N03467:278
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.
Pressing into the Kingdom of GOD.
DISCOURSE, II.
LUKE XVI. 16. THE Law and the Prophets were until John: Since that Time the Kingdom of GOD is preached, and every Man presseth into it.
IN these Words two Things may be observed; First, Wherein the Work and Office of John the Baptist consisted, viz. preaching the Kingdom of God, to prepare the Way for it's Introduction to succeed the Law and the Prophets. By the Law & the Prophets, in the Text, seems to be intended the ancient Dispensation under the Old Testament, which was received from Moses and the Prophets. These ⟨p. 132⟩are said to be until John; not that the Revelations given by them are out of Use since that Time, but that the State of the Church founded and regulated, under God, by them, the Dispensation of which they were the Ministers […], and wherein the Church depended mainly on Light received from them, fully continued till John; who first began to introduce the New Testament Dispensation, or Gospel-State of the Church; which with its glorious spiritual and eternal Privileges and Blessings, is often called the Kingdom of Heaven, or Kingdom of God John the Baptist preached that the Kingdom of God was at Hand. That is the Account that we have of his Preaching, by the Evangelists, Repent, says he, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand: Since that Time, says Christ, the Kingdom of God is preached. John the Baptist first began to preach it; and then after him, Christ, and his Disciples, preached the same. Thus Christ preached,