N03467:606
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.
3. Christ never so eminently appeared for divine Justice, and yet never suffered so much from divine Justice, as when he offered up himself a Sacrifice for our Sins. In Christ's great Sufferings, did his infinite Regard to the Honour of God's Justice distinguishingly appear; for it was from Regard to that, that he thus humbled himself: And yet in these Sufferings, Christ was the Mark of the vindictive Expressions of that very Justice of God. Revenging Justice then spent all it's Force upon him, on the Account of our Guilt that was laid upon him; he was not spared at all; but God spent the Arrows of his Vengeance upon him, which made him sweat Blood, and cry out upon the Cross, and probably rent his Vitals, broke his Heart, the Fountain of Blood, or some other internal Blood Vessels, and by the violent Fermentation turned his Blood to Water: For the Blood and Water that issued out of his Side, when pierced by the Spear, seems to have been extravasated Blood; and so there might be a Kind of literal Fulfilment of that, in Psalm. 22. 14. I am poured out like Water, and all my Bones are out of Joint: My Heart is like Wax, it is melted in the midst of my Bowels—And this was the Way and Means by which Christ stood up for the Honour of God's Justice, viz. By thus suffering it's terrible Executions. For when he had undertaken for Sinners, and had substituted himself in their Room, divine Justice could have it's due Honour, no other Way than by his Suffering it's Revenges.
In this the diverse Excellencies that met in the Person of Christ appeared, viz. His infinite Regard to God's Justice, and such Love to those that have exposed themselves to it, as induced him thus to yield himself a Sacrifice to it.
4. Christ's Holiness never so illustriously shone forth, as it did in his last Sufferings; and yet he never was to such a Degree, treated as Guilty. Christ's Holiness never had such a Trial, as it had then; and therefore never had so great a Manifestation. When it was tried in this Furnace, it came forth as, Gold, or as Silver purified seven Times. His Holiness then above all appeared in