Tag Archives: The Works of Jonathan Edwards

“He is the beginning, and the middle, and the end” by Jonathan Edwards

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“It appears that all that is ever spoken of in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God’s works is included in that one phrase, the glory of God.

In the creature’s knowing, esteeming, loving, rejoicing in, and praising God, the glory of God is both exhibited and acknowledged; His fullness is received and returned.

Here is both an emanation and remanation. The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary.

The beams of glory come from God, are something of God, and are refunded back again to their original.

So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God; and He is the beginning, and the middle, and the end.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Volume 8, ed. Paul Ramsey (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 8: 526–527, 531.

“Children ought to love Jesus Christ above things in the world” by Jonathan Edwards

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“The following reasons may be given why children ought to love Jesus Christ above things in the world.

He is more lovely in Himself. He is one that is greater and higher than all the kings of the earth, has more honor and majesty than they, and yet He is innately good and full of mercy and love.

There is no love so great and so wonderful as that which is in the heart of Christ. He is one that delights in mercy; He is ready to pity those that are in suffering and sorrowful circumstances; one that delights in the happiness of His creatures.

The love and grace that Christ has manifested does as much exceed all that which is in this world as the sun is brighter than a candle. Parents are often full of kindness towards their children, but that is no kindness like Jesus Christ’s.

And He is an infinitely holy One. He is God’s holy child, so holy and pure that the heavens are not pure in His sight, so that He is fairer than the sons of men, as the Psalmist says (Ps. 45:2). He is ‘the chiefest among ten thousand,’ (Cant. 5:10) and ‘altogether lovely’ (5:16).

Because of His glorious excellency, He is compared to the sun, that is the brightest of all things that we behold with our bodily eyes. ’Tis He that is called ‘the Sun of righteousness’ (Mal. 4:2).

So He is called the ‘morning star,’ the brightest of all the whole multitude of stars (Rev. 22:16). He is so lovely and excellent, that the angels in heaven do greatly love Him; their hearts overflow with love to Him, and they are continually, day and night without ceasing, praising him and giving Him glory.

Yea, He is so lovely a person, that God the Father infinitely delights in Him; He is his beloved Son, the brightness of His glory, whose beauty God continually sees with infinite delight, without ever being weary of beholding it. ‘I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him,’ (Prov. 8:30).

And if the angels and God himself love Him so much above all, surely children ought to love Him above all things in this world.

Everything that is lovely in God is in Him, and everything that is or can be lovely in any man is in Him: for He is man as well as God, and He is the holiest, meekest, most humble, and every way the most excellent man that ever was.

He is the delight of heaven. There is nothing in heaven, that glorious world, that is brighter and more amiable and lovely than Christ.

And this darling of heaven, by becoming man, became as a plant or flower springing out of the earth; and He is the most lovely flower that ever was seen in this world. (Cant. 2:1)—there ’tis said of Christ, ‘I am the rose of Sharon, and lily of the valleys.’

There is more good to be enjoyed in Him than in everything or all things in this world. He is not only an amiable, but an all-sufficient good.

There is enough in Him to answer all our wants and satisfy all our desires. Children, if they come to Christ and set their hearts on Him, will find that in Him that is better for them and will be sweeter to them than anything that is to had in the presence and company or provision of their parents, and better than anything that is to be found in their parents’ houses.

Christ has the bread of life in Him; their souls may feed and feast upon that which will be much better than anything they are ever entertained with at their fathers’ tables.

Christ is to those that love Him as glorious clothing and excellent ornaments to their souls. Those children that love Him, their souls are clothed with those robes that are a thousand times as beautiful and desirable than the best clothing their parents provide for them.

In Him they shall have that spiritual good which will be as gold tried in the fire, that will make them richer than if they were kings’ children.

Christ is the most suitable good for them. If they love Him, they will find Him sweeter to them than the honey and the honeycomb.

In Him they shall have enough, all that they desire. He will give them rest and satisfaction.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “Children Ought to Love the Lord Jesus Christ Above All, (Matthew 10:37),” Sermons and Discourses, 1739–1742 (ed. Harry S. Stout, Nathan O. Hatch, and Kyle P. Farley; vol. 22; The Works of Jonathan Edwards; New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2003), 22: 171–173.

