N03831:117
The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God
The distinguishing marks of a work of the spirit of God. Applied to that uncommon operation that has lately appeared on the minds of many of the people of this land: : with a particular consideration of the extraordinary circumstances with which this work is attended. : A discourse delivered at New-Haven, September 10th 1741. Being the day after the commencement; : and now published at the earnest desire of many ministers and other gentlemen that heard it; : with great enlargements. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ at Northampton. ; With a preface by the Rev. Mr. Cooper of Boston. ; [Three lines from John]
Boston: printed by S. Kneeland and T. Green, 1741
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.
Indeed there is a Counterfeit of Love, that often appears amongst those that are led by a Spirit of Delusion: There is commonly in the wildest Enthusiasts a Kind of Union and Affection that appears in them one towards another, arising from Self-Love, occasioned by their agreeing one with another in those Things wherein they greatly differ from all others, and for which they are the Objects of the Ridicule of all the rest of Mankind; which naturally will cause them so much the more to prize the Esteem they observe in each other, of those Peculiarities that make them the Objects of others Contempt: So the ancient Gnostics and the wild Fanatics, that appeared in the Beginning of the Reformation, boasted of their great Love one to another: One Sect of them in particular, ⟨p. 56⟩calling themselves the Family of Love. But this is quite another Thing than that Christian Love that I have just described; 'tis only the working of a natural Self-Love, and no true Benevolence, any more than the Union & Friendship which may be among a Company of Pirates, that are at War with all the rest of the World. There is sufficient said in this Passage of St. John, that we are upon, of the Nature and Motive of a truly Christian Love, thoroughly to distinguish it from all such Counterfeits. It is Love that arises from an Apprehension of the wonderful Riches of free Grace, and Sovereignty of God's Love to us, in Christ Jesus; being attended with a Sense of our own utter Unworthiness, as in our selves the Enemies and Haters of God & Christ, and with a Renunciation of all our own Excellency and Righteousness. See Ver. 9, 10, 11, & 19. The surest Character of true divine super-natural Love, distinguishing it from Counterfeits that do arise from a natural Self-Love, is that That Christian Virtue shines in it, that does above all others renounce and abase and annihilate Self, viz. Humility. Christian Love, or true Charity, is an humble Love, 1 Cor. 13. 4, 5. Charity vaunteth not it self; is not puffed up, doth not behave it self unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked. When therefore we see Love in Persons attended with a Sense of their own Littleness, Vileness, Weakness, and utter Insufficiency; and so with Self-Diffidence, Self-Emptiness, Self-Renunciation, and Poverty ⟨p. 57⟩of Spirit, there are the manifest Tokens of the Spirit of God: