N03467:539
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.
Ans. 1. That does not prove that God is any Way bound to show Mercy to you, or them either. If God does bestow it on others, he don't bestow it on them because he is bound to bestow it: He might if he had pleased, with glorious Justice have denied it them. If God bestows it on some, that does not prove that he is bound to bestow it on any; and if he is bound to bestow it on none, then he is not bound to bestow it on you. God is in Debt to none, and if he gives to some that he is not in Debt to, because 'tis his Pleasure, that don't bring him into Debt to others.—It alters not the Case as to you, at all, whether others have it or have it ⟨p. 238⟩not: You don't deserve Damnation the less, than if Mercy never had been bestowed on any at all. Matth. 20 15. Is thine Eye evil, because mine is good?
Ans. 1. That does not prove that God is any Way bound to shew Mercy to you, or them either. If God does bestow it on others, he don't bestow it on them because he is bound to bestow it: He might if he had pleased, with glorious Justice have denied it them. If God bestows it on some, that does not prove that he is bound to bestow it on any; and if he is bound to bestow it on none, then he is not bound to bestow it on you. God is in Debt to none, and if he gives to some that he is not in Debt to, because 'tis his Pleasure, that don't bring him into Debt to others.—It alters not the Case as to you, at all, whether others have it or have it ⟨p. 238⟩not: You don't deserve Damnation the less, than if Mercy never had been bestowed on any at all. Matth. 20 15. Is thine Eye evil, because mine is good?
2. If this Objection be good, then the Exercise of God's Mercy is not in his own Right, and his Grace is not his own to give. That which God may not dispose of as he pleases, is not his own; for that which is ones own, is at his own Disposal: but if it be not God's own, then he is not capable of making a Gift or Present of it to any one; it is impossible to give a Debt.