Jonathan Edwards On The Justice Of God

By Peter Aiken

Increasingly in Christian churches today, the biblical teaching of the eternal damnation of sinners is questioned. The question is often raised how a loving God could eternally punish sinners. At the same time, the question of how God maintains His justice in pardoning sinners of their sins is rarely questioned. But both questions are integral to an understanding of the subject and both need to be addressed if the justice of God is going to be understood.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) wrote substantially on the subject of the justice of God, and he addressed both of these concerns in his writings. This paper will demonstrate that Edwards believed that God is just in all His actions towards mankind and that God is to be praised for all that He does. For Edwards, the glory of God is manifested in His justice, both in punishing the wicked for their sins and in saving His people from their sins. In a sermon entitled “All God’s Methods are Most Reasonable,” Edwards sought to show the justice of God in decreeing sin, in electing and reprobating, in making covenants, in giving commandments, in punishing, and in providential dealings in order to vindicate God of the charge of being unrighteous. [1] This paper will limit its consideration of the justice of God principally to the issue of God’s justice in condemning the wicked and in providing salvation for the elect.

Jonathan Edwards

Edwards had a brilliant mind and has been labeled as America’s premier philosopher-theologian. [2] But as Iain Murray points out, “The key to an understanding of Jonathan Edwards is that he was a man who put faithfulness to the Word of God before every other consideration.” [3] He understood that it was the Christian’s business to honor God and that God will honor His truth and those who are faithful to it. [4] While the notion of God’s justice pervades much of Edwards’s writings, he focused on the topic in a number of sermons, which include “The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners,” “God is a Just and Righteous God,” and “The Justice of God in Making Satisfaction for Sin.” His treatment on the justice of God is important for consideration because of the vision of God that had obviously gripped Edwards in his reflection on biblical revelation and is presented through his writings. Whereas the human tendency is to focus on oneself, Edwards insisted on prioritizing the glory of God as the supreme goal of all study. He writes, “The glory of God is the greatest good, tis that which is the chief end of the creation, tis a thing of far greater importance than anything else.” [5] This vital point in Edwards’s focus opened the doors for understanding God’s justice and for glorifying God for His justice as well.

The Justice Of God Defined

Edwards defines the righteousness or the justice of God as “a natural, necessary and unchangeable disposition of the divine nature to render to everyone their own.” [6] Justice and righteousness belong to the very being of God; The Lord Himself says so in His self-revelation about

His perfect character (Ex. 34:7; Num. 14:18). [7] Edwards impresses the absolute nature of God’s justice by suggesting the need to distinguish between the free will of God and what He must be. He writes,

When we speak of justice and holiness and a disposition or inclination of the nature of God, it is not to be distinguished from the will of God. Justice is God’s constant will of giving to everyone what is according to a regular equity. But yet in some things we are forced, in our way of conceiving, to distinguish between the free will of God and the unalterable inclination of His nature. God wills to be infinitely merciful and gracious, and yet He is not necessarily merciful to everyone; but He is necessarily just to all. [8]

God’s justice then is consistent and necessarily implied in His perfections. [9]

The justice of God also directs one’s attention to the Lord’s role as Governor and Supreme Judge of the world. It belongs to Him to distribute rewards and punishments according to what each deserves. [10] This distribution is in exact proportion to their fitness. [11] Edwards explains, “If it is to God’s glory that He is in His nature infinitely holy and opposite to sin, then it is to His glory to be infinitely displeased with sin. And if it is to God’s glory to be infinitely displeased with sin, then it must be to His glory to exercise and manifest that displeasure and to act accordingly.” [12]

Edwards also describes the justice of God in relation with the other attributes of God. This proves to be a helpful point and answers the question of how we know that God is just. Edwards explains that it is apparent that God is just because He is infinite in understanding and so there is no possibility of injustice arising from ignorance or mistake. Furthermore, God is infinitely powerful and does as He pleases, so there is no need to be tempted to act unjustly. To suggest that God is unjust in fact contradicts all the attributes of God and so the very being of God. He concludes this thought by saying, “If this is the case the dispute is not whether God is just or not, but whether there is any God at all or not.” [13]

