N13259:74
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. CONSIDER that the spirit of GOD will not always strive with you; nor will his long suffering always wait upon you. SO GOD said concerning the inhabitants of the old world; Gen. vi. 3. My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years. All this while GOD was striving with them. ⟨p. 31⟩It was a day of grace with them, and GOD'S long suffering, all this while, waited upon them; as appears by 1 Pet. iii. 20. Which some time were disobedient, when once the long suffering of GOD waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing. All this while they had an opportunity to escape, if they would but hearken and believe GOD.
EVEN after the ark was finished, which seems to have been but little before the flood came, still there was an opportunity; the door of the ark stood open for some time. After the ark was finished there was sometime, during which Noah was employed in laying up stores in the ark Even then it was not too late; the door of the ark yet stood open.—About a week before the flood came, Noah was commanded to begin to gather in the beasts and birds. During this last week still the door of the ark stood open.—But on the very day that the flood began to come, while the rain was yet withheld, Noah and his wife, his three sons and their wives, went into the ark, and we are told, Gen. vii. 16. That GOD shut him in. Then the day of GOD'S patience was past; the door of the ark was shut; GOD himself, who shuts and no man opens, shut the door. Then all hope of their escaping the flood was past. Then, after that, it was too late to repent that they had not hearkened to Noah's warnings, and had not entered into the ark, while the door stood open.