N03467:787
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.
Persons after their Conversion often speak of Things of Religion as seeming new to them; that Preaching is a new thing; that it seems to them they never heard Preaching before; that the Bible is a new Book: They find there new Chapters, new Psalms, new Histories, because they see them in a new Light. Here was a remarkable Instance of an aged Woman that had spent most of her Days under Mr. Stoddard's powerful Ministry; who reading in the New Testament, concerning Christ's Sufferings for Sinners, seemed to be surprised and astonished at what she read, as at a Thing that was real and very wonderful, but quite new to her, insomuch that at first, before she had time to turn her Thoughts, she wondered within her self that she had never heard of it before; but then immediately recollected her self, and thought that she had often heard of it, and read it, but never till now saw it as a thing real; and then cast in her Mind, how wonderful this was, that the Son of God should undergo such things for Sinners, and how she had spent her Time in ungratefully sinning against so good a God, and such a Saviour; tho' she was a Person, as to what was visible, of a very blameless and inoffensive Life, And she was so overcome by those Considerations, ⟨p. 45⟩that her Nature was ready to fail under them: Those that were about her, and knew not what was the matter, were surprised, and thought she was a dying.
Persons after their Conversion often speak of Things of Religion as seeming new to them; that Preaching is a new thing; that it seems to them they never heard Preaching before; that the Bible is a new Book: They find there new Chapters, new Psalms, new Histories, because they see them in a new Light. Here was a remarkable Instance of an aged Woman that had spent most of her Days under Mr. Stoddard's powerful Ministry; who reading in the New Testament, concerning Christ's Sufferings for Sinners, seem'd to be surprized and astonished at what she read, as at a Thing that was real and very wonderful, but quite new to her, insomuch that at first, before she had time to turn her Thoughts, she wonder'd within her self that she had never heard of it before; but then immediately recollected her self, and thought that she had often heard of it, and read it, but never till now saw it as a thing real; and then cast in her Mind, how wonderful this was, that the Son of God should undergo such things for Sinners, and how she had spent her Time in ungratefully sinning against so good a God, and such a Saviour; tho' she was a Person, as to what was visible, of a very blameless and inoffensive Life, And she was so overcome by those Considerations,