Zitate von Jonathan Edwards

„Von all dem Wissen, das wir jederzeit gewinnen können, ist das wichtigste das Wissen des Gottes und das Wissen von uns selbst.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

„Seek not to grow in knowledge chiefly for the sake of applause, and to enable you to dispute with others; but seek it for the benefit of your souls.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

„God’s purpose for my life was that I have a passion for God’s glory and that I have a passion for my joy in that glory, and that these two are one passion.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

„How can you expect to dwell with God forever, if you so neglect and forsake him here?“

—  Jonathan Edwards

Quelle: Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards

„Resolved, to confess frankly to myself all that which I find in myself, either infirmity or sin; and, if it be what concerns religion, also to confess the whole case to God, and implore needed help.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

No. 68.
Seventy Resolutions (1722-1723)

„There is, therefore, no difficulty in answering such questions as these. What cause was there why the Universe was placed in such a part of Space? and, Why was the Universe created at such a Time? for, if there be no Space beyond the Universe, it was impossible that it should be created in another place; and if there was no Time before, it was impossible it should be created at another time.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

The Mind (begun in September 1723; not completed).

„Nothing sets a Christian so much out of the devil's reach than humility.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

„Grace is the seed of glory, the dawning of glory in the heart, and therefore grace is the earnest of the future inheritance.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

Quelle: The Religious Affections

„true weanedness from the world don't consist in being beat off from the world by the affliction of it, but a being drawn off by the sight of something better.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

„One of these grand defects, as I humbly conceive, is this, that children are habituated to learning without understanding.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

Quelle: The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 16: Letters and Personal Writings

„Holiness appeared to me to be of a sweet, pleasant, charming, serene, calm nature; which brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, peacefulness and ravishment to the soul.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

Quelle: The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader

„From love arises hatred of those things which are contrary to what we love, or which oppose and thwart us in those things that we delight in.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

„You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

„Resolved, never to do anything out of revenge.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

No. 14.
Seventy Resolutions (1722-1723)

„Of all the knowledge that we can ever obtain, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of ourselves, are the most important.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

Quelle: A careful & strict inquiry into the modern prevailing notions of that freedom of the will, which is supposed to be essential to moral agency, virtue & vice, reward & punishment, praise & blame...

„A truly humble man is sensible of his natural distance from God; of his dependence on Him; of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom; and that it is by God's power that he is upheld and provided for, and that he needs God's wisdom to lead and guide him, and His might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

„Remember that pride is the worst viper that is in the heart, the greatest disturber of the soul's peace and sweet communion with Christ; it was the first sin that ever was, and lies lowest in the foundation of Satan's whole building, and is the most difficultly rooted out, and is the most hidden, secret and deceitful of all lusts, and often creeps in, insensibly, into the midst of religion and sometimes under the disguise of humility.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

Letter to Deborah Hatheway (1741), in Letters and Personal Writings (1998), edited by George S. Claghorn, Vol. 16.

„Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

„You trust in your own doings to appease God for your sins, and to incline the heart of God to you. Though you are poor, worthless, vile, and polluted, yet you arrogantly take upon you that very work for which the Son of God became man; and in order to which God employed four thousand years in all the great dispensations of His providence, aiming chiefly to make way for Christ's coming to do this work. This is the work that you foolishly think yourselves sufficient for; as though your prayers and performances were excellent enough for this purpose. Consider how vain is the thought which you entertain of yourself. How must such arrogance appear in the sight of Christ, whom it cost so much? It was not to be obtained even by Him, so great and glorious a person, at a cheaper rate than His wading through a sea of blood, and passing through the midst of the furnace of God's wrath.“

—  Jonathan Edwards

Quelle: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 541.