Jonathan Edwards Selected Shor (continued)
the promise of God the Father, Psa. 110:2-3, "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Psa. 119:35, "Make me to go in the way of thy commandments." Verse 36, "Incline my heart unto thy testimonies."…. 54. We are directed earnestly to pray and cry unto God for wisdom, and the fear of the Lord for this reason: that it is he that giveth wisdom, Pro. 2 at the beginning. Compare Job 28 with Pro. 21:1, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water; he turneth it whithersoever he will." Here it is represented that the will of God determines the wills of men, and that when God pleases to interpose, he even directs them according to his pleasure, without failure in any instance. This shows that God has not left men's hearts so in their own hands, as to be determined by themselves alone, independently on any antecedent determination. Pro. 28:26, "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool." A man's to be commended for making a wise improvement of his outward possessions, for his own comfort, yet this is the gift of God. Ecc. 2:24-26, "There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw that it was from the hand of God."…. John 1:12-13, "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God; which were born, not of the will of man, but of God." Thus also we read, Luke 3:8, "God is able of these stones to raise up children of Abraham." John 3:3, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Verse 5, "Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Verse 8, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Jam. 1:18,
"Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures." What Christ meant by being born again, we may learn by the abundant use of the like phrase by the same disciple that wrote this gospel, in his first epistle. He doubtless learned his language from his Master and particularly from those sayings of his concerning the new birth, which he took more special notice of, and which left the deepest impressions on his mind, which we may suppose are those he records, when he writes the history of his life. Mat. 4:19, "I will make you fishers of men." So Mark 1:16, 20, together with Luke 5, "From henceforth thou shalt catch men." Compared with the foregoing story of Christ's giving them so great a draught of fishers, which was wholly his doing, and ascribed to him. Mark 6:10, "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done." Mat. 11:25-27, "At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." So Luke 10:21, 22; John 6:37, "All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me." Verse 44, "No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him."…. John 10:16, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." Verse 26-29, "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you; my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hands. My Father which gave them me," etc…. Acts 15:3, 4, "Declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: — and they declared all things that God had done with them." Verse 9, "And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Therefore it is not probable that the heart is first purified, to fit it for faith. John 14:12, "Greater works than these shall he do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." The meaning of it is confirmed from John 12:23, 24, 28-32, and John 17:1-3; Isa. 49:3-5, and 26:15, and Isa. 16:14; Isa. 17:3-5 (especially Isa. 55:4-5), Jer. 30:19; Rom. 9:16, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." By such an expression in the apostle's phraseology, from time to time, is meant the use of endeavors, whereby they seek the benefit they would obtain. So what he here says, is agreeable to what he says in Rom. 11:4-7, where he particularly shows that it is God that preserves the remnant, and that it is of the election of his grace and free kindness, and not of their works, but in such a way of freedom, as is utterly inconsistent with its being of their works. And in verse 7, that it is not determined by their seeking, but by God's election. The apostle here, as Dr. Taylor says, has respect to bodies of men, to the posterity of Esau and Jacob, etc. Yet this he applies to a distinction made in those days of the gospel, and that distinction made between those that were in the Christian church, and those that were not, and particularly some of the Jews that were in the Christian church, and others of the same nation that were not: which is made by some believing and accepting Christ, and others rejecting him; by that faith which they professed to exercise with all their hearts; that faith which was a mercy and virtue, and the want of which was a fault; as appears by the objection the apostle supposes, Rom. 9:19, "Why doth he yet find fault?" The want of which faith argued hardness of heart, verse 18 exposed them to wrath and destruction, as a punishment of