N04758:28
True saints, when absent from the body, are present with the Lord. A sermon…
True saints, when absent from the body, are present with the Lord. A sermon preached on the day of the funeral of the Rev. Mr. David Brainerd, Missionary to the Indians, from the Honourable Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, and Pastor of a church of Christian Indians in New-Jersey; who died at Northampton, in New-England, Octob. 9th. 1747, in the 30th year of his age, and was interred on the 12th following. : Containing some account of his character, and manner of life, and remarkable speeches and behaviour at death. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the First Church in Northampton. ; [Five lines from Psalms]True saints, when absent from the body, are present with the Lord. A sermon preached on the day of the funeral of the Rev. Mr. David Brainerd, Missionary to the Indians, from the Honourable Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, and Pastor of a church of Christian Indians in New-Jersey; who died at Northampton, in New-England, Octob. 9th. 1747, in the 30th year of his age, and was interred on the 12th following. : Containing some account of his character, and manner of life, and remarkable speeches and behavior at death. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the First Church in Northampton. ; [Five lines from Psalms]
printed by Rogers and Fowle for D. Henchman, 1747
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.
III. The Souls of true Saints, when absent from the Body, go to be with JESUS CHRIST, as they are brought into a most perfect Conformity to, and Union with him. Their spiritual Conformity is begun while they are in the Body; here beholding as in a Glass, the Glory of the LORD, they are changed into the same Image: But when they come to see him as he is, in Heaven, then they become like him, in another Manner. That perfect Sight will abolish all Remains of Deformity, Disagreement and sinful Unlikeness; as all Darkness is abolished before the full Blaze of the Sun's Meridian Light: It is impossible that the least Degree of Obscurity should remain before such Light; so it is impossible the least Degree of Sin and spiritual Deformity should remain, in such a View of the spiritual Beauty and Glory of CHRIST, as the Saint• enjoy in ⟨p. 12⟩Heaven, when they see that Sun of Righteousness without a Cloud, they themselves shine forth as the Sun, and shall be as little Suns, without a Spot. For then is come the Time when CHRIST presents his Saints to himself, in glorious Beauty; not having Spot or Wrinkle, or any such Thing; and having Holiness without a Blemish. And then the Saints Union with CHRIST is perfected. This also is begun in this World. The relative Union is both begun and perfected at once, when the Soul first closes with CHRIST by Faith: The real Union, consisting in the Union of Hearts and Affections, and in the vital Union, is begun in this World, and perfected in the next. The Union of the Heart of a Believer to CHRIST is begun when his Heart is drawn to CHRIST, by the first Discovery of divine Excellency, at Conversion; and consequent on this Drawing and Closing of his Heart with CHRIST, is established a vital Union with CHRIST; whereby the Believer becomes a living Branch of the true Vine, living by a Communication of the Sap and vital Juice of the Stock and Root; and a Member of CHRIST'S mystical Body, living by a Communication of spiritual and vital Influences from the Head, and by a Kind of Participation of CHRIST'S own Life. But while the Saints are in the Body, there is much remaining Distance between CHRIST and them: There are Remainders of Alienation, and the vital Union is very imperfect; and so consequently, are the Communication of spiritual Life and vital Influences: