History

From the Archives: Extracts from Two Sermons by Edwards

Edwards is best remembered for preaching the sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” which greatly affected the congregation at Enfield, Connecticut. on July 8, 1741. The sermon is often held up as an example of the Puritans’ pathological obsession with hell and a God of wrath. In truth, the sermon, excerpted below, is a devout appeal to repentance, made to an audience that had no doubts about the reality of hell and a God who would judge mankind. It is not really typical of Edwards’ sermons, which more often spoke of the love and joy of the Christian life. The excerpts from “Safety, Fulness, and Sweet Refreshment to Be Found in Christ” are probably more typical of Edwards’ preaching. Excerpts from both sermons are reprinted here to show that the preacher of God’s wrath could speak sweetly and eloquently of God’s love.

Samuel Hopkins, Edwards’ friend and first biographer, has left us valuable information about Edwards’ preaching style. According to Hopkins, Edwards was a far cry from the stereotyped ranting, gesturing evangelist. In fact, Edwards’ soft, solemn voice did not lend itself to loud tirades. Edwards was renowned as a preacher because (quoting Hopkins) “his words were so full of ideas, set in such a plain and striking light, that few speakers have been so able to demand the attention of an audience as he. His words often discovered a great degree of inward fervor, without much noise or external emotion, and fell with great weight on the minds of his hearers.” What Edwards lacked in oratorical gifts—Whitefield was the great orator, not Edwards—he made up for with Scripture-based sermons that presented with logic, integrity, and vivid word pictures the need to cling to God.

Edwards went into the pulpit carrying a small booklet, containing the entire text of the sermon he was to preach. He would have already written out the sermon on scraps of paper, which his wife Sarah dutifully had sewn into a booklet. He often berated himself for reading many of his sermons, but he insisted that sound preaching would result if pastors would take the pains to write out their sermons word for word, then commit them to memory before preaching. The sermon extracts below will show that Edwards himself thought through each sermon carefully. They are flawless in their logic and construction. and they attest not only to their creator’s rationality and order, but to his warmth and emotional depth as well. They show that head and heart worked together when Edwards held the pulpit.

Safety, Fulness, and Sweet Refreshment, to Be Found in Christ

ISAIAH 32:2

And a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

… There is a provision for the satisfaction and contentment of the thirsty longing soul in Christ, as he is the way to the Father; not only from the fullness of excellency and grace which he has in his own person, but as by him we may come to God, may be reconciled to him, and may be made happy in his favour and love.

The poverty and want of the soul in its natural state consist in its being separated from God, for God is the riches and the happiness of the creature. But we naturally are alienated from God; and God is alienated from us, our Maker is not at peace with us. But in Christ there is a way for a free communication between God and us; for us to come to God, and for God to communicate himself to us by his Spirit. John 14:6. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Ephes. 2:13, 18, 19. “But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.”

Christ by being thus the way to the Father, is the way to true happiness and contentment. John 10:9. “I am the door: by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

Hence I would take occasion to invite needy, thirsty souls to come to Jesus. “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” You that have not yet come to Christ, are in a poor, necessitous condition; you are in a parched wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. And if you are thoroughly awakened, you are sensible that you are in distress and ready to faint for want of something to satisfy your souls. Come to him who is “as rivers of water in a dry place.” There are plenty and fulness in him; he is like a river that is always flowing, you may live by it for ever and never be in want. Come to him who has such excellency as is sufficient to give full contentment to your soul, who is a person of transcendent glory, and ineffable beauty, where you may entertain the view of your soul for ever without weariness, and without being cloyed. Accept of the offered love of him who is the only begotten Son of God, and his elect, in whom his soul delighteth. Through Christ, come to God the Father, from whom you have departed by sin. He is the way, the truth, and the life; he is the door, by which if any man enters he shall be saved.

There are quiet rest and sweet refreshment in Christ Jesus, for those that are weary. He is “as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”…

When sinners come to Christ, he takes away that which was their burden, or their sin and guilt, that which was so heavy upon their hearts, that so distressed their minds.

