N03467:457
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.
And how have you behaved your self in the Time of Family Prayer! And what a Trade have many of you made of absenting your selves from the Worship of the Families you belong to, for the Sake of vain Company! And how have you continued in the Neglect of secret Prayer! therein wilfully living in a known Sin, going a Breast against as plain a Command as any in the Bible! Have you not been one that has cast off Fear, and restrained Prayer before God?
What wicked Carriage have some of you been guilty of towards your Parents! How far have you been from paying that Honour to them, that God has required! Have you not even harboured Ill-Will, and Malice towards them? And when they have displeased you, have wished Evil to them? Yea, and shown your vile Spirit in your Behaviour? And 'tis well if you have not mocked them behind their Backs; and like the accursed Ham and Canaan derided your Parents Nakedness instead of covering it, and hiding your Eyes from it. Have not some of you often disobeyed your Parents, yea, and refused to be subject to them? Is it not a Wonder of Mercy and Forbearance, that that has not before now ⟨p. 207⟩been accomplished on you, in Prov. 30. 17. The Eye that mocketh at his Father, and refuseth to obey his Mother, the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out, and the young Eagles shall eat it.
What Revenge and Malice have you been guilty of towards your Neighbours? How have you indulged this Spirit of the Devil, •hating others, and wishing Evil to them, rejoicing when Evil befell them, and grieving at others Prosperity, and lived in such a Way for a long Time!—Have not some of you allowed a passionate furious Spirit, and behaved your selves in your Anger more like wild Beasts, than like Christians?