N13259:468
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.
2. I AM to show that it is not inconsistent with the mercy of GOD to inflict an eternal punishment on wicked men. It is an unreasonable and unscriptural notion of the mercy of GOD, that he is merciful in such a sense, that he cannot bear that penal justice should be execut••. This is to conceive of the mercy of GOD as a passion to which his nature is so subject, that GOD is liable to be moved, and affected, and overcome by seeing a creature in misery, so that he cannot bear to see justice executed: which is a most unworthy and absurd notion of the mercy of GOD, and would, if true, argue great weakness.—It would be a great defect and not a perfection in the sovereign and supreme judge of the world, to be merciful in such a sense, that he could not bear to have penal justice executed. It is a very unscriptural notion of the mercy of GOD. The scriptures every where represent the mercy of GOD as free and sovereign, and not that the exercises of it are necessary, so that GOD cannot bear justice should take place. The scriptures abundantly speak of it as the glory of the divine attribute of mercy, that it is free and sovereign […] its exercises; and not that it is so, that GOD cannot ⟨p. 174⟩help but deliver sinners from misery. This is a mean and most unworthy idea of the divine mercy.
2. I AM to show that it is not inconsistent with the mercy of GOD to inflict an eternal punishment on wicked men. It is an unreasonable and unscriptural notion of the mercy of GOD, that he is merciful in such a sense, that he cannot bear that penal justice should be execut••. This is to conceive of the mercy of GOD as a passion to which his nature is so subject, that GOD is liable to be moved, and affected, and overcome by seeing a creature in misery, so that he cannot bear to see justice executed: which is a most unworthy and absurd notion of the mercy of GOD, and would, if true, argue great weakness.—It would be a great defect and not a perfection in the sovereign and supreme judge of the world, to be merciful in such a sense, that he could not bear to have penal justice executed. It is a very unscriptural notion of the mercy of GOD. The scriptures every where represent the mercy of GOD as free and sovereign, and not that the exercises of it are necessary, so that GOD cannot bear justice should take place. The scriptures abundantly speak of it as the glory of the divine attribute of mercy, that it is free and sovereign its exercises; and not that it is so, that GOD cannot