Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards Part 11

You were, many of you, as I well remember, much alarmed with the apprehension of the danger of the prevailing of these corrupt principles near sixteen years ago. But the danger then was small in comparison of what appears now. These doctrines at this day are much more prevalent than they were then: the progress they have made in the land, within this seven years, seems to have been vastly greater than at any time in the like s.p.a.ce before: and they are still prevailing and creeping into almost all parts of the land, threatening the utter ruin of the credit of those doctrines which are the peculiar glory of the gospel, and the interests of vital piety. And I have of late perceived some things among yourselves that show that you are far from being out of danger, but on the contrary remarkably exposed. The older people may perhaps think themselves sufficiently fortified against infection; but it is fit that all should beware of self-confidence and carnal security, and should remember those needful warnings of sacred writ, "Be not high-minded, but fear;" and "let him that stands, take heed lest he fall." But let the case of the older people be as it will, the rising generation are doubtless greatly exposed.

These principles are exceeding taking with corrupt nature, and are what young people, at least such as have not their hearts established with grace, are easily led away with.

And if these principles should greatly prevail in this town, as they very lately have done in another large town I could name, formerly greatly noted for religion, and so for a long time, it will threaten the spiritual and eternal ruin of this people in the present and future generations.

Therefore you have need of the greatest and most diligent care and watchfulness with respect to this matter.

4. Another thing which I would advise to, that you may hereafter be a prosperous people, is, that you would give yourselves much to prayer.

G.o.d is the fountain of all blessing and prosperity, and he will be sought to for his blessing. I would therefore advise you not only to be constant in secret and family prayer, and in the public worship of G.o.d in his house, but also often to a.s.semble yourselves in private praying societies.

I would advise all such as are grieved for the afflictions of Joseph, and sensibly affected with the calamities of this town, of whatever opinion they be with relation to the subject of our late controversy, often to meet together for prayer, and to cry to G.o.d for his mercy to themselves, and mercy to this town, and mercy to Zion and the people of G.o.d in general through the world.

5. The last article of advice I would give (which doubtless does greatly concern your prosperity), is, that you would take great care with regard to the settlement of a minister, to see to it who, or what manner of person he is that you settle; and particularly in these two respects:

(1) That he be a man of thoroughly sound principles in the scheme of doctrine which he maintains.

This you will stand in the greatest need of, especially at such a day of corruption as this is. And in order to obtain such a one, you had need to exercise extraordinary care and prudence. I know the danger. I know the manner of many young gentlemen of corrupt principles, their ways of concealing themselves, the fair, specious disguises they are wont to put on, by which they deceive others, to maintain their own credit, and get themselves into others' confidence and improvement, and secure and establish their own interest, until they see a convenient opportunity to begin more openly to broach and propagate their corrupt tenets.

(2) Labor to obtain a man who has an established character, as a person of serious religion and fervent piety.

It is of vast importance that those who are settled in this work should be men of true piety, at all times, and in all places; but more especially at some times, and in some towns and churches. And this present time, which is a time wherein religion is in danger, by so many corruptions in doctrine and practice, is in a peculiar manner a day wherein such ministers are necessary. Nothing else but sincere piety of heart is at all to be depended on, at such a time as this, as a security to a young man, just coming into the world, from the prevailing infection, or thoroughly to engage him in proper and successful endeavors to withstand and oppose the torrent of error and prejudice against the high, mysterious, evangelical doctrines of the religion of Jesus Christ, and their genuine effects in true experimental religion. And this place is a place that does peculiarly need such a minister, for reasons obvious to all.

If you should happen to settle a minister who knows nothing truly of Christ and the way of salvation by him, nothing experimentally of the nature of vital religion; alas, how will you be exposed as sheep without a shepherd! Here is need of one in this place, who shall be eminently fit to stand in the gap and make up the hedge, and who shall be as the chariots of Israel and the hors.e.m.e.n thereof. You need one that shall stand as a champion in the cause of truth and the power of G.o.dliness.

