Friday 20 February 2009

The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards: #9, #10

9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.
Well, I am not sure what to make of these, except that I can kind of see some usefulness of these two. At the risk of being quite wrong about the interpretation and reasons behind these two, I will make short comments on them.
I am guessing that #9 was to serve him as a reminder that he is a mortal being and he is trying to be ready for death and not be afraid of it. This could be a helpful thing for some of us if done with care, eg. we don't want to be suicidal.
#10 probably has more to do with making use of an opportunity to meditate on certain things at a given situation, ie. when he experienced pain, he would think of martyrs and be encouraged, and also the pain would remind him of how awful hell would be.

Ok, that's all I can say about these two.

(Source: A Puritan Mind)

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