N03467:556
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.
1. He is called a Lion. Behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. He seems to be called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, in Allusion to what Jacob said, in his blessing of the Tribes on his Death Bed, who when he came to bless Judah, compares him to a Lion, Gen. 49. 9. Judah is a Lion's Whelp: From the Prey my Son ar• thou gone up: H• stooped down, he couched as a Lion, and as an old Lion; who shall raise him up? And also to the Standard of the Camp of Judah in the Wilderness, on which was displayed a Lion, according to the ancient Tradition of the Jews. 'Tis much on Account of the valiant Acts of David, that the Tribe of Judah, of which David was, is in Jacob's prophetical Blessing compared to a Lion; but more especially with an Eye to Jesus Christ, who also was of that Tribe, and was descended of David, and is in our Text called the Root of David; and therefore Christ is here called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
2. He is called a Lamb. John was told of a Lion that had prevailed to open the Book, and probably expected to see a Lion in his Vision; but while he is expecting, behold a Lamb appears to open the Book, an exceeding diverse Kind of Creature from a Lion! A Lion is a Devourer, one that is wont to make terrible Slaughter of others; and no Creature more easily falls a Prey to him than a Lamb. And Christ is here represented not only as a Lamb, a Creature very liable to be slain, but a Lamb as it had been slain, that is, with the Marks of it's deadly Wounds appearing on it.
That which I would observe from the Words, for the Subject of my present Discourse is this, viz.