Having briefly mentioned these important articles of advice, nothing remains but that I now take my leave of you, and bid you all _farewell_; wishing and praying for your best prosperity. I would now commend your immortal souls to him, who formerly committed them to me, expecting the day, when I must meet you again before him, who is the Judge of quick and dead. I desire that I may never forget this people, who have been so long my special charge, and that I may never cease fervently to pray for your prosperity. May G.o.d bless you with a faithful pastor, one that is well acquainted with his mind and will, thoroughly warning sinners, wisely and skilfully searching professors, and conducting you in the way to eternal blessedness. May you have truly a burning and shining light set up in this candlestick; and may you, not only for a season, but during his whole life, and that a long life, be willing to rejoice in his light.

And let me be remembered in the prayers of all G.o.d's people that are of a calm spirit, and are peaceable and faithful in Israel, of whatever opinion they may be with respect to terms of church communion.

And let us all remember and never forget our future solemn meeting on that great day of the Lord; the day of infallible decision and of the everlasting and unalterable sentence. AMEN.

NOTES

G.o.d GLORIFIED IN MAN'S DEPENDENCE

1. =G.o.d Glorified.= The t.i.tle-page of the original edition of this sermon, the first work published by the author, reads as follows: "G.o.d Glorified in the Work of Redemption by the Greatness of Man's Dependance upon Him, in the Whole of it. Preached on the Publick Lecture in Boston, July 8, 1731. And published at the Desire of several, Ministers and Others, in Boston, who heard it. By Jonathan Edwards A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ in Northampton. Judges 7. 2.--Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, mine own hand hath saved me. Boston: Printed by S. Kneeland, and T. Green, for D. Henchman, at the Corner Shop on the South-side of the Town-House. 1731."

The Public or Thursday Lecture, dating from the ordination of the Rev.

John Cotton, in 1633, continued with occasional interruptions till the siege of 1775, later revived and existing, it is claimed, still, or until recently (see Dr. Samuel A. Eliot's Preface to _Pioneers of Religious Liberty in America_, Boston, 1903), was famous among the social and religious inst.i.tutions of colonial Boston. At one time the General Court regularly adjourned for it; that the Governor should keep Christmas and neglect it, was regarded by old Judge Sewall as a matter of grave reproach. The preachers were selected from the most eminent divines, not only of Boston, but throughout the colony. It is recorded, for instance, of Solomon Stoddard, Edwards's grandfather and predecessor in the Northampton pastorate, that he annually attended the Harvard Commencement and the day after preached the Public Lecture. It was a great honor, therefore, for Edwards, a young man of twenty-seven, to be invited to preach on this foundation.

He himself seems to have fully appreciated both the honor and the opportunity. The original ma.n.u.script shows the most careful preparation.

In the statement of the Doctrine, for example, there are several erasures and corrections before the right formula is. .h.i.t upon. The printed sermon shows still more elaboration. Edwards chose as his subject one aspect of a theme which was central and controlling in his thought--G.o.d's sovereignty.

His mind had dwelt on this subject in all its bearings from childhood. He had especially meditated upon it as it related to the doctrine of decrees, a doctrine which he found at first revolting, but in the end "exceedingly pleasant, bright, and sweet." No one since Augustine has emphasized as he has done the absolute sovereignty of G.o.d and the corresponding dependence of man. This conception of G.o.d's arbitrary will--arbitrary, not as irrational or unrelated to the divine justice and benevolence, but as being "without restraint, or constraint, or obligation"--was not only the backbone of his system, but its heart, the principle which animates and pulses through the whole of it. It is the ultimate basis alike of his philosophy and of his religious faith. In this his first publication as in the great theological treatises which were his last, he is everywhere the prophet-like champion of this supreme idea in opposition to all those schemes of divinity, generally denominated Arminian, which implied in his view a degree of independence in man inconsistent with the absolute sovereignty he regarded as the distinguishing glory of G.o.d.

