N13259:76
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.
AFTER Noah and his family had entered into the ark, and GOD had shut them in, after the windows of heaven were opened, and they saw how the waters were poured down out of heaven, we may suppose that then many of those who were near, come running to the […] of the ark, knocking at the door, and crying most piteously for entrance. But it was too ⟨p. 32⟩late; GOD himself had shut the door, and Noah had no licence, and probably no power, to open it. We may suppose, they stood knocking and calling Open to us, Open to us; O let us in; we beg that we may be let in. And probably some of them pleaded old acquaintance with Noah; that they had always been his neighbours, and had even helped him to build the ark. But all was in vain. There they flood, till the waters of the flood came, without mercy swept them away from the door of the ark, and swallowed them up.
AFTER Noah and his family had entered into the ark, and GOD had shut them in, after the windows of heaven were opened, and they saw how the waters were poured down out of heaven, we may suppose that then many of those who were near, come running to the 〈…〉 of the ark, knocking at the door, and crying most piteously for entrance. But it was too ⟨p. 32⟩late; GOD himself had shut the door, and Noah had no licence, and probably no power, to open it. We may suppose, they stood knocking and calling Open to us, Open to us; O let us in; we beg that we may be let in. And probably some of them pleaded old acquaintance with Noah; that they had always been his neighbours, and had even helped him to build the ark. But all was in vain. There they flood, till the waters of the flood came, without mercy swept them away from the door of the ark, and swallowed them up.
So it will be with you, if you continue to refuse to hearken to the warnings, which are given you. Now GOD is striving with you. Now he is warning you of the approaching flood and calling upon you sabbath after sabbath. Now the door of the ark stands open. But GOD'S spirit will not always strive with you: his long suffering will not always wait upon you. There is an appointed day of GOD'S patience, which is as certainly limited, as it was to the old world. GOD hath set your bounds which you cannot pass. Though nw warnings are continued in plenty, yet there will be lst knocks and last calls, the last that ever you shall ear When the appointed time shall be elapsed, GOD will shut the door, and you shall never see it open again; for GOD shutteth and no man openeth.