N03467:553
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.
THE Visions and Revelations that the Apostle John had of the future Events of God's Providence, are here introduced with a Vision of the Book of God's Decrees, by which those Events were fore ordained; which is represented in the first Verse of this Chapter, as a Book in the Right Hand of him that sat on the Throne, written within, and on the back Side, and sealed with seven Seals. Books in the Form in which ⟨p. 245⟩they were wont of old to be made, were broad Leaves of Parchment, or Paper, or something of that Nature, joined together at one Edge, and so rolled up together, and then sealed, or some Way fastened together, to prevent their unfolding and opening. Hence we read of the Roll of a Book, Jer. 36. 2. It seems to have been such a Book that John h•d a Vision of here; and therefore 'tis said to be written within, and on the back Side, i. e. on the inside Pages, and also on one of the outside Pages, viz. that that was rolled in, in the rolling the Book up together. And it is said to be se•led with seven Seals, to signify that what was written in it was perfectly hidden and secret; or that God's Decrees of future Events are sealed, and shut up from all Possibility of being discovered by Creatures, till God is pleased to make them known. We find that seven is often used in Scripture as the Number of Perfection, to signify the superlative, or most perfect Degree of any Thing; which probably c•me from that, that on the seventh Day God beheld the Works of Creation finished, and rested and rejoiced in them, as being complete and perfect.
THE Visions and Revelations that the Apostle John had of the future Events of God's Providence, are here introduced with a Vision of the Book of God's Decrees, by which those Events were fore ordained; which is represented in the first Verse of this Chapter, as a Book in the Right Hand of him that sat on the Throne, written within, and on the back Side, and sealed with seven Seals. Books in the Form in which ⟨p. 245⟩they were wont of old to be made, were broad Leaves of Parchment, or Paper, or some•hing of that Nature, joined together at one Edge, and so rolled up together, and then sealed, or some Way fasten'd together, to prevent their unfolding and opening. Hence we read of the Roll of a Book,