Mad Sanity

Yeah, I was there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember, remember, the first of November.

It's Monday, the second day of November, 2009, as I step into a diner just outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin for some breakfast before I begin my 5-hour drive home.  I'm wearing so much purple I look like like Barney, just like I did the night before as I sat in the bleachers of Lambeau Field watching the final seconds tick off the clock on a 38-26 Vikings victory.  Under my arm I carry a copy of the Green Bay Press-Gazette with a headline that reads: GOING SOUTH IN THE NORTH. 

As I enter the diner the old men look up from their tables, see purple, then look back down in shame.  A sixty-year old waitress -- the only non-Packer fan in the building -- seats me and then offers her bony arm for a high-five.  It's then that I notice my hand is still sore from all the high-fives the night before. "It's like a funeral in here today," she whispers with a smile.  Naturally, I order the grilled cheese. 

I always love that one

"It's like seeing Osama Bin Laden join the U.S. Marines." 

     ~my dad on Brett Favre

4given

Happy 500th Birthday to John Calvin (a day late)

"The ignorance of Providence is the greatest of all miseries, and the knowledge of it the highest happiness."  ~John Calvin

Run, Forrest, run!

Me, one month ago:

 

Me now:

Back when I was a young man in my 20s I loved to run.  I ran for no other reason than the sheer enjoyment of it.  I echoed Eric Liddel's sentiments when he said, "God has made me fast, and when I run I feel his pleasure!" 

Then when I was 26 I got sick, spent two weeks in the hospital, lost all the weight I had to lose and then some, almost died, yada, yada, yada; and when I got out of the hospital and had enough strength to stand on my own two feet again the thought of running had become repulsive to me. 

Six years went by.  I became an old man of 32.  Running seemed to me a distant memory.  A repulsive distant memory.  I could barely imagine a time when running and pleasure could coexist. 

But I knew it could.  And the events surrounding my life in the spring of 2009 conspired to force me to rediscover this lost joy.  And I did.  And I have.  And it only took a month.  Actually it only took about a week and a half before "Why am I doing this?" turned into "I don't ever want to stop doing this again!"  And I don't. 

Fifteen Books

Piggybacking on Aron's post, here are the first 15 books that come to mind that will always stick with me:

1. Freedom of the Will (Jonathan Edwards)
2. All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy)
3. Pleasure of God (John Piper)
4. True Believers (Joe Queenan)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
6. Revival & Revivalism (Iain Murray)
7. Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)
8. Counted Righteous in Christ (John Piper)
9. The Life of David Brainerd (Jonathan Edwards)
10. The Road (Cormac McCarthy)
11. The Stranger Beside Me (Ann Rule)
12. Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood (Piper & Grudem)
13. The End for Which God Created the World (Jonathan Edwards)
14. Above All Earthly Pow'rs (David Wells)
15. Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)

10 things I've learned after 10 years on the job

1. Don't talk about people behind their backs.  Just don't.  Be a gossip vault.
2. Always be on time.  No matter how good you are at your job, if you are constantly late, it's what you will be known for.
3. Don't call in sick if you're not sick.  Call in tired, but don't call in sick.
4. Take the blame when it's yours.  Don't be the guy who has an excuse for everything. 
5. Whatever your job is, do it as if you are serving in the King's palace.  Because you are.
6. When faced with two choices, the harder one is usually the right one.
7. Let it be known that you do not date your co-workers.  Especially the married ones.
8. Always have plenty of change for the pop machine.  Don't be the guy who always has to borrow money.
9. The dirtier you are at the end of the day, the better you'll feel.
10. Try to like your boss, but don't over-do it.

An interview with Jonathan Edwards (2)

(Originally posted on 2/23/06)

For our final day of Edwards Month, I'd like to welcome a special guest to The Blog.  Here he is, all the way from the 18th century, the greatest theologian in American history, and the man who inspired the birth of The Blog: please give a warm welcome to Mr. Jonathan Edwards!

