Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light - APPLICATION-19

 

Let the following things be here considered:—

 1. That your soul is as precious as theirs. It is immortal as theirs is and stands in as much need of happiness and can as ill bear eternal misery. You were born in the same miserable condition that they were, having the same wrath of God abiding on you. You must stand before the same Judge; who will be as strict in judgment with you as with them; and your own righteousness will stand you in no more stead before him than theirs, and therefore, you stand in the absolute necessity of a Saviour as they. Carnal confidences can no more answer your end than theirs; nor can this world or its enjoyments serve to make you happy without God and Christ more than them. When the bridegroom comes, the foolish virgins stand in as much need of oil as the wise, Matt. xxv. at the beginning.

2. Unless you follow them in their turning to God, their conversion will be a foundation of eternal separation between you and them. You will be in different interests and in exceeding different states, as long as you live; they the children of God, and you the children of Satan; and you will be parted in another world; when you come to die, there will be a vast separation made between you: Luke xvi. 26, “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you, cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” And you will be parted on the day of judgment. You will be parted at Christ’s first appearance in the clouds of heaven. While they are caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, to be ever with the Lord, you will remain below, confined to this cursed ground, that is kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. You will appear separated from them while you stand before the great judgment-seat, they are being at the right hand, while you are set at the left: Matt. xxv. 32, 33, “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” And you shall then appear in exceeding different circumstances. 

While you stand with devils, in the image and deformity of devils, and in ineffable horror and amazement, they shall appear in glory, sitting upon thrones, as assessors with Christ, and as such passing judgment upon you, 1 Cor. vi. 2. And what shame and confusion will then cover you, when so many of your contemporaries, your equals, your neighbors, relations, and companions, shall be honored, and openly acknowledged and confessed by the glorious Judge of the universe and Redeemer of saints, and shall be seen by you sitting with him in such glory, and you shall appear to have neglected your salvation, and not to have improved your opportunities, and rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, the same person that will then appear as your great Judge, and you shall be the subjects of wrath, and, as it were, trodden down in eternal contempt and disgrace! Dan. xii. 2, “Some shall rise to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” And what a wide separation will the sentence then passed and executed make between you and them! When you shall be sent away out of the presence of the Judge with indignation and abhorrence, as cursed and loathsome creatures, and they shall be sweetly accosted and invited into his glory as his dear friends and the blessed of his Father! 

When you, with all that vast throng of wicked and accursed men and devils, shall descend with loud lamenting's and horrid shrieks into that dreadful gulf of fire and brimstone, and shall be swallowed up in that great and everlasting furnace, while they shall joyfully, and with sweet songs of glory and praise, ascend with Christ, and all that beauteous and blessed company of saints and angels, into eternal felicity, in the glorious presence of God, and the sweet embraces of his love; and you and they shall spend eternity in such a separation and immensely different circumstances! And that however you have been intimately acquainted and nearly related, closely united and mutually conversant here in this world; and how much soever you have taken delight in each other’s company! Shall it be so after you have been together a great while, each of you in undoing yourselves, enhancing your guilt, and heaping up wrath, that their so wisely changing their minds and their course, and choosing such happiness for themselves, should now at length be the beginning of such an exceeding and everlasting separation between you and them? How awful will it be to be parted so!

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light - APPLICATION-18

 

 

