# “Advice to Young Converts” by Jonathan Edwards

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2008/12/05/advice-to-young-converts-by-jonathan-edwards/
- Published: 2008-12-05T10:33:37-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“Dear Child,

As you desired me to send you in writing some directions on how to conduct yourself
in your Christian course, I will now answer your request. The sweet remembrance 
of the great things I have lately seen at Suffield, and the dear affections for 
those persons I have conversed with there, give good evidences of a saving work 
of God upon their hearts and also incline me to do anything that lies in my power
to contribute to the spiritual joy and prosperity of God’s people there. And what
I write to you, I would also say to other young women there who are your friends
and companions and the children of God. Therefore, I desire you would communicate
it to them as you have opportunity.

**One – **I would advise you to keep up as great a strife and earnestness in religion
in all aspects of it, as you would do if you knew yourself to be in a state of nature
and you were seeking conversion. We advise persons under convictions to be extremely
earnest for the kingdom of heaven, but when they have attained conversion they ought
not to be the less watchful, laborious, and earnest in the whole work of religion,
but the more; for they are under infinitely greater obligations. For lack of this,
many persons in a few months after their conversion have begun to lose the sweet
and lively sense of spiritual things, and to grow cold and flat and dark. They have
pierced themselves through with many sorrows, whereas if they had done as the Apostle
did in Philippians 3:12-14, their path would have been as the shining light, which
shines more and more unto the perfect day.

Not that I have already all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press
on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider
myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind
and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize 
for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:12-14)

**Two – **Don’t slack off seeking, striving, and praying for the very same things
that we exhort unconverted persons to strive for, and a degree of which you have
had in conversion. Thus pray that your eyes may be opened, that you may receive 
your sight, that you may know your -self and be brought to God’s feet, and that 
you may see the glory of God and Christ, may be raised from the dead, and have the
love of Christ shed abroad in your heart. Those that have most of these things still
need to pray for them; for there is so much blindness and hardness and pride and
death remaining that they still need to have that work of God upon them, further
to enlighten and enliven them. This will be a further bringing out of darkness into
God’s marvelous light, and a kind of new conversion and resurrection from the dead.
There are very few requests that are not only proper for a natural person, but that
in some sense are also proper for the godly.

**Three – **When you hear sermons, hear them for yourself, even though what is spoken
in them may be more especially directed to the unconverted or to those that in other
respects are in different circumstances from yourself. Let the chief intent of your
mind be to consider what ways you can apply the things that you are hearing in the
sermon. You should ask, What improvement should I make, based on these things, for
my own soul’s good?

**Four –** Though God has forgiven and forgotten your past sins, yet don’t forget
them yourself. Often remember what a wretched bond slave you were in the land of
Egypt. Often bring to mind your particular acts of sin before conversion, as the
blessed Apostle Paul is often mentioning his old blaspheming, persecuting, and injuriousness,
to the renewed humbling of his heart and acknowledging that he was the least of 
the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, and the least of saints, and
the chief of sinners. And be often in confessing your old sins to God. Also, let
this following passage be often in your mind:

Then, when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed
and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the sovereign
LORD. (Ezek. 16:63).

**Five –** Remember that you have more cause, on some accounts a thousand times 
more, to lament and humble yourself for sins that have been since conversion than
those that were before conversion, because of the infinitely greater obligations
that are upon you to live to God. Look upon the faithfulness of Christ in unchangeably
continuing his loving favor, and the unspeakable and saving fruits of his everlasting
love. De, spite all your great unworthiness since your conversion, his grace remains
as great or as wonderful as it was in converting you.

**Six –** Be always greatly humbled by your remaining sin, and never think that 
you lie low enough for it, but yet don’t be at all discouraged or disheartened by
it. Although we are exceeding sinful, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous, the preciousness of whose blood, the merit of whose righteousness,
and the greatness of whose love and faithfulness infinitely overtop the highest 
mountains of our sins.

**Seven** – When you engage in the duty of prayer, come to the sacrament of the 
Lord’s Supper, or attend any other duty of divine worship, come to Christ as Mary
Magdalene did. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that
Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume,
and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with 
her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on 
them. (Luke 7:37-38)

Just like her, come and cast yourself down at his feet and kiss them, and pour forth
upon him the sweet perfumed ointment of divine love, out of a pure and broken heart,
as she poured her precious ointment out of her pure, alabaster, broken box.

**Eight – **Remember that pride is the worst viper that is in the heart, the greatest
disturber of the soul’s peace and sweet communion with Christ. It was the first 
sin that ever was, and lies lowest in the foundation of Satan’s whole building. 
It is the most difficult to root out, and it is the most hidden, secret, and deceitful
of all lust, and it often creeps in, insensibly, into the midst of religion and 
sometimes under the disguise of humility.

**Nine –** That you may pass a good judgment on your spiritual condition, always
consider your best conversations and best experiences to be the ones that produce
the following two effects: First, those conversations and experiences that make 
you least, lowest, and most like a little child; and, second, those that do most
engage and fix your heart in a full and firm disposition to deny yourself for God
and to spend and be spent for him.

**Ten – **If at any time you fall into doubts about the state of your soul under
darkness and dull frames of mind, it is proper to look over past experiences. Don’t,
however, consume too much of your time and strength in poring and puzzling thoughts
about old experiences, that in dull frames appear dim and are very much out of sight,
at least as to that which is the cream and life and sweetness of them. Rather, apply
yourself with all your might to an earnest pursuit after renewed experiences, new
light, and new, lively acts of faith and love. One new discovery of the glory of
Christ’s face, and the fountain of his sweet grace and love will do more towards
scattering clouds of darkness and doubting in one minute than examining old experiences
by the best mark that can be given for a whole year.

**Eleven – **When the exercise of grace is at a low ebb, and corruption prevails,
and by that means fear prevails, don’t desire to have fear cast out any other way
than by the reviving and prevailing of love, for it is not agreeable to the method
of God’s wise dispensations that it should be cast out any other way. When love 
is asleep, the saints need fear to restrain them from sin, and therefore it is so
ordered that at such times fear comes upon them, and that more or less as love sinks.
But when love is in lively exercise, persons don’t need fear. The prevailing of 
love in the heart naturally tends to cast out fear as darkness in a room vanishes
away as you let more and more of the perfect beams of the sun into it:

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to 
do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (I John 4:18)

**Twelve – **You should be often exhorting and counseling and warning others, especially
at such a day as this: Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit
of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.(
Heb. 10:25)

And I would advise you especially to be much in exhorting children and young women
who are your equals; and when you exhort others that are men, I would advise that
you take opportunities for it chiefly when you are alone with them or when only 
young persons are present.

I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided
hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for
women who profess to worship God. A woman should learn in
 quietness and full submission.(
1 Tim. 2:9-11)

**Thirteen – **When you counsel and warn others, do it earnestly, affectionately,
and thoroughly. And when you are speaking to your equals, let your warnings be intermixed
with expressions of your sense of your own unworthiness and of the sovereign grace
that makes you differ. And, if you can with a good conscience, say how you in yourself
are more unworthy than they.

**Fourteen – **If you would set up religious meetings of young women by yourselves,
to be attended once in a while, besides the other meetings that you attend, I should
think it would be very proper and profitable.

**Fifteen – **Under special difficulties, or when in great need of or great longings
after any particular mercies for your self or others, set apart a day of secret 
fasting and prayer alone. Let the day be spent not only in petitions for the mercies
you desired, but in searching your heart, and looking over your past life, and confessing
your sins before God, not as practiced in public prayer, but by a very particular
rehearsal before God. Include the sins of your past life from your childhood up 
until now, both before and after conversion, with particular circumstances and aggravations.
Also be very particular and as thorough as possible, spreading all the abominations
of your heart before him.

**Sixteen –** Don’t let the adversaries of religion have any grounds to say that
these converts don’t carry themselves any better than others.

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors
doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?
Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.(
Matt. 5:46-48)

How holy should the children of God be! And the redeemed and the ones beloved of
the Son of God should behave themselves in a manner worthy of Christ. Therefore 
walk as a child of the light and of the day, and adorn the doctrine of God your 
Savior. Particularly be much in those things that may especially be called Christian
virtues, that make you like the Lamb of God. Be meek and lowly of heart and full
of a pure, heavenly, and humble love to all. Abound in deeds of love to others and
of self-denial for others, and let there be in you a disposition to account others
better than yourself.

**Seventeen – **Don’t talk of things of religion and matters of experience with 
an air of lightness and laughter, which is too much the custom in many places.

**Eighteen –** In all your course, walk with God and follow Christ as a little, 
poor, helpless child, taking hold of Christ’s hand, keeping your eye on the mark
of the wounds on his hands and side. From these wounds came the blood that cleanses
you from sin and hides your nakedness under the skirt of the white shining robe 
of his righteousness.

**Nineteen – **Pray much for the church of God and especially that he would carry
on his glorious work that he has now begun. Be much in prayer for the ministers 
of Christ.

Particularly I would beg a special interest in your prayers and the prayers of your
Christian companions, both when you are alone and when you are together, for your
affectionate friend, that rejoices over you and desires to be your servant.

In Jesus Christ,

Jonathan Edwards”

–Jonathan Edwards, [“Letter to Deborah Hatheway, June 3, 1741”](http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2plYy5hbWluZHNleWUub3JnL2NnaS1iaW4vbmV3cGhpbG8vZ2V0b2JqZWN0LnBsP2MuMzA6MzUud2plbw==)
in _Correspondence by, to, and about Edwards and His Family (WJE Online Vol. 32)_,
Ed. Jonathan Edwards Center. Accessed 12.05.2008.

More quotes from [Jonathan Edwards](https://tollelege.net/category/jonathan-edwards/)