“The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied” by Jonathan Edwards

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“Heaven is that place alone where is to be obtained our highest end, and highest good. God hath made us for Himself: ‘of God, and through God, and to God are all things’ (Rom. 11:36).

Therefore then do we attain to our highest end, when we are brought to God. But that is by being brought to heaven, for that is God’s throne; that is the place of His special presence, and of His glorious residence.

There is but a very imperfect union with God to be had in this world: a very imperfect knowledge of God in the midst of abundance of darkness, a very imperfect conformity to God, mingled with abundance of enmity and estrangement. Here we can serve and glorify God but in an exceeding imperfect manner, our service being mingled with much sin and dishonoring to God.

But when we get to heaven, if ever that be, there we shall be brought to a perfect union with God.

There we shall have the clear views of God’s glory: we shall see face to face, and know as we are known (1 Cor. 13:12).

There we shall be fully conformed to God, without any remains of sin: ‘we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is’ (1 John 3:2).

There we shall serve God perfectly. We shall glorify Him in an exalted manner, and to the utmost of the powers and capacity of our nature.

Then we shall perfectly give up ourselves to God; then will our hearts be wholly a pure and holy offering to God, offered all in the flame of divine love.

In heaven alone is attainment of our highest good. God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of Him is our proper happiness, and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.

To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here: better than fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of any or all earthly friends.

These are but shadows; but God is the substance.

These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun.

These are but streams; but God is the fountain.

These are but drops; but God is the ocean.

Therefore, it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey towards heaven, as it becomes us to make the seeking of our highest end, and proper good, the whole work of our lives; and we should subordinate all the other concerns of life to it.

Why should we labor for anything else, or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end, and true happiness?”

–Jonathan Edwards, “The True Christian’s Life a Journey Towards Heaven,” in Sermons and Discourses, 1730–1733 (ed. Mark Valeri and Harry S. Stout; vol. 17; The Works of Jonathan Edwards; New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1999), 17: 437–438.

“The sweetest joys and delights I have experienced” by Jonathan Edwards

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“The sweetest joys and delights I have experienced have not been those that have arisen from a hope of my own good estate, but in a direct view of the glorious things of the gospel.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “A Personal Narrative,” Letters and Personal Writings (ed. George S. Claghorn and Harry S. Stout; vol. 16; The Works of Jonathan Edwards; New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1998), 16: 800.

“Those things that are held forth to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ” by Jonathan Edwards

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“Is there anything which Christians can find in heaven or earth so worthy to be the objects of their admiration and love, their earnest and longing desires, their hope, and their rejoicing, and their fervent zeal, as those things that are held forth to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ?

In which, not only are things declared most worthy to affect us, but they are exhibited in the most affecting manner.

The glory and beauty of the blessed Jehovah, which is most worthy in itself, to be the object of our admiration and love, is there exhibited in the most affecting manner that can be conceived of, as it appears shining in all its luster, in the face of an incarnate, infinitely loving, meek, compassionate, dying Redeemer.

All the virtues of the Lamb of God, His humility, patience, meekness, submission, obedience, love and compassion, are exhibited to our view, in a manner the most tending to move our affections, of any that can be imagined.”

–Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections (ed. John E. Smith and Harry S. Stout; vol. 2, Revised edition.; The Works of Jonathan Edwards; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 2: 123–124.

“The song of victory shall be yours” by Jonathan Edwards

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“Here is matter of great encouragement to the saints earnestly to fight against the enemies of their souls.

The Captain of your salvation will assuredly conduct you to victory in the end. He who is able to uphold you has promised that you shall overcome, and His promise shall never fail.

Resting on that promise be faithful to your part, and ere long the song of victory shall be yours, and the crown of victory He will place, with His own hands, upon your head.”

–Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits in Ethical Writings (ed. Paul Ramsey and John E. Smith; vol. 8; The Works of Jonathan Edwards; New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1989), 349-350.

“You have much more reason than angels to shout with joy” by Jonathan Edwards

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“Let those who have been made partakers of this free and glorious grace of God, spend their lives much in praises and hallelujahs to God, for the wonders of His mercy in their redemption.

