N13259:250
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 6: The Warnings of Scripture are in the best manner adapted to the awakening and conversio…
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.
SINNERS are apt to find fault with the means of grace which they enjoy, and to say with themselves, If I had ever seen hell, or had ever heard the cries of the damned, or had ever seen a person who had felt hell-torments, or had seen them at a distance; that would awaken me; then I would forsake all my sins, and would do whatever I could to escape hell. But now I am only told of hell in the bible and by ministers; and there never was any in this world that saw or felt it. So that I am ready to think it is mere delusion and fancy. How do I know that there […] hell? How do I know, but that when I die, […] will be an end of me?
SINNERS are apt to find fault with the means of grace which they enjoy, and to say with themselves, If I had ever seen hell, or had ever heard the cries of the damned, or had ever seen a person who had felt hell-torments, or had seen them at a distance; that would awaken me; then I would forsake all my sins, and would do whatever I could to escape hell. But now I am only told of hell in the bible and by ministers; and there never was any in this world that saw or felt it. So that I am ready to think it is mere delusion and fancy. How do I know that there 〈…〉 hell? How do I know, but that when I die, 〈…〉 will be an end of me?
BUT it is the indisposition of sinners to this great work, to which they are directed, which makes them find fault with their means and advantages. The slothful and negligent, who hate to bestir themselves, ⟨p. 96⟩will be objecting. The way of the slothful is as an hedge of thorns.—Sinners know not what they would have. They are fixedly averse to breaking off their sins by righteousness; and to make the matter the more excusable, they object against the sufficiency of their means, and so they will not believe, except they see hell, or see some person, who has seen it.