**Applause**

Blog: Mr. Edwards, I understand that you'd like to tell us a little about the difference between true grace and the experience of devils. 

JE: Yes, that's right.  I preached a sermon on this subject back in the 18th century and I think it's something that your century desperately needs to hear.

Blog: What was your text for this sermon?

JE: James 2:19, which says, "Thou believest that there is one God; thou dost well; the devils also believe, and tremble."

Blog: And what inferences do you draw from this text?

JE: We can observe in these words that some people depend upon, as an evidence of their good estate and acceptance as the objects of God's favor, a speculative faith, or belief of the doctrines of religion. 

Blog: So you're saying that a proper belief in the doctrines of religion is not necessarily a sign of true faith?

JE: It is allowed from the text that it is a good attainment.  "Thou dost well."  It is good as it is necessary.  This doctrine is one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity; and, in some respects, above all others fundamental.  It is necessary to be believed, in order to salvation. 

Blog: So a proper belief is necessary, but is no sure sign of salvation?

JE: Correct.  What is implicitly denied in the text is that it is any evidence of a person's being in a state of salvation.  The whole context shows this to be the design of the apostle in these words.  And it is particularily manifest by the conclusion of the verse where the argument by which the apostle proves that this is no sign of a state of grace, namely, that it is found in devils.  Devils believe that there is one God, and that he is a holy, sin-hating God; and that he is a God of truth, and will fulfil his threatenings, by which he has denounced future judgments, and a great increase of misery on them; and that he is an almighty God, and able to execute his threatened vengeance upon them.

Blog: So a belief in the existence of God, the Trinity, the atonement, and the ressurection, no matter how strong that belief is, can be no sure sign of saving faith?

JE: Nothing in the mind of man, that is of the same nature with what the devils experience, or are the subjects of, is any sure sign of saving grace.  If there be anything that the devils have, or find in themselves, which is an evidence of the saving grace of the Spirit of God, then the apostle's argument is not good; which is plainly this: "That which is in the devils, or which they do, is no certain evidence of grace."

Blog: But surely it is not the same thing for men to experience belief as it is for devils, is it?

JE: It is not the subject that makes the affection, or experience, or quality holy; but it is the quality that makes the subject holy.  And if those qualities and experiences which the devils are the subjects of have nothing of the nature of holiness in them, then they can be no certain signs that persons which have them are holy or gracious.

Blog: Doesn't the Scripture often speak of knowledge of divine things as what is peculiar to true saints as in John 17:3, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent," or Matt. 11:27, or Phil. 3:8?

JE: Yes, but then we must understand it of a different kind of knowledge from that speculative understanding which the devil has to so great a degree.  It will also be allowed that the spiritual saving knowledge of God and divine things greatly promotes speculative knowledge as it engages the mind in its search into things of this kind, and much assists to a distinct understanding of them; so that, other things being equal, they who have spiritual knowledge are much more likely than others to have a good doctrinal acquaintance with things of religion; but yet such acquaintance may be no distinguishing characteristic of true saints.

The devil is orthodox in his faith; he believes the true scheme of doctrine; he is not a Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Roman Catholic, Open Theist, or Pelagian; the articles of his faith are all sound, and in them he is thoroughly established.  Therefore, for a person to believe the doctrines of Christianity merely from the force of arguments, as discerned only by speculation, is no evidence of grace.

Blog: So we've established that a speculative knowledge of the truth of the doctrines of Christianity is no sure sign of saving faith.  Are there any more conclusions we can draw from this text?

JE: It may also be inferred from the doctrine which has been insisted on that it is no certain sign of persons being savingly converted, that they have been subjects of very great distress and terrors of mind, through apprehensions of God's wrath, and fears of damnation. 

Blog: So a fear of hell is no sign that you are truly repentant?

JE: Absolutely not.  It is clear from the text that the devils are the subjects of great terrors, through apprehensions of God's wrath, and fears of its future effects.  It must be no small degree of terror which should make those principalities and powers tremble.

Blog: How about if a person were to have very earnest desires and great longings after salvation?  Would that be any evidence of true grace?