Having established that God is necessarily just in all that He does, Edwards mentions several ways in which the Lord’s righteousness or justice appears. First, it is shown in the giving of the law. The giving of the law, though, underscores the reality that the Lord is the giver and judge of the law and that He deals with utmost strictness. [14] This strictness can be understood when one considers that the law not only forbids all kinds of evil, but He does so in all degrees, in all cases, and at all times. [15] Additionally, the law threatens eternal destruction not only for following a sinful course, but for any particular sin (Gen. 2:17; Matt. 5:22). Furthermore, sins of omissions are likewise threatened with eternal destruction (Matt. 25:41-43), as are sins of ignorance (2 Sam. 6:6-7). [16] Second, the justice of God can be seen in light of the fact that He also performs His promises. [17] He is a faithful God who binds Himself to His Word and never breaks His promises. Third, the justice of God appears in justly punishing sin both in this world, but more particularly in the world to come. [18]

The Justice Of God Demonstrated In Damning Sinners

The Basis For God’s Just Verdict Against The Wicked

There is perhaps no area where the justice of God is more questioned or resisted than as it pertains to God’s judgment against the wicked. In addressing this subject, Edwards focuses on the righteousness of God’s law and the violation of righteousness in man’s sinfulness. He writes, “The law is the great rule of righteousness and decorum that the Supreme and Universal Rector has established and published for the regulation of things in the commonwealth of the universality of intelligent beings and moral agents.” [19]

The law serves as the basis for understanding the justice of God in three ways. First, the nature of the law requires it. [20] As an expression of the will and character of God, it is necessary that God act in harmony with the revelation of His law. “A law that is not fixed with respect to those subject to its requirements is without authority and is no longer a law.” [21] Second, for God not to judge sin would be contrary to the design of the law. “The law is made so that it might prevent sin and cause it not to be, and not that sin should disannul the law and cause it not to be.” [22] In other words, “[t]he design of the law is to regulate the sinner, not to be regulated by the sinner.” [23] Third, Edwards argues that it is not fitting that God’s great rule should be abrogated and give place to opposition of rebellious subjects on account of the perfection of the lawgiver. “He who breaks the law finds fault with it and casts the reflection on it that it is not a good law.” [24] To break God’s law is to challenge the justice of the Lord who established the law.

He also points out that along with the law itself are the absolute threats of God. In the first book of the Bible, God warns, “Thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17). Edwards explains that it would be against the truthfulness of God to threaten what He knows He will not accomplish. [25] At this point, Edwards realizes that he must distinguish between absolute threats and non-absolute ones. The absolute threats of Scripture are a sort of prediction or promise from God; they must come to pass by virtue of the claim of the One who made the promise. [26] The non-absolute threats of Scripture are those in which there is a possibility of escape either expressed or understood in the threatening. [27] This distinction serves to maintain both the seriousness of the threats of God’s law while also recognizing that not everything God threatened in Scripture comes to pass.

With this understanding of the seriousness of God’s law, Edwards demonstrates the basis for God’s justice in a sermon entitled, “The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners.” Edwards demonstrates that it is entirely just for God to punish the wicked on the basis of man’s sinfulness. William Nichols highlights how this sermon exposes two modern misconceptions. The first is that people think they deserve salvation and the second is that it would be unjust to be tormented in hell eternally for one’s sins. [28] Instead of quickly passing over the fact that all men are sinners, Edwards slowly unmasks the horror of sin, both for its immensity but also because of the very nature of sin itself. He notes that God is just to cast off wicked men when one considers how much sin they are guilty of. [29] Later he says, “Now if one sinful word or thought has so much evil in it, as to deserve eternal destruction, how do they deserve to be eternally cast off and destroyed, that are guilty of so much sin!” [30]

After showing the basis for man’s condemnation in light of their sin, Edwards shows the harmony or fittingness of God’s judgment against the wicked in light of their sin. First, Edwards writes it would be just because this is exactly agreeable to their treatment of Him. He writes, “You never have exercised the least degree of love to God; and therefore it would be agreeable to your treatment of him, if he should never express any love to you.” [31] Second, it would be agreeable to their treatment of Jesus Christ in rejecting Him. [32] Edwards writes, “[W]ill you charge Christ with injustice because he doesn’t become your Savior, when at the same time you won’t have him, when he offers himself to you, and beseeches you to accept of him as your Savior?” [33] But then Edwards flips his thinking to expose the heart of his hearer. He asks how a person can be willing to have Christ for a Savior unless he has first come to recognize that he deserves hell. [34]

