But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
~ 2 Timothy 4:5
Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
~ Romans 15:19
Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
~ Colossians 1:25
And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it.
~ Colossians 4:17
Remarks on the Essays on the Principles of Morality, and Natural Religion. In Letters to Ministers of the Church of Scotland, by the Reverend Mr. Jonathan Edwards. The following contains an excerpt.
1768.
41. TO THE REVEREND JAMES ROBE
The 1740 revival at Kilsyth, Scotland, offered striking similarities to the one in Northampton in 1735. Robe ever published his own Faithful Narrative, serialized in part in Thomas Prince, Jr. ‘s Christian History (Boston, 1743—44). Here Edwards initiates correspondence with his overseas counterpart, praising progress there and lamenting decline at home. After a litany of errors made, he recommends the signs to be sought of positive spiritual life.
(Published in CMH 2 (1745), 127—30; and in Works, 4, 535—38.)
Northampton, May 12, 1743. Rev. and Dear Sir,
Last week I was surprised with the unexpected favor of your letter, with one from Mr. (John) MacLaurin. It may well make me blush at the consideration of my vileness, to receive such undeserved testimonies of respect from servants of the Lord, at so great a distance, and that have been so highly favored and honored of God as you have been. Pleasant and joyful are the accounts which we have lately had from Scotland, concerning the kingdom of our God there, for which we and the world are specially indebted to you, who have honored your dear Lord, and refreshed and served his church, by the accounts you have published in your Narrative and Journals of the work of God in Kilsyth and other parts in the west of Scotland.1 Future generations will own themselves indebted to you for those accounts. I congratulate you, dear Sir, on the advantages God has put you under to favor the church of God with a narrative of his glorious works, by having made you the instrument of so much of them, and giving you such glorious success in your own congregation. The accounts which we have received from you are, on some accounts, more pleasant and agreeable than what we have had to send to you: the work of God with you has been less mixed with error and extravagance; you have taken a more wise and prudent care to prevent things of that nature, or to suppress them as soon as they have appeared; and ministers that have been the principal promoters of the work, have seemed to be more happily united in their sentiments, and so under greater advantage to assist one another, and to act as co-workers and fellow-helpers.
You have heard great things from New England of late, which, I doubt not, have refreshed and rejoiced your hearts; and indeed, great and wonderful have the things been in which God has passed before us. But now we have not such joyful news to send you; the clouds have lately thickened, and our hemisphere is now much darkened with them. There is a great decay of the work of God amongst us, especially as to the awakening and converting influence of the Spirit of God; and the prejudices there are, in a great part of the country, are riveted and inveterate. The people are divided into two parties, those that favor the work and those that are against it, and the distinction has long been growing more and more visible, and the distance greater, till there is at length raised a wall between them up to heaven; so that one party is very much out of the reach of all influence of the other. This is very much owing to imprudent management in the friends of the work, and a corrupt mixture which Satan has found means to introduce and our manifold sinful errors, by which we have grieved and quenched the Spirit of God.
It can scarcely be conceived of what consequence it is, to the continuance and propagation of a revival of religion, that the utmost care be used to prevent error and disorder among those that appear to be the subjects of such a work; and also, that all imaginable care be taken by ministers in conducting souls under the work; and particularly that there be the greatest caution used in comforting and establishing persons, as being safe and past danger of hell. Many among us have been ready to think, that all high raptures are divine; but experience plainly shows, that it is not the degree of rapture and ecstasy (although it should be to the third heavens), but the nature and kind that must determine us in their favor. It would have been better for us, if all ministers here had taken care diligently to distinguish such joys and raised affections, as were attended with deep humiliation, brokenness of heart, poverty of spirit, mourning for sin, solemnity of spirit, a trembling reverence towards God, tenderness of spirit, self-jealousy and fear, and great engagedness of heart, after holiness of life, and a readiness to esteem others better than themselves; and that sort of humility that is not a noisy showy humility, but rather this, which disposes to walk softly, and speak trembling; and if we had encouraged no discoveries or joys, but such as manifestly wrought this way, it would have been well for us.
And I am persuaded we shall generally be sensible, before long, that we run too fast, when we endeavor by our positive determinations to banish all fears of damnation from the minds of men, though they may be true saints, if they are not such as are eminently humble and mortified, and (what the Apostle calls) “rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17). It seems to be running before the Spirit of God. God by his Spirit does not give assurance any other way, than by advancing these things in the soul. He does not wholly cast out fear, the legal principle, but by advancing and filling the soul full of love, the evangelical principle. When love is low in the true saints, they need the fear of hell to deter them from sin, and engage them to exactness in their walk, and stir them up to seek heaven; but when love is high, and the soul full of it, we don’t need fear. And therefore, a wise God has so ordered it that love and fear should rise and fall like the scales of a balance, when one rises, the other falls, as there is need; or as light and darkness take place of each other in a room, as light decays, darkness comes in, and as light increases and fills the room, darkness is cast out; so love, or the spirit of adoption, casts out fear, the spirit of bondage. And experience convinces me, that even in the brightest and most promising appearances of new converts, it would have been better for us to have encouraged them only as it were conditionally, after the example of the Apostle, Hebrews 3:5. “Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end”; and v. Hebrews 3:14, “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” And after the example of Christ Revelation 2:10, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” So Luke 21:34, Luke 21:36, and in many other places.
‘Tis probable that one reason why God has suffered us to err, is to teach us wisdom, by experience of the ill consequence of our errors. What you relate of the opposition of the seceding ministers is very surprising; especially of the two Erskines, whose writings, especially Mr. Ralph Erskine’s Gospel Sonnets,2 have been in great repute among God’s people here: but this is a day of wonders of various kinds. I have reason to admire divine condescension in making any use of anything I have written for the defense of the work of God in Scotland.
As to what you propose concerning my writing a narrative, etc., I am not conveniently situated for it, living in an extreme part of the land, and an hundred miles from the press, as well as on many other accounts unfit for it. But Mr. (Thomas) Prince of Boston, who is every way fit, and under good advantages for it, has already undertaken it, and I suppose, will prosecute the undertaking, so far as it shall be thought for God’s glory.
I hope, dear Sir, you’ll remember me in your prayers. Never was I so sensible in any measure, how vain a creature man is; what a leaf driven of the wind, what dry stubble, what poor dust, a bubble, a shadow, a nothing, and more vain than nothing; and what a vain, and vile helpless creature I am, and how much I need God’s help in everything as of late. Dear Sir, don’t forget New England; and don’t forget your affectionate and obliged brother and servant,
And unworthy fellow-laborer, Jonathan Edwards.
42. TO THE ASSEMBLY OF PASTORS OF CHURCHES IN NEW ENGLAND
The convention of clergy in Boston on July 7 and 8, 1743, was a notable event in the history of the revival movement in colonial New England. Here Edwards and his colleagues from Hampshire County join the chorus of affirmation.
(Published in The Testimony and Advice of an Assembly of Pastors of Churches in New-England (Boston, 1743); The Christian History, no. 22 (Aug. 6, 1743), 178—80. Reprinted in CMH 3 (1744), 32—34; and Works, 4, 542—43.
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County of Hampshire, June 30, 1743. Rev. and Honored Sirs,
Whereas an advertisement hath lately been published, wherein it is signified, that it is the desire of a number of ministers that there should be a meeting of all such ministers in this province as are persuaded that there has of late been a happy revival of religion in the land, at Boston, the day after (Harvard’s) commencement, to give a joint testimony to the late glorious work of God’s grace, and to consult what should be done to promote this work, and to suppress those things that bring a reproach upon it and hinder it; and in the same advertisement it is desired that if any such ministers are not able to be present at this interview, they would not fail to send their testimony and thoughts in writing: we whose names are subscribed to this, living at a great distance, and our circumstances not well allowing us to go so great a journey at the time proposed, would hereby signify, that according to what understanding we have of the nature of Christianity, and the observation we have had opportunity to make, we judge that there has been within the last two years and an half, a blessed outpouring of the Spirit of God in this county in awakening and converting sinners, and in enlightening, quickening and building up saints in faith, holiness and comfort; which has been attended in great numbers with an abiding alteration and reformation of disposition and behavior. And particularly we would hereby declare to the glory of God’s grace, that we judge that there has been a happy revival of religion in the congregations that have been committed to our pastoral care, and that there are many in them that, by abiding manifestations of a serious, religious and humble spirit, and a conscientious care and watchfulness in their behavior towards God and man, give all grounds of charity towards them, as having been sincere in the profession they have made. And however there has been, especially in some places, a mixture of enthusiasm and false religion, and some have run into great errors in their conduct, and some have fallen away, and there is a declension in others that is to be lamented; yet we think the effect has been such, and still continues to be such, as leaves no room reasonably to doubt of God’s having been wonderfully in the midst of us, and such as has laid us under great obligations forever to admire and extol the riches of his grace in doing such great things for us.
