Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary

Edwards and Bunyan on Conversion in the Ordo Salutis

Joshua Lamb

415: Systematic Theology V: Soteriology

April 7, 2016

Introduction

The topic of conversion is one that has been hotly debated over the centuries between various Christian groups. How one views conversion is directly related to the evangelistic methods that preachers and lay people use as they encounter people in daily life. It is at this point in the Ordo Salutis that there is human agency and involvement. Arminians believe this is the key time that people must ‘make a decision’ for Christ, while Calvinists believe this is the time at which the means of grace are used by God to call the sinner to faith and repentance. This paper seeks to examine the Calvinist viewpoint of conversion from the perspectives of two Puritan pastors and writers – John Bunyan and Jonathan Edwards. Although from two different time periods, these men shared many similar convictions. Their varying styles help us today to examine how we view conversion and the role of a pastor in it. Their material will be examined along the lines of encouragements & warnings to respond to the Gospel, hindrances from responding, certainty & steps to conversion, marks of conversion, and how ministers can counsel during conversion.

Conversion is the point in the Ordo Salutis at which the sinner turns in repentance and faith to trust in Christ. It is when all the saving benefits of salvation are applied individually to the soul of a sinner and he enters fully into the kingdom of God. It is chronologically at the same moment as justification, but logically precedes it. For some, this key moment of trusting in Christ was a decisive and marked event, but for others it is best viewed in retrospect. They were in the way of salvation, perhaps listening to sermons and praying, and then looking back there was a period of time during which they trusted in Christ. Conversion is always a pinpoint moment in time, but the Christian may not be aware of this in their experience.

There are similarities and differences between Jonathan Edwards and John Bunyan that are worth noting. Both men were considered excellent preachers. John Bunyan was envied by his contemporary John Owen as having a particular gift for preaching, although Owen himself was an extremely capable theologian. Jonathan Edwards was preaching during the revival period in North America and saw spectacular conversions under his ministry, particularly in Northampton, Massachusetts between 1734-1735. However, how they went about preaching to lost sinners was quite different. It is clear from reading any one of Edwards’ sermons that he was masterful at the use of searching and piercing questions directed at the consciences of men. While Bunyan did address this, it was not on the ‘interrogative’ level of Edwards. Bunyan seemed to be more of an encourager, pointing people to the warmth and readiness of Christ to receive needy sinners. Although a bit over simplistic, another way to say it is that Bunyan welcomed sinners to heaven, while Edwards terrified them of hell. In some respects, this is really two sides of the same coin, and both men shared a loving and evangelistic heart towards the lost world around them. The tendency of secular history has been to label Edwards as hateful, but this is an unfair caricature of a man that was deeply concerned with the salvation of the lost. Edwards loved people enough to warn them of the truth of hell. Edwards was fiery when describing hell, but would switch to a warm and devotional tone when describing the sufficiency and capability of Christ to receive sinners. It is also worth recognizing that the works we have available of both men tend to paint a certain picture: we have a vast array of Edwards’ works, but a corresponding lack of Bunyan’s sermons. Thus, it is easy to paint a picture of Edwards as the fiery preacher, and Bunyan as the warm devotionalist.

Encouragements & Warnings to Respond to the Gospel

Both Edwards and Bunyan were trained in the Puritan school of thought. Their works evidently show a thorough and logical reasoning throughout. There are striking similarities in the logical flow and structure of a Bunyan book and an Edwards sermon. They would list the doctrine and then give a reasoned account of each topic and subtopic in orderly succession. As a result, their warnings for men to repent strike to the very heart of man in a clear, direct, and succinct way.

Edwards’ View

Edwards believed that in large part, men are in a natural state of stupor and must be roused with warnings from the Word of God that they are to seek conversion and reconciliation with God. Edwards stated, “Men under the gospel almost universally think they shall not go to hell: If it were otherwise, they could have no peace or comfort in the world”¹. He lists numerous reasons throughout his sermons for why men are to repent:

1. The Spirit of God will not always strive with man². Edwards demonstrated that the Gospel offer is an open door, but there is a limited time in which men have to enter it before it slams shut. The offer of salvation is not held out forever³. Now is the day of salvation and the favorable time. Most, if not all, of his sermons stressed a clear urgency in responding to the gospel call. Perhaps this would be the last time to hear the gospel they ever had. Edwards had no qualms about showing men that if they would not repent under his preaching, he would be in the position to condemn them at the judgment. Bunyan also stressed this in his exposition of Christ’s parable of the barren fig tree. He stated that a time would come when Christ will no longer speak ‘one syllable more’ in defense of the unregenerate⁴.

