N13259:259
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.
2. WE have the truth upon surer grounds from ⟨p. 99⟩GOD'S testimony, than we could have it from the testimony of one rising from the dead. If there should one rise from the dead and should tell us of the dreadfulness of hell torments; how precarious a foundation would that be to build upon, in a matter of such importance, unless we consider it as confirmed by divine testimony. We should be uncertain, whether there were not some delusion in the case. We know that it is impossible for GOD to lie; and we may know that the matter is just as he declares it to us. But if one should come from the dead, we could not be so sure, that we were no way imposed upon. We could not be so sure that he who testified was not himself subject to some delusion. We could not be sure that the matter was not strained too high, and represented greater than it really is.
ONE coming from the dead could not, merely, by force of his own testimony, make us sure that […] should come to that place of torments, if we did not repent and reform. And if there should come more witnesses than one from the dead; if there should be ever so many; yet there is no authority equal to that of GOD; there is no testimony of spirits from the invisible world, which would be so-indisputable and unquestionable, as the divine testimony. How could we know, unless by some divine revelation, that they who should come from the dead, had not come to deceive us? How could we know how wicked, or how good they were, and upon what views they acted?
ONE coming from the dead could not, merely, by force of his own testimony, make us sure that 〈…〉 should come to that place of torments, if we did not repent and reform. And if there should come more witnesses than one from the dead; if there should be ever so many; yet there is no authority equal to that of GOD; there is no testimony of spirits from the invisible world, which would be so-indisputable and unquestionable, as the divine testimony. How could we know, unless by some divine revelation, that they who should come from the dead, had not come to deceive us? How could we know how wicked, or how good they were, and upon what views they acted?