Thus, reverend Sirs, begging of him that he would be with you in your meeting, and guide you in your thoughts and conclusions with respect to these things, and direct you to that which may be for his glory and the prosperity of Zion, and desiring your prayers to God for us, and the flocks committed to our care, we remain, honored and dear Sirs, your brethren and fellow servants in the gospel ministry,
Stephen Williams, pastor of a church in Springfield. Peter Reynolds, pastor of the church in Enfield. Jonathan Edwards, pastor of the church in Northampton. Samuel Allis, pastor of the church in Somers. John Woodbridge, pastor of the Second Church in Hadley. David Parsons, Jr., pastor of the Third Church in Hadley. Edward Billing, pastor of the church in Cold Spring.
43. TO THE REVEREND JONATHAN ASHLEY
(Beinecke Library, Sermon on Revelation 14:15, Jan. 1743/4; and Trask Library, Sermon on Isaiah 65:17-18, n. d. (probably early 1744). The ms. is torn into three parts: one part, right hand margin missing, top shorn; remaining sections each two duodecimo leaves; addressed on verso to the Reverend Mr. Jonathan Ashley in Deerheld.)
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(Northampton, Fall 1743). Rev. Sir,
By this (I would) signify to you that it happens that I shall not be in necessity of more than forty bushels of wheat. Some that were indebted to me, of whom I expected money, chose (to) pay me in wheat; and I, because I thought I should not easily get the money, have accepted the wheat.
If I remember right, you told me you had laid in some forty bushels with one man and ten with (another). Forty being as much as can well be brought at a load, I should choose to take only the forty bushels, if it be no inconvenience to the other man that was agreed with the ten. If there be any inconvenience (to) it, I shall make no difficulty, but will take the whole fifty bushels as has been agreed. And should be glad if what (wheat) I am to have may be brought as soon as (can) be, for we shall soon need it to use in (the) family. I would desire you to be so kind (as) to speak to the men about it; which, with acknowledgment of your kindness in your (help in) this matter, is from
Your brother and servant, Jonathan Edwards.
44. TO THE REVEREND EBENEZER PEMBERTON
Some awakened parishioners of the Milford, Connecticut, church were chafing under the leadership of their Old Light minister. For affiliation and preaching assistance, they applied to like-minded New York Presbyterians, who in turn sought the advice of Edwards. Here he is sympathetic; although unwilling to sanction schism, he is disturbed by the repression of new converts. He concludes that those nearer the situation should decide the course of action to be taken.
(Sterling Library, Manuscripts and Archives, Strong Family Papers, copy of ALS, probably in the hand of Ephraim Strong, a leader of the Milford Separatist movement, two quarto leaves. On Milford, see C. C. Goen, Revivalism and Separatism in New England, 1740—1800 (New Haven, 1962; rep. New York, 1969), pp. 59—61, 205, 215; and DEX, 1, 742—43.)
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Northampton, December 2, 1743. Rev. and Dear Sir,
From what I have heard from time to time from various sorts of persons, I can have no doubt in my own mind, but that the people at Milford that have separated from Mr. (Samuel) Whittelsey are a poor, oppressed people. I confess I have had no proper hearing of both parties face to face and should not be so free in giving my opinion without it, were it not that the circumstances of the land and the times are such, that there is no such thing as any proper hearing and trial of such cases to be expected. Persons and societies that have the most righteous cause, and are most cruelly oppressed year to year, may earnestly desire and seek a fair trial before proper judges; and never obtain it or have any prospect of it. In such a state of things, I therefore believe it to be necessary in many cases for persons to (be) using all proper cautions, to form a judgment and act upon it from the best information they can obtain.
Whether this people have taken a proper course for their relief in their extremity, I am not able at present to determine; particularly in taking the oath they have done and putting themselves under the law of a presbytery at such a distance. I leave those things to the judgment of those that are wiser and know more of the matter. And also whether it be proper for them now to change the presbytery they are subject to; or whether there be any probability of its answering their end or of their having any relief by it: I must leave this with them and you who, I believe, are much better able to determine. But in this I am fully of Mr. (Solomon) Williams of Lebanon’s mind, that their not being set off regularly (as it is called), according to the method of the ecclesiastical constitution of that government, is no just bar in the way of their being acknowledged and received by you or any other Christians or ministers or Christian societies or consistories. You are doubtless so well acquainted with (the) late and present state of that colony, that it may be safely left with you to judge, whether it be reasonable that all those in that government that have visibly been the subjects or favorers of the late glorious work of God should in all their religious affairs be held indispensably bound to be subject to what is there called order, viz. in the conduct of themselves in affairs of conscience and their eternal salvation.
Fine, their treatment of one another, to submit evermore to the judgment and decisions of the major part of the ministers and people within the limits of their consociations, or of the whole government taken together: this would be for these people to yield up themselves in matters of infinite consequences into the hands of those who are evidently, in the face of the world, their embittered enemies that seek by all means to crush them, right or wrong, even to that degree of prejudice and spirit that appears to me a sort of madness. It is manifest that there (are) many in that government under the most terrible oppression both from civil and ecclesiastical authority, and (I) think no impartial person can doubt but that it must be the duty of all friends to religion and to mankind in other colonies, whether particular persons or consistories, (to) be approved for them, and to help them as they have opportunity in the use of any proper means; not at all the less for Connecticut private law or their sacred constitution, but as to the particular course that should be taken for the relief of this poor people at Milford, or unless that your presbytery can afford them any relief in the pursuit of any proper measures, I must leave to those that are under better advantages to judge than I am.
Present my humble service to Mrs. Pemberton and Messrs. (William) Smith, Noble and (Nathaniel) Hazard, father and son, and my love and service to the other ministers in your presbytery. And remember in your prayers, dear Sir,
Your affectionate brother and humble servant, Jonathan Edwards.
45. TO THE REVEREND THOMAS PRINCE
Publicly, at least, Edwards is still riding the wave of excitement from the 1740—41 revival. He recounts Whitefield’s visit, describes its aftereffects, and betrays a growing uneasiness with emotional excess. He sets great store by Northampton’s covenant renewal, the text of which is included, as a means to continue the awakening spirit.
(Published, most likely as an excerpt, in Prince, Christian History 1 (1743), 367—81; CMH 4 (1745), 101—14; Dwight ed., 1, 160—70; and Works, 4, 544—60.)
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Northampton, December 12, 1743. (Rev. and Dear Sir,)
Ever since the great work of God that was wrought here about nine years ago, there has been a great abiding alteration in this town in many respects. There has been vastly more religion kept up in the town, among all sorts of persons, in religious exercises and in common conversation, than used to be before: there has remained a more general seriousness and decency in attending the public worship; there has been a very great alteration among the youth of the town, with respect to reveling, frolicking, profane and unclean conversation, and lewd songs; instances of fornication have been very rare; there has also been a great alteration amongst both old and young with respect to tavern-haunting. I suppose the town has been in no measure so free of vice in these respects, for any long time together, for this sixty years, as it has been this nine years past. There has also been an evident alteration with respect to a charitable spirit to the poor (though I think with regard to this, we in this town, as the land in general, come far short of gospel rules). And though after that great work nine years ago there has been a very lamentable decay of religious affections, and the engagedness of people’s spirit in religion, yet many societies for prayer and social religion were all along kept up, and there were some few instances of awakening and deep concern about the things of another world, even in the most dead time.
