N03467:809
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.
But to give a clearer Idea of the Nature and Manner of the Operations of God's Spirit, in this wonderful Effusion of it, I would give an Account of two particular Instances. The first is an Adult Person, a young Woman whose Name was Abigail Hutchinson. I pitch upon her especially because she is now dead, and so it may be more fit to speak freely of her then of living Instances: tho' I am under far greater Disadvantages, on other accounts, to give a full and clear Narrative of her Experiences, than I might of some others; nor can any Account be given b•t what has been retained in the Memories of her near Friends, and some others, of what they have heard her express in her life time
But to give a clearer Idea of the Nature and Manner of the Operations of God's Spirit, in this wonderful Effusion of it, I would give an Account of two particular Instances. The first is an Adult Person, a young Woman whose Name was Abigail Hutc•inson. I pitch upon her especially because she is now dead, and so it may be more fit to speak freely of her then of living Instances: tho' I am under far greater Disadvantages, on other accounts, to give a full and clear Narrative of her Experiences, than I might of some others; nor can any Account be given b•t what has been retain'd in the Memories of her near Friends, and some others, of what they have heard her express in her life time
She was of a rational understanding Family: there could be nothing in her Education that tended to Enthusiasm, but rather to the contrary extreme. 'Tis in no wise the Temper of the Family to be ostentatious of Experiences, and it was far from being her Temper. She was before her Conversion; to the Observation of her Neighbours, of a sober and inoffensive Conversation; and was a still, quiet, reserved Person. She had long been infirm of Body, but her Infirmity had never been observed at all to incline her to be notional or fanciful, or to occasion any thing of religious Melancholy. She was under Awakenings scarcely a Week before there seemed to be plain Evidence of her being savingly converted.