The sermon created a profound impression, as is evident both from the immediate demand for its publication, indicated on the t.i.tle-page, and from the commendatory preface to the original edition signed by two of the foremost ministers of Boston, the Rev. Thomas Prince, of the Old South Church, and the Rev. William Cooper, of the Brattle Street Church. "It was with no small difficulty," these gentlemen write, "that the author's youth and modesty were prevailed on, to let him appear a preacher in our public lecture, and afterwards to give us a copy of his discourse, at the desire of diverse ministers, and others who heard it. But, as we quickly found him to be a workman that need not be ashamed before his brethren, our satisfaction was the greater, to see him pitching upon so n.o.ble a subject, and treating it with so much strength and clearness, as the judicious will perceive in the following composure: a subject which secures to G.o.d his great design, in the work of fallen man's redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, which is evidently so laid out, as that the glory of the whole should return to him the blessed ordainer, purchaser, and applier; a subject which enters deep into practical religion; without the belief in which, that must soon die in the hearts and lives of men. We cannot, therefore, but express our joy and thankfulness, that the great Head of the Church is pleased still to raise up, from among the children of his people, for the supply of his churches, those who a.s.sert and maintain these evangelical principles; and that our churches, notwithstanding all their degeneracies, have still a high value for just principles, and for those who publicly own and teach them. And, as we cannot but wish and pray, that the College in the neighbouring colony, as well as our own, may be a fruitful mother of many such sons as the author; so we heartily rejoice, in the special favour of Providence, in bestowing such a rich gift on the happy church of Northampton, which has, for so many l.u.s.tres of years, flourished under the influence of such pious doctrines, taught them in the excellent ministry of their late venerable pastor, whose gift and spirit we hope will long live and shine in his grandson, to the end that they may abound in all the lovely fruits of evangelical humility and thankfulness, to the glory of G.o.d."

6. =It was of mere grace ... for our souls.= This pa.s.sage may serve to ill.u.s.trate the way Edwards expanded his sermons for the press (see Introduction, p. xxix). The ma.n.u.script reads as follows: "The Grace in giving this Gift was great in proportion to our unworthiness, it was given to us who instead of meriting that of G. which is of such Infinite Value merited Infinite Ill of him." Then follows a s.p.a.ce, above and beneath which, between the lines, are the words, "in proportion to the blessedness we have benefit we have given in him." Continuing: "the giver in giving this gift is great according to the manner of giving. He gave him to us Incarnate he gave him to us slain that he might be a feast to our souls."

THE REALITY OF SPIRITUAL LIGHT

21. =Divine and Supernatural Light.= The original t.i.tle-page of this, the author's second published sermon, reads as follows: "A Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of G.o.d, shown to be both a Scriptural, and Rational Doctrine; In a Sermon Preach'd at Northampton, and Published at the Desire of some of the Hearers. By Jonathan Edwards, A.M. Pastor of the Church there. Job 28, 20. Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Prov. 2, 6.

The Lord giveth wisdom. Is. 42, 18. Look ye blind, that ye may see. 2.

Pet. 1, 19. Until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your hearts.

Boston: Printed by S. Kneeland and T. Green, M,DCC,x.x.xIV." The sermon has a preface in which Edwards modestly disclaims any forwardness or vanity in publishing it and begs his readers to peruse it without prejudice on this score, or because of the unfashionableness of the subject. This to the general public. What he says to his own people shows how affectionate their relations to their young minister were at this time and how high his regard was for them; it has a pathetic interest in view of their pa.s.sionate rejection of him at the last. "I have reason to bless G.o.d," he writes, "that there is a more happy union between us, than that you should be prejudiced against any thing of mine, because 'tis mine." He felicitates them on having been instructed in such doctrines as those in the sermon from the beginning. "And I rejoice in it," he adds, "that Providence, in this day of Corruption and Confusion, has cast my lot where such doctrines, that I look upon so much the life and glory of the Gospel, are not only own'd, but where there are so many, in whom the truth of them is so apparently manifest in their experience, that any one who has had the opportunity of acquaintance with them, in such matters, that I have had, must be very unreasonable to doubt of it."

This is justly regarded as "one of the most beautiful and most eloquent"

of Edwards's sermons (A. V. G. Allen, _Jonathan Edwards_, p. 67). It was preached at a time when the signs were multiplying of an increased interest in religion among the people of Northampton, preluding the great revival of the next and the following years. The original ma.n.u.script bears the date, August, 1733. The death of Mr. Stoddard in 1729 had removed the restraints of a long-established and unquestioned authority, and the results, as Edwards describes them, were deplorable. "It seemed," he says, "to be a time of extraordinary dullness in religion: licentiousness for some years greatly prevailed among the youth of the town; they were many of them very much addicted to night walking, and frequenting the tavern, and lewd practices, wherein some by their example exceedingly corrupted others." "But in two or three years ... there began to be a sensible amendment of these evils," and "at the latter end of the year 1733, there appeared a very unusual flexibleness and yielding to advice" in the young (_Narrative of Surprising Conversions_). The improved conditions reacted on the preacher and, as a consequence, we have the sermon on Spiritual Light.