In the year 1740 in the spring, before Mr. (George) Whitefield came to this town, there was a visible alteration: there was more seriousness and religious conversation, especially among young people. Those things that were of ill tendency among them were more forborne; and it was a more frequent thing for persons to visit their minister upon soul accounts, and in some particular persons there appeared a great alteration about that time. And thus it continued till Mr. Whitefield came to town, which was about the middle of October following: he preached here four sermons in the meetinghouse (besides a private lecture at my house), one on Friday, another on Saturday, and two upon the sabbath. The congregation was extraordinarily melted by every sermon; almost the whole assembly being in tears for a great part of sermon time. Mr. Whitefield’s sermons were suitable to the circumstances of the town; containing just reproofs of our backslidings, and in a most moving and affecting manner, making use of our great profession and great mercies as arguments with us to return to God, from whom we had departed. Immediately after this the minds of the people in general appeared more engaged in religion, showing a greater forwardness to make religion the subject of their conversation, and to meet frequently together for religious purposes, and to embrace all opportunities to hear the Word preached. The revival at first appeared chiefly among professors, and those that had entertained the hope that they were in a state of grace, to whom Mr. Whitefield chiefly addressed himself, but in a very short time there appeared an awakening and deep concern among some young persons that looked upon themselves as in a Christless state; and there were some hopeful appearances of conversion; and some professors were greatly revived. In about a month or six weeks there was a great alteration in the town, both as to the revivals of professors, and awakenings of others. By the middle of December a very considerable work of God appeared among those that were very young, and the revival of religion continued to increase; so that in the spring, an engagedness of spirit about things of religion was become very general amongst young people and children, and religious subjects almost wholly took up their conversation when they were together.
In the month of May 1741, a sermon was preached to a company at a private house. Near the conclusion of the exercise one or two persons that were professors were so greatly affected with a sense of the greatness and glory of divine things, and the infinite importance of the thing of eternity, that they were not able to conceal it; the affection of their minds overcoming their strength, and having a very visible effect on their bodies. When the exercise was over, the young people that were present removed into the other room for religious conference; and particularly that they might have opportunity to inquire of those that were thus affected what apprehensions they had; and what things they were that thus deeply impressed their minds: and there soon appeared a very great effect of their conversation; the affection was quickly propagated through the room: many of the young people and children that were professors appeared to be overcome with a sense of the greatness and glory of divine things, and with admiration, love, joy and praise, and compassion to others that looked upon themselves as in a state of nature; and many others at the same time were overcome with distress about their sinful and miserable state and condition; so that the whole room was full of nothing but outcries, faintings and such like. Others soon heard of it, in several parts of the town, and came to them; and what they saw and heard there was greatly affecting to them; so that many of them were overpowered in like manner: and it continued thus for some hours; the time being spent in prayer, singing, counseling and conferring. There seemed to be a consequent happy effect of that meeting to several particular persons, and in the state of religion in the town in general.
After this were meetings from time to time attended with like appearances. But a little after it, at the conclusion of the public exercise on the sabbath, I appointed the children that were under sixteen years of age to go from the meetinghouse to a neighbor house; that I there might further enforce what they had heard in public, and might give in some counsels proper for their age. The children were there very generally and greatly affected with the warnings and counsels that were given them, and many exceedingly overcome; and the room was filled with cries: and when they were dismissed, they, almost all of them, went home crying aloud through the streets, to all parts of the town. The like appearances attended several such meetings of children that were appointed. But their affections appeared by what followed to be of a very different nature: in many they appeared to be indeed but childish affections; and in a day or two would leave ’em as they were before: others were deeply impressed; their convictions took fast hold of them, and abode by them: and there were some that from one meeting to another seemed extraordinarily affected for some time, to but little purpose, their affections presently vanishing from time to time; but yet afterwards were seized with abiding convictions, and their affections became durable.
About the middle of the summer, I called together the young people that were communicants, from sixteen to twenty-six years of age to my house; which proved to be a most happy meeting: many seemed to be very greatly and most agreeably affected with those views which excited humility, self-condemnation, self-abhorrence, love and joy: many fainted under these affections. We had several meetings that summer of young people attended with like appearances. It was about that time that there first began to be cryings out in the meetinghouse; which several times occasioned many of the congregation to stay in the house after the public exercise was over, to confer with those who seemed to be overcome with religious convictions and affections; which was found to tend much to the propagation of their impressions, with lasting effect upon many; conference being at these times commonly joined with prayer and singing. In the summer and fall the children in various parts of the town had religious meetings by themselves for prayer, sometimes joined with fasting; wherein many of them seemed to be greatly and properly affected, and I hope some of them (were) savingly wrought upon.
The months of August and September (1741) were the most remarkable of any this year, for appearances of conviction and conversion of sinners, and great revivings, quickenings, and comforts of professors, and for extraordinary external effects of these things. It was a very frequent thing to see an house full of outcries, faintings, convulsions and such like, both with distress, and also with admiration and joy. It was not the manner here to hold meetings all night, as in some places, nor was it common to continue ’em till very late in the night: but it was pretty often, so that there were some that were so affected, and their bodies so overcome, that they could not go home, but were obliged to stay all night at the house where they were. There was no difference that I know of here, with regard to these extraordinary effects, in meetings in the night and in the daytime: the meetings in which these effects appeared in the evening, being commonly begun, and their extraordinary effects, in the day, and continued in the evening; and some meetings have been very remarkable for such extraordinary effects that were both begun and finished in the daytime.
There was an appearance of a glorious progress of the work of God upon the hearts of sinners in conviction and conversion this summer and fall; and great numbers, I think we have reason to hope, were brought savingly home to Christ. But this was remarkable: the work of God in his influences of this nature seemed to be almost wholly upon a new generation; those that were not come to years of discretion in that wonderful season nine years ago, children, or those that were then children: others that had enjoyed that former glorious opportunity without any appearance of saving benefit, seemed now to be almost wholly passed over and let alone. But now we had the most wonderful work among children that ever was in Northampton. The former great outpouring of the Spirit was remarkable for influences upon the minds of children, beyond all that had ever been before; but this far exceeded that. Indeed as to influences on the minds of professors, this work was by no means confined to a new generation: many of all ages partook of it; but yet, in this respect it was more general on those that were of the younger sort. Many that had formerly been wrought upon, that in the times of our declension had fallen into decays, and had in a great measure left God, and gone after the world, now passed under a very remarkable new work of the Spirit of God, as if they had been the subjects of a second conversion. They were first led into the wilderness, and had a work of conviction, having much greater convictions of the sin of both nature and practice than ever before (though with some new circumstances, and something new in the kind of conviction); in some with great distress, beyond what they had felt before their first conversion. Under these convictions they were excited to strive for salvation, and the kingdom of heaven suffered violence from some of them in a far more remarkable manner than before: and after great convictions and humblings, and agonizings with God, they had Christ discovered to them anew as an all-sufficient Savior; and in the glories of his grace, and in a far more clear manner than before, and with greater humility, self-emptiness and brokenness of heart, and a purer and higher joy, and greater desires after holiness of life, but with greater self-diffidence, and distrust of their treacherous hearts.
One circumstance wherein this work differed from that which had beer in the town five or six years before, was that conversions were frequently wrought more sensibly and visibly; the impressions stronger, and more manifest by external effects of them; and the progress of the Spirit of God in conviction, from step to step, more apparent; and the transition from one state to another more sensible and plain; so that it might, in many instances, be as it were seen by bystanders. The preceding season had been very remarkable on this account beyond what had been before; but this (was) more remarkable than that And in this season these apparent or visible conversions (if I may so call them) were more frequently in the presence of others, at religious meetings, where the appearances of what was wrought on the heart fell under public observation.
After September 1741, there seemed to be some abatement of the extraordinary appearances that had been; but yet they did not wholly cease, but there was something of them from time to time all winter.
About the beginning of February 1741/2, Mr. (Samuel) Buell came to this town, I being then absent from home, and continued so till about a fortnight after. Mr. Buell preached from day to day, almost every day, in the meetinghouse (I having left to him the free liberty of my pulpit, hearing of his designed visit before I went from home) and spent almost the whole time in religious exercises with the people, either in public or private, the people continually thronging him. When he first came, there came with him a number of the zealous people from Suffield, who continued here for some time. There were very extraordinary effects of Mr. Buell’s labors; the people were exceedingly moved, crying out in great numbers in the meetinghouse, and great part of the congregation commonly staying in the house of God for hours after the public service, many of them in uncommon circumstances. Many also were exceedingly moved in private meetings, where Mr. Buell was: and almost the whole town seemed to be in a great and continual commotion, day and night; and there was indeed a very great revival of religion. But it was principally among professors; the appearances of a work of conversion were in no measure equal to what had been the summer before. When I came home I found the town in very extraordinary circumstances, such in some respects as I never saw it in before. Mr. Buell continued here a fortnight or three weeks after I returned: there being still great appearances attending his labors; many in their religious affections being raised far beyond what they ever had been before: and there were some instances of persons lying in a sort of trance, remaining for perhaps a whole twenty-four hours motionless, and with their senses locked up; but in the meantime under strong imaginations, as though they went to heaven, and had there a vision of glorious and delightful objects. But when the people were raised to this height, Satan took the advantage and his interposition in many instances soon became very apparent: and a great deal of caution and pains were found necessary to keep the people, many of them, from running wild.