Men’s own consciences testify against them that they have sinned against their Lord. Third, it would be agreeable to the way that they consider others. People often despise the notion of showing mercy to vicious people since they are unworthy, but are they not unworthy themselves? Fourth, if God should cast them off, it would be fitting with respect of their own behavior towards themselves in being so careless over their own salvation. [35] Edwards says, “You would have your own way, and did not like that God should oppose you in it, and your way was to ruin your own soul: how just therefore is it, if now at length, God ceases to oppose you, and falls in with you, and lets your soul be ruined, and as you would destroy yourself, so should put to his hand to destroy you, too!” [36]

But someone might object to God’s dealings with humanity as being unjust. After all, if God is sovereign, is He not responsible for man’s sinfulness? Edwards demonstrates that God’s sovereignty in no way impinges on His just rule over His creation. First, God was under no obligation to keep men from sinning but was free in His providence to allow them to sin. Second, God had the liberty to determine according to His divine wisdom and good pleasure “whether every particular man should stand for himself or whether the first father of mankind should be appointed as the moral and federal head and representative of the rest.” [37] Mankind is not hurt in God’s determination of selecting the first father of men to represent them on their behalf. In addition, there would have been just as much danger of falling if God had made a covenant with every person in particular. [38] Third, when men fell and became sinful, God had the sovereign right to determine whether He would redeem them or not. [39] When Edwards is done, any notion of God being unjust in condemning sinners is completely removed. Sereno Dwight makes a similar observation in saying,

The sermon on the Justice of God in the Damnation of sinners in the language of the text, literally stops the mouth of every reader, and compels him, as he stands before his Judge, to admit, if he does not feel, the justice of his sentence. I know not where to find in any language, a discourse so well adapted to strip the impenitent sinner of every excuse, to convince him of his guilt, and to bring him low before the justice and holiness of God. [40]

The Administration Of God’s Justice Against The Wicked

God’s justice is seen not only on the basis of man’s sinfulness, but also in the administration of His justice against the wicked. Edwards notes that every crime deserves punishment in proportion to the seriousness of the crime. [41] He then explains that a crime is more or less heinous according as we are under greater or less obligations to the contrary. [42] Edwards argues that human beings are obligated to love, honor, and obey any being in proportion to the loveliness, honorableness, and authority of that being. Since God is infinitely loving and has infinite authority and power of His creation, any sin against God is a violation of infinite obligation. Sin then is an infinite evil upon two accounts. It is committed against One who is infinitely excellent and deserving to the contrary, and, secondly, it is committed against God who has absolute sovereignty over all creatures. [43] God’s eternal condemnation of the wicked is just because although the sins were limited to a lifetime, they were infinitely evil in their nature.

But there is another thought that surfaces in Edwards’s argument. Not only is God just in eternally condemning the wicked because of the infinite evil of sin, but because of the finitude of the human person, God’s eternal condemnation of the wicked must be eternal since finite creatures cannot bear His infinite wrath. Edwards explains,

Those who are sent to hell never will have paid the whole of the debt, which they owe to God, nor indeed a part, which bears any proportion to the whole. They never will have paid a part, which bears so great a proportion to the whole, as one mite to ten thousand talents. Justice therefore never can be actually satisfied in your damnation; but it is actually satisfied in Christ. Therefore he is accepted of the Father, and therefore all who believe are accepted and justified in him. Therefore believe in him, come to Him, commit your souls to Him to be saved by Him. [44]

There is no place for annihilationism in Edwards’s thinking. As John Gerstner says, “Edwards annihilates the belief in total annihilation.” [45] Edwards discards this view through his explanation of the justice and lordship of God. Ultimately, one must answer the question, “How could Christ have had to die for us when no punishment threatened?” [46] God’s judgment against the wicked will be eternal because of the infinite evil of sin and because of the infinite wrath of God that must be directed against sin.

The Purpose Of God’s Justice Against The Wicked

Edwards gives three reasons why the Lord determines it appropriate to eternally punish the wicked. First, God’s judgment against the wicked magnifies His glory as a just God. “God does this to vindicate His own glory. God might glorify His sovereign and infinite grace in their conversion and pardon, but God is pleased to glorify His justice by His severity on some as well as by His mercy on others.” [47]

Second, and closely related with this thought, God’s judgment against the wicked vindicates the Lord of the injury directed at His honor and majesty. According to Edwards, the Day of Judgment serves the purpose of most gloriously showing the justice of God. [48] Not only will it be a day when every irregularity of the world will be rectified, but the world will in a most appropriate way be judged by the Lord Jesus. “It will be for their conviction that they are judged and condemned by that very person that they have rejected, by whom they might have been saved: who shed his blood to give them an opportunity to be saved; who was wont to offer his righteousness to them when they were in their state of trial.” [49]