2. Those that refuse to come will sink into eternal death⁵. Edwards well-known sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God illustrates his fearlessness in discussing the horrors of hell. Throughout many of his sermons are illustrative references and descriptions of hell. He spared no pains in warning men that a refusal to repent and be converted to Christ would not ‘probably’ but definitely result in eternal damnation. He stated that, “Impenitent sinners, while in this world, hear how dreadful hell is. But they will not believe that it is so dreadful as ministers represent.”⁶ He tried to graphically press the image of hell to the forefront of their imaginations and consciences. Edwards did not believe a minister could go too far in his descriptions of hell because he believed it was impossible for mortal man to over-imagine its horrors.

3. Eternal life is desirable beyond measure. Although famous for warning against hell, Edwards did not leave people without descriptions and exhortations toward the glories of heaven. In his own words,

“Eternal life is a thing so desirable, that the least hopes of obtaining it, outweighs all the difficulty of seeking of it. I speak now of the positive part of salvation, of that positive happiness which those that are saved will enjoy if there were no hell; yet eternal happiness is so great a thing that it would be worth the while to do or undergo anything in this world, if there was the least hope of obtaining it. If there were no heaven, hell is so dreadful that it would be worth the while to use all possible means for a possibility of escaping it.”⁷

Bunyan’s View

As discussed in the introduction, the works we have of Bunyan are as a whole more encouraging and hortatory. However, Bunyan was not shy to warn people of the terrors of hell either.

1. Those that lose their soul will be swallowed up in misery⁸. Bunyan states that the misery of a sinner is no general misery, but “all the fearful miseries that a Holy, Just, and Eternal God can inflict”. Additionally, these miseries will last forever⁹. Their misery will be multiplied by the knowledge that each new day will only bring more misery, with no hope of relief. Bunyan warned the unregenerate that in hell they would have many cries over their former life and the regret of being in wicked pomp during their life, only to have such a miserable fate in the end¹⁰.

2. The loss of the soul is the greatest loss imaginable. Bunyan devoted the better part of an entire work to showing the eternal value of even one human soul. He said, “there is not anything, nor all things under heaven, were they all in one man’s hand, and all at his disposal, that would go in exchange for the soul, that would be of value to fetch back one lost soul, or that would certainly recover it from the confines of hell.”¹¹ We could never get enough money to buy our soul back from death. It is truly priceless, which drives us to consider reconciliation to Christ at the present time.

3. The worst sinners have been saved¹². In The Jerusalem Sinner Saved, Bunyan goes to great lengths to show that Christ saves the vilest of men on this earth, and so there is no reason why men who consider themselves evil cannot be saved as well. If the thief on the cross, and the Pharisee Nicodemus, and the Jerusalem sinners at Pentecost were saved, the door is truly open to all that would come. He also showed that God is glorified at the repentance of the backslidden and the vile. David, Lot, Manasseh, and many others in Scripture, demonstrate that God’s power is evident in saving those who have fallen¹³. In Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, he showed that Christ is willing, but the ultimate hope is not in His willingness, but in His ability¹⁴. It is here that all who would come to Christ find their safety.

Hindrances to Responding to the Gospel

Both men were keen students of human nature, and understood well that mere encouragements to heaven made no difference to a deadened soul. People cannot be informed into heaven. While only the Holy Spirit has the power to truly regenerate a dead sinner, Bunyan and Edwards recognized the role of preaching in stirring men’s consciences. They were experts at targeting specific reasons why men thought they could remain comfortable in their sinnership. In this portion we will examine together the hindrances listed by both men:

1. Men think heaven isn’t real¹⁵. Edwards in particular, was very understanding that men are so prone to slumber in their soul that they could hear preaching week after week and be completely unaffected. Some part of them believed that heaven was an imagination dreamed up by religious men and had no real bearing on their lives. Related to this, Bunyan knew that some men believed heaven was real in theory but it was not of such as concern to them that they would do anything to revise their lives based on it. They thought that by addressing worldly concerns in this life they were taking care of their needs and doing alright for themselves¹⁶.