In the month of March I led the people into a solemn public renewal of their covenant with God. To that end I made a draft of a covenant, and first proposed it to some of the principal men in the church; then proposed it to the people in their several religious societies, in various parts of the town; and then proposed it to the whole congregation in public; and then deposited a copy of it in the hands of each of our four deacons, that all that desired it might resort to them, and have opportunity to view and consider it. Then the people in general that were above fourteen years of age first subscribed the covenant with their hands, and then on a day of fasting and prayer, all together presented themselves before the Lord in his house, and stood up, and solemnly manifested their consent to it, as their vow to God. The covenant was as follows:
A Copy of a Covenant Entered into and Subscribed by the People of God at Northampton, and Owned Before God in His House As their Vow to the Lord, and Made a Solemn Act of Public Worship, by the Congregation in General That Were Above Fourteen Years of Age, on a Day of Pasting and Prayer for the Continuance and Increase of the Gracious Presence of God in That Place, March 16, 1741/2.
Acknowledging God’s great goodness to us, a sinful, unworthy people, in the blessed manifestations and fruits of his gracious presence in this town, both formerly and lately, and particularly in the very late spiritual revival; and adoring the glorious majesty, power, and grace of God, manifested in the present wonderful outpouring of his Spirit in many parts of this land, and in this place; and lamenting our past backslidings and ungrateful departings from God; and humbly begging of God that he would not mark our iniquities, but for Christ’s sake come over the mountains of our sins, and visit us with his salvation, and continue the tokens of his presence with us, and yet more gloriously pour out his blessed Spirit upon us, and make us all partakers of the divine blessings he is, at this day, bestowing here and in many parts of this land; we do this day present ourselves before the Lord, to renounce our evil ways, and put away our abominations from before God’s eyes, and with one accord to renew our engagements to seek and serve God: and particularly do now solemnly promise and vow to the Lord as follows:
In all our conversation, concerns, and dealings with our neighbor, we will have a strict regard to rules of honesty, justice, and uprightness; that we don’t overreach or defraud our neighbor in any matter, and either willfully or through want of care, injure him in any of his honest possessions or rights; and in all our communication, will have a tender respect, not only to our own interest, but also to the interest of our neighbor; and will carefully endeavor in everything to do to others as we should expect, or think reasonable that they should do to us, if we were in their case and they in ours. And particularly we will endeavor to render to everyone his due; and will take heed to ourselves, that we don’t wrong our neighbor, and give them a just cause of offense, by willfully or negligently forbearing to pay our honest debts.
And wherein any of us, upon strict examination of our past behavior, may be conscious to ourselves that we have by any means wronged any of our neighbors in their outward estate; we will not rest till we have made that restitution, or given that satisfaction, which the rules of moral equity require: or if we are, on a strict and impartial search, conscious to ourselves that we have in any other respect considerably injured our neighbor; we will truly endeavor to do that which we, in our consciences, suppose Christian rules require, in order to a reparation of the injury and removing the offense given thereby.
And furthermore we promise that we will not allow ourselves in backbiting; and that we will take great heed to ourselves to avoid all violations of those Christian rules, Titus 3:2, “Speak evil of no man”; James 4:11, “Speak not evil one of another, brethren”; and 2 Corinthians 12:20, “Lest there be (…) strifes, backbitings, whisperings”: and that we will not only not slander our neighbor, but also will not, to feed a spirit of bitterness, ill will, or secret grudge against our neighbor, insist on his real faults needlessly, and when not called to it; or from such a spirit speak of his failings and blemishes with ridicule, or an air of contempt.
And we promise that we will be very careful to avoid doing anything to our neighbor from a spirit of revenge. And that we will take great care that we do not, for private interest, or our own honor, or to maintain ourselves against those of a contrary party, or to get our wills, or to promote any design in opposition to others, do those things which we, on the most impartial consideration we are capable of, can think in our consciences will tend to wound religion and the interest of Christ’s kingdom.
And particularly that so far as any of us, by divine providence, have any special influence upon others, to lead them in the management of public affairs; we will not make our own worldly gain, or honor, or interest in the affections of others, or getting the better of any of a contrary party, that are in any respect our competitors, or the bringing or keeping them down, our governing aim, to the prejudice of the interest of religion and the honor of Christ. And in the management of any public affair wherein there is a difference of opinions, concerning any outward possessions, privileges, rights or properties: we will not wittingly violate justice for private interest; and with the greatest strictness and watchfulness, will avoid all unchristian bitterness, vehemence, and heat of spirit; yea, though we should think ourselves injured by a contrary party: and in the time of the management of such affairs, will especially watch over ourselves, our spirits, and our tongues, to avoid all unchristian inveighings, reproachings, bitter reflectings, judging and ridiculing others, either in public meetings, or in private conversation, either to men’s faces, or behind their backs; but will greatly endeavor, so far as we are concerned, that all should be managed with Christian humility, gentleness, quietness and love.
And furthermore, we promise that we will not tolerate the exercise of enmity and ill will, or revenge in our hearts, against any of our neighbors; and we will often be strictly searching and examining our hearts with respect to that matter.
And if any of us find that we have an old secret grudge against any of our neighbors, we will not gratify it, but cross it, and endeavor to our utmost to root it out, crying to God for his help; and that we will make it our true and faithful endeavor, in our places, that a party spirit may not be kept up amongst us, but that it may utterly cease; that for the future we may all be one, united in undisturbed peace and unfeigned love.
And those of us that are in youth do promise never to allow ourselves in any youthful diversions and pastimes, in meetings or companies of young people, that we in our consciences, upon sober consideration, judge not well to consist with, or would sinfully tend to hinder the devoutest, and most engaged spirit in religion; or indispose the mind for that devout and profitable attendance on the duties of the closet, which is most agreeable to God’s will, or that we in our most impartial judgment, can think tends to rob God of that honor which he expects, by our orderly, serious attendance on family worship.
And furthermore we promise that we will strictly avoid all freedoms and familiarities in company, so tending either to stir up or gratify a lust of lasciviousness, that we cannot in our consciences think will be approved by the infinitely pure and holy eye of God; or that we can think on serious and impartial consideration, we should be afraid to practice, if we expected in a few hours to appear before that holy God, to give an account of ourselves to him, as fearing they would be condemned by him as unlawful and impure. We also promise, with great watchfulness, to perform relative duties, required by Christian rules, in the families we belong to; as we stand related respectively, towards parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, masters or mistresses and servants.
And we now appear before God, depending on divine grace and assistance, solemnly to devote our whole lives to be laboriously spent in the business of religion: ever making it our greatest business, without backsliding from such a way of living; not hearkening to the solicitations of our sloth and other corrupt inclinations, or the temptations of the world, that tend to draw us off from it; and particularly, that we will not abuse an hope, or opinion that any of us may have of our being interested in Christ, to indulge ourselves in sloth, or the more easily to yield to the solicitations of any sinful inclinations; but will run with perseverance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1), and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).
And because we are sensible that the keeping (of) these solemn vows may hereafter, in many cases, be very contrary to our corrupt inclinations and carnal interests; we do now therefore appear before God, to make a surrender of all to him, and to make a sacrifice of every carnal inclination and interest to the great business of religion, and the interest of our souls.
And being sensible of our own weakness, and the deceitfulness of our own hearts, and our proneness to forget our most solemn vows and lose our resolutions; we promise to be often strictly examining ourselves by these promises, especially before the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper; and beg of God that he would, for Christ’s sake keep us from wickedly dissembling in these our solemn vows; and that he who searches our hearts (Romans 8:27) and ponders the path of our feet (Proverbs 4:26) would from time to time help us in trying ourselves by this covenant, and help us to keep covenant with him and not leave us to our own foolish, wicked and treacherous hearts.
In the beginning of the summer, 1742, there seemed to be some abatement of the liveliness of people’s affections in religion: but yet many were often in a great height of them. And in the fall and winter following there were at times extraordinary appearances. But in the general people’s engagedness in religion and the liveliness of their affections have been on the decline: and some of the young people especially have shamefully lost their liveliness and vigor in religion, and much of the seriousness and solemnity of their spirits. But there are many that walk as becometh saints (Ephesians 5:2-3); and to this day, there are a considerable number in the town that seem to be near to God, and maintain much of the life of religion, and enjoy many of the sensible tokens and fruits of his gracious presence.
