N03467:666
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.
There has been a great and just Complaint for many Years among the Ministers and Churches in Old England, and in New, (except about the Time of the late Earthquake there) that the Work of Conversion goes on very slowly, that the Spirit of God in his saving Influences is much withdrawn from the Ministrations of his Word, and there are few that receive the Report of the Gospel, with any eminent Success upon their Hearts. But as the Gospel is the same divine Instrument of Grace still, as ever it was in the Days of the Apostles, so our ascended Saviour now and then takes a special Occasion to manifest the Divinity of this Gospel by a plentiful Effusion of his Spirit where it is preached: then Sinners are turned into Saints in Numbers, and there is a new Face of Things spread over a Town or Country: The Wilderness and the solitary Places are glad, the Desert rejoices and blossoms as the Rose; and surely concerning this Instance we may add, that they have seen the Glory of the Lord there, and the Excellency of our God, they have seen the Out goings of God our King in his Sanctuary.
There has been a great and just Complaint for many Years among the Ministers and Churches in Old England, and in New, (except about the Time of the late Earthquake there) that the Work of Conversion goes on very slowly, that the Spirit of God in his saving Influences is much withdrawn from the Ministrations of his Word, and there are few that receive the Report of the Gospel, with any eminent Success upon their Hearts. But as the Gospel is the same divine Instrument of Grace still, as ever it was in the Days of the Apostles, so our ascended Saviour now and then takes a special Occasion to manifest the Divinity of this Gospel by a plentiful Effusion of his Spirit where it is preached: then Sinners are turned into Saints in Numbers, and there is a new Face of Things spread over a Town or Country: The Wilderness and the solitary Places are glad, the Desert rejoyces and blossoms as the Rose; and surely concerning this Instance we may add, that they have seen the Glory of the Lord there, and the Excellency of our God, they have seen the Out goings of God our Ki•g in his Sanctuary.
Certainly it becomes us, who profess the Religion of Christ, to take Notice of such astonishing Exercises of his Power and Mercy, and give him the Glory which is due, when he begins to accomplish any of his Promises concerning the latter Days: and it gives us further