JE: The devils, doubtless, long for deliverance from the misery they suffer, and from that greater misery which they expect.  If they tremble through fear of it, they must, necessarily, earnestly desire to be delivered from it.  Wicked men are, in Scripture, represented as longing for the pprivileges of the righteous, when the door is shut, and they are shut out from among them; they come to the door, and cry, Lord, Lord, open to us.  Therefore, we are not to look on all desires that are very earnest and vehement, as certain evidences of a pious heart.  There are earnest desires of a religious nature, which the saints have, that are the proper breathings of a new nature, and distinguishing qualities of true saints; but there are also longings, which unregneerate men may have, which are often mistaken for marks of godliness. They think they hunger and thirst after righteousness, and have earnest desires after God and Christ, and long for heaven; when, indeed, all is to be resolved into self-love; and so is a longing which arises from no higher principles than the earnest desires of devils.

Blog: But isn't it true that men in this world are in vastly different circumstances from those in which the devils are?  Those things which are visible and present to devils are now future and invisible to the other; and wicked men in this world are in the body, that drags and hinders the soul, and are encompassed with objects that blind and stupify them.  Is it reasonable then, that because the devils have a great apprehension and lively sense of such things without grace, ungodly men in their present state may have the same?

JE: It is true that no mortal man, whether godly or ungodly, has an equal degree of speculative knowledge with the devil.  But yet it is evident that men in this world may have things of the same kind with devils; the same sort of light in the understanding; the same views and affections, the same sense of things, the same kind of impressions on the mind and on the heart.  The objection is against the conclusiveness of that reasoning which is the apostle's more properly than mine.  The apostle judged it a conclusive argument against such as thought their believing there was one God an evidence of their being gracious, that the devils believed the same.  So the argument is exactly the same against such as think they have grace, because they believe God is a holy God, or because they have a sense of the awful majesty of God.  My text has reference, not only to the act of the understandings of devils in believing, but to that affection of their hearts which accompanies the views they have; as trembling is an effect of the affection of the heart.  Which shows, that if men have both the same views of understanding, and also the same affections of heart that the devils have, it is no sign of grace.

Blog: What if someone says that they have something besides all these things, like, for instance, love and joy?

JE: You may have something besides the experiences of devils, and yet nothing beyond them.  Though the experience be different, yet it may not be owing to any different principle, but only the different circumstances under which these principles are exercised.  The principles from whence the fore-mentioned things in devils arise are these two, natural understanding and self-love.  It is from these principles of natural understanding and self-love, as exercised about their own dispositions and actions, and God as their judge, that they have natural conscience, and have such convicitions of conscience as have been spoken of.  It is from these principles that they have such a sense of the importance of the things of religion, and the eternal world, and such longings after salvation.  And that you have a kind of love or gratitude and joy, which devils have not, may possibly not arise from any other principles in your heart different from these two, but only from these principles as exercised in different circumstances. 

Blog: If there be so many things which men may experience from no higher principles than are in the minds and hearts of devils, what are those exercises and affections that are of a higher nature, which we must find in our heart, and which we may justly look upon as sure signs of the saving grace of God's Spirit?

JE: The exercises and affections which are good evidences of grace, differ from all that the devils have, and all that can arise from such principles as are in their hearts, in two things, namely, their foundation and their tendency.

Blog: How so?

JE: They differ in their foundation, or in that belonging to them which is the foundation of all the rest that pertains to them, namely, an apprehension or sense of the supreme holy beauty and comeliness of divine things, as they are in themselves, or in their own nature. 

