N03467:440
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.
If there be any Evil or Faultiness in Sin against God, there is certainly infinite Evil: For if it be any Fault at all, it has an infinite Aggravation, viz. that it is against an infinite Object. If it be ever so small upon other Accounts; yet if it be any Thing, it has one infinite Dimension; and so is an infinite Evil. Which may be illustrated by this: If we suppose a Thing to have infinite Length, but no Breadth and Thickness, but to be only a mere mathematical Line, it is nothing: But if it have any Breadth and Thickness at all, tho' never so small, yet if it have but one infinite Dimension, viz. that of Length, the Quantity of it is infinite; it exceeds the Quantity of any Thing, however broad, thick and long, wherein these Dimensions are all finite.
If there be any Evil or Faultiness in Sin against God, there is certainly infinite Evil: For if it be any Fault at all, it has an infinite Aggravation, viz. that it is against an infinite Object. If it be ever so small upon other Accounts; yet if it be any Thing, it has one infinite Dimension; and so is an infinite Evil. Which may be illustrated by this: If we suppose a Thing to have infinite Length, but no Breadth and Thickness, but to be only a meer mathematical Line, it is nothing: But if it have any Breadth and Thickness at all, tho' never so small, yet if it have but one infinite Dimension, viz. that of Length, the Quantity of it is infinite; it exceeds the Quantity of any Thing, however broad, thick and long, wherein these Dimensions are all finite.
So that the Objections that are made against the infinite Punishment of Sin, from the Necessity, or rather previous Certainty of the Futurition of Sin, arising from the Decree of God, or unavoidable original Corruption of Nature, if they argue any Thing, don't argue against the Infiniteness of the Degree of the Faultiness of Sin directly, and no otherwise than they argue against any Faultiness at all: For if this Necessity or Certainty, leaves any Evil at all in Sin, that Fault must be infinite by Reason of the infinite Object.