N03467:745
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 drift of the Spirit of God in his legal strivings with Persons, has seemed most evidently to be, to make way for, and to bring to, a Conviction of their absolute Dependence on his sovereign Power and Grace, and universal Necessity of a Mediator, by leading them more and more to a Sense of their exceeding Wickedness and Guiltiness in his sight; the Pollution and Insufficiency of their own Righteousness, that they can in •no wise help themselves, and that God would be wholly just and righteous in rejecting them, and all that they do, and in casting them off for ever: Tho' there be a vast variety, as to the manner, and distinctness of Persons Convictions of these things.
The drift of the Spirit of God in his legal strivings with Persons, has seem'd most evidently to be, to make way for, and to bring to, a Conviction of their absolute Dependance on his sovereign Power and Grace, and universal Necessity of a Mediator, by leading them more and more to a Sense of their exceeding Wickedness and Guiltiness in his sight; the Pollution and Insufficiency of their own Righteousness, that they can in •no wise help themselves, and that God would be wholly just and righteous in rejecting them, and all that they do, and in casting them off for ever: Tho' there be a vast variety, as to the manner, and distinctness of Persons Convictions of these things.
As they are gradually more and more convinced of the Corruption and Wickedness of their Hearts, they seem to themselves to grow worse and worse, harder and blinder, and more desperately wicked, instead of growing better; they are ready to be discouraged by ⟨p. 24⟩it, and oftentimes never think themselves so far off from Good as when they are nearest. Under the sense which the Spirit o• God gives them of their Sinfulness, they often think that they differ from all others; their Hearts are ready to sink with the thought, that they are the worst of all, and that none ever obtained Mercy that were so wicked as they.