N03467:413
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. That your Soul is as precious as theirs. It is immortal as theirs is; and stands in as much Need of Happiness, and can as ill bear eternal Misery. You was born in the same miserable Condition that they were, having the same Wrath of God abiding on you. You must stand before the same Judge; who will be as strict in Judgment with you, as with them; and your own Righteousness will stand you in no more Stead before him, than theirs; and therefore you stand in as absolute Necessity of a Saviour as they. Carnal Confidences can no more answer your End than theirs; nor can this World or it's Enjoyments, serve to make you happy, without God, and Christ, more than them. When the Bridegroom comes, the foolish Virgins stand in as much Need of Oil, as the Wise, Matth.25 at the Beginning.
2. Unless you follow them, in their turning to God, their Conversion will be a Foundation of an eternal Separation between you and them. You will be in different Interests, and in exceeding different States, as long as you live; they the Children of God, and you the Children of Satan: and you will be parted in another World; when you come to die, there will be a vast Separation made between you. Luke 16. 26. And besides all this, between us and you, there is a great Gulf fixed; so that they that would pass from hence to you, cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. And you will be parted at the Day of Judgment. You will be parted at Christ's first Appearance in the Clouds of Heaven: While they are caught up in the Clouds, to meet the Lord in the Air, to be ever with the Lord, you will remain below, confined to this cursed Ground, that is kept in Store, reserved unto Fire, against the Day of Judgment, and Perdition of ungodly Men. You will appear separated from them, while you stand before the great Judgment Seat, they being at the Right Hard, while you are set at the left. Matth. 25. 32, 33. And before him shall be gathered all Nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats; and he shall