“No man can learn the new song but they that are redeemed. Other men are dumb and dead as to any such heavenly exercise as this. They can exalt their idols, but they can’t exalt God. They can rejoice in the objects of their lusts, in their worldliness and in their carnal pleasures, but they can’t rejoice in Christ Jesus. They can howl, but they can’t sing the new song. This song, whenever it is learnt, must be learned out of the gospel. But none can truly understand the gospel of Jesus Christ but His redeemed ones.”
–Jonathan Edwards, “They Sing a New Song,” Sermons and Discourses: 1739-1742, in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 22, Ed. Harry S. Stout (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 236-237.