With respect to the late season of revival of religion amongst us, for three or four years past; it has been observable that in the former part of it, in the years 1740 and 1741, the work seemed to be much more pure, having less of a corrupt mixture, than in the former great outpouring of the Spirit in 1735 and 1736. Persons seemed to be sensible of their former errors, and had learnt more of their own hearts, and experience had taught them more of the tendency and consequences of things: they were now better guarded, and their affections were not only greater, but attended with greater solemnity, and greater humility and self-distrust, and greater engagedness after holy living and perseverance; and there were fewer errors in conduct. But in the latter part of it, in the year 1742, it was otherwise. The work continued more pure till we were infected from abroad: our people hearing, and some of them seeing the work in other places, where there was a greater visible commotion than here, and the outward appearances were more extraordinary; were ready to think that the work in those places far excelled what was amongst us; and their eyes were dazzled with the high profession and great show that some made who came hither from other places.
That those people went so far beyond them in raptures and violent emotions of the affections, and a vehement zeal, and what they called boldness for Christ; our people were ready to think was owing to their far greater attainments in grace, and intimacy with heaven: they looked little in their own eyes in comparison of them, and were ready to submit themselves to ’em, and yield themselves up to their conduct, taking it for granted that everything was right that they said and did. These things had a strange influence on the people, and gave many of them a deep and unhappy tincture, that it was a hard and long labor to deliver ’em from, and which some of them are not fully delivered from to this day.
The effects and consequences of things amongst us plainly shows the following things, viz. that the degree of grace is by no means to be judged of by the degree of joy, or the degree of zeal; and that indeed we can’t at all determine by these things, who are gracious and who are not; and that it is not the degree of religious affections, but the nature of them that is chiefly to be looked at. Some that have had very great raptures of joy, and have been extraordinarily filled (as the vulgar phrase is) and have had their bodies overcome, and that very often, have manifested far less of the temper of Christians, in their conduct since, than some others that have been still, and have made no great outward show. But then again there are many others, that have had extraordinary joys and emotions of mind, with frequent great effects on their bodies, that behave themselves steadfastly as humble, amiable, eminent Christians.
‘Tis evident that there may be great religious affections, that may in show and appearance imitate gracious affections, and have the same effects on their bodies, but are far from having the same effect in the temper of their minds, and course of their lives. And likewise there is nothing more manifest by what appears amongst us, than that the goodness of (a) person’s state is not chiefly to be judged of by any exactness of steps, and method of experiences, in what is supposed to be the first conversion; but that we must judge more by the spirit that breathes, the effect wrought on the temper of the soul, in the time of the work, and remaining afterwards. Though there have been very few instances among professors amongst us, of what is ordinarily called scandalous sin, known to me; yet the temper that some of them show, and the behavior they have been of, together with some things in the kind and circumstances of their experiences, make me much afraid lest there be a considerable number that have woefully deceived themselves. Though on the other hand, there is a great number whose temper and conversation is such as justly confirms the charity of others towards them; and not a few in whose disposition and walk, there are amiable appearances of eminent grace. And notwithstanding all the corrupt mixtures that have been in the late work here; there are not only many blessed fruits of it in particular persons, that yet remain, but some good effects of it upon the town in general. A party spirit has more (cased: I suppose there has been less appearance these three or four years past, of that division of the town into two parties, that has long been our bane, than has been these thirty years; and the people have apparently had much more caution, and a greater guard on their spirit and their tongues, to avoid contention and unchristian heats, in town meetings and on other occasions. And ’tis a thing greatly to be rejoiced in, that the people very lately have come to an agreement and final issue, with respect to their grand controversy relating to their common lands; which has been above any other particular thing, a source of mutual prejudices, jealousies, and debates, for fifteen or sixteen years past. The people are also generally of late in some respects considerably altered and meliorated in their notions of religion: particularly they seem to be much more sensible of the danger of resting in old experiences, or what they were subjects of at their supposed first conversion; and to be more fully convinced of the necessity of forgetting the things that are behind, and pressing forward (Philippians 3:13-14), and maintaining earnest labor, watchfulness and prayerfulness as long as they live.
(Jonathan Edwards.)
46. TO THE REVEREND ELNATHAN WHITMAN
This letter is a plea for charity and freedom of conscience. It is the only known letter from Edwards to his first cousin, Rev. Elnathan Whitman, minister of the Second Church of Christ, Hartford, Connecticut. The Northampton pastor is aware of the danger of divisiveness but warns against being judgmental and precipitous. The confusion of the times, the apostolic example, and a recognition of human frailty all call for patience.
(Trask Library, AL, writer’s copy, four quarto leaves. Published in Dwight ed., 1. 204—09; Edwin P. Parker, History of the Second Church of Christ in Hartford (Hartford, 1892), pp. 111—48.)
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Northampton, February 9, 1743/4. Rev. and Dear Sir,
Mr. (John) Potwine was here this week, and among other things that were the subjects of our conversation, he gave me some account of the circumstances of a number of persons that had absented themselves from your meeting and had attended the public worship at Windsor, and desired my sentiments. I told him I should give no judgment of their particular case because I was not under a capacity of knowing it, but gave him my thoughts of some things in general, and on further reflecting on the matter am come to a determination to express the same sentiments that I signified to him, in a letter to you. I think not from any inclination to meddle with other folks’ business, nor from any disposition to justify those pernicious principles tending to promote and foment censoriousness and division that have prevailed in many parts of the land of late, which I have ever borne a testimony against. But as it has been a time wherein the state of things has been very extraordinary, attended in some respects with general confusion; and the remedying the mischiefs that have been, being an affair of general concern; and the proper methods to be taken in order to it, being that about which there is a great diversity of sentiments: I thought it might not be amiss for me in general to express my thoughts to you as a friend and relation, leaving it with you to make what use of them and lay what weight to them you see best.
As to differences among professing Christians of opinion and practice about things that appertain to religion and the worship of God, I am ready to think that you and I are agreed as to the general principles of liberty of conscience; and that men’s using coercive methods with their neighbors to oblige them to a conformity to their sentiments or way, is in nothing so unreasonable as in the worship of God, because that is a business wherein each person acts for himself with his Creator and supreme judge, as one concerned for his own acceptance with him, on which depends his own and not his neighbor’s eternal happiness and salvation from everlasting ruin. And it is an affair wherein each man is infinitely more concerned with his Creator than he is with his neighbors. And so I suppose it will be allowed that each man ought to be left to his own conscience, in what he judges will be most acceptable to God, or what he supposes is the will of God, as to the kind or manner or means of worship, or the society of worshippers he should join with in worship. Not but that a great abuse may be made of this doctrine of liberty of conscience in the worship of God. I know that many are ready to justify everything in their own conduct from this doctrine, and I don’t suppose that men’s pretense of conscience is always to be regarded when made use of to justify their changing the society of worshippers they join with, or the means of their worship, or indeed the kind and manner of their worship. Men may make this pretense sometimes with such circumstances, that they may be worthy of no credit in what they pretend. It may be so manifest from the nature and circumstances of the case and their own manner of behavior, that it is not conscience, but petulancy and malice and willfulness and carnal vices that influence them. And, therefore, it seems to me evident that when such pleas are made, those that are especially concerned with them, as persons peculiarly obliged to take care of their souls, have no other way to do but to consider the nature and circumstances of the case, and from thence to judge whether the case be such as will admit of such a plea; or whether the nature of things will admit of such a supposition, that the men act conscientiously in what they do, considering all things that appertain to the case. And in this I conceive many things are to be considered and laid together: as the nature of that thing that is the subject of controversy, or wherein they differ from others or have changed their own practice; the degree in which it is disputable and how it may be supposed liable to diversity of opinions one way or the other, as to its agreeableness to the Word of God, and as to the importance of it with regard to men’s salvation or soul’s good; the degree of knowledge or ignorance of the persons; the advantages they have had for information, or the disadvantages they have been under, and what has been in their circumstances that might mislead their judgment; the principles that have been instilled into them; the instructions they have had from those that they have had an high opinion of for wisdom and piety, that might misguide the judgment of persons of real honesty and sincerity and tender conscience; the example of others; the diversities of opinions among ministers; the general state of things in the land; the character of the persons themselves and the manner of their behavior in the particular affair in debate.
