In light of recent dust-ups in the Evangelical world regarding the creation vs. evolution debate (a summation of the latest episode can be found here), I was reminded of this Miscellany entry. It is one of Edwards’s last Miscellany entries and gives particular insight into what the Creation conversation looked like in the mid to [...]

Yesterday, as I’m sure you’re aware, was Easter Sunday, one of the most important days in the Christian calendar. To mark this event, this week’s Miscellany Mondays entry focuses on resurrection. Here Edwards poses a question asking how Christ’s resurrection affects the bodies of believers and their own eventual resurrection, given the union that is [...]

175. FUTURE STATE. God, if he made the world, he undoubtedly ordered all things wisely in it. But he has made man and placed him in such circumstances, that he has made [it] his prudence with all his might and with all possible vigor to be providing for a future state. For he has made [...]

1053. PREPARATORY WORK. God usually does much to prepare his people for those things which yet, if he pleased, he could bring to pass, and that in a due perfection, without any preparation. Thus much was done to prepare Joseph for his exaltation in Egypt. Much was done to prepare Moses for his high privileges [...]

In January and February, I’m teaching a class on Religious Affections for my church in Sunday School. As such, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the awakenings that Edwards and much of Colonial New England experienced in the mid-eighteenth century. Every time I read the Affections, I’m struck by the balance that Edwards achieves [...]

Here is one more miscellany on the incarnation of Christ. This time, Edwards muses on the union of the two natures of Christ, identifying the Holy Spirit as the bond which unites these two natures. 764b. INCARNATION OF CHRIST. UNION OF THE TWO NATURES IN CHRIST. What Christ says in the John 3:33–34, confirms that [...]

Continuing the thread from last week, here is another miscellany dealing with the incarnation of Christ. In this entry, Edwards focuses on Christ’s sinlessness. 386. INCARNATION. Christ, although he was conceived in the womb of one of fallen mankind, yet he was conceived without sin; because he was conceived by the Holy Ghost, which is [...]

With just a few days left until Christmas, it’s always good to take time to remember the true meaning of the holiday. In this week’s installment of Miscellany Mondays, we have a brief, yet profound, statement on the meaning and purpose of the incarnation of Christ. The idea of Christ’s communion with his church, and [...]

Here, Edwards wrestles with the question of whether regeneration (or a disposition of the will toward the things of the Gospel) comes before the act of faith. 27b. CONVERSION. ‘Tis most certain, both from Scripture and reason, that there must be a reception of Christ with the faculties of the soul in order to salvation [...]

This entry follows closely with a passage in Edwards’s essay “On Being.” 27a. GOD is a necessary being, because it’s a contradiction to suppose him not to be. No being is a necessary being but he whose nonentity is a contradiction. We have shown that absolute nothing is the essence of all contradictions; but being [...]