The principle enunciated in this sermon is the cardinal and controlling principle of the whole revival. The revival is just its exhibition and the experienced evidence, for Edwards at least, of its truth. Nothing in his account of the movement is more impressive than the way he studies it, tracing minutely the details of the process, wondering at its variety, whereby the Holy Spirit makes real and effectual the divine message (see Allen, _op. cit._ pp. 143 ff.). There was nothing essentially new in the principle itself; that G.o.d directly influences the soul, that the soul is capable of an immediate intuition of divine things, this had been the common teaching of all, and especially of all the Christian, mystics.

Indeed, it may be doubted whether religion as a form of personal experience does not universally involve a consciousness of some such transcendent relationship (see W. James, _Varieties of Religious Experience_, Boston, 1902, _pa.s.sim_). What was new in Edwards's formulation of the doctrine was his manner of defining it, the way in which he relates it to the other parts of his system, his insistence on the supernatural character of this divine illumination, his sharp distinction between common and special grace. His doctrine of supernatural light appears, in fact, as a necessary corollary of his conception of the relation of man and G.o.d in the work of redemption expressed in his sermon on Man's Dependence. It is partly, at least, from this point of view that it seems to him not only scriptural, but reasonable. It was a doctrine intimately connected with his views of conversion. It was on this account no less than because of its emphasis of a mystical rather than a moral or legal principle in religion, that Edwards can speak of the doctrine as "unfashionable." The tendency of the age was to find more power in the natural const.i.tution of man than he was willing to allow. Historically, however, it is in just this emphasis on the inner experience of the light and life of G.o.d in the heart that Edwards makes the transition from the older Calvinism to the more liberal theology of our own day.

The ma.n.u.script of this sermon is more than usually full of erasures and insertions, making it almost impossible to read, but suggesting something of the labor and care expended on its composition. It is written on twenty-six pages of the size of the facsimile in this volume, the last page containing only a line and a half. But the printed sermon is more fully elaborated.

RUTH'S RESOLUTION

45. =Ruth's Resolution.= This sermon was one of five "Discourses on Various Important Subjects, Nearly concerning the great Affair of the Soul's Eternal Salvation: viz. I. Justification by Faith Alone. II. Pressing into the Kingdom of G.o.d. III. Ruth's Resolution. IV. The Justice of G.o.d in the d.a.m.nation of Sinners. V. The Excellency of Jesus Christ. Delivered in Northampton, chiefly in the time of the late wonderful pouring out of the Spirit of G.o.d there. By Jonathan Edwards A.M. Pastor of the Church of Christ in Northampton. Deut. iv. 8 [9]--Take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life. Boston: Printed and sold by S. Kneeland and T. Green, in Queen Street over against the Prison. MDCCx.x.xVIII." The first four of these discourses were preached during the revival of 1734-1735 and were selected by the desire of the people as those from which they had derived special benefit; the fifth was selected by Edwards himself at the request of some persons from a neighboring town who heard it, and because he thought that a sermon on the excellency of Christ might appropriately follow the others, which were of an awakening character. They were prefixed to the American reprint of the _Narrative of Surprising Conversions_, which was first published in England. The cost of their publication was defrayed by the congregation,--a clear evidence of their deep interest, as they were at the time heavily burdened by the expenses of the new meeting-house. See Dwight, _Life of Edwards_, pp. 140 f.; cf. n. here following, p. 162.

The sermon on Ruth's Resolution has been selected as the shortest of the above discourses to ill.u.s.trate a type of revival sermon in marked contrast to the sermon on Sinners in the Hands of an Angry G.o.d. They all, however, bear out Edwards's own testimony concerning his preaching: "I have not only endeavored to awaken you, that you might be moved with fear, but I have used my utmost endeavors to win you" (Farewell Sermon). The ma.n.u.script of the sermon is dated April, 1735, and it seems to have been printed very nearly as it was written.