Now, Sir, I imagine with regard to those persons that have gone from you to Windsor, that however you look upon their behavior herein as very disorderly, yet if you suppose (the case being considered with all its circumstances) that there was any room for charity that it might be through infirmity, ignorance, and mistakes of judgment, so that they might be truly conscientious in it, i.e. might really believe it to be their duty and what God required of ’em to do as they have done: you would by no means think that they ought to be proceeded with in the use of such means as are proper to be used with contumacious offenders, or those that are stubborn and obstinate in scandalous vice or willful wickedness; or that you would think it proper to proceed with persons, towards whom there is this room left for charity; that possibly they may be honest and truly conscientious, acting as persons afraid to offend God, so as to cut them off from the congregation of the Lord, and cast ’em forth into the visible kingdom of Satan, to be as harlots and publicans.
Now, Sir, I would pray that it may be considered, whether it can positively be determined, when all things are considered with respect to those persons that have absented themselves from your assembly, that it could not be in their case that that might really be their judgment, that it was their duty so to do, and that God required it of them, and that they should greatly expose the welfare of their own souls in attending no other public worship, but that in your congregation. I suppose those persons are not much versed in casuistical divinity. They are of the common people, whose judgment in all nations and ages are exceeding easily led and swayed. They are not very capable of viewing things in the extent of their consequences and of estimating things in their true weight and importance. And you know, dear Sir, the state that things have been in the country. You know what opinions have lately prevailed and have been maintained and propagated by those that have been lifted up to heaven in their reputation for piety and great knowledge in divine matters, with a great part of the people of New England. I don’t pretend to know what has influenced these people in particular; but I think under these circumstances it would be no strange thing, if great numbers of the common people in the country that are really conscientious and concerned to be accepted with God and to take the best course for their soul’s good, should really think in their hearts that God requires ’em to attend the ministry of these that are called New Light ministers; and that it would be dangerous to their souls and what God approved not of, ordinarily to attend the ministry of others. Yea, I should think it strange if it were otherwise.
It ought to be considered how public controversy and a great and general cry in matters of religion strongly influences the minds or multitudes of the common people, how it blinds their minds and wonderfully misleads their judgment. And Christian rules and the example of the apostles most certainly require that great allowances be made in such cases. And particularly the example of the apostle Paul with regard to great numbers of professing Christians in the Church of Corinth who, in a time of great and general confusion in that church, through the evil instruction of teachers that they admired that misled and blinded their judgment, ran into many and great disorders in their worship and woeful schisms and divisions among themselves, and particularly with regard to ministers and with regard to the apostle Paul himself, whom many of them seem for a time to have forsaken to follow others that set up themselves in opposition to him; though, as he says, he had been their father, who had begotten them through the gospel. Yet with how much gentleness does the Apostle treat them, still acknowledging them as brethren. And though he required church censures to be used with regard to the incestuous persons, yet there is no shadow of the Apostle taking any such course with those that had been misled by those false teachers or with any that had been guilty of these disorders except the false teachers themselves. But as soon as they are brought off from following these false apostles any longer, he embraces ’em without further ado with all the love and tenderness of a father; burying all their censoriousness and schisms and disorders at the Lord’s Supper–and ill treatment of him, the extraordinary messenger of Christ to them. And indeed, the Apostle never so much as gave any direction for the suspension of any one member from the Lord’s Supper on account of these disorders or from any other part of the public worship of God; but instead of that, gives ’em directions how they shall go on better to attend the Lord’s Supper and other parts of worship. And he himself, without suspension or interruption, goes On to call and treat them as beloved brethren, Christians, sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, and praises God on their behalf for the grace that is given them by Christ Jesus; and often and abundantly expresses his charity towards them in innumerable expressions that I might mention. And nothing is more apparent than that he don’t treat them as those with respect to whom there lies a bar in the way of others’ reating them with the charity that belongs to saints and good and honest members of the Christian church, till the bar be removed by a church process. And, indeed, the insisting on a church process with every member that has behaved himself disorderly, in a such like state of general confusion, is not a way to build up the church of God (which is the end of church discipline), but to pull it down. It will not be the way to cure a diseased member, but to bring a disease on the whole body.
I am not alone in these sentiments, but I have reason to think that Col. (John) Stoddard, from the conversation I have had with him, is in the like way of thinking.
There came hither the last fall a couple of Scotsmen belonging to the church at New Haven, that had been members of Mr. (Joseph) Noyes’ church, but had left it and had incorporated with the separate church and entered into covenant with them when that church was embodied. This was looked upon as a crime that ought not to be passed over by Mr. Noyes and the Rector (Thomas Clap). They manifested themselves willing to return to Mr. Noyes’ meeting, but a particular confession was required of ’em in the meeting house. Accordingly, each of ’em had offered a confession, but it was not thought sufficient; but it was required of them that they should add some things that they thought hard of; and they consulting me about it, I acquainted Colonel Stoddard with the affair and desired his thoughts. He said he looked upon it unreasonable to require any confession at all; and that considering the general state of confusion that there had been, and the instructions and examples these young men had had, it might well be looked upon enough that they now alter their practice, and return again to Mr. Noyes’ meeting. Not that you are obliged to think as Colonel Stoddard does, yet I think, considering his character and relation, his judgment may well be of so much weight as to engage you the more to attend to and weigh the reasons he gives.
The objections that these persons may have had against ordinarily attending your meeting may perhaps be very trivial; but yet I apprehend that through infirmities the case may be so with truly honest and conscientious Christians, that trivial things may have great weight in their conscience so as to have fast hold of them till they are better enlightened, as in the former time in the country it was with respect to controversy between Presbyterians and Congregationalists. It was, as I have heard, in those days real matter of question with some whether a Presbyterian, living and dying so, could be saved. Some Irish Presbyterians that have lived with us have desired baptism for their children that yet lived in neglect of the ordinances of the Lord’s Supper, because of a difference on some trivial circumstances of the administration from the method of the Church of Scotland. This matter being discoursed of, it was thought by Colonel Stoddard in particular that their neglect ought to (be) borne with and they ought to be looked upon as Christians and their children received to baptism; because however trivial the foundations of their scruples were, yet through ignorance they might be honest and conscientious in them.
As to the church covenant that these persons have entered into, wherein they have obliged themselves ordinarily to join in the worship of that church I suppose none interpret the promises of the church covenant in such a sense as to exclude all reserves of liberty in case of an alteration of the judgment in the affairs of conscience and religion in one respect or another. As if a person, after incorporating with a Congregational church, should become a conscientious Church (of England) man, or Anabaptist, or should by any change of judgment come to think the means or manner of worship unlawful; and so in other respects that might be mentioned.
And if it be so that these persons in some of their talk and behavior have manifested a contentious, forward spirit at the time of their withdrawing from your church, I confess this gives greater ground of suspicion of the sincerity (of) their profession of conscience–yet as to this, I humbly conceive allowances must be made. It must be considered that it is possible that persons, in an affair of this nature, in the thing itself may be conscientious, and yet in the course of the management of it may be guilty of very corrupt mixtures of passion and many evil dispositions, as indeed is commonly the case with men in long controversies of whatever nature, and even with conscientious men. And therefore it appears to me that if persons in such a case are not obstinate in what is amiss in them in this respect and don’t stand to justify their forwardness and unchristian speeches, they notwithstanding may deserve credit when they profess themselves conscientious in the affair in general.
Thus, dear Sir, I have freely signified to you some of my thoughts with regard to some of the concerns of the difficult day which prove a trouble to you, not with any aim at controlling you. I am sensible that you and not I are the pastor of the Second Church of Hartford. I only desire you would impartially consider the reasons I have offered. Begging of Christ, our common Lord, that he would direct you in your thought and practice to that which will be acceptable in his sight, I am,
(Jonathan Edwards.)
47. TO THE REVEREND WILLIAM McCULLOCH
Edwards does not hesitate to catalog the lapses of those who earlier claimed revival benefits and to repudiate any claim that the millennium has begun. Not only should a cooling of ardor be expected, he writes, but the church should prepare for persecutions, even defeats, before its final triumph. Ultimately, God will usher in his perfect rule. Edwards sketches here the prophetic themes expanded in “Notes on the Apocalypse” and Humble Attempt.
(Trask Library, ALS, six quarto leaves, infolded quire. Published in Dwight ed., 1, 211—19; and abridged in Works, 4, 558—60. For a fuller discussion of the themes in this letter, particularly the interpretations of Revelation 11, see Works, 5.)