First. He takes away the guilt of sin, from which the soul before saw no way how it was possible to be freed, and which, if it was not removed, led to eternal destruction. When the sinner comes to Christ, it is all at once taken away, and the soul is left free, it is lightened of its burden, it is delivered from its bondage, and is like a bird escaped from the snare of the fowler.

The soul sees in Christ a way to peace with God, and a way by which the law may be answered, and justice satisfied, and yet he may escape; a wonderful way indeed, but yet a certain and a glorious one. And what rest does it give to the weary soul to see itself thus delivered, that the foundation of its anxieties and fears is wholly removed, and that God’s wrath ceases, that it is brought into a state of peace with God, and that there is no more occasion to fear hell, but that it is for ever safe!

How refreshing is it to the soul to be at once thus delivered of that which was so much its trouble and terror, and to be eased of that which was so much its burden! This is like coming to a cool shade after one has been traveling in a dry and hot wilderness, and almost fainting under the scorching heat.

And then Christ also takes away sin itself, and mortifies that root of bitterness which is the cause of all the inward tumults and disquietudes that are in the mind, that make it like the troubled sea that cannot rest, and leaves it all calm. When guilt is taken away and sin is mortified, then the foundation of fear, and trouble, and pain is removed, and the soul is left in peace and serenity.

Secondly. Christ puts strength and a principle of new life into the weary soul that comes to him. The sinner, before he comes to Christ, is as a sick man that is weakened and brought low, and whose nature is consumed by some strong distemper: he is full of pain, and so weak that he cannot walk nor stand. Therefore, Christ is compared to a physician. “But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole, need not a physician, but they that are sick.” When he comes and speaks the word, he puts a principle of life into him that was before as dead: he gives a principle of spiritual life and the beginning of eternal life; he invigorates the mind with a communication of his own life and strength, and renews the nature and creates it again, and makes the man to be a new creature.

So that the fainting, sinking spirits are now revived, and this principle of spiritual life is a continual spring of refreshment, like a well of living water. “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Christ gives his Spirit, that calms the mind, and is like a refreshing breeze of wind. He gives that strength whereby he lifts up the hands that hang down, and strengthens the feeble knees.

Thirdly. Christ gives to those who come to him such comfort and pleasure as are enough to make them forget all their former labour and travail. A little of true peace, a little of the joys of the manifested love of Christ, and a little of the true and holy hope of eternal life, are enough to compensate for all that toil and weariness, and to erase the remembrance of it from the mind. That peace which results from true faith passes understanding, and that joy is joy unspeakable….

Before proceeding to the next particular of this proposition, I would apply myself to those that are weary; to move them to repose themselves under Christ’s shadow.

The great trouble of such a state, one would think, should be a motive to you to accept an offer of relief, and remedy. You are weary, and doubtless would be glad to be at rest; but here you are to consider,

1st. That there is no remedy but in Jesus Christ; there is nothing else will give you true quietness. If you could fly into heaven, you would not find it there; if you should take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth, in some solitary place in the wilderness, you could not fly from your burden. So that if you do not come to Christ, you must either continue still weary and burdened, or, which is worse, you must return to your old dead sleep, to a state of stupidity; and not only so, but you must be everlastingly wearied with God’s wrath.

2d. Consider that Christ is a remedy at hand. You need not wish for the wings of a dove that you may fly afar off, and be at rest, but Christ is nigh at hand, if you were but sensible of it. Rom. 10:6, 7, 8. “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring Christ up again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach.” There is no need of doing any great work to come at this rest; the way is plain to it; it is but going to it, it is but sitting down under Christ’s shadow. Christ requires no money to purchase rest of him, he calls to us to come freely, and for nothing. If we are poor and have no money, we may come. Christ sent out his servants to invite the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind. Christ does not want to be hired to accept of you, and to give you rest. It is his work as Mediator to give rest to the weary, it is the work that he was anointed for, and in which he delights. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”

3d. Christ is not only a remedy for your weariness and trouble, but he will give you an abundance of the contrary, joy and delight. They who come to Christ, do not only come to a resting-place after they have been wandering in a wilderness, but they come to a banqueting-house where they may rest, and where they may feast. They may cease from their former troubles and toils, and they may enter upon a course of delights and spiritual joys.