Of this the devils and damned men in hell are, and forever will be, entirely destitute.  This the devils once had, while they stood in their integrity; but they wholly lost it when they fell.  And this is the only thing that can be mentioned pertaining to the devil's apprehension and sense of the Divine Being, that he did lose.  Nothing else belonging to the knowledge of God, can be devised, of which he is destitute.  It has been observed, that there is no one attribute of the divine nature, but what he knows, with a strong and very affecting conviction.  This I think is evident and undeniable.  But to the supreme beauty of the divine nature he is altogether blind.  He sees no more of it, than a man born perfectly blind does of colours.  The great sight he has of the attributes of God gives him an idea and strong sense of his awful majesty, but no idea of his beauty and comeliness.  Though he has seen so much of God's wonderful works of power, wisdom, holiness, justice, and truth, and his wonderful works of grace to mankind, for so many thousand years, and has had occasion to observe them with the strongest attention; yet all serves not to give him the least sense of his divine beauty.  And though the devils should continue to exercise their mighty powers of mind with the strongest intention; and should take things in all possible views, in every order and arrangement; yet they never will see this.  So little akin is the knowledge they have to this, that the great degrees of thet knowledge, bring them no nearer to it.  Yet the more knowledge they have of God of that kind, the more do they hate God.  That wherein the beauty of the divine nature does most essentially consist, namely, his holiness, or moral excellency, appears in their eyes furthest from beauty.  It is on that very account chiefly that he appears hateful to them.  The more holiness they see in him, the more hateful he appears; the greater their sight is of his holiness, the higher is their hatred of him raise.  And because of their hatred of his holiness, they hate him the more, the more they see of his other attributes.  They would hate a holy Being, whatever his other attributes were; but they hate such a holy Being the worse, for his being infinitely wise, and infinitely powerful, more than they would do, if they saw in him less power and less wisdom.

The wicked, at the day of judgment, will see every thing else in Christ, but his beauty and amiableness.  There is no one quality or property of his person, that can be thought of, but what will be set before them in the strongest light at that day, but only such as consist in this.  They will see him coming in the clouds of heaven, "in power, and great glory, in the glory of his Father."  They will have that view of his external glory, which is vastly beyond what we can imagine; and they will have the strongest and most convincing demonstrations of all his attributes and perfections.  They will have a sense of his great majesty, that will be, as it were, infinitely affecting to them.  They shall be made to know effectually, "that he is the Lord."  They shall see what he is, and what he does; his nature and works shall appear in the strongest view; but his infinite beauty and amiableness, which is all in all, and without which every other property is nothing, and worse than nothing, they will not see.

Therefore in a sight or sense of this fundamentally consists the difference between the saving grace of God's Spirit, and the experiences of devils and damned souls.  This is the foundation of every thing else that is distinguishing in true Christian experience.  This is the foundation of the faith of God's elect.  This gives the mind a saving belief of the truth of divine things.  It is a view of the excellency of the gospel, or sense of the divine beauty and amiableness of the scheme of doctrine there exhibited, that savingly convinces the mind that it is indeed divine or of God.  This account of the matter is plainly impied; 2 Cor. 4:3-4, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them."  And verse 6.  "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."  It is very evident that a saving belief of the gospel, is here spoken of by the apostle as arising from a view of the divine glory or beauty of the things it exhibits.  It is by this view that the soul of a true convert is enabled savingly to see the sufficiency of Christ for his salvation.  He that has his eyes opened to behold the divine superlative beauty and loveliness of Jesus Christ, is convinced of his sufficiency to stand as a mediator between him, a guilty hell-deserving wretch, and an infinitely holy God, in an exceeding different manner than ever he can be convinced by the arguments of authors or preachers, however excellent.

Blog: What are the effects on a person who has this sight of the beauty of divine things?

JE: It will excite true desires and longings of soul after those things; not like the longings of devils, but natural free desires; the desires of appetite, the thirstings of a new nature, as a new-born babe desires the mother's breast; and as a hungry man longs for some pleasant food he thinks of; or as the thirsty deer pants after the cool and clear stream.

Blog: Is this sense of divine beauty the first thing that happens in true conversion?