To you, O redeemed of the Lord, doth this doctrine most directly apply itself: you are those who have been made partakers of all this glorious grace of which you have now heard.

’Tis you that God entertained thoughts of restoring after your miserable fall into dreadful depravity and corruption, and into danger of the dreadful misery that unavoidably follows upon it.

’Tis for you in particular that God gave His Son, yea, His only Son, and sent Him into the world.

’Tis for you that the Son of God so freely gave Himself.

’Tis for you that He was born, died, rose again and ascended, and intercedes.

’Tis to you that there the free application of the fruit of these things is made: all this is done perfectly and altogether freely, without any of your desert, without any of your righteousness or strength.

Therefore, let your life be spent in praises to God.

When you praise Him in prayer, let it not be with coldness and indifferency.

When you praise Him in your closet, let your whole soul be active therein.

When you praise Him in singing, don’t barely make a noise, without any stirring of affection in the heart, without any internal melody. Surely, you have reason to shout and cry, ‘Grace, grace, be the topstone of the temple!’

Certainly, you don’t lack mercy and bounty to praise God; you only lack a heart and lively affections to praise Him with.

Surely, if the angels are so astonished at God’s mercy to you, and do even shout with joy and admiration at the sight of God’s grace to you, you yourself, on whom this grace is bestowed, have much more reason to shout.

Consider that great part of your happiness in heaven, to all eternity, will consist in this: in praising of God, for His free and glorious grace in redeeming you.

And if you would spend more time about it on earth, you would find this world would be much more of a heaven to you than it is. Wherefore, do nothing while you are alive, but speak and think and live God’s praises.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “Glorious Grace,” in Sermons and Discourses, 1720–1723 (ed. Wilson H. Kimnach and Harry S. Stout; vol. 10; The Works of Jonathan Edwards; New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1992), 10: 399. Edwards preached this sermon on Zechariah 4:7 when he was 19 years old.

“The Shepherd of the whole flock is Himself a Lamb” by Jonathan Edwards

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“Though Christ is now at the right hand of God, exalted as King of Heaven, and Lord of the Universe, yet as He still is in the human nature, He still excels in humility. Though the man Christ Jesus be the highest of all creatures in heaven, yet He as much excels them all in humility, as He doth in glory and dignity.

And though He now appears in such glorious majesty and dominion in heaven, yet He appears as a lamb in His condescending, mild and sweet treatment of His saints there. For He is a lamb still, even in the midst the throne of His exaltation.

And He that is the Shepherd of the whole flock is Himself a Lamb, and goes before them in heaven as such: ‘For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,’ (Revelation 7:17).

Though in heaven every knee bows to Him, and though the angels fall down before Him, adoring Him, yet He treats His saints with infinite condescension, mildness and endearment. And in His acts towards the saints on earth, He still appears as a lamb, manifesting exceeding love and tenderness, in His intercession for them, as one that has had experience of affliction and temptation.

He has not forgotten what these things are, nor has He forgotten how to pity those that are subject to them. And He still manifests His lamb-like excellencies in His dealings with His saints on earth in admirable forbearance, love, gentleness, and compassions, instructing, supplying, supporting, and comforting them, often coming to them, and manifesting Himself to them by His Spirit, that He may sup with them, and they with Him, admitting them to sweet communion with Him, enabling them with boldness and confidence to come to Him, and solace their hearts in Him.

And in heaven Christ still appears, as it were with the marks of His wounds upon Him; and so appears as a lamb as it had been slain.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “The Excellency of Christ,” Sermons and Discourses, 1734–1738 (ed. M. X. Lesser and Harry S. Stout; vol. 19; The Works of Jonathan Edwards; New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2001), 19: 581.

“Make me also an instrument of His glory” by Jonathan Edwards

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“Sir,

My request to you is that, in your intended journey through New England the next summer, you would be pleased to visit Northampton. I hope it is not wholly from curiosity that I desire to see and hear you in this place; but I apprehend, from what I have heard, that you are one that has the blessing of heaven attending you wherever you go; and I have a great desire, if it may be the will of God, that such a blessing as attends your person and labors may descend on this town, and may enter mine own house, and that I may receive it in my own soul.

