N03467:750
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.
When they begin to seek Salvation, they are commonly profoundly ignorant of themselves; they are not sensible how blind they are, and how little they can do towards bringing themselves to see spiritual things aright, and towards putting forth gracious Exercises in their own Souls: they are not sensible how remote they are from Love to God, and other holy Dispositions, and how dead they are in Sin. When they see unexpected Pollution in their own Hearts, they go about to wash away their own Defilements and make themselves clean; and they weary themselves in vain, till God shows them that 'tis in vain, and that their help is not where they have sought it, but elsewhere.
When they begin to seek Salvation, they are commonly profoundly ignorant of themselves; they are not sensible how blind they are, and how little they can do towards bringing themselves to see spiritual things aright, and towards putting forth gracious Exercises in their own Souls: they are not sensible how •remote they are from Love to God, and other holy Dispositions, and how dead they are in Sin. When they see unexpected Pollution in their own Hearts, they go about to wash away their own Defilements and make themselves clean; and they weary themselves in vain, till God shows them that 'tis in vain, and that their help is not where they have sought it, but elsewhere.
But some Persons continue wandering in such a kind of Labyrinth, ten times as long as others, before their own Experience will convince them of their Insufficiency; and so it appears not to be their own Experience only, but the convincing Influence of God's Spirit with their Experience, that attains the Effect: and God has of late abundantly shown, that he don't need to wait to have Men convinced by long and often repeated fruitless Trials; for in multitudes of Instances he has made a shorter work of it: he has so awakened and convinced Persons Consciences, and made them so sensible of their exceeding great Vileness, and given 'em such a sense of ⟨p. 27⟩his Wrath against Sin, as has quickly overcome all their vain Self-confidence, and born them down into the Dust before a holy and righteous God.