N13259:210
Sermons, on the following subjects
Sermons, on the following subjects; The manner in which salvation is to be sought. The unreasonableness of indetermination in religion. Unbelievers contemn the glory of Christ. The folly of looking back in fleeing out of Sodom. The warnings of Scripture in the best manner adapted to the awakening and conversion of sinners. Hypocrites deficient in the duty of prayer. The future punishment of the wicked unavoidable and intolerable. The eternity of hell-torments. The peace which Christ gives his true followers. The perpetuity & change of the Sabbath. / By the late Reverend Mr. Jonathan Edwards, president of the College of New-Jersey.
Hartford: printed by Hudson and Goodwin, 1780
Sermon 4: The Folly of looking back, in fleeing out of Sodom.
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.
THE destruction of SODOM is not only swift, but will come suddenly and unexpectedly.—It seems to have been a fair morning in Sodom, on the morning that it was destroyed. There is notice taken of the time when the sun rose that morning: Gen. xix. 23. It seems that there were no clouds to be seen, no appearance of any storm at all, much less of a storm of fire and brimstone. The inhabitants of Sodom expected no such thing: even when Lot told his sons in law of it, they would not believe it; Gen. xix. 14.—They were making merry; their hearts were at ease, they thought nothing of such a calamity at hand. But it came at once, as travail upon a woman with child, and there was no escape; as it is observed in the context v. 28, 29. They did eat, they drank; they bought, they sold; they planted, they builded: ⟨p. 81⟩but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroy them all.
So it is with wicked men; Psal. lxxiii. 19. How are they brought into desolation in a moment: they are utterly consumed with terrors.—If therefore we linger and look back, we may be suddenly overtaken and seized with destruction.
7. THERE is nothing in Sodom that is worth looking back upon. All the enjoyments of Sodom will soon perish in the common destruction. All will be burnt up. And surely it is not worth the while to look back on things that are perishing and consuming in the flames, as it is with all the enjoyments of sin; they are all appointed to the fire. Therefore it is foolish for any who are fleeing out of Sodom, to hanker any more after them; for when they are burnt up, what good can they do? And is it worth the while for us to return back for the sake of a moment's enjoyment of them, before they are burnt, and so expose ourselves to be burnt up with them?