N03467:304
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.
II. To show way the Kingdom of Heaven should be sought in this Manner.
II. To shew way the Kingdom of Heaven should be sought in this Manner.
It should be thus sought
1. On Account of the extreme Necessity we are in of getting into the Kingdom of Heaven. We are in a Perishing Necessity of it: Without it we are utterly and eternally lost. Out of the Kingdom of God is no Safety; there is no other hiding Place; this is the only City of Refuge, in which we can be secure from the Avenger that pursues all the Ungodly. The Vengeance of God will pursue, overtake, and eternally destroy, them that are not in this Kingdom. All that are without this Enclosure will be swallowed up in an overflowing fiery Deluge of Wrath: They may stand at the Door and knock, and cry Lord, Lord, open to us, in vain; they will be thrust back; and God will have no Mercy on them; they shall be eternally left of him; his fearful Vengeance will seize them; the Devils will lay hold on them; and all Evil will come upon them; and there will be none to pity or help; their Case will be utterly desperate, and infinitely doleful: It will be a gone Case with them; all Offers of Mercy, and Expressions of divine Goodness will be finally withdrawn, ⟨p. 141⟩and all Hope will be lost: God will have no Kind of Regard to their Well-Being; will take no Care of them to save them from any Enemy, or any Evil; but himself will be their dreadful Enemy, and will execute Wrath with Fury, and will take Vengeance in an inexpressibly dreadful Manner. Such as shall be in this Case will be lost and undone indeed! They will be funk down into Perdition, infinitely below all that we can think: For who knows the Power of God's Anger? And who knows the Misery of that poor Worm, on whom that Anger is executed without Mercy?