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Northampton, March 5, 1743/4 Rev. and Dear Sir,
I return you thanks for your most obliging, entertaining, and instructive letter, dated August 13, 1743, which I received about the latter end of October. My answering–which has been unhappily delayed, by reason of my distance from Boston, and not being able to find any opportunity to send thither till the ship was gone that brought your letter, which I much regretted–my delaying to answer has been far from arising from any indifference with respect to this correspondence by which, I am sensible, I am highly honored and privileged.
‘Tis probable that you have been informed by other correspondents before now what the present state of things in New England is. It is indeed on many accounts very melancholy. There is a vast alteration within this two years; for about so long, I think it is, since the Spirit of God began to withdraw, and this great work has been on the decline. Great numbers in the land about two years ago were raised to an exceeding great height, in joy and elevations of mind. And through want of watchfulness and sensibleness of the danger and temptation that there is in such circumstances, many were greatly exposed. And the devil taking the advantage, multitudes were soon, and to themselves insensibly, led far away from God and their duty. God was provoked that he was not sanctified in this height of advancement, as he ought to have been. He saw our spiritual pride and self-confidence, and the polluted flames that arose of intemperate, unhallowed zeal, and he soon in a great measure withdrew from us. And the consequence has been that “the enemy has come in like a flood,” in various respects, until the deluge has overwhelmed the whole land. There had from the beginning been a great mixture, especially in some places, of false experiences, and false religion with true; but from about this time, the mixture became much greater, many were led away with sad delusions. And this opened the door for “the enemy to come in like a flood” in another respect: it gave great advantage to the enemies and opposers of this work, furnished them with weapons, and gave ’em new courage, and has laid the friends of the work under such disadvantages that nothing that they could do would avail anything to withstand their violence. And now it is come to that, that the work is put to a stop everywhere, and it is the day of the enemy’s triumph; but I believe also a day of God’s people’s humiliation, which will be better to ’em in the end than their elevations and raptures. The time has been amongst us “when the sower went forth to sow,” and we have seen the spring, wherein the seed sprang up in different sorts of ground, appearing then fair and flourishing; but this spring is past, and we now see the summer, wherein the sun is up with a burning heat, that tries the sorts of ground. And now appears the difference: the seed in stony ground, where there was only a thin layer of earth on a rock, whithers away, the moisture being dried out; and the hidden seeds and roots of thorns, in unsubdued ground, now springs up and chokes the seed of the Word. Many high professors are fallen, some into gross immoralities; some into the opinions of sectaries; some into a rooted, spiritual pride, enthusiasm, and an incorrigible wildness of behavior; some into a cold, carnal frame of mind, showing a great indifference to things of religion. But there are many–and I hope those the greater part of those that were professed converts–appear hitherto like the good ground. And notwithstanding the thick and dark clouds that so soon follow that blessed sunshine that we have had, yet I cannot but steadfastly maintain an hope and persuasion that God will revive his work, and that what has been so great and very extraordinary is a forerunner of a yet more glorious and extensive work.
It has been slanderously reported and printed concerning me, that I have often said that the millennium was already begun, and that it began at Northampton. A doctor of divinity in New England,1 has ventured to publish this report to the world from a single person, who is concealed and kept behind the curtain; but the report is very diverse from what I have ever said. Indeed, I have often said, as I say now, that I looked upon the late wonderful revivals of religion as forerunners of those glorious times so often prophesied of in the Scripture, and that this was the first dawning of that light, and beginning of that work which in the progress and issue of it would at last bring on the church’s latter-day glory. But there are many that know that I have from time to time added, that there would probably be many sore conflicts and terrible convulsions, and many changes, revivings and intermissions, and returns of dark clouds, and threatening appearances, before this work shall have subdued the world, and Christ’s kingdom shall be everywhere established and settled in peace, which will be the beginning of the millennium, or day of the church’s peace, rejoicing and triumph on earth, so often spoken of.
I was much entertained and delighted, dear Sir, with your thoughts on that text in Isaiah 59:19, which you signify in your letter: and so have many others been to whom I have communicated them. And as to what you say of some dreadful stroke or trial yet abiding, before the happy days of the promised peace and prosperity of the church, I so far agree with you, that I believe that before the church of God shall have obtained the conquest, and the visible kingdom of Satan on earth shall receive its overthrow, and Christ’s kingdom of grace be everywhere established on its ruins, there shall be a great and mighty struggle between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Satan, attended with the greatest and most extensive convulsions and commotions that ever were upon the face of the earth, wherein doubtless many particular Christians will suffer, and perhaps some parts of the church. But that the enemies of the church of God should ever gain such advantages against her any more, as they have done in times past, that the victory should ever any more be on their side, or that it shall ever be given to the Beast again to make war with the saints, and to prevail against them, and overcome them (as in Revelation 13:7 and Revelation 11:7; and Daniel 7:21) to such a degree as has been heretofore, is otherwise than I hope–though in this I would be far from setting up my own judgment, in opposition to others who are more skilled in the prophecies of the Scripture than I am.
I think that what has mainly induced many divines to be of that opinion is what is said in Revelation 11 concerning the slaying of the witnesses, vv. Revelation 11:7-8, “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them; and their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” The event here spoken of seems evidently to be that wherein the enemies of the church gain the greatest advantage against her that ever they have, and have the greatest conquest of her that ever they obtain, and bring the church nearest to a total extinction. For a long time the church is very small, represented by two witnesses, and they had been long in a very low state, prophesying in sackcloth; but now they are dead, and their enemies triumph over them as having gotten a complete victory, and look upon it that they are now past all possibility of recovery, there being less prospect of the church’s restoration than ever there was before.
But are we to expect this, dear Sir, that Satan will ever find means to bring things to that pass, that after all the increase of light that has been in the world since the Reformation, there shall be a return of a more dark time than in the depth of the darkness of popery, before the Reformation, when the church of God shall be nearer to a total extinction, and have less of visibility; all true religion and light more blotted out of the memories of mankind; Satan’s kingdom of darkness more firmly established; all monuments of true religion more abolished; and that the state of the world should be such, that it should appear farther from any hope of a revival of true religion than ever it has done? Is this conceivable, or possible, as the state of things now is all over the world, even among papists themselves, without a miracle, a greater than any power short of divine can effect, without a long tract of time gradually to bring it to pass, to introduce the grossest ignorance and extinguish all memory and monuments of truth? Which was the case in that great extinction of true religion that was before the Reformation. And besides, if we suppose this war of the Beast, that ascends out of the bottomless pit, with the witnesses, wherein he overcomes them and kills them, to be that last war which the church shall have with the Beast, that great and mighty conflict that shall be just before the final overthrow of Antichrist, that we read of in the 16th chapter, 13th and following verses, and in the 19th chapter; how shall we make them consist together? In the 11th chapter, the church conflicts in sorrow, clothed in sackcloth and in blood; in the 19th chapter, the saints are not represented as fighting in sorrow and blood, though the battle be exceeding great, but in strength, glory, and triumph. Their captain goes forth to this battle in great pomp and magnificence, on white horse, and on his head many crowns, and on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS”; and the saints follow him not in sackcloth, but coming forth on white horses, clothed in fine linen, clean and white, the raiment of triumph, the same raiment that the saints appear in (Revelation 7:14) when they appear with palms in their hands, after they had washed their robes, that had been stained with their own blood, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. In the conflict spoken of (ch. Revelation 11) the Beast makes war with the witnesses, and overcomes them, and kills them; the same is foretold, Daniel 7:21 and Revelation 13:7. But in that last great battle, just before the fall of Antichrist, we find the reverse of this; the church shall obtain a glorious victory over the Beast, and the Beast is taken and cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 17:14, “These shall make war with the Lamb; and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is Lord of Lords, and King of Kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful,” compared with ch. Revelation 19:6 to the end, and ch. Revelation 16:16-17. In that conflict (ch. Revelation 11) the Beast has war with the witnesses, and kills them, and their dead bodies lie unburied, as if it were to be “meat for the beasts of the earth and fowls of heaven”; but in that last conflict, Christ and his church shall slay their enemies, and give their dead bodies to be “meat for the beasts of the earth and fowls of heaven” (ch. Revelation 19:17, etc.).
