Chapter 4

[167] For a statement of the doctrine, see Sermon XXXIV, “God’s Sovereignty,” in _Works_, New York, 1847, Vol. IV, p. 548.

Edwards unconsciously admits that the doctrine of sovereignty was reactionary. “From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, in choosing whom He would to eternal life, and rejecting whom He pleased, leaving them eternally to perish and be everlastingly tormented in hell.” Later he came to regard such repugnance as the sinful expression of the natural man. As he saw further, his mind “apprehended the justice and reasonableness of ... God’s absolute sovereignty and justice with respect to salvation ... as much as of anything that I see with my eyes; at least it is so at times. But I have often, since that first conviction, had quite another sense of God’s sovereignty than I had then. I have often hid not only a conviction, but a delightful conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared exceedingly pleasant, bright, and sweet.... But my first conviction was not so.” Quoted in Allen, _Jonathan Edwards_, pp. 37-38.

[168] Sermon XXVII, in _Works_, Vol. IV, p. 438.

[169] See Sermon IX, in _Works_, Vol. IV, p. 226. The argument is unfolded in the following propositions: “Every crime or fault deserves a greater or less punishment, according as the crime is greater or less.” “A crime is more or less heinous, according as we are under greater or less obligations to the contrary.” “Our obligations to love, honor, and obey any being, is in proportion to its loveliness, honorableness, and authority.” “But God is a being infinitely lovely, because he hath infinite excellence and beauty.” “So that sin against God, being a violation of infinite obligations, must be a crime infinitely heinous, and so deserving of infinite punishment.”

[170] See in particular Sermon XI. “The Eternity of Hell Torments”; Sermon XII, “When the Wicked shall have filled up the measure of their Sin, wrath will come upon them to the uttermost”; Sermon XIII, “The End of the Wicked contemplated by the Righteous; or, The Torments of the Wicked in Hell, no occasion of grief to the Saints in Heaven”; Sermon XV, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in _Works_, Vol. IV.

[171] According to Edwards there were four regular stages: (1) the first stirrings, when the sinner is brought under conviction that he is lost; (2) the realization of God’s justice, that he merits damnation; (3) the breaking in of the light, the first “gracious discoveries” of God’s mercies; (4) peace after the storm, the joy of assurance of salvation. For a fuller statement, see Allen, _Jonathan Edwards_, pp. 133-160.