Christ not only delivers from fears of hell and of wrath, but he gives hopes of heaven, and the enjoyment of God’s love. He delivers from inward tumults and inward pain, from that guilt of conscience which is as a worm gnawing within, and he gives delight and inward glory. He brings us out of a wilderness of pits, and drought, and fiery flying spirits; and he brings us into a pleasant land, a land flowing with milk and honey. He delivers us out of prison, and lifts us off from the dunghill, and he sets us among princes, and causes us to inherit the throne of glory. Wherefore, if any one is weary, if any is in prison, if any one is in captivity, if any one is in the wilderness, let him come to the blessed Jesus, who is as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Delay not, arise and come away.

There are quiet rest and sweet refreshment in Christ for God’s people that are weary.

The saints themselves, while they remain in this imperfect state, and have so much remains of sin in their hearts, are liable still to many troubles and sorrows, and much weariness, and have often need to resort anew unto Jesus Christ for rest. I shall mention three cases wherein Christ is a sufficient remedy.

First. There is rest and sweet refreshment in Christ for those that are wearied with persecutions. It has been the lot of God’s church in this world for the most part to be persecuted. It has had now and then some lucid intervals of peace and outward prosperity, but generally it has been otherwise. This has accorded with the first prophecy concerning Christ; “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.” Those two seeds have been at enmity ever since the time of Abel. Satan has borne great malice against the church of God, and so have those that are his seed. And oftentimes God’s people have been persecuted to an extreme degree, have been put to the most exquisite torments that wit or art could devise, and thousands of them have been tormented to death.

But even in such a case there are rest and refreshment to be found in Christ Jesus. When their cruel enemies have given them no rest in this world; when, as oftentimes has been the case, they could not flee, nor in any way avoid the rage of their adversaries, but many of them have been tormented gradually from day to day, that their torments might be lengthened; still rest has been found even then in Christ. It has been often found by experience; the martyrs have often showed plainly that the peace and calm of their minds were undisturbed in the midst of the greatest bodily torment, and have sometimes rejoiced and sung praises upon the rack and in the fire. If Christ is pleased to send forth his Spirit to manifest his love, and speaks friendly to the soul, it will support it even in the greatest outward torment that man can inflict. Christ is the joy of the soul and if the soul be but rejoiced and filled with divine light, such joy no man can take away; whatever outward misery there be the spirit will sustain it.

Secondly. There is in Christ rest for God’s people, when exercised with afflictions. If a person labour under great bodily weakness, or under some disease that causes frequent and strong pains, such things will tire out so feeble a creature as man. It may to such an one be a comfort and an effectual support to think that he has a Mediator who knows by experience what pain is; who by his pain has purchased eternal ease and pleasure for him; and who will make his brief sufferings to work out a far more exceeding delight, to be bestowed when he shall rest from his labours and sorrows.

If a person be brought into great straits as to outward subsistence, and poverty brings abundance of difficulties and extremities; yet it may be a supporting, refreshing consideration to such an one to think, that he has a compassionate Saviour, who when upon earth, was so poor that he had not where to lay his head, and who became poor to make him rich, and purchased for him durable riches, and will make his poverty work out an exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

If God in his providence calls his people to mourn over lost relations, and if he repeats his stroke and takes away one after another of those that were dear to him; it is a supporting, refreshing consideration to think, that Christ has declared that he will be in stead of all relations unto those who trust in him. They are as his mother, and sister, and brother; he has taken them into a very near relation to himself: and in every other afflictive providence, it is a great comfort to a believing soul to think that he has an intercessor with God, that by him he can have access with confidence to the throne of grace, and that in Christ we have so many great and precious promises, that all things shall work together for good, and shall issue in eternal blessedness. God’s people, whenever they are scorched by afflictions as by hot sunbeams, may resort to him, who is as a shadow of a great rock, and be effectually sheltered, and sweetly refreshed.

Thirdly. There is in Christ quiet rest and sweet refreshment for God’s people, when wearied with the buffetings of Satan. The devil, that malicious enemy of God and man, does whatever lies in his power to darken and hinder, and tempt God’s people, and render their lives uncomfortable. Often he raises needless and groundless scruples, and casts in doubts, and fills the mind with such fear as is tormenting, and tends to hinder them exceedingly in the Christian course; and he often raises mists and clouds of darkness, and stirs up corruption, and thereby fills the mind with concern and anguish, and sometimes wearies out the soul. So that they may say as the psalmist; “Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.”

