N03467:760
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.
Some, when in such Circumstances; have felt that sense of the Excellency of God's Justice, appearing in the vindictive Exercises of it, against such Sinfulness as theirs was, and have had such a Submission of Mind in their Idea of this Attribute, and of those Exercises of it, together with an exceeding loathing of their own Unworthiness, and a kind of Indignation against themselves, that they have sometimes almost called it a Willingness to be damned; tho' it must be owned they had not clear and distinct Ideas of Damnation, nor does any Word in the Bible require such Self denial as this. But the truth is, as some have more clearly expressed it, that Salvation has appeared too good for them, that they were worthy of nothing but Condemnation, and they could not tell how to think of Salvation's being bestowed upon them, fearing it was inconsistent with the Glory of God's Majesty, that they had so much contemned and affronted.
Some, when in such Circumstances; have felt that sense of the Excellency of God's Justice, appearing in the vindictive Exercises of it, against such Sinfulness as theirs was, and have had such a Submission of Mind in their Idea of this Attribute, and of those Exercises of it, together with an exceeding loathing of their own Unworthiness, and a kind of Indignation against themselves, that they have sometimes almost call'd it a Willingness to be damned; tho' it must be owned they had not clear and distinct Ideas of Damnation, nor does any Word in the Bible require such Self denial as this. But the truth is, as some have more clearly exprest it, that Salvation has appeared too good for them, that they were worthy of nothing but Condemnation, and they could not tell how to think of Salvation's being bestowed upon them, fearing it was inconsistent with the Glory of God's Majesty, that they had so much contemned and affronted.
That Calm of Spirit that some Persons have found after their legal Distresses, continues some time before any special and delightful Manifestation is made to the Soul of the Grace of God, as revealed in the Gospel; ⟨p. 32⟩but very often some comfortable and sweet View of a merciful God, of a sufficient Redeemer, or of some great and joyful things of the Gospel, immediately follows, or in a very little time: And in some, the first Sight of their just Desert of Hell, and God's Sovereignty with respect to their Salvation, and a Discovery of all-sufficient Grace, are so near, that they seem to go as it were together.