Indeed I am fearful whether you will not be disappointed in New England, and will have less success here than in other places: we who have dwelt in a land that has been distinguished with light, and have long enjoyed the gospel, and have been glutted with it, and have despised it, are I fear more hardened than most of those places where you have preached hitherto.

But yet I hope in that power and mercy of God that has appeared so triumphant in the success of your labors in other places, that He will send a blessing with you even to us, though we are unworthy of it. I hope, if God preserves my life, to see something of that salvation of God in New England which He has now begun, in a benighted, wicked, and miserable world and age and in the most guilty of all nations.

It has been with refreshment of soul that I have heard of one raised up in the Church of England to revive the mysterious, spiritual, despised, and exploded doctrines of the gospel, and full of a spirit of zeal for the promotion of real vital piety, whose labors have been attended with such success. Blessed be God that hath done it! He is with you, and helps you, and makes the weapons of your warfare mighty.

We see that God is faithful, and never will forget the promises that He has made to His church; and that He will not suffer the smoking flax to be quenched, even when the floods seem to be overwhelming it; but will revive the flame again, even in the darkest times.

I hope this is the dawning of a day of God’s mighty power and glorious grace to the world of mankind. May you go on, reverend Sir! And may God be with you more and more abundantly, that the work of God may be carried on by a blessing on your labors still, with that swift progress that it has been hitherto, and rise to a greater height, and extend further and further, with an irresistible power bearing down all opposition!

And may the gates of hell never be able to prevail against you! And may God send forth more laborers into His harvest of a like spirit, until the kingdom of Satan shall shake, and his proud empire fall throughout the earth and the kingdom of Christ, that glorious kingdom of light, holiness, peace and love, shall be established from one end of the earth unto the other!

I fear it is too much for me to desire a particular remembrance in your prayers, when I consider how many thousands do doubtless desire it, who can’t all be particularly mentioned; and I am far from thinking myself worthy to be distinguished.

But pray, Sir, let your heart be lifted up to God for me among others, that God would bestow much of that blessed Spirit on me that He has bestowed on you, and make me also an instrument of His glory.

I am, reverend Sir, unworthy to be called your fellow laborer,

Jonathan Edwards”

–Jonathan Edwards, Letters and Personal Writings (ed. George S. Claghorn and Harry S. Stout; vol. 16; The Works of Jonathan Edwards; New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1998), 16: 80–81. Edwards wrote this letter to George Whitefield on February 12, 1739/40.

“The wrath of God drove us out of paradise, but the grace of God invites us to return” by Jonathan Edwards

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“‘Tis proclaimed in the gospel

  • that God is willing again to receive us into His favor, to pardon all our sins, to quit all enmity, to bury all former difference and to be our friend and our Father;
  • that He is willing again to admit us to sweet communion with Him, and that He will converse with us as friendly and intimately as He did before the Fall;
  • that God is willing to receive us to paradise again, to a like freedom from all grief and trouble;
  • that He will wipe away all tears from our eyes, and that sorrow and sighing shall flee away;
  • that He will make us to forget our former melancholic, forsaken, and doleful state;
  • that we may be again admitted to as great a fullness of blessings, to as pleasant and delightful a dwelling place as the garden of Eden, as full of those things which tend the delight of life, to pleasures as refreshing and satisfying;
  • that we shall be as free from want, and the curse shall be removed, and all frowns and tokens of displeasure. The world shall again smile upon us and congratulate us.

God will be our friend and the angels shall be our friends, and all things shall be at peace with us, and we shall enjoy as great and uninterrupted a pleasure in mutual society. The wrath of God drove us out of paradise, but the grace of God invites us to return.

The Son of God in the name of His Father comes and calls to us to return from our banishment. He ceases not to call us. He beseeches us to return again. He is come forth on purpose to make known those joyful tidings to us.

Christ calls us away from this cursed ground that brings forth briars and thorns, to a better country. Our first parents were driven away very loath and unwilling to go, but we are invited back again.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “East of Eden,” in Sermons and Discourses, 1730–1733, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 17, Ed. Mark Valeri and Harry S. Stout (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1999), 17: 342–343.