N03467:519
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.
Here is the Sin of Unbelief! Thus the Guilt of that great Sin lies upon you! If you never had thus treated a Saviour, you might most justly have been damned to all Eternity: It would but be exactly agreeable to your Treatment of God. But besides this, when God notwithstanding, has offered you his own dear Son to save you from this endless Misery you had deserved, and not only so, but to make you happy eternally in the Enjoyment of himself, you refused him, and would not have him for your Saviour, and still refuse to comply with the Offers of the Gospel; what can render any Person more inexcusable? If you should now perish for ever, what can you have to say?
Here is the Sin of Unbelief! Thus the Guilt of that great Sin lies upon you! If you never had thus treated a Saviour, you might most justly have been damned to all Eternity: It would but be exactly agreable to your Treatment of God. But besides this, when God notwithstanding, has offered you his own dear Son to save you from this endless Misery you had deserved, and not only so, but to make you happy eternally in the Enjoyment of himself, you refused him, and would not have him for your Saviour, and still refuse to comply with the Offers of the Gospel; what can render any Person more inexcuseable? If you should now perish for ever, what can you have to say?
Hereby the Justice of God in your Destruction appears in two Respects,
1. It is more abundantly manifest that it is just that you should be destroyed. Justice never appears so conspicuous as it does after refused and abused Mercy. Justice ⟨p. 230⟩in Damnation appears abundantly the more clear and bright, after a wilful Rejection of offered Salvation. What can an offended Prince do more than freely offer Pardon to a condemned Male factor? And if he refuses to accept of it, will any one say that his Execution is unjust?