The use that I shall make of what has been said is to move sinners to this resolution, with respect to those amongst us that have lately turned to God and joined themselves to the flock of Christ. Through the abundant mercy and grace of God to us in this place, it may be said of many of you that are in a Christless condition, that you have lately been left by those that were formerly with you in such a state. There are those that you have formerly been conversant with that have lately forsaken a life of sin and the service of Satan, and have turned to God, and fled to Christ, and joined themselves to that blessed company that is with him. They formerly were with you in sin and in misery, but now they are with you no more in that state or manner of life. They are changed and have fled from the wrath to come; they have chosen a life of holiness here and the enjoyment of God hereafter. They were formerly your associates in bondage and were with you in Satan’s business, but now you have their company no longer in these things. Many of you have seen those you live with, under the same roof, turning from being any longer with you in sin to being with the people of Jesus Christ. Some of you that are husbands have had your wives, and some of you that are wives have had your husbands; some of you that are children have had your parents, and parents have had your children; many of you have had your brothers and sisters; and many your near neighbors and acquaintance and special friends; many of you that are young have had your companions: I say, many of you have had those that you have been thus concerned with, leaving you, forsaking that doleful life and wretched state that you still continue in. God, of his good pleasure and wonderful grace, hath lately caused it to be so in this place that multitudes have been forsaking their old abodes in the land of Moab, and under the gods of Moab, and going into the land of Israel, to put their trust under the wings of the Lord God of Israel. Though you and they have been related, and have dwelt together, or have been often together and intimately acquainted with one another, they have been taken and you hitherto left. O let it not be the foundation of a final parting! But earnestly follow them; be firm in your resolution in this matter. Don’t do as Orpah did, who, though at first, she made as though she would follow Naomi, yet when she had the difficulty of it set before her went back: but say as Ruth, “I will not leave thee; but where thou goest, I will go: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” Say as she said and do as she did. Consider the excellency of their God and their Saviour, and the happiness of their people, the blessed state that they are in, and the doleful state that you are in. 

You who are old sinners, who have lived long in the service of Satan, have lately seen some that were with you, that have traveled with you in the paths of sin these many years, that with you enjoyed great means and advantages, that have had calls and warnings with you, and have with you passed through remarkable times of the pouring out of God’s Spirit in this place, and have hardened their hearts and stood it out with you, and with you have grown old in sin; I say, you have seen some of them turning to God, i.e., you have seen those evidence of it in them, whence you may rationally judge that it is so. O let it not be a final parting! You have been thus long together in sin, and under condemnation; let it be your firm resolution, that, if possible, you will be with them still, now they are in a holy and happy state, and that you will follow them into the holy and pleasant land. 

You that tell of your having been seeking salvation for many years, though, without doubt, in a poor dull way, in comparison of what you ought to have done, have seen some that have been with you in that respect, which was old sinners and old seekers, as you are, obtaining mercy. God has lately roused them from their dullness, and caused them to alter their hand, and put them on more thorough endeavors; and they have now, after so long a time, heard God’s voice, and have fled for refuge to the Rock of Ages. Let this awaken earnestness and resolution in you. Resolve that you will not leave them. 

You that are in your youth, how many have you seen of your age and standing that have of late hopefully chosen God for their God and Christ for their Saviour! You have followed them in sin, and have perhaps followed them into the vain company; and will you not now follow them to Christ? 

And you that are children, there have lately been some of your sort that has repented of their sins, and have loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and trusted in him, and are become God’s children, as we have reason to hope: let it stir you up to resolve to your utmost to seek and cry to God, that you may have the like change made in your hearts, that their people may be your people, and their God your God. 

You that are great sinners, that have made yourselves distinguishingly guilty by the wicked practices you have lived in, there are some of your sort that has lately (as we have reason to hope) had their hearts broken for sin, and have forsaken it, and trusted in the blood of Christ for the pardon of it, and have chosen a holy life, and have betaken themselves to the ways of wisdom: let it excite and encourage you resolutely to cleave to them and earnestly to follow them.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light, IMMEDIATELY IMPARTED TO THE SOUL-17

 

V. Our resolutions to cleave to and follow those that are turning to God, and joining themselves to his people, ought to be fixed and strong, because of the great difficulty of it. If we will cleave to them and have their God for our God, and their people for our people, we must mortify and deny all our lusts, cross every evil appetite and inclination, and forever part with all sin. But our lusts are many and violent. Sin is naturally exceeding dear to us; to part with it is compared to plucking out our right eyes. Men may refrain from wonted ways of sin for a little while, and may deny their lusts in a partial degree, with less difficulty; but ’tis heart-rending work, finally to part with all sin, and to give our dearest lusts a bill of divorce, utterly to send them away. But this we must do if we would follow those that are truly turning to God. Yea, we must not only forsake sin but must, in a sense, forsake all the world: Luke xiv. 33, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh, not all he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” That is, he must forsake all in his heart, and must come to a thorough disposition and readiness actually to quit all for God and the glorious spiritual privileges of his people, whenever the case may require it; and that without any prospect of anything of the like nature, or any worldly thing whatsoever, to make amends for it; and all to go into a strange country, a land that has hitherto been unseen; like Abraham, who is called of God, “went out of his own country, and from his kindred, and from his father’s house, for a land that God should show him, not knowing whither he went.” 