JE: Yes, and it is the foundation of everything else belonging to that change; as is evident by those words of the apostle, 2 Cor. 3:18, "But we all with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

By this, above all other things, do men glorify God.  By this, above all other things, do the saints shine as lights in the world, and are blessings to mankind.  And this, above all things, tends to their own comfort; from hence arises that "peace which passeth all understanding," and that "joy which is unspeakable and full of glory."  And this is that which will most certainly issue in the eternal salvation of those who have it.  It is impossible that the soul possessing it should sink and perish.  It is an immortal seed; it is eternal life begun; and therefore they that have it can never die.  It is the dawning of the light of glory.  It is the day-star risen in the heart, that is a sure forerunner of that sun's rising which will bring on an everlasting day.  This is that water which Christ gives, which is in him that drinks it "a well of water springing up into everlasting life;" John 4:14.  It is something from heaven, of a heavenly nature, and tends to heaven.  And those that have it, however they may now wander in a wilderness, or be tossed to and fro on a tempestuous ocean, shall certainly arrive in heaven at last, where this heavenly spark shall be increased and perfected, and the souls of the saints all be transformed into a bright and pure flame, and they shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

Blog: So what would you say to someone who struggles with assurance of their salvation and continues to look inward for some sign of true faith?

JE: Look to Christ.

Blog: Well, we can't thank you enough for all the time.  Will you come back and visit us again some time?  Perhaps we could discuss "The Excellency of Christ," another one of my favorite sermons.

JE: I would be delighted to, if God wills.

Ezra Stiles on Edwards' legacy

"[Edwards' works] in another generation will pass into as transient notice perhaps scarce above oblivion, and when posterity occasionally comes across them in the rubbish of libraries, the rare characters who may read and be pleased with them will be looked upon as singular and whimsical."

          ~Ezra Stiles

Edwards' last words

"When he realized that he would not survive, he called his daughter Lucy, who was attending him, and said (in words she almost immediately wrote down): 'Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God that I must shortly leave you; therefore give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her, that the uncommon union, which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such a nature, as I trust is spiritual, and therefore will continue forever; and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial, and submit cheerfully to the will of God.  And as to my children, you are now like to be left fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek a Father, who will never fail you.  And as to my funeral, I would have it be like Mr. Burr's; and any additional sum of money that might be expected to be laid out that way, I would have it dispsed of to charitable uses.'"

          ~George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, p. 494

10 reasons I want to see Favre in Purple

The latest polls show that 29% of Minnesotans want Favre to play for the Vikings.  That puts me in the minority and thus, I feel compelled to lay out my case.  Here are ten reasons:

1. We all know how every Packer fan is going to cringe when they see Favre trot out onto Lambeau Field wearing a purple 4.  As a Viking fan, I know what it's like to cringe, and I still remember how I cringed at just the thought of Randy Moss becoming a Packer. 

2. We were a quarterback away from being a Super Bowl team last year. 

3. Few things would be as exciting as driving across Wisconsin in a purple Favre jersey (over a bullet-proof vest) and stopping at every town, getting out, and walking down the middle of the street. 

4. If he fails, so what?  What are we risking?

5. If anyone thinks Tavaris Jackson or Sage Rosenfels is going to lead us to the Super Bowl, I've got some ocean front property in North Dakota I'd like to sell you.

6. Hating Brett Favre because he is a former Packer is just stupid.  The Packers are evil, not Favre.  He was evil when he was a Packer.  He can be forgiven.  In Vikingdom, you are justified by purple alone.  He can be redeemed for everything he ever did wrong in one season.  Or not.  And then he can go back to being a former Packer.

7. Even if we don't win the Super Bowl with Favre, which we probably won't, it would be worth it if we beat the Packers with their own quarterback.  Heck, we could go 2-14 and the season would be a success if those two wins came against the Pack.

8. Favre had a pretty good run during the first half of the year last year with the Jets and then tired out down the stretch.  We play the Packers in week 4 and week 8 this year.  I'll take half a good season with Favre over a full mediocre season from T-Jack.

9. Yes, Favre thinks it's all about him.  Let him think that if it helps the Vikings.  I don't care what it does for his ego.  This is about Minnesota versus Wisconsin.  This is about who gets to cross the river and hold their head up.  After the season he can go back to Mississippi and fish.

