So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
This sermon, designed for professing Christians, was the sermon which lit off the Great Awakening.
Every churchgoer in our day ought to read this sermon.
Aside to Uriel1975: I think that this is the kind of thread which professing Christians ought to be reading in our day. Colonial Americans discovered from the Spirit Who attended Edwards's preaching that they were not Christians after all. In our own day, American churchgoers need to wake up to the same awful reality.
Nowadays, people think that sermons like this one are contrary to faith--whereas they are actually the key to faith.
Easy-believism is the wide doorway to destruction. And it is rampant in our day.
Thanks for making it available again. It is so jarring in today's world when the Biblical "God is Love" has been replaced by the secular "God is Nice" (and its converse, "Nice is therefore God"), but then to the extent we have societally strayed from God's plan, jarring is good.
I think the shiniest silver lining in this whole business is the fact that it provides us as a nation the opportunity to return to God, repent of our sins, and seek his face and his blessing. (That--the blessing of God--is what will make us victorious in the undertaking we are preparing; not the number or the technology of our weapons.)
I think it's important that we take the opportunity that is offered. If we do not, God is faced with a binary choice. He can either give us another opportunity...[gulp]...or not. [Bigger gulp.]
What I have seen on TV this past week is heartening, but not sufficient.
What, precisely, does the word "easy-believism" mean? I've seen the phrase thrown around, but never seen it defined.