N03467:739
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.
The awful Apprehensions Persons have had of their Misery, have for the most part been increasing, the nearer they have approached to Deliverance; tho' they often pass through many Changes, and Alterations in the Frame, and Circumstances of their Minds: Sometimes they think themselves wholly senseless, and fear that the Spirit of God has left them, and that they are given up to judicial Hardness; yet they appear very deeply exercised about that Fear, and are in great earnest to obtain Convictions again.
The awful Apprehensions Persons have had of their Misery, have for the most part been increasing, the nearer they have approached to Deliverance; tho' they often pass through many Changes, and Alterations in the Frame, and Circumstances of their Minds: Sometimes they think themselves wholly sensless, and fear that the Spirit of God has left them, and that they are given up to judicial Hardness; yet they appear very deeply exercised about that Fear, and are in great earnest to obtain Convictions again.
Together with those Fears, and that Exercise of Mind which is rational, and which they have just ground for, they have often suffered many needless Distresses of Thought, in which Satan probably has a great hand, to entangle them, and block up their way; and sometimes the Distemper of Melancholy has been evidently mixed; of which when it happens, the Tempter seems to make great advantage, and puts an unhappy Bar in the way of any good Effect; One knows not how to deal with such Persons, they turn every Thing that is said to them the wrong way, and most to their own Disadvantage: And there is nothing that the Devil seems to make so great a handle of, as a melancholy Humour, unless it be the real Corruption of the Heart.
Together with those Fears, and that Exercise of Mind which is rational, and which they have just ground for, they have often suffer'd many needless Distresses of Thought, in which Satan probably has a great hand, to entangle them, and block up their way; and sometimes the Distemper of Melancholy has been evidently mixed; of which when it happens, the Tempter seems to make great advantage, and puts an unhappy Bar in the way of any good Effect; One knows not how to deal with such Persons, they turn every Thing that is said to them the wrong way, and most to their own Disadvantage: And there is nothing that the Devil seems to make so great a handle of, as a melancholy Humour, unless it be the real Corruption of the Heart.