10. If everything works out the way we'd like it to, and Brett Favre is standing on the podium in February hoisting the Vince Lombardi trophy in a Vikings uniform, that would be the end of the Viking-Packer rivalry for good.  The Vikings would hold the upper hand in the rivalry and the Packers would have to pack up and move out of the division.  Nothing else could ever top it.  And I would never have to watch another sporting event again, for I will have seen it all. 

Edwards on thunderstorms

"And scarce any thing, among all the works of nature, was so sweet to me as thunder and lightning; formerly, nothing had been so terrible to me. Before, I used to be uncommonly terrified with thunder, and to be struck with terror when I saw a thunder storm rising; but now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. I felt God, so to speak, at the first appearance of a thunder storm; and used to take the opportunity, at such times, to fix myself in order to view the clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God's thunder, which oftentimes was exceedingly entertaining, leading me to sweet contemplations of my great and glorious God. While thus engaged, it always seemed natural to me to sing, or chant for my mediations; or, to speak my thoughts in soliloquies with a singing voice."

          ~JE

Tarkenton on Favre

“I think it’s despicable. What he put the Packers through last year was not good,” said Tarkenton, who played for the Vikings from 1961-66 and again from 1972-78. ”Here’s an organization that was loyal to him for 17, 18 years, provided stability of organization, provided players. It just wasn’t about Brett Favre. In this day and time, we have glorified the Brett Favre’s of the world so much, they think it’s about them. He goes to New York and bombs. He’s 39 years old. How would you like Ray Nitschke in his last year [playing for] the Vikings, or I retire, and go play for the Packers? I kind of hope it happens, so he can fail.”

          ~Fran Tarkenton

Edwards on his preferred influence of the Spirit

"For my part, I had rather enjoy the sweet influences of the Spirit, showing Christ's spiritual divine beauty, infinite grace, and dying love, drawing forth the holy exercises of faith, divine love, sweet complacence, and humble joy in God, one quarter of an hour, than to have prophetical visions and revelations the whole year."

          ~JE, Marks of the Work of the Spirit of God (sermon)

Edwards on time management

"I do not spend time enough endeavouring to affect myself with the glories of Christianity."

          ~JE (from his diary at age 20)

Edwards on Spiritual light

"A true sense of the divine excellency of the things of God's word doth more directly and immediately convince us of their truth; and that because the excellency of these things is so superlative.  There is a beauty in them so divine and God-like, that it greatly and evidently distinguishes them from things merely human, or that of which men are the inventors and authors; a glory so high and great, that when clearly seen, commands assent to their divine reality.  When there is an actual and lively discovery of this beauty and excellency, it will not allow of any such thought as that it is the fruit of men's invention.  This is a kind of intuitive and immediate evidence.  They believe the doctrines of God's word to be divine because they see a divine, and transcendent, and most evidently distinguishing glory in them; such a glory as, if clearly seen, does not leave room to doubt of their being of God, and not of men."

          ~JE, The Reality of Spiritual Light (sermon)

Edwards on heaven

"The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast.  The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another; but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in any thing else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what shall be seen of God in them."

          ~JE, God Glorified in Man's Dependence (sermon)

Edwards on filthy rags

"The loveliness of the virtue of fallen creatures is nothing in the sight of God, till he beholds them in Christ, and clothed with his righteousness. . . . Not only are our best duties defiled, in being attended with the exercises of sin and corruption which precede, follow, and are intermingled with them; but even the holy acts themselves, and the gracious exercises of the godly, are defective."

          ~JE, Justification by Faith Alone (sermon)

Edwards on self-evaluation

"And this may be laid down as an infallible thing, That the person who is apt to think that he, as compared with others, is a very eminent saint, much distinguished in christian experience, in whom this is a first thought, that rises of itself, and naturally offers itself; he is certainly mistaken; he is no eminent saint; but under the great prevailings of a proud and self-righteous spirit.  And if this be habitual with the man, and is statedly the prevailing temper of his mind, he is no saint at all; he has not the least degree of any true christian experience; so surely as the world of God is true."

