An Enduring inheritance

For you have heard my vows, O God; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. God never disappoints his servants, but crowns with everlasting happiness the struggles and the distresses which may have exercised their faith. They convey an implied censure of that unwarrantable confidence which is indulged in by [...]

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A DISSERTATION CONCERNING THE END FOR WHICH GOD CREATED THE WORLD

A DISSERTATION CONCERNING THE END FOR WHICH GOD CREATED THE WORLD

BY JONATHAN EDWARDS

INTRODUCTION

Containing explanations of terms and general positions

TO avoid all confusion in our inquiries concerning the end for which God created the world, a distinction should be observed between the chief end for which an agent performs any work, and the ultimate end. These [...]

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Judgments of God

But do not kill them, O Lord, our shield, or my people will forget. In your might make them wander about, and bring them down. David very properly suggests this to his own mind, as a consideration which should produce patience. We are apt to think, when God has not annihilated our enemies at once, [...]

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Hope and Fear

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. The true proof of faith consists in this, that when we feel the solicitations of natural fear, we can resist them, and prevent them from obtaining an undue ascendancy. Fear and hope may seem opposite and incompatible affections, yet it is proved by observation, that the [...]

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Betrayal and Treachery can lie near

Truly, it was not an enemy that cast disgrace upon me, for then I could have born it.. But it was you, a man of my own order, and my close friend. We sweetly exchanged our most secret thoughts; we walked into the house of God in company. We are taught by experience of David, [...]

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Serving with a willing mind

Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might. By appealing to God as his judge, David asserts his uprightedness. And it must strike us all, than in asking the divine protection it is indispensably prerequisite we should be convinced of the goodness of our cause, as it would argue the greatest [...]

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God’s Ways above men

God’s Way’s Above Men’s
 
By Edward Payson
 
American Congregational minister during the Second Great Awakening. In 1807, he was
ordained pastor of the Second Congregational Church of Portland, Maine. He pastored
there until his death twenty years later. During the twenty years of ministry, the church
received more than seven hundred converts. He was nicknamed [...]

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The Bible Above All Price

Sermon No. 1
The Bible Above All Price
By Edward Payson

There are two objects which a speaker who addresses his fellow-beings on an occasion like the present, ought ever to keep in view. Of these objects, the first, and with respect to his hearers, the most important is, to induce them to prize as it deserves a [...]

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The Spirit of Adoption

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within  me. David now requests that the grace of the Spirit, which he had deserved to have forefeited, might be restored to him. By employing the term create, he expresses his persuasion that nothing less than a miracle could affect his reformation, [...]

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Mercy not Sacrifice

I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me. God now declares, that he attached no value whatsoever to sacrifices in themselves considered. Not that he asserts this rite of the Jews to have been in vain and useless; for in that case it never would have [...]

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