N05401:161
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.
(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?
(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 meerly 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?
But now 'tis not reasonable to suppose, that the Seal of the Covenant belongs to any Man, as a Party in the Covenant, who will not accept of and comply with the Covenant. He that rejects the Covenant, and won't comply with it, has no Interest in it: And he that has no Interest in the Covenant, has no Right to the Seals: For the Covenant and it's Seals go together. 'Tis so in all Covenants among Mankind; after a Man has come into a Bargain proposed and offered by another, yielding to the Terms of it, he has a Right to have the Bargain sealed, and confirmed to Him, as a Party in the Covenant; but not before.