2. Men think death is far off¹⁷. Edwards would particularly press a group of people in his sermons that acknowledged the ‘distant’ reality of hell. These people believed that since the door of salvation was open for their entire lives up to this point, that it would continue to be so. They could simply repent later, after living a vain and carnal lifestyle. Perhaps when they were older and sickly they could give their lives to the service of religion. Bunyan also addressed this group that would defer coming or never come at all. Edwards puts it clearly and directly when he says, “Hell is full of good intenders who never proved to be true performers”¹⁸

3. Some suppose they live moral lives¹⁹. Another key group that Edwards refuted were those that believed that their good works or outward behavior meant that they would have favor with God at the judgment. This is the heart of the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-11. Neither church attendance, a religious pedigree, or good deeds in society are tokens of righteous standing before God. Bunyan allegorized in The Life and Death of Mr. Badman that some who are even outwardly vile could reform their lives for a while²⁰. They can make an outward profession and promise to amend their ways. Even their own family and church community can be fooled for a while into thinking they have truly been converted. But for both the outward Pharisee and the drunkard who attempts to reform his life, the morality of one’s life is no indication of true saving faith. Edwards showed that the heart is so desperately deceitful that men can even fool their own soul to believe they have been converted²¹.

4. Some men are fatalistic. There are those who believe that if God elects whom He will, that there is no reason to be concerned with matters of religion until he sovereignly acts in their life (how much of that thinking is prevalent today!)²². Edwards showed this group that this was not biblical thinking, but rather an attitude that could have someone walking straight into hell when the offer of salvation is open to them. He knew that there were those men who also actively strove against God because of this. They hated a God who would elect and choose men for salvation²³. Whether the attitude is a passive sitting back, or an active hatred, it leads to the same place.

5. Some men fear being a laughingstock. Not only is the cost of following Christ a high one, but the aspect of being crucified to the world means by necessity that there will be opposition. Edwards cited Noah as an example of a man that was despised and mocked at by the world for taking 120 years to build an ark, when there was no rain²⁴. There are those that are so cowardly in their sin that they would not come to Christ for fear of what other men may think in their neighborhood and workplace.

6. Men love their sins. Both Edwards and Bunyan knew that the ultimate reason that sinners would not repent and go through true conversion is because they loved their sins too much²⁵. Men love the dark rather than the light (John 3:19). Even consciously knowing the horrific end to such a life would not prevent them from continuing in their present sin and reveling in hatred, lusts, envy, and all forms of malicious sin.

Certainty of and Steps to Conversion

Although there are many barriers to conversion, both Bunyan and Edwards urged people from all walks of life to seek salvation. There is no hindrance that cannot be overcome by God’s grace. He can turn the mountain into a plain. Both men repeatedly expressed the certain and sure hope of salvation that can be found in Jesus Christ. Though the labor over salvation is hard, those who seek it will find it²⁶ (Jeremiah 29:13). Bunyan especially stressed the “shall come” aspect of the promise of salvation in Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ. He showed that this promise does not have any conditions, like some do in Scripture²⁷. It is an absolute promise that is certain to occur. For the promise to fail would mean that God is a liar with no power to make good on His promises. It would also mean that Christ’s death was in vain, because He came to claim the church for Himself and is entitled to His full reward. Thus, men and women in every socioeconomic situation could be encouraged to flee to Christ wholeheartedly. They were admonished not to look back, as Lot’s wife did, and remain in the city of destruction²⁸. Both Bunyan and Edwards had “run to Christ” stamped on their lips.

We now turn to discuss the steps to conversion. The era that Edwards grew up in was marked by an understanding of ‘preparationism’ as espoused by Thomas Hooker and others²⁹. Under this schema, there were certain steps the sinner must undertake to prepare himself for grace. While this was touted as different from the Roman Catholic system, there is a similar flawed practical understanding of salvation. Preparationists would say that salvation is still by grace alone through faith alone. However, the key component of preparationism is that you must be broken and contrite. It is this humiliation which you must pursue as you seek salvation. While it is true that a broken and contrite heart God does not despise, are we ever really contrite enough over our sin? Edwards had a different viewpoint, which could be referred to as ‘moderate preparationism’. Edwards believed it was God’s normal means to convict someone of sin before coming to show mercy to them. It wasn’t that the sinner stirred up a broken spirit to approach God, but rather that God made the sinner broken. He said the threefold work of the Holy Ghost was to convince men of sin, righteousness, and judgment³⁰. Thus, the Holy Ghost was a vital part of conversion because He convicted men and caused them to respond in faith. Bunyan showed that faith was a coming to Christ by moving the mind towards Him, while having a sense of the absolute lack that man has to justify himself³¹. As Jonathan Edwards understood it, the normal steps of conversion were: preaching of the Word, conviction, humiliation, faith, and evidence³².

