N05401:49
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.
There is one Passage more, which Mr. W. adds to the preceding, and fathers on me, to prove that I require an Account of Experiences in order to Admission; pretending to rehearse my Words, with Marks of Quotation, saying as follows, (P. 6. a.) And as he further explains himself elsewhere; The proper Visibility which the Public is to have of a Man's being a Saint, must be on some Account of his Experience of those Doctrines which teach the Nature of true saving Religion. I have made long and diligent Search for such a Passage in my Writings, but cannot find it. Mr. W. says, I thus explain my self elsewhere: But I wish he had mentioned in what Place.
There is one Passage more, which Mr. W. adds to the preceding, and fathers on me, to prove that I require an Account of Experiences in order to Admission; pretending to rehearse my Words, with Marks of Quotation, saying as follows, (P. 6. a.) And as he further explains himself elsewhere; The proper Visibility which the Publick is to have of a Man's being a Saint, must be on some Account of his Experience of those Doctrines which teach the Nature of true saving Religion. I have made long and diligent Search for such a Passage in my Writings, but cannot find it. Mr. W. says, I thus explain my self elsewhere: But I wish he had mention'd in what Place.
If there be such a Sentence in some of my Writings (as I suppose there is not) it will serve little to Mr. Williams's Purpose.—If we take the Word Experience according to the common Acceptation of it in the English Language, viz. a Person's perceiving or knowing any Thing by Trial or Experiment, or by immediate Sensation or Consciousness within himself: In this Sense, I own, it may from what I say in my Book be inferred, that a Man's Profession of his Experience should be required as a Term of Communion: And so it may be as justly and as plainly inferred, that Mr. W. himself insists on a Profession of Experience as a Term of Communion; Experience of a deep Conviction of a Man's undone State without Christ; Experience of a Persuasion of his Judgment and Conscience, that there is no other Way of Salvation; Experience of unfeigned Desires to be brought to the Terms of the Covenant: For such Things as these, he says, must be professed: So P. 75. d. e. and in innumerable other Places. There is no such Thing possible as a Man's professing any Thing within himself or belonging to his own Mind, either good or bad, either common or saving, unless it be something that he finds, or (which is the same Thing) experiences, within himself.