N13259:32
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
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.
ENQ. I. What is this work o• business, which must be undertaken and accomplished in order to the salvation of men?
ANS. It is the work of seeking salvation in a way of a thorough and constant observance of all the duty, to which GOD directs us in his word. If we would be saved, we must seek salvation. For although men do not obtain heaven of themselves, yet they do not go thither accidentally, […] without any intention ⟨p. 13⟩or endeavours of their own. GOD in his word hath directed men to seek their salvation as they would hope to obtain it. There is a race that is set before them, which they must run, and in that race come off victors, in order to their winning the prize.
ANS. It is the work of seeking salvation in a way of a thorough and constant observance of all the duty, to which GOD directs us in his word. If we would be saved, we must seek salvation. For although men do not obtain heaven of themselves, yet they do not go thither accidentally, 〈…〉 without any intention ⟨p. 13⟩or endeavours of their own. GOD in his word hath directed men to seek their salvation as they would hope to obtain it. There is a race that is set before them, which they must run, and in that race come off victors, in order to their winning the prize.
THE scriptures have told us what particular duties must be performed by us, in order to our salvation. It is not sufficient that men seek their salvation only in the observance of some of those duties; but they must be observed universally. The work we have to do, is not an obedience only to some, but to all the commands of GOD; a compliance with every institution of worship; a diligent use of all the appointed means of grace; a doing of all duty towards GOD and towards man.—It is not sufficient that men have some respect to all the commands of GOD, and that they may be said to seek their salvation in some sort of observance of all the commands; but they must be devoted to it. They must not make this a business by the by, or a thing in which they are negligent and careless, or which they do with a slack hand; but it must be their great business, being attended to as their great concern. They must not only seek, but strive; they must do what their hand findeth to do with their might, as men thoroughly engaged in their minds, and influenced and set forward by great desire and strong resolution. They must act as those that see so much of the importance of the things of religion above all other things, that every thing else must be as an occasional affair, and nothing must stand in competition with the duties of religion. This must be the one thing they do;