Thus it was a hard thing for Ruth to forsake her native country and her father and mother, her kindred and acquaintance, and all the pleasant things she had in the land of Moab, to dwell in the land of Israel, where she never had been. Naomi told her of the difficulties once again. They were too hard for her sister Orpah; their consideration of them turned her back after she was set out. Her resolution was not firm enough to overcome them. But so firmly resolved was Ruth, that she broke through all; she was steadfast in it, that, let the difficulty be what it would, she would not leave her mother-in-law. So people need to be very firm in their resolution to conquer the difficulties that are in the way of cleaving to those who are indeed turning from sin to God. 

Our cleaving to them and having their God for our God and their people for our people depends on our resolution and choice, and that is in two respects. 

1. The firmness of resolution in using means in order to it, is the way to have means effectual. There are means appointed in order to our becoming some of the true Israel and having their God for our God, and the thorough use of these means is the way to have success; but not slack or slight use of them. And that we may be thorough, there is need of the strength of resolution, a firm and inflexible disposition and bent of mind to be universal in the use of means, and to do what we do with our might, and to persevere in it. Matt. xi. 12, “The kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” 

2. A choosing of their God and their people, with full determination and with the whole soul, is the condition of a union with them. God gives every man his choice in this matter: as Orpah and Ruth had their choice, whether they would go with Naomi into the land of Israel or stay in the land of Moab. A natural man may choose deliverance from hell; but no man doth ever heartily choose God and Christ, and the spiritual benefits that Christ has purchased, and the happiness of God’s people, till he is converted. On the contrary, he is averse to them; he has no relish in them; and is wholly ignorant of their inestimable worth and value of them. 

Many carnal men do seem to choose these things but do it not really: as Orpah seemed at first to choose to forsake Moab to go into the land of Israel. But when Naomi came to set before her the difficulty of it, she went back; and thereby showed that she was not fully determined in her choice and that her whole soul was not in it as Ruth’s was.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light, IMMEDIATELY IMPARTED TO THE SOUL-16

 

It may well be sufficient to induce us to resolve to cleave to those that forsake their sins and idols to join themselves with this people, that God is with them, Zech. viii. 23: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, we will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.” So should persons as it was taken hold of the skirt of their neighbors and companions that have turned to God and resolve that they will go with them because God is with them.

III. Happiness is nowhere else to be had, but in their God, and with their people. There are that are called gods many, and lords many. Some make gods of their pleasures; some choose Mammon for their god; some make gods of their own supposed excellencies, or the outward advantages they have above their neighbors: some choose one thing for their god, and others another. But men can be happy in no other God but the God of Israel: he is the only fountain of happiness. Other gods can’t help in calamity; nor can any of them afford what the poor empty soul stands in need of. Let men adore those other gods never so much, and call upon them never so earnestly, and serve them never so diligently, they will nevertheless remain poor, wretched, unsatisfied, undone creatures. All other people are miserable, but people whose God is the Lord. —The world is divided into two societies. There are the people of God, the little flock of Jesus Christ, that company that we read of, Rev. xiv. 4. “These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb.” And there are those that belong to the kingdom of darkness, that is without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. All that is of this latter company are wretched and undone; they are the enemies of God and under his wrath and condemnation. They are the devil’s slaves, which serve him blindfolded, and are befooled and ensnared by him, and hurried along in a broad way to eternal perdition. 

