The following is from a letter sent by Jonathan Edwards to a young woman newly converted, and who was curious about maintaining a religious life.
As you desired me to send you, in writing,
some directions how to conduct yourself in your christian course, I
would now answer
your request. The sweet remembrance of the great things I have
lately seen at S——, inclines me to do any thing in my power,
to contribute to the spiritual joy and prosperity of God’s people
there.
1. I would advise you to keep up as
great a strife and earnestness in religion, as if you knew yourself to
be in a state of
nature, and were seeking conversion. We advise persons under
conviction, to be earnest and violent for the kingdom of heaven;
but when they have attained to conversion, they ought not to be
the less watchful, laborious, and earnest, in the whole work
of religion, but the more so; for they are under infinitely
greater obligations. For want of this,
many persons, in a few months after their conversion, have begun
to lose their sweet and lively sense of spiritual things,
and to grow cold and dark, and have ‘pierced themselves through
with many sorrows;’ whereas, if they had done as the apostle
did, (Phil. iii. 12-14.) their path would have been ‘as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day.’
2. Do not leave off seeking, striving, and
praying for the very same things that we exhort unconverted persons to
strive for,
and a degree of which you have had already in conversion. Pray
that your eyes may be opened, that you may receive sight, that
you may know yourself, and be brought to God’s footstool; and that
you may see the glory of God and Christ, and may be raised
from the dead, and have the love of Christ shed abroad in your
heart. Those who have most of
these things, have need still to pray for them; for there is so
much blindness and hardness, pride and death remaining, that
they still need to have that work of God wrought upon them,
further to enlighten and enliven them, that shall be bringing
them out of darkness into God’s marvellous light, and be a kind of
new conversion and resurrection from the dead. There are
very few requests that are proper for an impenitent man, that are
not also, in some sense, proper for the godly.
3. When you hear a sermon, hear for
yourself. Though what is spoken may be more especially directed to the
unconverted, or
to those that, in other respects, are in different circumstances
from yourself; yet, let the chief intent of your mind be
to consider, ‘In what respect is this applicable to me? and what
improvement ought I to make of this, for my own soul’s good?’
4. Though God has forgiven and
forgotten your past sins, yet do not forget them yourself: often
remember, what a wretched
bond-slave you were in the land of Egypt. Often bring to mind your
particular acts of sin before conversion; as the blessed
apostle Paul is often mentioning his old blaspheming, persecuting
spirit, and his injuriousness to the renewed; humbling his
heart, and acknowledging that he was ‘the least of the apostles,’
and not worthy ‘to be called an
apostle,’ and the ‘least of all saints,’ and the ‘chief of
sinners;’ and be often confessing your old sins to God, and let
that text be often in your mind, (Ezek. xvi. 63.) ‘that thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am pacified
toward thee for all that thou has done, saith the Lord God.’
5. Remember, that you have more cause, on
some accounts, a thousand times, to lament and humble yourself for sins
that have
been committed since conversion, than before, because of the
infinitely greater obligations that are upon you to live to God,
and to look upon the faithfulness of Christ, in unchangeably
continuing his loving-kindness, notwithstanding all your great
unworthiness since your conversion.
6. Be always greatly abased for your
remaining sin, and never think that you lie low enough for it; but yet
be not discouraged
or disheartened by it; for, though we are exceeding sinful, yet we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
the preciousness of whose blood, the merit of whose righteousness,
and the greatness of whose love and faithfulness, infinitely
overtop the highest mountains of our sins.
7. When you engage in the duty of prayer, or come to the Lord’s supper, or attend any other duty of divine worship, come to
Christ as Mary Magdalen did; (Luke vii. 37, 38.) come, and cast yourself at his feet, and kiss them, and pour forth upon him the sweet perfumed ointment of divine love,
out of a pure and broken heart, as she poured the precious ointment out of her pure broken alabaster box.
8. Remember, that pride is the worst
viper that is in the heart, the greatest disturber of the soul’s peace,
and of sweet
communion with Christ: it was the first sin committed, and lies
lowest in the foundation of Satan’s whole building, and is
with the greatest difficulty rooted out, and is the most hidden,
secret, and deceitful of all lusts, and often creeps insensibly
into the midst of religion, even, sometimes, under the disguise of
humility itself.
9. That you may pass a correct judgment
concerning yourself, always look upon those as the best discoveries,
and the best
comforts, that have most of these two effects: those that make you
least and lowest, and most like a child; and those that
most engage and fix your heart, in a full and firm disposition to
deny yourself for God, and to spend and be spent for him.
10. If at any time you fall into doubts
about the state of your soul, in dark and dull frames of mind, it is
proper to review
your past experience; but do not consume too much time and
strength in this way: rather apply yourself, with all your might,
to an earnest pursuit after renewed experience, new light, and new
lively acts of faith and love. One new discovery of the
glory of Christ’s face, will do more toward scattering clouds of
darkness in one minute, than
examining old experience, by the best marks that can be given,
through a whole year.
11. When the exercise of grace is low,
and corruption prevails, and by that means fear prevails; do not desire
to have fear
cast out any other way, than by the reviving and prevailing of
love in the heart: by this, fear will be effectually expelled,
as darkness in a room vanishes away, when the pleasant beams of
the sun are let into it.
12. When you counsel and warn others,
do it earnestly, and affectionately, and thoroughly; and when you are
speaking to your
equals, let your warnings be intermixed with expressions of your
sense of your own unworthiness, and of the sovereign grace
that makes you differ.
13. If you would set up religious meetings of young women by yourselves, to be attended once in a while, besides the other
meetings that you attend, I should think it would be very proper and profitable.
14. Under special difficulties, or
when in great need of, or great longings after, any particular mercy,
for yourself or others,
set apart a day for secret prayer and fasting by yourself alone;
and let the day be spent, not only in petitions for the mercies
you desire, but in searching your heart, and in looking over your
past life, and confessing your sins before God, not as is
wont to be done in public prayer, but by a very particular
rehearsal before God of the sins
of your past life, from your childhood hitherto, before and after
conversion, with the circumstances and aggravations attending
them, and spreading all the abominations of your heart very
particularly, and fully as possible, before him.
15. Do not let the adversaries of the
cross have occasion to reproach religion on your account. How holily
should the children
of God, the redeemed and the beloved of the Son of God, behave
themselves. Therefore, ‘walk as children of the light, and
of the day,’ and ‘adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour;’ and
especially, abound in what are called the christian virtues,
and make you like the Lamb of God: be meek and lowly of heart, and
full of pure, heavenly, and humble
love to all; abound in deeds of love to others, and self-denial
for others; and let there be in you a disposition to account
others better than yourself.
16. In all your course, walk with God,
and follow Christ, as a little, poor, helpless child, taking hold of
Christ’s hand,
keeping your eye on the marks of the wounds in his hands and side,
whence came the blood that cleanses you from sin, and hiding
your nakedness under the skirt of the white shining robes of his
righteousness.
17. Pray much for the ministers and the church of God; especially, that he would carry on his glorious work which he has now
begun, till the world shall be full of his glory.” [
source]
