N03467:218
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.
1. God looks on these glorious Benefits as a meet Testimony of his Regard to the Value which their Persons have in his Sight. But he sets this Value upon their Persons purely for Christ's Sake: They are such Jewels, and have such Preciousness in his Eyes, only because they are beheld in Christ, and by Reason of the Worthiness of the Head, they are the Members of, and the Stock they are grafted into. And this Value that God sets upon them on this Account is so great, that God thinks meet from Regard to it to admit them to such exceeding Glory The Saints on the Account of their Relation to Christ are such precious Jewels in God's Sight, that they are thought worthy of a Place in his own Crown. Mal. 3. 17. Z••h. 9 16. So far as the Saints are said to be valuable in God's Sight, upon whatever ⟨p. 97⟩Account they are so, so far may they properly be said to be worthy, or meet for that Honour that is answerable to that Value or Price which God sets upon them. A Child, or Wife of a Prince, is worthy to be treated with great Honour, and therefore if a mean Person should be adopted to be a Child of a Prince, of should be espoused to a Prince, it would be proper to say that she was worthy of such and such Honour and Respect, and there would be no Force upon the Words in saying that she ought to have such Respect paid her, for she is worthy, tho' i• be only on the Account of her Relation to the Prince that she is so.
2. From the Value God sets upon their Persons, for the Sake of Christ's Worthiness, he also sets a high Value in their V•i••ue• and Performance. Their meek and quiet Spirit is of great Price in his Sight. Their Fruits are pleasant Fruits, their Offering are an Odour of sweet Smell to him: And that because of the Value he sets on their Persons, as has been already observed and explained. This Preciousness, or high Valuableness of Believers is a moral Fitness to a Reward, and yet this Valuableness is all in the Righteousness of Christ, that is the Foundation of it The Thing that Respect is had to, is not the Excellency that is in them, separately by themselves, or in their Virtue by it self, but to the Value that in God's Account arises thereto on other Considerations; which is the natural import of the Manner of Expression in