In such a case if the soul flies to Jesus Christ, they may find rest in him, for he came into the world to destroy Satan, and to rescue souls out of his hands. And he has all things put under his feet, whether they be things in heaven, or things on earth, or things in hell, and therefore he can restrain Satan when he pleases. And that he is doubtless ready enough to pity us under such temptations, we may be assured, for he has been tempted and buffeted by Satan as well as we. He is able to succour those that are tempted. and he has promised that he will subdue Satan under his people’s feet. Let God’s people therefore, when they are exercised with any of those kinds of weariness, make their resort unto Jesus Christ for refuge and rest.

Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God

DEUT. 32:35

—Their foot shall slide in due time:—

In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God’s visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God’s wonderful works toward them, remained (as ver. 28) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of Heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text.—The expression I have chosen for my text, Their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.

1. That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented by their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm 73:18,19. “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: how are they brought into desolation as in a moment?” …

2. It implies that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot forsee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: which is also expressed in Psalm 73:18, 19. “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places, thou castedst them down into destruction: how are they brought into desolation as in a moment?” …

The bow of God’s wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced, light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince: and yet, it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you were suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.

O sinner! consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell….

How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3. which are the words of the great God, “I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.” It is perhaps impossible to conceive of the words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, viz. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favour, that, instead of that, he will only tread you under foot. And though he will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt; no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet, to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that would provoke them. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego; and accordingly gave order that the burning fiery furnace should be heated seven times hotter than it was before: doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it. But the great God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power, in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Rom. 9:22. “What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?” And seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, even to show how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness, of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect. There will be something accomplished and brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengence on the poor sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. Isaiah 33:12–14. “And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear, ye that are afar off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites,” etc.

Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments. You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isaiah 66:23, 24. “And it shall come to pass. that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die; neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”

It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengence; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: for “who knows the power of God’s anger?”

How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell! And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meetinghouse, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest, will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly, upon many of you. You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living, and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned, hopeless souls give for one day’s opportunity such as you now enjoy!

And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands calling, and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north, and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. How awful it is to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit!

How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield, where they are flocking from day to day to Christ?

Are there not many here who have lived long in the world, and are not to this day born again? and so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath? Oh, Sirs, your case, in an especial manner, is extremely dangerous. Your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely great. Do not you see how generally persons of your years are passed over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful dispensation of God’s mercy? You had need to consider yourselves and awake thoroughly out of sleep. You cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of the infinite God.—And you, young men and young women, will you neglect this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness.—And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?

And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God’s word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favour to some, will doubtless be a day of remarkable vengence to others. Men’s hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace, at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles’ days, the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you were born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God’s Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the axe is in an extraordinary manner laid at the roots of the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: “Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.”

Copyright © 1985 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine. Click here for reprint information on Christian History.

History

From the Archives: The Earliest Known Letter of Jonathan Edwards

This letter was written by the twelve-year-old Jonathan Edwards to his sister Mary on May 10, 1716.

Windsor May 10, 1716

Dear Sister,

Through the wonderful mercy and goodness of God there hath in this place been a verry remarkable stirring and pouring out of the Spirrit of God, and likewise now is but I think I have reason to think it is in some mesure diminished but I hope not much. About thirteen have been joyned to the church in an estate of full communion.

These are those which by enquiry I find you have not heard of that have joynd to the church, viz; John Huntington, Sarah Loomas the daughter of Thomas Loomas, and Esther Elsworth. And their are five that are propounded which ave not added to the church, namely, John Loomas, John Rockwell’s wife, Serg’t Thomas Elsworth’s wife, Isaac Bessel’s wife, and Mary Osband I think there comes commonly a Mondays above thirty persons to speak with Father about the condition of their souls.