          ~JE, Religious Affections

Edwards on taste

"Now as there is a taste of the mind, whereby persons are guided in their judgment concerning the natural beauty, gracefulness, propriety, nobleness, and sublimity of speeches and actions -- whereby they judge as it were by the glance of the eye, or by inward sensation, and the first impression of the object -- so there is likewise a divine taste, given and maintained by the Spirit of God, in the hearts of the saints, wheereby they are in like manner led and guided in discerning and distinguishing the true spiritual and holy beauty of actions; and that more easily, readily, and accurately, as they have more or less of the Spirit of God dwelling in them.  And thus the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God, in their behaviour in the world."

           ~JE, Religious Affections

Edwards on the joy of a true saint

"True saints have their minds, in the first place, inexpressibly pleased and delighted with the sweet ideas of the glorious and amiable nature of the things of God.  This is the spring of all their delights, and the cream of all their pleasures; it is the joy of their joy.  This sweet and ravishing entertainment they have in viewing the beautiful and delightful nature of divine things, is the foundation of the joy they have afterward in the consideration of their being theirs.  But the dependence of the affections of hypocrites is in a contrary order: they first rejoice and are elevated, that they are the favourites of God; and then, on that ground, he seems in a sort lovely to them."

          ~JE, Religious Affections

Edwards on why evil exists

"It is a proper and excellent thing for infinite glory to shine forth. And for the same reason, it is proper that the shining forth of God's glory should be complete. That is, that all parts of his glory should shine forth, that every beauty should be proportionately radiant, that the beholder may have a proper notion of God. It is not proper that one glory should be exceedingly manifested and anther not at all. Thus, it is necessary that God's awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness should be manifested. But this could not be unless sin and punishment had been decreed so that the shining forth of God's glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine foth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness and love and holiness would be faint without them. Nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all. If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God's holiness in hatred of sin or in showing any preference in his providence of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God's grace or true goodness if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. How much happiness soever he bestowed he would not be so much prized and admired , and the sense of it would not be so great. So evil is necessary in order to the highest happiness of the creature and the completeness of that communication of God for which he made the world because the creature's happiness consists in the knowledge of God and the sense of his love. And if the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of the creature must be proportionately imperfect."

          ~JE

Edwards on nothing

"Nothing is what the sleeping rocks dream of."

          ~JE, Of Being

(This was about the closest Edwards ever came to having a sense of humor.)

Edwards on loving the god of your own creation

"Self-love, through the exercise of a mere natural gratitude, may be the foundation of a sort of love to God many ways.  A kind of love may arise from a false notion of God, that men have some way imbibed; as though he were only goodness and mercy, and no revenging justice; or as through the exercises of his goodness were necessary, and not free and sovereign; or as through his goodness were dependent on what is in them, and as it were constrained by them.  Men on such grounds as these, may love a God of their own forming in their imaginations, when they are far from loving such a God as reigns in heaven."

          ~JE, Religious Affections

Edwards on solitude

"Some are greatly affected when in company but have nothing that bears any manner of proportion to it in secret, in close meditation, secret prayer, and conversing with God, when alone and separated from all the world.  A true Christian doubtless delights in religious fellowship and Christian conversation, and finds much to affect his heart in it, but he also delights at times to retire from all mankind to converse with God . . . True religion disposes persons to be much alone in solitary places for holy meditation and prayer.  So it wrought in Isaac, Gen. 24:63.  And which is much more, so it wrought in Jesus Christ . . . The most eminent divine favours that the saints obtained, that we read of in Scripture, were in their retirement . . . True grace delights in secret converse with God."