Marks of True Conversion

One of the hallmarks of good preaching is that it recognizes the different groups of people being addressed. This is referred to as ‘discriminatory’ preaching. Edwards and Bunyan understood that there are those unregenerate in a congregation that should hear the alarm warning them of hell, and there are those believers who should be comforted with the Gospel and encouraged to press on in the way of salvation. In their works they addressed what the marks of genuine conversion looked like, that men would be stirred up to examine themselves by it and so find comfort and assurance that they were savingly converted to Christ. These marks are as follows:

1. Believers sense they deserve hell. Edwards showed that true believers have a sense that they are unworthy for salvation because they were enemies to God and to His kingdom. They are struck by the “…conviction of sinfulness of heart and practice, and of the dreadfulness of sin, as committed against a God of terrible majesty, infinite holiness and hatred of sin.”³³ One of the statements that Edwards wished he could repeat often and widely was that God is not obliged to rescue sinners³⁴. It was common in his day, and in our own day, to make the wrong assumption that because salvation is offered it means that God owes it to all mankind. This is patently false. God owes nothing to mankind in general, but much less since man has fallen into a state of sin and misery. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to show men that they are deserving of hell and undeserving of mercy, and He leads the elect into a state of contrition. Bunyan noted 5 signs of a contrite heart: it is sorrowful, humble, poor in spirit, crying out, and trembles at God’s Word³⁵. The presence of this activity in the human heart was a mark that someone was coming to saving conviction. Edwards showed that contrite sinners we also aware of the fact they were helpless to deliver themselves from the punishment of breaking God’s law³⁶. It wasn’t enough to simply be sorrowful but to look for the remedy. This is the intertwining relationship between repentance and faith. Repentance is the contrite sorrow over transgression, and faith is the look outward for the remedy in Christ.

2. Believers are willing to part with everything. One of the hindrances for conversion listed above was the natural man’s propensity to love his sin. He is not willing to part with it because he enjoys giving into baseless carnality and to accumulating riches and a name for himself. But a mark of true conversion is a willingness to give all to Christ. Edwards says this is not a once-for-all decision but an ongoing recognition that the sinner is dead to the world and alive in Christ. He gleefully accepts even the plundering of his property, knowing that he has a better possession in Christ (Hebrews 10:34).

3. Works according to the fruit of the Spirit. Edwards was a strong proponent that works were a very big evidence of conversion. We are His workmanship and created for good works (Ephesians 2:10). People can be fooled for a time, so it is important to look at someone’s whole life over the course of years and observe if there is fruit of the Spirit. However, just because there are falsifications of something does not negate the genuine thing. As Edwards stated, “Works are the true test, the surest overt sign of justification. Works might not actually bring justification, but works would inevitably accompany justification.”³⁷ In writings such as Charity and its Fruits, Edwards shows a heart both for the lost and for the downtrodden in society. He said that there should be two main fruits in the life of a Christian: respect for God and charity towards fellow man, especially the poor³⁸.

Bunyan helps to distinguish between false ‘good works’ and true works which are borne out of genuine conversion. He claimed that in fact that natural man has not done a single good work in his lifetime, because true good works come from faith³⁹. He defined several things that faith causes in the life of a believer: belief in the Word, trusting God’s promise to help, seeing love in the heart of Christ, ability to wait upon God, comfort in the midst of fears, give sweetness under affliction, making burdens light, helping us when we are down, bringing us near to God when we are far, declaring us friends of God, putting us under grace, purifying our hearts, and making our works acceptable to God etc…⁴⁰

4. They have true contentment. Edwards rightly believed that natural man is by nature discontent. Without Christ, man is missing the entire connection that he was made to have with God, and as a result must seek after this attachment by his worldly pursuits and idols⁴¹. They are also without any advocate that would give to them contentment and peace. Bunyan remarked that not only was Christ the worthy advocate for believers, but He was ‘pro-bono’⁴². His advocacy is free to all those who belong to Him. He is like a lawyer for the poorest of sinners that cannot afford to pay for one to plead their case.

