The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards are well-known. They can easily be misconstrued, though. One might think that they were being attempted on the basis of native strength. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here is Edwards in his Diary for January 2, 1722 (less than a year after his conversion):
“I find, by experience, that, let me make resolutions, and do what I will, with never so many inventions, it is all nothing, and to no purpose at all, without the motions of the Holy Spirit; for if the Spirit of God should be as much withdrawn from me…, I should not grow, but should languish, and miserably fade away.”[1]
[1] Cited Sereno E. Dwight, “Memoirs of Jonathan Edwards, A. M.” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, revised and corr. Edward Hickman (1834 ed.; repr. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), 1:xxiv].