N03467:613
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.
7. It was in Christ's last Sufferings, above all, that he was delivered up to the Power of his Enemies; and yet by these, above all, he obtained Victory over his Enemies. Christ never was so in his Enemies Hands, as in the Time of his last Sufferings. They sought his L•fe before! but from Time to Time they were restrained, and Christ escaped out of their Hands; and this Reason is given for it, that his Time was not yet ⟨p. 267⟩come; but now they were suffered to work their Will upon him; he was in a great Degree delivered up to the Malice and Cruelty of both wicked Men and Devils: And therefore when Christ's Enemies came to apprehend him, he says to them, Luke 22. 53. When I was daily with you in the Temple, ye stretched forth no Hand against me: But this is your Hour and the Power of Darkness.
And yet it was principally by Means of those Sufferings, that he conquered and overthrew his Enemies. Christ never so effectually bruised Satan's Head, as when he bruised his Heel. The Weapon with which Christ warred against the Devil, and obtained a most complete Victory and glorious Triumph over him, was the Cross, the Instrument and Weapon with which he thought he had overthrown Christ, and brought on him shameful Destruction. Col. 2. 14, 15 Blotting out the Hand-writing of Ordinances.—nailing it to his Cross: And having spoiled Principalities and Powers, he made a Show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. In his last Sufferings Christ sapped the very Foundations of Satan's Kingdom; he conquered his Enemies in their own Territories, and beat them with their own Weapons; as David cut off Goliath's Head with his own Sword. The Devil had as it were swallowed up Christ, as the Whale did Jonah; but it was deadly Poison to him; he gave him a mortal Wound in his own Bowels; he was soon Sick of his Morsel, and forced to vomit him up again; and is to this Day Heart-sick of what he then swallowed as his Prey.—In those Sufferings of Christ, was laid the Foundation of all that glorious Victory that he has already obtained over Satan, in the Overthrow of his heathenish Kingdom, in the Roman Empire, and all the Success the Gospel has had since; and also of all his future and still more glorious Victory that is to be obtained in all the Earth.—Thus Samson's Riddle is most eminently fulfilled,