N13259:330
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.
BUT if your case be such as is spoken of in the doctrine, it is surely time for you to seek a better hope and another work of GOD'S spirit, than ever you have yet experienced; something more thorough and effectual. When you see and find by experience that the seed which was sown in your hearts, though at first it sprang up and seemed flourishing, yet is withering away, as by the heat of the sun, or is choked, as with thorns; this shows in what sort of ground the seed was sown, that it is either stony or thorny ground; and that therefore it is necessary you should pass through another change, whereby your heart may become good ground, which shall bring forth fruit with patience.
BUT if your case be such as is spoken of in the doctrine, it is surely time for you to seek a better hope and another work of GOD'S spirit, than ever you have yet experienced; something more thorough and effectual. When you see and find by experience that the seed which was sown in your hearts, though at first it sprang up and seemed flourishing, yet is withering away, as by the heat of the sun, or is choaked, as with thorns; this shows in what sort of ground the seed was sown, that it is either stony or thorny ground; and that therefore it is necessary you should pass through another change, whereby your heart may become good ground, which shall bring forth fruit with patience.
INSIST not on that as a reason why you should not throw away your hope, that you had the judgment of others that the change of which you were the subject was right. It is a small matter to be judged of man's judgment, whether you be approved or condemned, and whether it be by minister or people, wise or unwise. I. Cor. iv. 3. It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. If your goodness have proved to be as the morning cloud and early dew; if you be one of those, who have forsaken GOD and left off calling upon his name; you have the judgment of GOD, and the sentence of GOD in the scriptures against you, which is a thousand times more than to have the ⟨p. 125⟩