N03467:296
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.
2 Pressing into the Kingdom of Heaven denotes Earnestness and Firmness of Resolution. There should be Strength of Resolution, accompanying Strength of Desire, as it was in the Psalmist in the Place just now referred to; One Thing have I desired, and that will I seek after. In order to a thorough Engagedness of the Mind in this Affair, both these must meet together; besides Desires after Salvation, there should be an earnest Resolution in Persons to pursue this Good as much as lies in their Power; to do all that in the Use of their utmost Strength they are able to do, in an Attendance on every Duty, and resisting and militating against all Manner of Sin, and to continue in such a Pursuit.
2 Pressing into the Kingdom of Heaven denotes Earnestness and Firmness of Resolution. There should be Strength of Resolution, accompanying Strength of Desire, as it was in the Psalmist in the Place just now refer'd to; One Thing have I desired, and that will I seek after. In order to a thorough Engagedness of the Mind in this Affair, both these must meet together; besides Desires after Salvation, there should be an earnest Resolution in Persons to pursue this Good as much as lies in their Power; to do all that in the Use of their utmost Strength they are able to do, in an Attendance on every Duty, and resisting and militating against all Manner of Sin, and to continue in such a Pursuit.
There are two Things needful in a Person in order to these strong Resolutions in him: there must be a Sense of the great Importance & Necessity of the Mercy sought, and their must also be a Sense of Opportunity to obtain ⟨p. 136⟩it, or the Encouragement there is to seek it. The Strength of Resolution depends on the Sense which God gives the Heart of these Things. Persons without such a Sense may seem to themselves to take up Resolutions; they may as it were force a Promise to themselves, and say with in themselves, I will seek as long as I live, I will not give out till I obtain, when they do but deceive themselves, their Hearts are not in it; neither do they indeed take up any such Resolution as they seem to themselves to do; 'tis the Resolution of the Mouth more than of the Heart; their Hearts ben' strongly bent to fulfil what their Mouth says,. The Firmness of Resolution lies in the Fullness of the Disposition of the Heart to do what is resolved to be done. Those that are pressing into the Kingdom of God have a Disposition of Heart to do every Thing that is required, and that lies in their Power to do, and to continue in it: They have not only Earnestness, but Steadiness of Resolution: They don't seek with a wavering unsteady Heart, by Turns, or Fits, being off and on; but 'tis the constant Bent of the Soul, if possible, to obtain the Kingdom of God.