N03467:150
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.
Indeed all Obedience considered under the Notion of Obedience or Righteousness, is something active, something that is done in active and voluntary Compliance with a Command; whether that which we do in Obedience is something easy, and something that may be done without Suffering, or whether it be something hard and difficult; yet as 'tis Obedience, or Righteousness, or moral Goodness▪ it must be considered as something voluntary and active. If any one is commanded to go through Difficulties, and Sufferings, and he in Compliance with this command voluntarily does it, he properly obeys in so doing; and as he voluntarily does it, in Compliance with a Command, his Obedience is as active as any whatsoever: 'Tis the same sort of Obedience, a Thing of the very same Nature, as when a Man in Compliance with a Command, does a piece of hard Service, or goes through hard Labour; and there is no Room to distinguish between such Obedience and other that is more easy, and to make a different sort of Obedience of it, as if it were a Thing of quite a different Nature, by such opposite Terms as active and passive: all the Distinction that can be pretended, is that which is between obeying an easy Command and a difficult one: But is not the Obedience it self of the same Nature, because the Commands to be obeyed, are some of 'em more difficult than others? Is there from hence any Foundation to make too Species of Obedience, one active and the other passive?—There is no Appearance of any such Distinction ever entering into the Hearts of any of the Penmen of Scripture.
Indeed all Obedience considered under the Notion of Obedience or Righteousness, is something active, something that is done in active and voluntary Compliance with a Command; whether that which we do in Obedience is something easy, and something that may be done without Suffering, or whether it be something hard and difficult; yet as 'tis Obedience, or Righteousness, or moral Goodness▪ it must be considered as something voluntary and active. If any one is commanded to go through Difficulties, and Sufferings, and he in Compliance with this command voluntarily does it, he properly obeys in so doing; and as he voluntarily does it, in Compliance with a Command, his Obedience is as active as any whatsoever: 'Tis the same sort of Obedience, a Thing of the very same Nature, as when a Man in Compliance with a Command, does a piece of hard Service, or goes through hard Labour; and there is no Room to distinguish between such Obedience and other that is more easy, and to make a different sort of Obedience of it, as if it were a Thing of quite a different Nature, by such opposite Terms as active and passive: all the Distinction that can be pretended, is that which is between obeying an easy Command and a difficult one: But is not the Obedience it self of the same Nature, because the Commands to be obeyed, are some of 'em more difficult than others? Is there from hence any Foundation to make too Species of Obedience, one active and the other passive?—There is no Appearance of any such Distinction ever entring into the Hearts of any of the Penmen of Scripture.