92SermonsofJonathanEdwards (continued)
Even though persons have sinned for a long time, have been obstinate, have committed monstrous sins a thousand times, even till they have grown old in sin; if they have sinned while under the clear preaching of the Word; if they have been backsliders, and have sinned after receiving numerous solemn warnings and strivings of the Spirit, and after receiving numerous mercies of God's common providence: though the danger of such is much greater than of other sinners, yet God can save them if He pleases, for the sake of Christ, without any prejudice to any of his attributes. He may have mercy on whom He will have mercy. He may have mercy on the greatest of sinners, if He pleases, and the glory of none of His attributes will dishonored in the least. Such is the sufficiency of the satisfaction and righteousness of Christ, that none of the divine attributes stand in the way of the salvation of any of them. Thus the glory of any attribute did not at all suffer by Christ's saving some of those that crucified Him.
1. God may save anyone He pleases, without prejudice to the honor of His holiness.
God is infinitely holy. The heavens are not pure in His sight. His eyes are too pure to look on evil; and cannot tolerate wrong. And if God should in any way tolerate sin, and should not give proper evidence of His hatred of it, and displeasure at it, it would be a distortion of the honor of His holiness. But God can save the greatest sinner without giving the least approval of sin. If he saves one, who for a long time has resisted the calls of the gospel; if he saves one who, fighting against the truth, has been a pirate or blasphemer, He may do it without giving any support to their wickedness; because His abhorrence of it and displeasure against it have already been sufficiently manifested in the sufferings of Christ. It was a sufficient testimony of God's hatred against even the greatest wickedness, that Christ, the eternal Son of God, died for it. Nothing can show God's infinite abhorrence of any wickedness more than this. If the wicked man himself should be thrown into hell, and should endure the most extreme torments throughout eternity, it would not be a greater