          ~JE

Edwards on the dangers of not telling the truth

"By what I have heard, some think, that if it be really true that there is no self-determining power in the will, it is of a mischievous tendency to say anything of it; and that it is best that the truth in this matter should not be known by any means.  I cannot but be of an extremely different mind.  On the contrary, I think that the notion of liberty, consisting in a contingent self-determination of the will as necessary to the morality of men's dispositions and actions, is almost inconceivably pernicious . . . The longer I live, and the more I have to do with the souls of men, in the work of the ministry, the more I see of this.  Notions of this sort are one of the main hindrances of the success of the preaching of the word, and other means of grace, in the conversion of sinners . . . With respect to self-flattery and presumption, nothing can possibly be conceived more directly tending to it, than a notion of liberty, at all times possessed, consisting in a power to determine one's own will to good or evil; which implies a power men have, at all times, to determine them to repent and turn to God.  And what can more effectually encourage the sinner in present delays and neglects, and imboden him to go on in sin, in a  presumption of having his own salvation at all times at his command?  And this notion of self-determination and self-dependence, tends to prevent, or enervate, all prayer to God for converting grace; for why should men earnestly cry to God for his grace, to determine their hearts to that which they must be determined to of themselves.  And indeed it destroys the very notion of conversion itself.  There can properly be no such thing, or any thing akin to what the Scripture speaks of conversion, renovation of the heart, regeneration, etc., if growing good, by a number of self-determined acts, are all that is required, or to be expected.  Excuse me, Sir, for troubling you with so much on this head.  I speak from the fullness of my heart.  What I have long seen of the dreadful consequences of this prevalent notions everywhere, and what I am convinced will still be their consequences so long as they continue to prevail, fills me with concern."

          ~JE (from a letter to a friend)

Edwards on true virtue

"The tendancy of true virtue is to treat every thing as it is, and according to its nature.  And if we regard the Most High according to the infinite dignity and glory of his nature, we shall esteem and love him with all our heart and soul, and to the utmost of the capacity of our nature, on this account; and not primarily because he has promoted our interest.  If God be infinitely excellent in himself, then he is infinitely lovely on that account; or in other words, infinitely worthy to be loved.  And doubtless, if he be worthy to be loved for this, then he ought to be loved for it.  And it is manifest, there can be no true love to him, if he be not loved for what he is in himself.  For if we love him not for his own sake, but for something else, then our love is not terminated on him, but on something else, as its ultimate object.  That is no true value for infinite worth, which implies no value for that worthiness in itself considered, but only on the account of something foreign.  Our esteem of God is fundamentally defective, if it be not primarily for the excellency of his nature, which is the foundation of all that is valuable in him in any respect.  If we love not God because he is what he is, but only because he is profitable to us, in truth we love him not at all; if we seem to love him, our love is not to him, but to something else."

          ~JE, Original Sin

Edwards on the foundations of pleasures

"The peace and pleasures of wicked men have their foundation in darkness.  When wicked men have any quietness or joy, it is because they are blind, and do not see what is their real condition.  If it were not for blindness and delusion, they could have no peace nor comfort in any thing.  There needs nothing but to open a wicked man's eyes, and let him look about him and see where he is, and it would be enough to destroy all the quietness and comfort of the most prosperous wicked man in the world.  But on the contrary, the peace of a godly man, is a peace that arises from light; when he sees things most as they are, then he has most peace; and the distress and trouble which he sometimes feels, arise from clouds and darkness.  When a godly man is in the greatest fear and distress, if he did not know what a happy state he were in, he would at the same time rejoice with unspeakeable joy; so that his pleasure is not founded, like that of wicked men, in stupidity, but in sensibleness; not in blindness, but in light, and sight, and knowledge."

          ~JE (from a sermon on Romans 2:10)

Edwards on the harmony of decrees

"What we mean, we completely express thus -- That God decrees all things harmoniously, and in excellent order, one thing harmonizes with another, and there is such a relation between all the decrees, as makes the most excellent order.  Thus God decrees rain in drought, because he decrees the earnest prayers of his people; or thus, he decrees the prayers of his people, because he decrees rain.  I acknowledge, to say, 'God decrees a thing because,' is an improper way of speaking; but not more improper than all our other ways of speaking about God."

          ~JE, Miscellaneous Remarks