We have a trio of episodes recently on Jonathan Edwards in episodes number 554 and 556,

and to finish it out today, Jaden from Gold Coast Australia writes in,

Hi Pastor John, I was reading Jonathan Edwards sermon the pure in heart blessed and came

across the word, Excellency.

In context, it read, man's true happiness is his perfection and true excellency.

What does Edwards mean when he uses the word excellent or excellency in his writings?

It is a very, very common word in Edwards.

He loves to apply it to God.

He loves to apply it to Christ.

He sometimes applies to us in our sanctified growth.

This built, of course, on the term Excel, which means surpass and refers to that which

surpasses other pretenders, surpasses them in what we should ask.

Not in sin, of course, not in evil.

He's not surpassing in evil.

He's surpassing, he's exceeding, he's excelling in every right way, which raises the question

of what definition of right should we use in God?

Since God is not measured by anything outside of God, right?

He doesn't conform to a standard of rightness outside of God.

That would be God, if he did.

God is right because he feels and thinks and acts in perfect accord with his own infinite

self or his own infinite worth.

It is right to value infinitely what is infinitely valuable, namely God.

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