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Discourses on various important subjects, nearly concerning the great affair of the soul's eternal…
Discourses on various important subjects, nearly concerning the great affair of the soul's eternal salvation, viz. I. Justification by faith alone. II. Pressing into the Kingdom of God. III. Ruth's resolution. IV. The justice of God in the damnation of sinners. V. The excellency of Jesus Christ. : Delivered at Northampton, chiefly at the time of the late wonderful pouring out of the spirit of God there. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ in Northampton. ; [Three lines from Deuteronomy]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland and T. Green, 1738
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.
With respect to the Discourse on Justification, besides the desire of my People to make it public, I have been advised to it by certain Rev. Gentlemen, my Fathers, that happened to be the Hearers of it; (or, at least, Part of it,) when preached, whose Opinion and Advice, in such an Affair, I thought should be of as great Weight with me as of most that I was acquainted with.
With respect to the Discourse on Justification, besides the desire of my People to make it publick, I have been advised to it by certain Rev. Gentlemen, my Fathers, that happen'd to be the Hearers of it; (or, at least, Part of it,) when preached, whose Opinion and Advice, in such an Affair, I thought should be of as great Weight with me as of most that I was acquainted with.
The Beginning of the late Work of God in this Place was so circumstanced, that I could not but look upon it as a remarkable Testimony of God's Approbation of the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, here asserted and vindicated:—By the noise that had a little before been raised in this County, concerning that Doctrine, People here seemed to have their Minds put into an unusual Ruffle; some were brought to doubt of that Way of Acceptance with God, which from their Infancy they had been taught to be the only Way, and many were engaged more thoroughly to •ook into the Grounds of those Doctrines they had been educated in:—The following Discourse of Justification, that was preached, (tho' not so fully as it is here printed,) at two public Lectures, seemed to be remarkably blessed, not only to establish the Judgments of many in this Truth, but to engage their Hearts in a more earnest pursuit of Justification, in that Way that had been explained and defended; And at that Time, while I was greatly reproached for defending this Doctrine in the Pulpit, and just upon my suffering a very open Abuse for it, God's Work wonderfully brake forth amongst us, and Souls began to flock to Christ, as the Saviour in whose Righteousness alone they hoped to be justified: So that this was the Doctrine on which this Work in its Beginning was •ounded, as it evidently was in the whole progress of it.