THE MANY MANSIONS

59. =The Many Mansions.= The Ms. of this. .h.i.therto unpublished sermon is dated, "The Sabbath after the seating of the New Meeting House, Dec. 25, 1737." The occasion was one of special interest to the people of Northampton. The old meeting-house, erected in 1661, had become too small for the congregation and dangerously dilapidated; in fact, on a Sunday in March in the year the new building was completed, while Edwards was preaching, just after he had "laid down his doctrines" from the text, "Behold, ye despisers, wonder and perish," the front gallery, "with a noise like a clap of thunder," suddenly and dramatically fell.

Fortunately--by a special providence, it seemed to Edwards--no one of the hundred and fifty persons, more or less, involved in the catastrophe perished, or even had a bone broken, and only ten were hurt "so as to make any great matter of it." But the event showed that the building of a new meeting-house had been undertaken none too soon. The question of this new building had been brought forward in the town meeting of the spring of 1733, but it was first decided on in November, 1735, determined in part, no doubt, by the great revival of that year, when sixty, eighty, and a hundred were received into the church on successive communions. It then took two years to complete the structure. Incidentally, sixty-nine gallons of rum, besides numerous barrels of "cyder" and beer, were consumed by the workmen during the erection of the framework alone. Sixty men were engaged at 5s. a day for this part of the work, "they keeping themselves"--as Deacon Hunt's journal has it--"excepting drinks."

When the building, like several others of the period, a commodious, oblong structure with a tower, belfry and weather-c.o.c.k vane at one end of it, was nearly finished, the important matter of seating the congregation was taken up. This also was an affair of the town. It had already been decided at the annual town meeting in the spring to have pews along the walls and "seats" or benches only on both sides of the "alley" (broad aisle). The actual plan of the sittings, still extant, shows pews also around the benches on the floor, separated from the wall-pews by the narrow aisles, and five pews in the gallery. These pews were of the high, square variety, with seats on hinges, and were evidently regarded as places of superior dignity. Towards the end of the year, the town held a series of meetings with especial reference to the seating. The question of primary importance concerned the apportioning of the sittings according to social rank. At the meeting in November, a committee of five of the most prominent citizens was instructed to draw up "their Scheam or Platt for Seating of the meeting House and present it to the Town" for approval. The following month the committee was further instructed by the following votes:

"1. Voted That in Seating the new meeting House the committee have Respect princ.i.p.ally to men's estate.

"2. To have Regard to men's Age.

"3. Voted that some Regard and Respect [be paid] to men's usefullness, but in a less Degree." And that no mistake should be made, a committee of six was appointed to "estimate the pews and seats," that is, to "dignify" or appraise their social value.

Another connected question concerned the seating of the s.e.xes. At the meeting in November, it was voted that males should be at the south, females at the north, end; the men at the right of the pulpit, the women at the left. At the first meeting in December the town distinctly refused to allow men and their wives to sit together. But this was clearly opposed to the sentiment of some of the more influential members of the community, for at the adjourned meeting four days later, when "The Question was put whether the Committee be forbidden to Seat men & their wives together, Especially Such as Incline to Sit together: It pa.s.sed in the Negative."

Under this indirect and qualified authorization, married people were for the most part seated together in the pews, but apart on the benches, while in some cases the husband was a.s.signed to a pew and the wife to a bench.

The events and conditions here described are reflected in Edwards's sermon, especially in what he says of the extent of the "accommodations"

in heaven and in his remarks on the "seats of various dignity and different degrees and circ.u.mstances of honor and happiness" there, as compared with what we find in houses of worship on earth.

As indicating the size of Edwards's Northampton congregation, it may be interesting to observe that the seating-plan above referred to contains the names of nearly six hundred persons. And he had his audience all about him. The pulpit, surmounted by a huge sounding board, was in the middle of one of the longer sides of the building, not at the end, as is the custom now. For further particulars, see J. R. Trumbull, _History of Northampton_, Vol. II, Chap. vi.

This sermon is more fully written out than most of Edwards's unpublished sermons. In preparing the copy for the present volume, the editor had in mind the general a.n.a.logy of the other sermons here published. The abbreviations--X (Christ), G. (G.o.d), F. H. (Father's House), etc.--have accordingly been interpreted, and omitted sentences or phrases, indicated in the Ms. by dashes or s.p.a.ces, have been supplied from the context. All such additions, however, are inserted within square brackets.

SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY G.o.d