Repentance

‘This is an uncomfortable book. Edwards wrote this book against the backcloth of the awakenings in the 1730s-40s. He’s aware of the extremes that the mighty work of God had produced; where God is at work, Satan will be at work, and Edwards very honestly acknowledges the excesses. But what he does here is to open up the Scriptures and to highlight evidences that appear to be gracious evidences, but are actually not gracious evidences – and then he looks at evidences that truly are gracious evidences. Now, he is not seeking to crush people with little faith that is yet saving faith, but he wants people to understand that where the Gospel of grace takes root in someone’s life, it always produces Godly affections. So he begins his treatise with this; “True religion in great part consists in godly affections.” It’s a remarkable read.’ — IAN HAMILTON