N13259:526
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.
How mad are men, who so often hear of these things and pretend to believe them; who can live but a little while, a few years; who do not even expect to live here longer than others of their species, ordinarily do; and who yet are careless about what becomes of themselves in another world, where there is no change and no end!—How mad are they, when they hear that if they go […] in sin, they shall be eternally miserable, that they are not moved by it, but hear it with as much carelessness and coldness, as if they were no way concerned in the matter; when they know not but that it may be their case, that they may be suffering these torments before a week is at end, and that if it should be so, it would be no strange thing, no other than a common thing!
How mad are men, who so often hear of these things and pretend to believe them; who can live but a little while, a few years; who do not even expect to live here longer than others of their species, ordinarily do; and who yet are careless about what becomes of themselves in another world, where there is no change and no end!—How mad are they, when they hear that if they go 〈…〉 in sin, they shall be eternally miserable, that they are not moved by it, but hear it with as much carelessness and coldness, as if they were no way concerned in the matter; when they know not but that it may be their case, that they may be suffering these torments before a week is at end, and that if it should be so, it would be no strange thing, no other than a common thing!
How can men be so careless of such a matter as their own eternal and desperate destruction and torment? What a strange stupor and senselessness possesses the hearts of men! How common a thing is it to see men, who are told from sabbath to sabbath of eternal misery, and who are as mortal as other men, so careless about it, that they seem not to be at all restrained by it from whatever their souls lust after! It is not half so much their care, to escape eternal misery, as it is to get money and land, and to be considerable in the world, and to gratify their senses. Their thoughts are much more exercised about these things, and much more of their care and concern is about them. Eternal misery, though they lie every day exposed to it, is a thing neglected, it is but now and then thought of, and then with a great deal of stupidity, and not with concern enough to stir them up to do any thing considerable in order to escape it. They are not sensible that it is worth their while to take any considerable pains in order to it. And if they do take pains for a little while, they soon leave off, and something else takes up their thoughts and concern.