N03467:783
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.
I suppose the grounds of such a Conviction of the Truth of divine Things to be just and rational, but yet in some God makes use of their own Reason much more sensibly than in others. Oftentimes Persons have (so far as could be judged) received the first saving Conviction from reasoning, which they have heard from the Pulpit; and often in the course of Reasoning, which they are led into in their own Meditations
I suppose the grounds of such a Conviction of the Truth of divine Things to be just and rational, but yet in some God makes use of their own Reason much more sensibly than in others. Oftentimes Persons have (so far as could be judged) receiv'd the first saving Conviction from reasoning, which they have heard from the Pulpit; and often in the course of Reasoning, which they are led into in their own Meditations
The Arguments are the same that they have heard hundreds of times; but the Force of the Arguments, and their Conviction by 'em, is altogether new; they come with a new and before unexperienced Power: Before they heard it was so, and they allowed it to be so; but now they see it to be so indeed. Things now look exceeding plain to 'em, and they wonder that they did not see 'em before.
The Arguments are the same that they have heard hundreds of times; but the Force of the Arguments, and their Conviction by 'em, is altogether new; they come with a new and before unexperienced Power: Before they heard it was so, and they allow'd it to be so; but now they see it to be so indeed. Things now look exceeding plain to 'em, and they wonder that they did not see 'em before.
They are so greatly taken with their new Discovery, and Things appear so plain, and so rational to 'em, that they are often at first ready to think they can convince others; and are apt to engage in talk with every one they meet with,almost to this End; and when they are disappointed, are ready to wonder that their Reasonings seem to make no more Impression.