N03467:706
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.
In the Fall of the Year, I proposed it to the young People, that they should agree among themselves to spend the Evenings after Lectures in social Religion, and to that end divide themselves into several Companies to meet in various parts of the Town; which was accordingly done, and those Meetings have been since continued, and the Example imitated by elder People. This was followed with the Death of an elderly Person, which was attended with many unusual Circumstances, by which many were much moved and affected.
In the Fall of the Year, I proposed it to the young People, that they should agree among themselves to spend the Evenings after Lectures in social Religion, and to that end divide themselves into several Companies to meet in various parts of the Town; which was accorgingly done, and those Meetings have been since continued, and the Example imitated by elder People. This was follow'd with the Death of an elderly Person, which was attended with many unusual Circumstances, by which many were much moved and affected.
About this time, began the great Noise that was in this Part of the Country, about Arminianism, which seemed to appear with a very threatening Aspect upon the Interest of Religion here. The Friends of vital Piety trembled for fear of the Issue; but it seemed, contrary to their Fear, strongly to be over-ruled for the promoting of Religion. Many who looked on themselves as in a Christless Condition, seemed to be awakened by it, with fear that God was about to withdraw from the Land, and that we should be given up to Heterodoxy, and corrupt Principles; and that then their Opportunity for obtaining Salvation would be past; and many who were brought a little to doubt about the Truth of the Doctrines they had hitherto been taught, seemed to have a kind of a trembling Fear with their Doubts, lest they should be led into By-paths, to their eternal undoing: And they seemed with much Concern and Engagedness of Mind, to enquire what was indeed the Way in which they must come to be accepted with God. ⟨p. 7⟩There were then some things said publicly on that Occasion, concerning Justification by Faith alone.