92SermonsofJonathanEdwards (continued)
saints freely do the will of God. They choose to do it; it is what satisfies their soul. Yet they do not do it of their own good pleasure and arbitrary will; because their will is under the direction of a superior will.
3. The will of God is called His good pleasure, in opposition to any personal obligation.
A man may freely do something which he is obliged to do; but it cannot be said that he acted from his own sheer will and pleasure. He who acts according to his own good pleasure, is at full liberty; but he who is under any personal obligation, is not at liberty, but is bound.
Now the sovereignty of God infers, that God has a right to dispose of all His creatures according to His good pleasure. And His right is absolute and independent. Men may have a right to dispose of some things according to their pleasure. But their right is not absolute and unlimited. Men may be said to have a right to dispose of their own goods as they please. But their right is not absolute; is has limits and bounds. They have a right to dispose of their own goods as they please, provided they do not do it contrary to the law of the state to which they are subject to, or contrary to the law of God. Men's right to dispose of their things as they will, is not absolute, because it is not independent. They do not have an independent right to what they want, but in some things depend on the community to which they belong, for the rights they may have; and in everything they depend on God. They receive all the rights they have to do anything from God. But the sovereignty of God means that God has an absolute, and unlimited, and independent right of disposing of his creatures as He pleases.
II. What does God's sovereignty in the salvation of men imply?
In answer to this question, I note, that it implies, that God can either bestow salvation on any man or woman, or refuse it, without any distortion to the glory of any of His attributes, except in the cases where He has been pleased to declare, that He will or will not bestow it-then He must be faithful to His word, He is now bound by His own promise.
As it stands today, it cannot be absolutely stated, that God can, without any distortion to the honor of His attributes, bestow salvation on any man or woman, or refuse it; because, concerning some, God has been pleased to declare either that He will or that He will not bestow salvation on them; and thus He is now bound by His own promise.
Now concerning those that God has been pleased to declare, that He will "never" bestow salvation on them; that is, the non-elect, those who have been left in their sins, and especially in the sin of unbelief in Christ-the sin against the Holy Spirit. In their case, God is obligated; He cannot bestow salvation on them, without violating His declared truth, since He has declared that He will not save any who have sinned against the Holy Spirit.
God exercised His sovereignty in making these declarations. God was not obligated to promise that He would save all who believe in Christ; nor was He obligated to declare, that He who committed the sin against the Holy Spirit would never be forgiven. But it pleased Him to declare these things. And if God had not been pleased to obligate Himself in these cases, He could have still either bestowed salvation, or refused it, without dishonor to any of His attributes.
If there would have been any dishonor, to any of God's attributes by bestowing or refusing to give salvation, then God would not in that matter act as absolutely sovereign. Because it then ceases to be a merely arbitrary thing. It ceases to be a matter of absolute liberty, and has become a matter of necessity or obligation. For God cannot do any thing that would dishonor any of His attributes, or be contrary to what is in itself excellent and glorious. Therefore,