N03467:741
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.
But it has been very remarkable, that there has been far less of this Mixture in this time of extraordinary Blessing, than there was wont to be in Persons under awakenings at other Times; for it is evident that many that before had been exceedingly involved in such Difficulties, seemed now strangely to be set at liberty: Some Persons that had before, for a long time, been exceedingly entangled with peculiar Temptations, of one sort or other, and unprofitable and hurtful Distresses, were soon helped over former Stumbling Blocks, that hindered any Progress towards saving Good; and Convictions have wrought more kindly, and they have been successfully carried on in the way to Life. And thus Satan seemed to be restrained, till towards the latter ⟨p. 22⟩end of this wonderful Time, when God's Spirit was about to withdraw.
But it has been very remarkable, that there has been far less of this Mixture in this time of extraordinary Blessing, than there was wont to be in Persons under awakenings at other Times; for it is evident that many that before had been exceedingly involved in such Difficulties, seem'd now strangely to be set at liberty: Some Persons that had before, for a long time, been exceedingly entangled with peculiar Temptations, of one sort or other, and unprofitable and hurtful Distresses, were soon helped over former Stumbling Blocks, that hinder'd any Progress towards saving Good; and Convictions have wrought more kindly, and they have been successfully carried on in the way to Life. And thus Satan seemed to be restrain•d, till towards the latter ⟨p. 22⟩end of this wonderful Time, when God's Spirit was about to withdraw.
Many times Persons under great Awakenings were concerned, because they thought they were not awakened, but miserable, hard-hearted, senseless, sottish Creatures still, and sleeping upon the brink of Hell: The sense of the Need they have to be awakened, and of their comparative Hardness, grows upon them with their Awakenings; so that they seem to themselves to be very senseless, when indeed most sensible. There have been some Instances of Persons that have had as great a Sense of their Danger and Misery, as their Natures could well subsist under, so that a little more would probably have destroyed them; and yet they have expressed themselves much amazed at their own Insensibility and Sottishness, in such an extraordinary Time as it then was.