N13259:254
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.
IT might be that on such an unusual occasion, as the rising of one from the dead, for a while men would reform their lives, and possibly some might be so affected, as never to forget it. But we are to consider, which would have the greatest tendency to awaken us, if both were alike new and unusual, to be warned of the misery of hell by the great GOD himself, declaring as it were from heaven, how dreadful hell is, and abundantly warning us about it; or to be warned only by a man coming from the invisible world, who had either seen or felt these miseries. It is in this view that we shall consider the matter; and we shall show what advantages the former mode of warning has above the latter: or how the warnings of GOD'S word have a greater tendency to awaken sinners and bring them to repentance, than the rising of […] from the dead to warn them.
IT might be that on such an unusual occasion, as the rising of one from the dead, for a while men would reform their lives, and possibly some might be so affected, as never to forget it. But we are to consider, which would have the greatest tendency to awaken us, if both were alike new and unusual, to be warned of the misery of hell by the great GOD himself, declaring as it were from heaven, how dreadful hell is, and abundantly warning us about it; or to be warned only by a man coming from the invisible world, who had either seen or felt these miseries. It is in this view that we shall consider the matter; and we shall show what advantages the former mode of warning has above the latter: or how the warnings of GOD'S word have a greater tendency to awaken sinners and bring them to repentance, than the rising of 〈…〉 from the dead to warn them.
I. GOD, in many respects, knows better what belongs to the punishment of sinners than departed souls. Departed souls doubtless know what […] torments are, much better than any on earth. The souls of the wicked feel them, and the souls of the saints see them afar off. GOD glorifies his justice in the punishment of ungodly men, in the view of the saints and angels, and thereby makes them the […] admit• the riches of his goodness in choosing them […] life. As the rich man saw Lazarus in heaven […] Lazarus saw the rich man in hell; he saw hell-torments; and therefore the rich man desires […] may […] to warn his brethren.—And […] from the dead, to warn wicked men, if […] would […] all awaken them, it would be because he knew what