5. They know God’s love. Bunyan devoted many pages to showing the richness of love that was available to believers in Christ. He attempted to explore with the saints the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love (Ephesians 3:18). He stated of the love of God, “This is the Christian’s Rehoboth, that well for which the Philistines have no heart to strive, and that which will cause that we be fruitful in the land.”⁴³

Both men recognized that salvation was a constant undertaking in the life of the believer. Even though Edwards was known for his preaching which targeted the unconverted, there are many times that he presses believers to continue seeking God⁴⁴. This pursuit was to be the constant endeavor throughout all of life.

Counsel of Ministers in Conversion

We have set forth the encouragements, hindrances, steps, and marks of true conversion, and thus turn to counsel that can be given to those who are ‘on the edge’ of saving faith. This counsel was given by Edwards and Bunyan directly towards those who had yet to close with Christ, and is especially useful for the contemporary minister who is counselling a member of the congregation who is unsure of their standing before God. What follows are encouragements that congregants can apply to themselves, or pastors can apply in a counseling environment:

1. Sinners should use all means available. While Edwards was a true Calvinist, he did not believe that men should sit idly by and wait for a lightning bolt from heaven. He counseled that men should “Neglect no religious duty; neglect not prayer; neglect not reading; don’t neglect a serious and careful attendance on the public worship…”⁴⁵. This is a concept referred to as putting oneself ‘in the way’ of salvation. Although it is God who justifies, He has appointed means by which He ordinarily saves sinners, and it would be folly to not stand in the road of salvation and to seek after God with a whole heart⁴⁶. There were 10 means that Edwards listed for sinners attempting to close with Christ: abstaining outward gratifications of lusts, keeping out of the way of temptation, performing outward moral deeds, searching the Scriptures, attending all ordinances, speaking of religion, controlling their thoughts, setting apart time to seek God, improving divine assistance, and using all their strength⁴⁷. Bunyan affirmed that the sinner should strive in avoiding sin, believing the Gospel, and praying fervently⁴⁸. Both men affirmed that there should be this posture to lean in and seek for salvation with all might.

2. Do not lose heart. There are many who for a season come under conviction of sin and are severely aware of the wrath of God that lies over their head. They may make outward moral professions and attempt to reform their life. They may even attempt to half-heartedly seek God for a period of time. But Edwards and Bunyan were both concerned with making sure that sinners actually closed with Christ in saving faith. There is a danger in losing conviction of sin after it has come upon someone and they have done nothing about it. Many start at the beginning of the race, but in the end don’t finish it⁴⁹. Bunyan so wonderfully compares the mind of the unsaved and the saved when he says, “Reason will say, Then who will profess Christ that hath such coarse entertainment at the beginning? But faith will say, Then surely the things that are at the end of a Christian’s race in this world must needs be unspeakably glorious; since whoever hath had but the knowledge and due consideration of them, have not stuck to run hazards, hazards of every kind, that they might embrace and enjoy them.” ⁵⁰

3. Ask probing questions. Edwards is a particularly good example of a minister that probes deep into the human heart with the use of interrogative questions⁵¹. It is the duty of the minister who is counseling someone to not be content with skating over the surface of heart issues, but to explore deeply with them how they have broken God’s law. People truly are content in their sin and must be cut to the heart. While only the Holy Spirit has power, He does use the means of preaching and counseling to strip men of their deceitful beliefs.

4. Point the faithful to assurance. Not all who come into the counselling room are false believers. In fact, the willingness to come to counselling and the struggle over conviction are often strong indications that someone is being broken down by the Holy Spirit as a part of their conversion. While the minister cannot truly see into the heart and pronounce someone saved, he can point them to places in Scripture where they may find this assurance. And they can be told that there is such a thing as assurance of faith. Bunyan reminds us that Christ will never cast out those who come to Him. If they truly belong to Him, for them to be thrown away would invalidate His promise and make Him a liar, which cannot be⁵².

Conclusion

Both John Bunyan and Jonathan Edwards remind us that the heart of conversion is the repentance and faith of a poor, broken, and needy sinner. It is not the Pharisee that went home justified, but the Publican (Luke 18:14). Christ came to call not the righteous, but sinners, to repentance (Luke 5:32). Men must be stripped of their false ideas that they can get to heaven on their own. They must be urgently pressed that now is the favorable time of salvation. They must be shown the value of their own soul and the tragic loss they will occur for eternity without Christ. The joys of heaven and the love of God to receive sinners must be proclaimed to them. And if they indeed come to saving faith they must be assured that their conversion was genuine, to press on in the faith of God so that they would win the prize of the upward call of God in Christ (Philippians 3:14).

“Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

(Acts 16:29–31)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beeke, Joel R., and Paul M. Smalley. Prepared by Grace, for Grace: The Puritans on God’s Way of Leading Sinners to Christ. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2013.

Bunyan, John. Works of John Bunyan. Edited by George Offor. New Ed edition. Edinburgh; Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1991.

Carrick, John. The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards. Edinburgh, UK; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2008.

Edwards, Jonathan, and Don Kistler. Pressing into the Kingdom: Jonathan Edwards on Seeking Salvation. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Pubns, 1998.

Edwards, Jonathan. Seeking God. Edited by William Nichols. International Outreach, Inc., 2001.

Henard, William David. “Waiting on God: The doctrine of seeking in Jonathan Edwards’s conversion theology,” 2009.

Story, Ronald. Jonathan Edwards and the Gospel of Love. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012.

¹. Jonathan Edwards, Seeking God, ed by. William Nichols ↩

(International Outreach, Inc., 2001), 15.

². Edwards, Seeking God, 233. ↩

³. Edwards, Seeking God, 314. ↩

⁴. John Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, ed by. George Offor, New Ed ↩

edition. (Edinburgh; Carlisle, Pa.: Banner of Truth, 1991), 3:584.

⁵. Edwards, Seeking God, 133–37. ↩

⁶. Edwards, Seeking God, 128. ↩

⁷. Edwards, Seeking God, 253. ↩

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⁹. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:125. ↩

¹⁰. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 3:686. ↩

¹¹. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:107. ↩

¹². Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:71. ↩

¹³. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:75–76. ↩

¹⁴. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:211. ↩

¹⁵. Edwards, Seeking God, 8. ↩

¹⁶. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 2:126. ↩

¹⁷. Edwards, Seeking God, 9. ↩

¹⁸. Edwards, Seeking God, 11. ↩

¹⁹. Edwards, Seeking God, 10, 389. ↩

²⁰. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 3:650. ↩

²¹. Edwards, Seeking God, 11. ↩

²². Edwards, Seeking God, 245. ↩

²³. Edwards, Seeking God, 249. ↩

²⁴. Edwards, Seeking God, 220. ↩

²⁵. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:383. ↩

²⁶. Edwards, Seeking God, 31. ↩

²⁷. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:254–255. ↩

²⁸. Jonathan Edwards and Don Kistler, *Pressing into the Kingdom: ↩

Jonathan Edwards on Seeking Salvation* (Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria
Pubns, 1998), 132–133.

²⁹. John Carrick, The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards (Edinburgh, UK; ↩

Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2008), 79–80.

³⁰. Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, *Prepared by Grace, for Grace: ↩

The Puritans on God’s Way of Leading Sinners to Christ* (Grand
Rapids, Michigan: Reformation Heritage Books, 2013), 204–205.

³¹. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:247. ↩

³². William David Henard, “Waiting on God: The doctrine of seeking in ↩

Jonathan Edwards’s conversion theology,” 2009, 168–175.

³³. Beeke and Smalley, Prepared by Grace, for Grace, 221. ↩

³⁴. Edwards, Seeking God, 63. ↩

³⁵. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 3:696–702. ↩

³⁶. Edwards, Seeking God, 261. ↩

³⁷. Ronald Story, Jonathan Edwards and the Gospel of Love (Amherst: ↩

University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), 53.

³⁸. Story, Jonathan Edwards and the Gospel of Love, 53–54. ↩

³⁹. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 2:550–551. ↩

⁴⁰. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:293–294. ↩

⁴¹. Edwards, Seeking God, 437. ↩

⁴². Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:190. ↩

⁴³. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 2:34. ↩

⁴⁴. Carrick, The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards, 92. ↩

⁴⁵. Edwards, Seeking God, 254. ↩

⁴⁶. Carrick, The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards, 89. ↩

⁴⁷. Carrick, The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards, 89. ↩

⁴⁸. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:369. ↩

⁴⁹. Carrick, The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards, 179–180. ↩

⁵⁰. Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:106. ↩

⁵¹. Carrick, The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards, 309. ↩

⁵². Bunyan, Works of John Bunyan, 1:290. ↩