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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 way that Grace seems sometimes first to appear after legal Humiliation, is in earnest Longings of Soul after God and Christ, to know God, to love him, to be humbled before him, to have Communion with Christ in his Benefits, which Longings, as they express them, seem evidently to be of such a nature as can arise from nothing but a sense of the superlative Excellency of divine things, with a spiritual Taste and Relish of 'em, and an Esteem of 'em as their highest Happiness and best Portion. Such Longings as I speak of, are commonly attended with firm Resolutions to pursue this Good for ever, together with a hoping, waiting Disposition. When Persons have begun in such Frames, commonly other Experiences and Discoveries have soon followed, which have yet more clearly manifested a change of Heart.
It must needs be confessed that Christ is not always distinctly and explicitly thought of in the first sensible Act of Grace, (tho' most commonly he is;) but sometimes he is the Object of the Mind only implicitly. Thus sometimes when Persons have seemed evidently to be stripped of all their own Righteousness, and to have stood self condemned as guilty of Death, they have been comforted with a joyful and satisfying View, that the Mercy ⟨p. 34⟩and Grace of God is sufficient for them; that their Sins, tho' never so great, shall be no Hindrance to their being accepted; that there is Mercy enough in God for the whole World, and the like, when they give no Account of any particular or distinct Thought of Christ; but yet when the Account they give is duly weighed, and they are a little interrogated about it, it appears that the Revelation of the Mercy of God in the Gospel, is the Ground of this their Encouragement and Hope; and that it is indeed the Mercy of God thro' Christ, that is discovered to them, and that 'tis depended on in him, and not in any wise moved by any thing in them.
It must needs be confest that Christ is not always distinctly and explicitly thought of in the first sensible Act of Grace, (tho' most commonly he is;) but sometimes he is the Object of the Mind only implicitly. Thus sometimes when Persons have seem'd evidently to be stript of all their own Righteousness, and to have stood self condemned as guilty of Death, they have been comforted with a joyful and satisfying View, that the Mercy