Jonathan Edwards Selected Shor (continued)
44. The opponents of efficacious grace and physical operation, may be challenged to show that it is possible that any creature should become righteous without a physical operation, either a being created with the habit of righteousness, or its being immediately infused. See what I have written in my book of Original Sin, in those sections wherein I vindicate the doctrine of original righteousness, and argue, that if Adam was not created righteous, no way can be invented how he could ever become righteous.
45. As to that, Mat. 7:7, "Seek and ye shall find;" it is explained by such places as that, Deu. 4:29, "But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul." And by Deu. 30:2-6, "If thou shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice with all thy heart and with all thy soul; the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul;" which is very parallel with that, "to him that hath shall be given."
46. The Scripture teaches that holiness, both in principle and fruit, is from God. "It is God who worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." And Pro. 16:1, "The preparation of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord." Comparing this with other parts of the book of Proverbs, evinces that it is a moral preparation, and the answer of the tongue in moral regards, that is meant.
47. Reason shows that the first existence of a principle of virtue cannot be from man himself, nor in any created being whatsoever, but must be immediately given from God, or that otherwise it never