Striking Words !

Following are some extracts of a sermon by Jonathan Edwards ( 1703-1758 ) . The title of the message is "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 " . His sermon was based on Revelation 18:20 : Rejoice over her thou heaven , and ye holy apostles and prophets ; for God hath avenged you on her .

Positively : the sufferings of the damned will be no occasion of grief to the heavenly inhabitants , as they will have no love nor pity to the damned as such . It will be no argument of want of a spirit of love in them , that they do not love the damned ; for the heavenly inhabitants will know that it is not fit that they should love them , because they will know then , that God has no love to them , nor pity for them ; but that they are the objects of God's eternal hatred .

... God glorifies himself in the eternal damnation of the ungodly men .

They [ heavenly inhabitants -- Rip ] will rejoice in seeing the justice of God glorified in the sufferings of the damned . The misery of the damned , dreadful as it is , is but what justice requires .

... The saints in glory will know , concerning the damned in hell , that God never loved them , but that he hates them and will be forever hated of God .

When the saints in glory , therefore , shall see the doleful state of the damned , how will this highten their sense of the blessedness of their own state , so exceedingly different from it ! When they shall see how miserable others of their fellow creatures are , who were naturally in the same circumstances with themselves ; when they shall see the smoke of their torment , and the raging of the flames of their burning , and hear their dolorous shrieks and cries , and consider that they in the mean time are in the most blissful state , and shall surely be in it to all eternity ; how will they rejoice !

 

Yeah , Edwards is known to have preached the most famous sermon in America : " Sinners in The Hands Of An Angry God" . Others may have regarded it as infamous -- even some professing Christians have some contempt for it . But this is another one which I thought deserved some attention . For about a year I thought Robert Murray M'Cheyne had preached this one , but I couldn't find it in his works . Lo and behold it was J. Edwards .

 

No one committed suicide . In the sermon he offered hope in Christ alone . Edwards did not leave them with just the bad news . He dwelt on the sorry plight they were in . J.E. kept them facing their awful condition . But he offered them relief bytelling them to turn all over to Christ . It's interesting that the same sermon did not leave much of an impression in his home church .

 

Does God Love Everyone According To J.E.?

I thought I would revive this thread (it's just over a year old anyway).

I enclosed one quote with double brackets to get your attention.