N03467:472
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. You never have exercised the least Degree of Love to God; and therefore it would be agreeable to your Treatment of •••m, if he should never express any Love to you. When God converts and saves a Sinner, it is a wonderful and unspeakable Manifestation of divine Love. When a poor lost Soul is brought Home to Christ, and has all his Sins forgiven him, and is made a Child of God, it will take up a whole Eternity to express and declare the Greatness of that Love. And why should God be obliged to express such wonderful Love to you, who never exercised the least Degree of Love to him in all your Life? You never have loved God who is infinitely glorious and lovely; and why then is God under Obligation to love you, who are all over deformed and loathsome, as a filthy Worm, or rather a hateful Viper? You have no Benevolence in your Heart towards God; you never rejoiced in God's Happiness; if he had been miserable, and that had been possible, you would have liked it as well, as if he were happy; you would not have cared how miserable he was, nor mourned for it, any more than you now do for the Devil's being miserable: And why then, should God be looked upon as obliged to take so much Care for your Happiness, as to do such great Things for it, as he doth for those that are saved? Or why should God be called hard, in Case he should not be careful to save you from Misery? You care not what becomes of God's Glory; you are not di•rested how much so ever his Honour seems to suffer in the World: And why should God care any more for your Welfare?—Has it not been so, that if you could but promote your private Interest, and gratify your own Lusts, you cared not how much the Glory of God suffered? And why may not God advance his own Glory, in the Ruin of your Welfare, not caring how much your Interest suffers by it? You never so much as stirred one Step, sincerely making the Glory of God your End, or acting from real Respect to him; ⟨p. 212⟩And why then is it hard, if God don't do such great Things for you, as the changing your Nature, raising you from spiritual Death to Life, conquering the Powers of Darkness for you, translating you out of the Kingdom of Darkness, into the Kingdom of his dear Son, delivering you from eternal Misery, and bestowing eternal Glory upon you? You don't use to be willing to deny your self for God;
1. You never have exercised the least Degree of Love to God; and therefore it would be agreable to your Treatment of m, if he should never express any Love to you. When God converts and saves a Sinner, it is a wonderful and unspeakable Manifestation of divine Love. When a poor lost Soul is brought Home to Christ, and has all his Sins forgiven him, and is made a Child of God, it will take up a whole Eternity to express and declare the Greatness of that Love. And why should God be obliged to express such wonderful Love to you, who never exercised the least Degree of Love to him in all your Life? You never have loved God who is infinitely glorious and lovely; and why then is God under Obligation to love you, who are all over deformed and loathsome, as a filthy Worm, or rather a hateful Viper? You have no Benevolence in your Heart towards God; you never rejoyced in God's Happiness; if he had been miserable, and that had been possible, you would have liked it as well, as if he were happy; you would not have cared how miserable he was, nor mourned for it, any more than you now do for the Devil's being miserable: And why then, should God be looked upon as obliged to take so much Care for your Happiness, as to do such great Things for it, as he doth for those that are saved? Or why should God be called hard, in Case he should not be careful to save you from Misery? You care not what becomes of God's Glory; you are not dirested how much so ever his Honour seems to suffer in the World: And why should God care any more for your Welfare?—Has it not been so, that if you could but promote your private Interest, and gratify your own Lusts, you cared not how much the Glory of God suffered? And why may not God advance his own Glory, in the Ruin of your Welfare, not caring how much your Interest suffers by it? You never so much as stirr'd one Step, sincerely making the Glory of God your End, or acting from real Respect to him;