IV. When those that we have formerly been conversant with are turning to God, and to his people, their example ought to influence us. Their example should be looked upon as the call of God to us to do as they have done. God, when he changes the heart of one, calls upon another; especially does he loudly call on those that have been their friends and acquaintance. We have been influenced by their examples in evil; and shall we cease to follow them when they make the wisest choice that ever they made, and do the best thing that ever they did? If we have been companions with them in worldliness, in vanity, in unprofitable and sinful conversation, it will be a hard case, if there must be a parting now, because we are not willing to be companions with them in holiness and true happiness. Men are greatly influenced by seeing one another’s prosperity in other things. If those whom they have been very conversant with grow rich and obtain any great earthly advantages, it awakens their ambition and eager desire after the like prosperity. How much more should they be influenced, and stirred up to follow them, and be like them, when they obtain that spiritual and eternal happiness that is of infinitely more worth than all the prosperity and glory of this world!

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light, IMMEDIATELY IMPARTED TO THE SOUL-15

 

I. Because their God is a glorious God. There is no one like him, who is infinite in glory and excellency. He is the highest God, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, and doing wonders. His name is excellent in all the earth, and his glory is above the earth and the heavens. Among the gods there is none like unto him; there is none in heaven to be compared to him, nor are there any among the sons of the mighty that can be likened unto him. Their God is the fountain of all good, and an inexhaustible fountain; he is an all-sufficient God, able to protect and defend them, and do all things for them. He is the King of glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle: a strong rock, and a high tower. There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rideth on the heaven in their help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is their refuge, and underneath is everlasting arms. He is a God that hath all things in his hands and does whatsoever he pleases: he killeth and maketh alive; he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up; he maketh poor and maketh rich: the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s. Their God is an infinitely holy God; there is none holy as the Lord. And he is infinitely good and merciful. Many that others worship and serve as gods are cruel beings, spirits that seek the ruin of souls; but this is a God that delighted in mercy; his grace is infinite and endures forever. He is love itself, an infinite fountain and ocean of it. 

Such a God is their God! Such is the excellency of Jacob! Such is the God of them who have forsaken their sins and are converted! They have made a wise choice and have chosen this for their God. They have made a happy exchange indeed, that have exchanged sin and the world for such a God! 

They have an excellent and glorious Saviour, who is the only begotten Son of God; the brightness of his Father’s glory; one in whom God from eternity had infinite delight; a Saviour of infinite love; one that has shed his own blood and made his soul an offering for their sins, and one that is able to save them to the uttermost. 

II. Their people are excellent and happy people. God has renewed them, and in stamped his own image upon them, and made them partakers of his holiness. They are more excellent than their neighbors, Prov. xii. 26. Yea, they are excellent of the earth, Psalm xvi. 3. They are lovely in the sight of the angels, and they have their souls adorned with those graces that in the sight of God himself are of great price. 

The people of God are the most excellent and happy society in the world. That God whom they have chosen for their God is their Father; he has pardoned all their sins, and they are at peace with him, and he has admitted them to all the privileges of his children. As they have devoted themselves to God, so God has given himself to them. He is become their salvation and their portion: his power and mercy and all his attributes are theirs. They are in a safe state, free from all possibility of perishing: Satan has no power to destroy them. God carries them on eagle’s wings, far above Satan’s reach, and above the reach of all the enemies of their souls. God is with them in this world; they have his gracious presence. God is for them; who then can be against them? As the mountains are around Jerusalem, Jehovah is round about them. God is their shield and their exceeding great reward, and their fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And they have the divine promise and oath that in the world to come they shall dwell forever in the glorious presence of God.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light, IMMEDIATELY IMPARTED TO THE SOUL-14

2. I would particularly observe that wherein the virtuousness of this her resolution consists, viz., that it was for the sake of the God of Israel, and that she might be one of his people, that she was thus resolved to cleave to Naomi: “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” It was for God’s sake that she did; thus, and therefore her so doing is afterward spoken of as a virtuous behavior in her, chap. ii. 11, 12: “And Boaz answered and said unto her, it hath fully been showed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father, and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward is given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.” She left her father and mother, and the land of her nativity, to come and trust under the shadow of God’s wings: and she had indeed a full reward given her, as Boaz wished; for besides immediate spiritual blessings to her own soul and eternal rewards in another world, she was rewarded with plentiful and prosperous outward circumstances in the family of Boaz. And God raised up David and Solomon of her seed and established the crown of Israel (the people that she chose before her own people) in her posterity; and—which is much more—of her seed he raised up Jesus Christ, in whom all the families of the earth are blessed. 

