# “To whom will you flee for help?” by Jonathan Edwards

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2017/07/11/to-whom-will-you-flee-for-help-by-jonathan-edwards/
- Published: 2017-07-11T17:00:14-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“‘_Whither will you go?_‘ You who will not receive Christ: where do you propose 
to go?

Where do you think to find anyone else that hath the words of eternal life?

To whom will you flee for help?

Where do poor, cheated souls think to find another Savior?

Is there ever another God that delivers you from the wrath of this God, who is Jehovah?

Is there ever another mighty Savior that you think will do as well as Christ?

Is there ever another captain that you intend to enlist under that can by his almighty
power deliver you from all evil, that can conquer all your enemies and bestow an
eternal crown and kingdom upon you?

Do you expect to find another Savior, of another kind, that will indulge you and
let you go on in sin as much as you please?

Where is this other Savior that you are going to and trust in?

Who is he?

In what part of the world does he dwell? Let us know.

This other Savior will be found to be only that old serpent, the devil. It will 
come to this at last.

Well, and what do you expect of the devil?

Is he able to save you?

Is he able to fight against God and overcome him?

Will he ever bestow eternal life upon you?

Has he the words of eternal life?

Has he got a heaven, too, that you expect to enjoy a better heaven than the heaven
into which Christ is ascended?

What is it that you think to receive of him?

Don’t you think that he intends to ruin and destroy, and forever to torment you 
when he has once got you in his power?

Why, then, do you follow after him so diligently, as if he could give you eternal
life?

Or is there anyone else that has the words of eternal life?

Is it riches and pleasure and worldly prosperity?

Can you suck eternal life out of them, or to whom will you go?

Certainly you expect eternal life, or something as good as eternal life, from some
being or other. Who is it?

Consider and see who it is.

If you don’t come to Christ, consider what you intend to do. Something must be done
or you are miserable forever.

Now what is that thing that you have thought?

Will you let yourself alone and be unconcerned about eternal life, and let yourself
go down into hell as fast as the devil and your lusts can carry you?

If you don’t intend so to neglect yourself, but intend to do something, what is 
it except you come to Jesus Christ?

Will you put trust in your own performances?

Will you give your goods to the poor or do some very good deed and so depend upon
that, and think that God is obliged to you for it, or that you make amends for your
sins by it?

Will you be much in prayer and reading the Scriptures, and the duties of divine 
worship, and think by them to procure everlasting life?

This will not do.

You can’t do more in duties than what is duty, and whatsoever is done therein that
is not your indispensable duty is sin.

What other project yet have you in your minds?

All projects and contrivances are vain and senseless but only that way which infinite
wisdom has contrived, and none but infinite wisdom could project, even the dying
Son of God.

If there is any cheaper way of getting to heaven than the blood of the Son of God,
that you can think of, doubtless God would have thought of it before you, and so
Christ’s blood might have been spared.

Wherefore, stand no longer, for if ever you get to heaven any other way than by 
faith in Christ, it will be because you are wiser than God.

Come, therefore, to this rock at last.

For hitherto you have been wandering about like Noah’s dove and have found no rest
for the sole of your foot, nor never will till you return to this ark.

Come, therefore, and trust in Him, and yield yourself to Him, sweetly reposing yourself
on Him.

For He hath the words of eternal life.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “[Life Through Christ Alone](http://amzn.to/2tbLOGC)” in [_Sermons and Discourses, 1720-1723, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 10_](http://amzn.to/2tbLOGC).
Ed. Wilson H. Kimnach (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006), 528-530. You can
read this sermon on John 6:68 in its entirety [here](http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy45OjE4LndqZW8=).

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