[Prop.] I. God oftentimes uses many means with wicked men to bring ’em to forsake their sins. This is what God declares in his Word, that he hath no pleasure in death of a sinner, but that he should forsake his sins, and live. Ezek. 18:23, “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” And again in the thirty-second verse, “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” And ch. 33, [v.] 11, there God swears the same thing: “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, Ye house of Israel?” Surely it would be horrid presumption in us to call this in question, after God has sworn by his life to the truth of it. The same we are told in the New Testament by the Apostle. 1 Tim. 2:3–4, “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Pet. 3:9, “The Lord is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” And therefore God appears in his providence slow to wrath, and is wont to use many means with sinners to bring them to forsake their sins, before he gives them up. Thus God’s Spirit strove long with the old world, before he destroyed them. Gen. 6:3, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” For God sent Lot, a preacher of righteousness,4 to turn the inhabitants of Sodom from their sins, before he destroyed them. So he did not destroy hardhearted Pharaoh, till he had used many means to make him willing to comply with God’s commands.Jonathan Edwards, “The Dreadful Silence of the Lord (Jeremiah 44:26),” in Sermons and Discourses, 1734–1738, ed. M. X. Lesser and Harry S. Stout, vol. 19 of The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2001), 111–13. See also here (click).
So God did not destroy Jerusalem and Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, till he long used means with them to turn them from their sins, sending one Prophet after another, rising early, and sending and using corrections and providential warnings, and all manner of means.
So Christ did not give up the Jews in his time to judicial blindness, till he had used great means with them; often taught them, and warned them, and wrought many and great miracles before them.
And still God is wont to be using many and great means with many wicked men to bring them to forsake their sins, and continues using means with them for a long time. He commands them to forsake their sins, and uses the authority of a lord and sovereign. He makes glorious promises to them to win and draw them, promises them eternal honor, and riches, and pleasures. He denounces awful threatenings to their continuing in sin, threatenings of misery infinitely dreadful.
He counsels and exhorts with the kindness of a friend, tells them of the advantages of a way of obedience, and is much in warning them, and tells them of the danger of going on in sin. Sometimes he corrects them for their sins, that they may be made sick of them. He lays them under sore afflictions, that they may see the ill consequences of sin, and to bring them to be more solemn and thoughtful. Sometimes he heaps mercies and good things upon them to draw them.
And sometimes he takes away their neighbors by death. Sometimes he takes away persons in the midst of their youth to warn [them]. Sometimes he sets before them instances of sudden death. Sometimes God sets before them the dreadful effects of other men’s sins: he causes them to see instances of the death of wicked men: he lays men on a deathbed in a Christless condition, and in dreadful fear and terror in apprehension of approaching death, to warn them to get ready for death. And sometimes he sets before them instances of the death of those that die in the Lord, that die comfortably and joyfully, and are willing to leave the world to whom death is no terror, [and] depart in a sweet peace and composure, to draw them to seek to get into a like happy state, that their last end may be like theirs.
Besides the warning they have from the written and preached word and providence, they have many counsels and friendly reproofs from their godly friends and neighbors. And sometimes God gives them the warnings of dying persons that have their dying circumstances to enforce and give solemnity to their warnings. And sometimes God converts others of their neighbors and companions to give an example to stir them up. And sometimes he pours out his Spirit on many round about them, that they may be moved by it to seek salvation for themselves.
And besides this, he from time to time moves in their consciences. They have a great deal of opposition from their consciences in going on in sin: their consciences don’t let them alone, but are often reproving them and chastising them: they have many inward goads and stinging reflections.
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4 The phrase, found only in 2 Pet. 2:5, applies to Noah, not Lot, though the latter is called “that righteous man” (v. 8).
Original post here (click).