From the words thus opened, I observe this for the subject of my present discourse: 

When those that we have formerly been conversant with, are turning to God, and joining themselves to his people, it ought to be our firm resolution, that we will not leave them; but that their people shall be our people, and their God our God. 

It sometimes happens, that of those who have been conversant one with another, that have dwelt together as neighbors, and have been often together as companions, or have been united in near relation, and have been together in darkness, bondage, and misery in the service of Satan, some are enlightened, and have their minds changed, are made to see the great evil of sin, and have their hearts turned to God, and are influenced by the Holy Spirit of God to leave the company that is on Satan’s side to go and join themselves with that blessed company that is with Jesus Christ; they are made willing to forsake the tents of wickedness, to dwell in the land of uprightness with the people of God.

 And sometimes this proves a final parting or separation between them and those that they have been formerly conversant with. Though it may be no parting in outward respects, they may still dwell together and may converse one with another; yet in other respects, it sets them at a great distance one from another: one is a child of God, and the other the enemy of God; one is in a miserable, and the other in a happy condition; one is a citizen of the heavenly Zion, the other is under condemnation to hell. They are no longer together in those respects wherein they used to be together. They used to be of one mind to serve sin and do Satan’s work; now they are of contrary minds. They used to be together in worldliness and sinful vanity; now they are of exceeding different dispositions. They are separated as they are in different kingdoms; one remains in the kingdom of darkness, and the other is translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. And sometimes they are finally separated in these respects; while one dwells in the land of Israel, and in the house of God, the other, like Orpah, lives and dies in the land of Moab.

 Now ’tis lamentable when it is thus. ’Tis awful being parted so. ’Tis doleful, when of those that have formerly been together in sin, some turn to God, and join themselves with his people, that it should prove a parting between them and their former companions and acquaintance. It should be our firm and inflexible resolution in such a case that it shall be no parting, but that we will follow them, that their people shall be our people, and their God our God; and that for the following reasons:

 

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light, IMMEDIATELY IMPARTED TO THE SOUL-13

 

III  RUTH’S RESOLUTION°

Ruth I. 16.—And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following thee: for whither thou go, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.

The historical things in this book of Ruth seem to be inserted into the canon of Scripture, especially on two accounts:

First, Because Christ was of Ruth’s posterity. The Holy Ghost thought fit to take particular notice of that marriage of Boaz with Ruth, whence sprang the Saviour of the world. We may often observe that the Holy Spirit who indited the Scriptures, often takes notice of little things, minute occurrences, which do but remotely relate to Jesus Christ.

Secondly, this history seems to be typical of the calling of the Gentile church, and indeed of the conversion of every believer. Ruth was not originally of Israel but was a Moabitess, an alien from the commonwealth of Israel: but she forsook her own people, and the idols of the Gentiles, to worship the God of Israel, and to join herself to that people. Herein she seems to be a type of the Gentile church, and also of every sincere convert. Ruth was the mother of Christ; he came of her posterity: so the church is Christ’s mother, as she is represented, by Rev. xii., at the beginning. And so also is every true Christian his mother: Matt. xii. 50, “Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Christ is what the soul of every one of the elects is in travail within the new birth. Ruth forsook all her natural relations and her own country, the land of her nativity, and all her former possessions there, for the sake of the God of Israel as every true Christian forsakes all for Christ. Psalm xlv. 10, “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house.” 

