N13259:365
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.
3. To move you to persevere in the duty of prayer, consider how much you always stand in need of the help of GOD. If persons, who have formerly attended this duty, leave it off, the language of it is, that now they stand in no further need of GOD'S help, that they have no further occasion to go to GOD with requests and supplications: when indeed it is in GOD we live, and move and have our being. We cannot draw a breath without his help. You need his help every day for the supply of your outward wants; and ⟨p. 138⟩especially you stand in continual need of him to help your souls. Without his protection they would immediately fall into the hands of the devil, who always stands as a roaring lion, ready, whenever he is permitted, to fall upon the souls of men and devour them.—If GOD should indeed preserve your lives, but should otherwise forsake and leave you to yourselves, you would be most miserable: your lives would be a curse to you.
THOSE that are converted, if GOD should forsake them, would soon fall away totally from a state of grace, into a state far more miserable than ever they were in before their conversion. They have no strength of their own to resist those powerful enemies who surround them. Sin and satan would immediately carry them away, as a mighty flood, if GOD should forsake them.—You stand in need of daily supplies from GOD. Without GOD you can receive no spiritual light nor comfort, can exercise no grace, can bring forth no fruit. Without GOD your souls will wither and pine away, and sink into a most wretched state. You continually need the instructions and directions of GOD. What can a little child do in a vast, howling wilderness, without some one to guide it, and to lead it in the right way? Without GOD you will soon fall into snares, and pits, and many fatal calamities.