Third, God’s just verdict against the wicked is intended to humble believers. [50]

God has magnified his free grace towards you, and not to others; because he has chosen you, and it hath pleased him to set his love upon you. O! what cause is here for praise? What obligations are upon you to bless the Lord, who hath dealt bountifully with you, and to magnify his holy name?… You should never open your mouth in boasting, or self-justification: you should lie the lower before God for his mercy to you. But you have reason, the more abundantly for your past sins, to open your mouth in God’s praises, that they may be continually in your mouth, both here and to all eternity, for his rich, unspeakable, and sovereign mercy to you, whereby he, and he alone, hath made you to differ from others. [51]

In light of everything that has been said about God necessarily being just and always doing what is just, the natural question should be how a just God can pardon sinful creatures.

The Justice Of God Displayed In The Salvation Of Sinners

The justice of God not only humbles saints because they see what they deserve, but it also humbles saints because they see what has been done for them. The justice of God is not ignored in the salvation of sinners. Instead, as Edwards explains, God fully satisfies His justice in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Edwards demonstrates the justice of God by focusing on God’s covenant and Christ’s perfect obedience.

Covenantal Context

When God created the world, He entered into a covenant with Adam, who served as a federal head for all human beings. In this covenant, God not only explained the rule of righteousness and the conditions for eternal life, but in making a covenant God bound Himself to it. [52]

If we speak of the covenant God has made with man stating the condition of eternal life, God never made but one with man, to wit, the covenant of works; which never yet was abrogated, but is a covenant stands in full force to all eternity without the failing of one tittle. The covenant of grace is not another covenant made with man upon the abrogation of this, but a covenant made with Christ to fulfill it. And for this end came Christ into the world, to fulfill the law, or covenant of works, for all that receive him. [53]

Edwards writes in another place, “There have never been two covenants, in strictness of speech, but only two ways constituted of performing this covenant: the first constituting Adam the representative and federal head, and the second constituting Christ the federal head; the one a dead way, the other a living way and an everlasting one.” [54]

Christ’s Perfect Obedience

This covenantal approach to the Scriptures opens up a way of understanding the work of Christ in light of God’s justice. In fact, Edwards’s treatment of the covenant doesn’t begin with Adam but in eternity past when God determined to redeem sinners without doing injury to His justice by the terms of the covenant of redemption. [55] In this eternal covenant, God determined to redeem sinners by sending the Son into the world to satisfy the justice of God. Edwards writes, “Thus, as the requirement of perfect obedience went unanswered by Adam’s disobedience on behalf of all mankind, the requirement of God’s unchanging rule of righteousness remains to be answered by mankind to obtain eternal life. This was answered on behalf of the elect through Christ’s perfect obedience.” [56]

The justice of God requires perfect obedience for eternal life and death for disobedience. [57] Edwards develops his argument from Psalm 69:5 to show that Christ made full atonement for sin and offered to God what was fully equivalent to what was owed to divine justice for our sins. [58] First, Christ satisfied the justice of God in living a life of perfect righteousness. Edwards points out that the sacrifices under the law typified Christ’s sacrifice not only as a satisfaction but also meritorious obedience. [59] It is for this reason that one finds obedience compared with sacrifice in Psalm 40:6. Second, Christ satisfied the justice of God in enduring the just wrath of God against the sins of His people. Edwards summarizes the work of Christ in terms of justice by saying,

Christ never so eminently appeared for divine justice, and yet never suffered so much from divine justice, as when he offered up himself a sacrifice for our sins. In Christ’s great sufferings, did his infinite regard to the honor of God’s justice distinguishingly appear; for it was from regard to that, that he thus humbled himself: and yet in these sufferings, Christ was the mark of the vindictive expressions of that very justice of God. Revenging justice then spent all its force upon him, on the account of our guilt that was laid upon him; he was not spared at all. [60]

In another place, Edwards writes, “Rather than justice not have its course, God would bring such sore and dreadful misery, such pain, distress, and wrath upon the Son of His eternal and infinite delight. This shows the severity and inflexibleness of God’s justice beyond anything else, and as nothing else can do.” [61] Christ’s perfect obedience then serves as the only basis for hope of salvation.