Naomi was now returning out of the land of Moab into the land of Israel with her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth; who will represent to us two sorts of professors of religion: Orpah, that sort that indeed makes a fair profession, and seems to set out well, but dure but for a while, and then turn back; Ruth, that sort that is sound and sincere, and therefore are steadfast and persevering in the way that they have set out in. Naomi in the preceding verses represents to these her daughters the difficulties of their leaving their own country to go with her. And in this verse may be observed, 

1. The remarkable conduct and behavior of Ruth on this occasion; with what inflexible resolution she cleaves to Naomi and follows her. When Naomi first arose to return from the country of Moab to the land of Israel, Orpah and Ruth both set out with her; and Naomi exhorts them both to return. And they both of them wept and seemed as if they could not bear the thoughts of leaving her, and appeared as if they were resolved to go with her: verse 10, “And they said unto her, surely we will return with thee unto thy people.” Then Naomi says to them again, “Turn again, my daughters, go your way,” &c. And then they have greatly affected again, and Orpah returned and went back. Now Ruth’s steadfastness in her purpose had a greater trial, but yet is not overcome: “She clave unto her,” verse 14. Then Naomi speaks to her again, in verse 15, “Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law.” And then she shows her immovable resolution in the text and following verse.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light, IMMEDIATELY IMPARTED TO THE SOUL-12

 

2. This knowledge is that which is above all others sweet and joyful. Men have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge, in studies of natural things; but this is nothing to that joy which arises from this divine light shining into the soul. This light gives a view of those things that are immensely the most exquisitely beautiful, and capable of delighting the eye of understanding. This spiritual light is the dawning of the light of glory in the heart. There is nothing so powerful as this to support people in affliction and to give the mind peace and brightness in this stormy and dark world. 

3. This light effectually influences the inclination and changes the nature of the soul. It assimilates nature to the divine nature, and changes the soul into an image of the same glory that is beheld: 2 Cor. iii. 18, “But we all, with open faces, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” This knowledge will wean us from the world and raise our inclination to heavenly things. It will turn the heart to God as the fountain of good and choose him for the only portion. This light, and this only, will bring the soul to a saving close with Christ. It conforms the heart to the gospel and mortifies its enmity and opposition against the scheme of salvation therein revealed. It causes the heart to embrace the joyful tidings, and entirely adhere to, and acquiesce in the revelation of Christ as our Saviour. It causes the whole soul to accord and symphonizes with it, admitting it with entire credit and respect, cleaving to it with full inclination and affection; and it effectually disposes the soul to give up itself entirely to Christ.

 This light, and this only, has its fruit in the universal holiness of life. No merely notional or speculative understanding of the doctrines of religion will ever bring to this. But this light, as it reaches the bottom of the heart, and changes nature, so it will effectually dispose to universal obedience. It shows God’s worthiness to be obeyed and served. It draws forth the heart in a sincere love for God, which is the only principle of true, gracious, and universal obedience. And it convinces them of the reality of those glorious rewards that God has promised to them that obey him.

 

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light, IMMEDIATELY IMPARTED TO THE SOUL-11

 

First, this doctrine may lead us to reflect on the goodness of God, which has so ordered it, that a saving evidence of the truth of the gospel is such as is attainable by persons of mean capacities and advantages, as well as those that are of the greatest parts and learning. If the evidence of the gospel depended only on history, and such reasonings as learned men only are capable of, it would be above the reach of far the greatest part of mankind. But persons with but an ordinary degree of knowledge are capable, without a long and subtle train of reasoning, to see the divine excellency of the things of religion: they are capable of being taught by the Spirit of God, as well as learned men. The evidence that is this way obtained is vastly better and more satisfying than all that can be obtained by the arguings of those that are most learned, and greatest masters of reason. And babes are as capable of knowing these things as the wise and prudent; and they are often hidden from these when they are revealed to those: 1 Cor. i. 26, 27, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, few noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world.

Secondly, this doctrine may well put us upon examining ourselves, whether we have ever had this divine light that has been described let into our souls. If there be such a thing indeed, and it is not only a notion or whimsy of persons of weak and distempered brains, then doubtless ’tis a thing of great importance, whether we have thus been taught by the Spirit of God; whether the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, hath shined unto us, giving us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; whether we have seen the Son, and believed on him, or have that faith of gospel doctrines that arises from a spiritual sight of Christ. 

Thirdly, all may hence be exhorted earnestly to seek this spiritual light. To influence and move to it, the following things may be considered. 

