N05401:384
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.
The chief Thing, that has the plausible Appearance of Argument in what Mr. S. and Mr. W. say on this Head, is this; That for God to require all who are in Covenant to come to the Lord's Supper, and yet to forbid 'em to come unconverted▪ is to suppose, that He both commands 'em and forbids 'em at the same Time. And this is thought to be the more manifest, in-as-much-as Conversion is not in Men's Power. Though it is not denied, but that God justly requires Men to be converted, or to be truly holy. (See P. 129, 130.)
To this I would say,
(1.) If when they speak of commanding and forbidding at the same Time, they mean God's commanding and ⟨p. 164⟩forbidding the same Thing, at the same Time, no such Consequence follows from my Principles. For That Thing, and that only, which I suppose God requires of any, is to come to the Lord's Supper with a sanctified Heart; and that this God requires at all Times, and never forbids at any Time; And that to come without this Qualification, is what He always forbids, and requires at no Time. So that what He requires, at the same Time he forbids something, is not the same Thing that he forbids; but a very different and contrary one: And 'tis no Absurdity, to suppose, that God requires one Thing, and forbids a contrary Thing at the same Time.