The Justice Of God As Cause For Doxology

The Believer’s Assurance

Ultimately, the justice of God serves to promote the glory of God. Edwards realized this fact. First, he highlights how the satisfaction of God’s justice in salvation serves as the foundation for the believer’s assurance. “The redemption by Christ is particularly wonderful upon this account, inasmuch as the justice of God is not only appeased to those who have an interest in him, but stands up for them; is not only not an enemy but a friend, every whit as much as mercy.” [62] The justice of God stands up for them and relates as a friend to them because the believer’s righteousness is the righteousness of God, the righteousness not of a human but a divine Person. [63] This reality of God’s justice being satisfied in Christ and those who are united to Him by faith ought be the cause for praising God throughout eternity. Believers can be assured of their salvation because Christ is their Surety and Representative who has already been openly acquitted and justified and their Mediator has been entrusted with all things and is appointed as the Judge of the world. [64] But secondly, Edwards argues that God is to be glorified by His saints for His justice because of who He is. Since God is pleased to glorify His justice by His severity on some as well as His mercy on others, believers are to praise God for all that He does for He is altogether good. [65]

The Believer’s Perspective

In an essay entitled, The Glory of God’s Justice and the Glory of God’s Grace, John Colwell writes, “Edwards is representative of a Puritan tradition which, comprehending the Cross of Christ within a substitutionary model, tended in some respects to consider God’s justice as primary.” [66] As mentioned above, it is true that Edwards believed that God must necessarily be just at all times and that He is under no moral obligation to be merciful. However, this does not mean, as is implied by Colwell, that Edwards was imbalanced in his understanding of the mercy of God and the presentation of Scripture. Colwell goes on to not only suggest the possibility that God may choose to show mercy upon all, but also discards the notion of God’s justice being the focus of worship.

If God’s justice and God’s grace do not coexist in eternal equilibrium then we cannot presume with Jonathan Edwards to ponder the righteous rejoicing with the angels concerning the fate of the reprobate…. In light of the love of God in Christ I cannot comprehend how the fate of the lost could ever be anything other than a matter of grief, a grief which, along with the wounds of Christ, stands in eternity as a testimony to the unrelenting love of God even for those who finally and fatally reject Him. [67]

But God is His attributes and deserves to be worshipped for who He is. Just as God is to be worshiped for His love and mercy, so He is to be worshiped for His justice and righteousness. Edwards makes this point clear by appealing to Revelation 19:1-3. Not only will the justice of God’s moral government be discovered on the Day of Judgment, but as Edwards says, “there will be argument given for the saints and angels to praise.” [68]

That is why the saints in heaven so praise God for the punishment of the wicked: because they are sensible of the majesty and glory of God, and they see how just it is, that those that have affronted him and cast contempt upon him should suffer everlasting burnings for it. In Revelation 19:1-3, it says, “And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever.” [69]

Edwards again and again returned to Christ’s excellence as something that can be expressed in terms of harmony and symmetry.

Christ incarnated and revealed the divine beauty because he embodied “an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.” He was both Lion and Lamb. He harmonized glory and humility, majesty and meekness, obedience and dominion, sovereignty and resignation, and justice and grace…. He radiated holiness yet bore the charge of guilt. He lived for the divine justice and suffered from the divine justice. He suffered the “greatest degree of humiliation” and yet in those sufferings displayed his glory [italics added]. [70]

Edwards did not see God’s mercy and justice as set against each other; God is necessarily just in all things and merciful to some.

Conclusion

The justice of God was thus an integral aspect of Jonathan Edwards’s understanding of the glory of God. Because God is just, He is to be worshiped for who He is and what He does, which includes the salvation of believers and damnation of sinners on the last day. Edwards reminds the church that no one can be accepted before God without perfect righteousness. All stand in need of a Savior. [71] Secondly, he teaches the church to praise God for all His attributes. God is to be praised not only for His grace and mercy, but also for His wisdom and justice and truth. As with Edwards, Christians should marvel at the harmony that exists in God’s ways and between His attributes. Thirdly, this view of God’s justice may clarify the biblical teaching of God’s justice in contradistinction from other views and open doors in engaging Muslims in their understanding of salvation in the light of God being necessarily just and doing what is just. Finally, Edwards viewed all things in light of the glory of God. He wrestled with difficult questions like everlasting punishment, but always through the lens of the manifestation of God’s glory. This is a necessary reminder for believers who are always prone to focus on the creation rather than the Creator.