There is no manner of appearance in the descriptions that are given of that last great battle, of any great advantages gained in it against the church, before the enemy is overcome; but all appearance of the contrary. The descriptions in the 16th and 19th chapters of Revelation will by no means allow of such an advantage as that, (of) the overcoming and slaying the church or people of God, and their lying for some time unburied, that their dead bodies may be for their enemies to abuse and trample on, and make sport with. In the 16th chapter, we have an account of their being gathered together into the place called “Armageddon”; and then the first thing we hear of after that, is the pouring out of the seventh vial of God’s wrath, “and a voice saying, ‘It is done’”. And so in the Revelation 19 (v. Revelation 19:19) we read of “the Beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, being gathered together, to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.” And then the next thing we hear of, is the “Beast’s being taken,” etc. The event of the conflict of the Beast with the church (Revelation 11:9-10) is the triumph of the church’s enemies, when “they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations,” and “they that dwell on the earth,” shall see the dead bodies of the saints lying in the streets, and “shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and send gifts one to another.” But the event of that great and last battle before the fall of Antichrist is quite the reverse of this, even the church’s triumphing over their enemies, as being utterly destroyed. Those events that are consequent on the issue of the war with the witnesses (ch. Revelation 11) do in no wise answer to those that are presented as consequent on that last conflict of Antichrist with the church. ‘Tis said that when the “witnesses ascended into heaven,” the same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand” (Revelation 11:13). But this don’t seem at all to answer what is described, ch. Revelation 16:19, “The great city was divided into three parts,Revelation 11ties of the nations fell; and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath; and every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.” And it had been said before, “there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great” (Revelation 16:18). And in the 19th chapter, instead of slaying seveRevelation 16:19 seems as if there was a general slaughter of all the enemies of the church through the world.
And besides, if we read this 11th chapter through, we shall see that the falling of the tenth part of the city and the rising of the witnesses, and their standing on their feet, and ascending into heaven, are represented there as entirely distinct from the accomplishment of the church’s glory after the fall of Antichrist, and God’s judging and destroying the enemies of the church. The judgments here spoken of as executed on God’s enemies are under another woe, and the benefits bestowed on the church are under another trumpet; for immediately after the account of the rising and ascending of the witnesses, and its consequences, follow these words, vv. Revelation 16:14-15: “The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly: and the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’” And then in the following verses we have an account of the praises sung to God on that occasion; and in the last verse we have a brief hint of that same great earthquake, and the great hail, and those thunders and lightningsRevelation 16:14-15 we have an account of in the latter part of the 16th chapter: so that the earthquake mentioned in the Revelation 11:19 seems to be the great earthquake that attends the last great conflict of the church and her enemies, rather than that mentioned, v. Revelation 11:13.
The grand objection against all this is that it is said, that the “witnesses should prophesy 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth; and when they have finished their testimony, the Beshould make war against them, and kill them,” etc.; and that it seems manifest that after this they are no longer in sackcloth; for henceforward they are in an exalted state in heaven: and that, therefore, seeing the time of their wearing sackcloth is a 1,260 days, i.e. during the time of the continuance of Antichrist, hence their being slain, and their rising again must be at the conclusion of this period, at the end of Antichrist’s reign.
In answer to which I would say, with submission to better judgments, that I humbly conceive that we can justly infer no more from this prophecy than this, viz. the 1,260 days is the proper time (as it were) of the church’s trouble and bondage, as being clothed in sackcloth, because it is the appointed time of the reign of Antichrist; but this don’t hinder but that God, out of great compassion to his church, should in some respect shorten the days, and grant that his church should in some measure anticipate the appointed great deliverance that should be at the end of these days, as he has in fact done in the Reformation, whereby his church has had a great degree of restoration granted her from the darkness, power, and dominion of Antichrist before her proper time of restoration, which is at the end of the 1,260 days. And so the church, through the compassions of her Father and Redeemer, anticipates her deliverance from her sorrows; and has in some respects an end put to her testifying in sackcloth, as many parts of the church are henceforward brought out from under the dominion of the Antichristian powers, into a state of liberty; though in other respects the church may be said still to continue in her sackcloth, and in the wilderness (as ch. Revelation 12:14), till the end of the days. And as to the witnesses standing on their feet, and ascending into heaven, I would propose that it may be considered whether any more can be understood by it, than the Protestant church’s being now (at least as to many parts of it) able to stand on her own legs, and in her own defense, and being raised to such a state, that she henceforward is out of the reach of the Romish powers, that, let them do what they will, they shall never any more be able to get the church under their power, as they had before: as oftentimes in Scriptures, God’s people’s dwelling in safety, out of the reach of their enemies, is represented by their dwelling on high, or being set on high (Psalms 59:1; Isaiah 33:16; Psalms 69:29, Psalms 91:14. and Psalms 107:41; Proverbs 29:25); and as the children of Israel, when brought out of Egypt, were said to be carried on eagle’s wings, that is lofty in its flight, flies away towards heaven, where none of her enemies can reach her.
I might here observe that we have other instances of God’s shortening the days of his church’s captivity and bondage, either at the beginning or latter end, in some measure parallel with this. Thus the proper time of the bondage of the posterity of Abraham in a strange land was 400 years (Genesis 15:13), but yet God in mercy delayed their bondage, whereby the time was much shortened at the beginning. So the time wherein it was foretold that the “whole land of Israel should be a desolation and an astonishment,” and the land should enjoy her sabbaths (2 Chronicles 36:21), was seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11-12), and these seventy years are dated in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 from Zedekiah’s captivity; and yet from that captivity, to Cyrus’ decree, was but about fifty-two years–though it was indeed about seventy years before the temple was finished. So the proper time of the oppression of Antiochus Epiphanes, wherein “both the sanctuary, and the host should be trodden under foot by him, was two thousand and three hundred days” (Daniel 8:13-14). And yet God gave Israel a degree of deliverance by the Maccabees, and they were holpen with a little help and the host (cased to be trodden under foot before that time was expired (Daniel 11:32, Daniel 11:34).
But in these things, dear Sir, I am by no means dogmatical. I do but humbly offer my thoughts on what you suggested in your letter, submitting them to your censure. ‘Tis pity that we should expect such a terrible devastation of the church, before her last and most glorious deliverance, if there be no such thing to be expected. It may be a temptation to some of the people of God the less earnestly to wish and pray for the near approach of the church’s glorious day, and the less to rejoice in the signs of its approach.
But let us go on what scheme we will, it is most apparent by the Scriptures that there are mighty strugglings to be expected between the church of God and her enemies, before her great victory; and there may be many lesser strugglings before that last and greatest and universal conflict. Experience seems to show that the church of God, according to God’s method of dealing with her, needs a great deal gradually to prepare her for that prosperity and glory that he has promised her on earth, as the growth of the earth after winter needs gradually to be prepared for the summer heat. I have known instances, wherein, by the heat’s coming on suddenly in the spring without intermissions of cold to check the growth, the branches, many of them, by a too hasty growth have afterwards died. And perhaps God may bring on a spiritual spring as he does the natural, with now and then a pleasant sun-shiny season, and then an interruption by clouds and stormy winds, till at length the sun, by more and more approaching and the light increasing, the strength of the winter is broken. We are extremely apt to get out of the right way. A very great increase of comfort that is sudden, without time and experience, in many in stances has appeared to wound the soul, in some respects, though it seems to profit it in others. Sometimes, at the same time that the soul seems wonderfully delivered from those lusts that are more carnal and earthly, there is an insensible increase of those that are more spiritual, as God told the children of Israel that he would put out the former inhabitants of the land of Canaan by little and little, and would not consume ’em at once, lest the beasts of the field should increase upon them. We need much experience to teach us the innumerable ways that we are liable to err, and to show us the evil and pernicious consequences of those errors. If it should please God before many years to grant another great revival of religion in New England, we should perhaps be much upon our guard against such errors as we have run into, and which have undone us this time, but yet might run insensibly into other errors that now we think not of.
You inquire of me, Reverend Sir, whether I reject all those for counterfeits that speak of visions and trances. I am far from doing of it: I am, and always have been, in that matter of the same opinion that Mr. (James) Robe expresses in some of those pamphlets Mr. (John) Mac-Laurin sent me, that persons are neither to be rejected, nor approved on such a foundation. I have expressed the same thing in my discourse on the marks of a work of the true Spirit,2 and han’t changed my mind.
I am afraid, dear Sir, that I have been too bold with you in being so lengthy and tedious, and been too impertinent and forward to express my opinion upon this and that; but I consider myself as writing to a candid Christian friend and brother, with whom I may be free and bold, and from whom I may promise myself excuse and forgiveness. Dear brother, asking your earnest prayers for me and for New England, I am your affectionate brother and engaged friend and servant,
Jonathan Edwards.
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