N05520:153
True grace, distinguished from the experience of devils; in a sermon, preached before the…
True grace, distinguished from the experience of devils; in a sermon, preached before the Synod of New-York, convened at New-Ark, in New-Jersey, on September 28. N.S. 1752. / By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ in Stockbridge in New-England. ; (Printed by the desire of the synod.) : [Four lines from II. Corinthians]
New-York: printed by James Parker, 1753
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.
Thus are all you that never passed under a great Change of Heart, by the mighty Power of the SPIRIT of GOD upon your Souls; all that were never born again, and made new Creatures, and raised from being dead in Sin, to a State of new, and before altogether unexperienced Light and Life, (however you may have reformed your Life in many Things, and may have had religious Affections, and may keep up a Form of Religion in your Families and Closets, and in the Houses of GOD, and may be strict in it,) you are thus in the Hands of an angry GOD; 'tis Nothing but his mere Pleasure, that keeps you from being this Moment swallowed up in everlasting Destruction.
Thus are all you that never passed under a great Change of Heart, by the mighty Power of the SPIRIT of GOD upon your Souls; all that were never born again, and made new Creatures, and raised from being dead in Sin, to a State of new, and before altogether unexperienced Light and Life, (however you may have reformed your Life in many Things, and may have had religious Affections, and may keep up a Form of Religion in your Families and Closets, and in the Houses of GOD, and may be strict in it,) you are thus in the Hands of an angry GOD; 'tis Nothing but his meer Pleasure, that keeps you from being this Moment swallowed up in everlasting Destruction.
However unconvinced you may now be of the Truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like Circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for Destruction came suddenly upon most of them, when they expected Nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and Safety: Now they see, that those Things that they depended on for Peace and Safety, were Nothing but thin Air and empty Shadows.
The GOD that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some loathsome Infect, over the Fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his Wrath towards you burns like Fire; he looks upon you as worthy of Nothing else, but to be cast into the Fire; he is of purer Eyes than to bear to have you in his Sight; you are ten thousand Times so abominable in his Eyes, as the most hateful venomous Serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn Rebel did his Prince: And yet,