Notes

1. Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Sermons and Discourses 1723-1729, ed. Kenneth P. Minkema, vol. 14 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997), 161.
2. W. Gary Crampton, Meet Jonathan Edwards: An Introduction to America’s Greatest Theologian/Philosopher, ed. Don Kistler (Morgan, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2004), vi.
3. Iain Hamish Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), 471.
4. Murray, Jonathan Edwards, 471.
5. Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Sermon Series II, 1729-1731 ( Jonathan Edwards Center, 2008), vol. 45: Sec. Mark 9:44, http://edwards.yale.edu /archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9u ZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/ Yy40MzozLndqZW8= (accessed September 13, 2013).
6. Jonathan Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, ed. Don Kistler (Orlando, Fla.: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2006), 2.
7. Wilson H. Kimnach, Kenneth P. Minkema, and Douglas A. Sweeney, eds., The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999), 8, http://site.ebrary.com/id/10178434 (accessed September 6, 2013).
8. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 3.
9. Craig Biehl, The Infinite Merit of Christ: The Glory of Christ’s Obedience in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards ( Jackson, Miss.: Reformed Academic Press, 2009), 99.
10. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 11.
11. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 4.
12. Jonathan Edwards, Our Great and Glorious God, ed. Don Kistler (Morgan, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2003), 171.
13. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 7.
14. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 182.
15. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 182.
16. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 183-87.
17. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 10.
18. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 11.
19. Edwards, Our Great and Glorious God, 177-78.
20. Edwards, Our Great and Glorious God, 177.
21. Biehl, The Infinite Merit of Christ, 119.
22. Edwards, Our Great and Glorious God, 179.
23. Biehl, The Infinite Merit of Christ, 120.
24. Edwards, Our Great and Glorious God, 179.
25. Edwards, Our Great and Glorious God, 183.
26. Edwards, Our Great and Glorious God, 183.
27. Edwards, Our Great and Glorious God, 185.
28. Jonathan Edwards, Seeking God: Jonathan Edwards’ Evangelism Contrasted With Modern Methodologies, ed. William C. Nichols (Ames, Ia.: International Outreach, Inc., 2001), 169-70.
29. Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Sermons and Discourses 1734-1738, ed. Marvin X. Lesser, vol. 19 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001), 344.
30. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:345.
31. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:352; Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Edward Hickman, vol. 2 (Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974), 81.
32. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:360.
33. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:360.
34. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:362.
35. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:370.
36. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:372.
37. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:347.
38. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 14:176-78.
39. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:347.
40. Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Henry Rogers, Sereno Edwards Dwight, and Edward Hickman (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1998), 1:xcii.
41. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:342.
42. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:342.
43. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 14:189.
44. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2:89.
45. John H. Gerstner, Jonathan Edwards: A Mini-Theology (Morgan, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria, 1996), 108.
46. Gerstner, Jonathan Edwards, 109.
47. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 108.
48. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 14:516.
49. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 14:521-22.
50. Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards: Sermon Series II, 1729– 1731, 152.
51. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:376.
52. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 4.
53. Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards: The “Miscellanies,” a–500, ed. Thomas A. Schafer, vol. 13 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994), 217.
54. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 13:219.
55. Biehl, The Infinite Merit of Christ, 70.
56. Biehl, The Infinite Merit of Christ, 133.
57. Biehl, The Infinite Merit of Christ, 87.
58. Edwards, Our Great and Glorious God, 185-86.
59. Edwards, Our Great and Glorious God, 188-89.
60. Kimnach, Minkema, and Sweeney, The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader, 177; Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 19:577.
61. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 12-13.
62. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 13:221.
63. Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards: The “Miscellanies” 1153– 1360, ed. Douglas A. Sweeney, vol. 23 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004), 94.
64. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 89-91.
65. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 108.
66. John E. Colwell, “The Glory of God’s Justice and the Glory of God’s Grace: Contemporary Reflections on the Doctrine of Hell in the Teaching of Jonathan Edwards,” Evangelical Quarterly 67, no. 4, 304.
67. Colwell, “The Glory of God’s Justice and the Glory of God’s Grace: Contemporary Reflections on the Doctrine of Hell in the Teaching of Jonathan Edwards,” 307.
68. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 14:515-16.
69. Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 14:189.
70. E. Brooks Holifield, Theology in America: Christian Thought From the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005), 115.
71. Edwards, A Just and Righteous God, 13.