of the Covenant, he can claim nothing by that Covenant.
(2.) If we consider the Sacraments as Seals of the Covenant, the same Thing is evident, viz. That a Man can have no Right to 'em without a Compliance with the Terms. The Sacraments are not only Seals of the Offer on God's Part, or Ordinances God has appointed as Confirmations of the Truth of his Covenant, as Mr. W. seems to insist. (P. 74, 75.) For considered merely as Seals and Confirmations of the Truth of the Gospel, they are (as Miracles and other Evidences of the Christian Religion) Seals equally given to Christians, Jews, Deists, moral and vicious, and the whole World that knows of 'em. Whereas, 'tis manifest, in the Nature of the Thing, Sacraments are Seals of the Covenant to be applied to the Communicant, and of which he is the immediate Subject, in a peculiar Manner, as a Party in Covenant. Otherwise, what Need would there be of his being one of God's Covenant-People, in any Sense whatsoever?