Edwards Resolutions Part 2

This is part 2 of my post on Jonathan Edward’s Resolutions so, as it coincides with the New Year, let’s have at it. Edwards next five are:

6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.
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.

As I find myself aging I find more things going wrong and I’m ever more conscience of my mortality. And, like many of us, I have a few re-occurring problems which haunt me from time to time. So, I find number 10 jumping off the page at me. God has truly blessed me in this area even when I don’t think so. I often try to remind myself of some of the theologians that have gone before us and their health issues which were legion compared to my own (our own?). Richard Baxter, if I’m not mistaken, had a nagging stomach problem and we’ve all heard or read the stories of John Calvin and his kidney stones. I thank the Lord everyday that we live in a time where pain management is at its best but we all still have our aches and pains and there is some pain that still cannot be circumvented. At these times, let’s remember Edward’s resolution.