1. This is the most excellent and divine wisdom that any creature is capable of. ’Tis more excellent than any human learning; ’tis far more excellent than all the knowledge of the greatest philosophers or statesmen. Yea, the least glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Christ doth more exalt and ennoble the soul than all the knowledge of those that have the greatest speculative understanding in divinity without grace. This knowledge has the noblest object that is or can be, viz., the divine glory or excellency of God and Christ. The knowledge of these objects is that wherein consists of the most excellent knowledge of the angels, yea, of God himself.

Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards-A Divine and Supernatural Light, IMMEDIATELY IMPARTED TO THE SOUL-10

 

3. ’Tis rational to suppose that this knowledge should be given immediately by God, and not be obtained by natural means. Upon what account should it seem unreasonable, that there should be any immediate communication between God and the creature? It is strange that men should make any matter of difficulty of it. Why should not be that made all things, still have something immediately to do with the things that he has made? Where lies the great difficulty if we own the being of a God, and that he created all things out of nothing, of allowing some immediate influence of God on the creation still? And if it is reasonable to suppose it with respect to any part of the creation, it is especially so with respect to reasonable, intelligent creatures; who are next to God in the gradation of the different orders of beings, and whose business is most immediately with God; who was made on purpose for those exercises that do respect God and wherein they have neatly to do with God: for reason teaches, that man was made to serve and glorify his Creator. And if it be rational to suppose that God immediately communicates himself to man in any affair, it is in this. ’Tis rational to suppose that God would reserve that knowledge and wisdom, which is of such a divine and excellent nature, to be bestowed immediately by himself, and that it should not be left in the power of second causes. Spiritual wisdom and grace is the highest and most excellent gift that ever God bestows on any creature: in this, the highest excellency and perfection of a rational creature consists of. ’Tis also immensely the most important of all divine gifts: ’tis that wherein man’s happiness consists, and on which his everlasting welfare depends. How rational is it to suppose that God, however, has left meaner goods and lower gifts to second causes, and in some sort in their power, yet should reserve this most excellent, divine, and important of all divine communications in his own hands, to be bestowed immediately by himself, as a thing too great for second causes to be concerned in! ’Tis rational to suppose that this blessing should be immediately from God; for there is no gift or benefit that is in itself so nearly related to the divine nature, there is nothing the creature receives that is so much of God, of his nature, so much participation of the deity: ’tis a kind of emanation of God’s beauty and is related to God as the light is to the sun. ’Tis therefore congruous and fit, that when it is given of God, it should be neatly from himself, and by himself, according to his own sovereign will.

’Tis rational to suppose that it should be beyond a man’s power to obtain this knowledge and light by the mere strength of natural reason; for ’tis, not a thing that belongs to reason, to see the beauty and loveliness of spiritual things; it is not a speculative thing but depends on the sense of the heart. The reason, indeed, is necessary in order to it, as ’tis by reason only that we become the subjects of the means of it, which means I have already shown to be necessary in order to it, though they have no proper causal influence in the affair. ’It is by reason that we become possessed of a notion of those doctrines that are the subject matter of this divine light; and reason may many ways be indirectly and remotely an advantage to it. And the reason has also to do with the acts that are immediately consequent on this discovery: a seeing the truth of religion from hence is by reason; though it is but by one step, and the inference be immediate. So, reason has to do with accepting, and trusting in Christ, who is consequent on it. But if we take reason strictly, not for the faculty of mental perception in general, but for ratiocination, or power of inferring by arguments; I say, if we take reason thus, the perceiving of spiritual beauty and excellency no more belongs to reason than it belongs to the sense of feeling to perceive colors, or to the power of seeing to perceive the sweetness of food. It is out of reason’s province to perceive the beauty or loveliness of anything: such a perception doesn’t belong to that faculty. Reason’s work is to perceive truth and not excellency. It is not ratiocination that gives men the perception of the beauty and amiableness of a countenance, though it may be many ways indirectly an advantage to it; yet ’tis no more reason that immediately perceives it than it is  reason that perceives the sweetness of honey: it depends on the sense of the heart. The reason may determine that a countenance is beautiful to others, it may determine that honey is sweet to others, but it will never give me a perception of its sweetness. —I will conclude with a very brief IMPROVEMENT of what has been said.