N13259:351
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.
IT is not very likely that you will ever be constant and persevering in this duty, until you shall have obtained a better principle in your hearts, until you shall have passed an otherguise change than ever you have yet passed. The streams which have no springs to feed them, will dry up. The drought and heat consume the snow-waters. Although they run plentifully in the spring, yet when the sun ascends higher with a burning heat, they are gone. The seed that is •own in stony places, though it seem to flourish at ⟨p. 132⟩present, yet as the sun shall rise with a burning heat, will wither away. None will bring forth fruit with patience, but those whose hearts are become good ground.
WITHOUT any heavenly seed remaining in them, men may, whenever they fall in among the godly, continue all their lives to talk like saints. They may for their credit sake tell of what they have experienced, but their deeds will not hold. They may continue to tell of their inward experiences, and yet live in the neglect of secret prayer and of other duties.
II. I WOULD take occasion from this doctrine to exhort all to persevere in the duty of prayer. This exhortation is much insisted on in the word of GOD. It is insisted on in the old testament. 1 Chron. xvi. 11. Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually. Isai. lxii. 7. Ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence; i. e. be not silent as to the voice of prayer, as is manifest by the following words, and give him no rest, till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Israel of old is reproved for growing weary of the duty of prayer.