N03467:534
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.
IV. If God should eternally cast you off, it would but be agreeable to your own Behaviour towards your self: And that in two Respects;
IV. If God should eternally cast you off, it would but be agreable to your own Behaviour towards your self: And that in two Respects;
1. In being so Careless of your own Salvation. You have refused to take Care for your Salvation, as God has counselled and commanded you, from Time to Time; and why may not God neglect it, now you seek it of him? Is God obliged to be more careful of your Happiness, than you are, either of your own Happiness, or his Glory? Is God bound to take that Care for you, out of Love to you, that you won't take for your self, either from Love to your self, or Regard to his Authority? How long, and how greatly, have you neglected the Welfare of your precious Soul, refusing to take Pains and deny your self, or put your self a little out of your Way for your Salvation, while God has been calling upon you! Neither your Duty to God, nor Love to your own Soul, were enough to induce you to do little Things for your own eternal Welfare; and yet do you now expect that God should do great Things, putting forth almighty Power, & exercising infinite Mercy for it? You was urged to take care for your Salvation, and not to put it off: You was told that that was the best Time, before you grew older, and that it might be, if you would put it off, God would not hear you afterwards; but yet you would not hearken; you would run the Venture of it. Now how justly might God order it so, that it should be too late, leaving you to seek in Vain! You was told that you would repent of it, if you delayed; but you would not hear: How justly therefore may God give you Cause to repent of it, by refusing to show you Mercy now! If God sees you going on in Ways contrary to his Commands, and his Glory, ⟨p. 236⟩and requires you to forsake them, and tells you that they are Ways that tend to the Destruction of your own Soul, and therefore Counsels you to avoid them, and you refuse, how just would it be if God should be provoked by it, henceforward to be as careless of the Good of your Soul as you are your self!