N03467:501
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.
But I would now proceed,
2. To show that 'tis really so that you are not willing to have Christ for a Saviour. To convince you of it, consider,
2. To shew that 'tis really so that you are not willing to have Christ for a Saviour. To convince you of it, consider,
1. How it is possible that you should be willing to accept of Christ as a Saviour from the Desert of a Punishment, that you are not sensible you have deserved. If you are truly willing to accept of Christ as a Saviour, it must be as a Sacrifice to make Atonement for your Guilt: Christ came into the World on this Errand, to offer himself as an Atonement, to answer for our Desert of Punishment. But how is it possible that you should be willing to accept of Christ, as an Atonement for that Guilt that you be not sensible that you have? How can you be willing to have Christ for a Saviour from a Desert of Hell, if you be not sensible that you have a Desert of Hell? If you have not really deserved everlasting Burnings in Hell, then the very Offer of an Atonement for such a Desert is an Imposition upon you. If you have no such Guilt upon you, then the very Offer of a Satisfaction for that Guilt is an Injury, because it implies in it a Charge of Guilt that you are free from. Now therefore 'tis impossible that a Man that is not convinced of his Guilt, can be willing to accept of an Offer; because he can't be willing to accept the Charge that the Offer implies: that ⟨p. 224⟩he looks upon as injurious. A Man that is not convinced that he has deserved so dreadful a Punishment, can't willingly submit to be charged with it; if he thinks he is willing, it is but a mere forced, feigned Business; because in his Heart he looks upon himself greatly injured: And therefore he can't freely accept of Christ, under that Notion, of a Saviour from that Guilt, and from the Desert of such a Punishment; for such an Acceptance is an implicit owning that he does deserve such a Punishment.