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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.
Discourse 4: The Justice of GOD in the Damnation of Sinners.
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.
There is none that seeketh after God: They are all gone out of the Way: They are together become unprofitable: There is none that doth good; no not one. Secondly, The Passages he cites next, are to prove that not only are all corrupt, but each one •••lly corrupt, as it were ⟨p. 194⟩all over unclean, from the crown of his Head, to the Soles of his Feet; and therefore several particular Parts of the Body are mentioned, as the Throat, the Tongue, the Lips, the Mouth, the Feet, Verses 13, 14, 15. Their Throat is an open Sepulchre, with their Tongues they have used Deceit, the Poison of Asps is under their Lips; whose Mouth is full of Cursing and Bitterness, their Feet are swift to shed Blood. And, Thirdly, He quotes other Passages to show, that each one is not only all over corrupt, but corrupt to a desperate Degree, in the 16, 17, and 18. Verses; in which the exceeding Degree of their Corruption is shown, both by affirming and denying: By affirmatively expressing the most pernicious Nature and Tendency of their Wickedness, in the 16. Verse. Destruction and Misery are in their Ways And then by denying all Good, or Godliness, of them, in the 17, & 18, Verses, And the Way of Peace have they not known: There is no Fear of God before their Eyes. And then, lest the Jews should think these Passages of their Law don't concern them, and that only the Gentiles are intended in them, the Apostle shows in the Verse of the Text, not only that they are not exempt, but that they especially must be understood, Now we know, that whatsoever Things the Law saith, it saith to them that are under the Law. By those that are under the Law, is meant the Jews, and the Gentiles by those that are without Law; as appears by the 12th Verse of the preceding Chapter. There is special Reason to understand the Law, as speaking to and of them, to whom it was immediately given. And therefore the Jews would be unreasonable in exempting themselves. And if we examine the Places of the Old Testament, whence these Passages are taken, we shall see plainly that special Respect is had to the Wickedness of the People of that Nation, in every one of them. So that the Law shuts all up in universal and desperate Wickedness, that every Mouth may be stopped. The Mouths of the Jews, as well as of the Gentiles; notwithstanding all those Privileges by which they were distinguished from the Gentiles,
There is none that seeketh after God: They are all gone out of the Way: They are together become unprofitable: There is none that doth good; no not one. Secondly, The Passages he cites next, are to prove that not only are all corrupt, but each one lly corrupt, as it were