It is a time of general health in this place. There has five persons died in this place since you have been gone, viz, Old Goodwife Grant and Benjamin Bancraft who was drowned in a boat many rods from shore wherein four young women and many others of the other sex, which were verry remarkably saved, and the two others which died I suppose you have heard of, Margaret Peck of the New Town who was once Margaret Stiles hath lost a sucking babe who died very suddenly and was burried in this place

Abagail Hannah and Lucy have had the chicken pox and are recovered but Jerusha has it now but is almost well.

I myself sometimes am much troubled with the tooth ack but these two or three last days I have not been troubled with it but verry little as far as I know the whole family is well except Jerusha

Sister I am glad to hear of your welfare so often as I do I should be glad to hear from you by a letter and therein hope it is with you as to your crookedness

Your Loving Brother Jonathan E

Father and Mother remember their love unto you. Likewise do all my sisters and Mercy and Tim.

Copyright © 1985 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine. Click here for reprint information on Christian History.

History

Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

Mark A. Noll

Typical of many other serious young men of his day, the young Jonathan Edwards drew up a list of resolutions, committing himself to a God-centered life lived in harmony with others. The list, excerpted here, was probably first written down in 1722 and added to at several times in his lifetime. There are seventy resolutions in all. The excerpts here give a picture of the seriousness and resolve with which Edwards approached life.

Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God’s help, I do humbly intreat Him by His grace to enable me to keep these resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to His will, for Christ’s sake.

Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration.

Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general.

Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.

Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

Resolved, To be endeavoring to find out fit objects of charity and liberality.

Resolved, To maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.

Resolved, Never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.

Resolved, To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.

Resolved, To strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher excercise of grace, than I was the week before.

Resolved, To ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year, wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better.

Resolved, Frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism, which I solemnly renewed, when I was received into the communion of the church; and which I have solemnly re-made this twelfth day of January, 1722–3.

Resolved, Never hence-forward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God’s.

Resolved, I will act so as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent, when I come into the future world.

Resolved, Never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.

Resolved, After afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them, what good I have got by them, and what I might have got by them.

Although his biography presents many dramatic contrasts, these were in reality only different facets of a common allegiance to a sovereign God. Thus, Edwards both preached ferocious hell-fire sermons and expressed lyrical appreciations of nature because the God who created the world in all its beauty was also perfect in holiness. Edwards combined herculean intellectual labors with child-like piety because he perceived God as both infinitely complex and blissfully simple. In his Northampton church his consistent exaltation of divine majesty led to very different results—he was first lionized as a great leader and then dismissed from his pulpit. Edwards held that the omnipotent deity required repentance and faith from his human creatures so he proclaimed both the absolute sovereignty of God and the urgent responsibilities of men.

Mark A. Noll is professor of history at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. He is an editor of Eerdman’s Handbook of Christianity in America, and the author of Christians and the American Revolution.

Copyright © 1985 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine.Click here for reprint information on Christian History.

History

Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening: Did You Know?

In this series

Jonathan Edwards was the only son in a family of eleven children. He and his wife Sarah had eleven children of their own.

Though John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards were born the same year (1703) and admired each other’s evangelistic work, the two men never met. Both were friends of George Whitefield and both emphasized the need for conversion and heartfelt religion. Edwards read Wesley’s Hymns and Sacred Poems and Wesley supervised the publication in England of Edwards’ Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion.

Edwards’ reputation as a dramatic hell-fire preacher is largely undeserved. He usually spoke quietly and with dignity, though emphatically, and his voice was unsuitable for preaching to large crowds. He never used loud volume or exaggerated gestures to make his points, for he relied on striking imagery and the logical argument of his sermons.

As part of his daily devotions, Edwards rode his horse into the woods and walked alone, meditating. He would write notes to himself on scraps of paper and pin them to his coat. On returning home, he would be met by Sarah, who would help unpin his notes.

Edwards advanced and supported the Great Awakening in New England, but viewed with suspicion the emotional excesses generated by the revival. While he encouraged repentance and heartfelt devotion to God, he was bothered somewhat by the shreiking, trances, and ecstatic deliriums that often accompanied the revivals. While the physical signs did not discredit the Awakening for Edwards, he felt some pastors placed an undue emphasis on outward signs.

Though trained to be logical and rational, Edwards insisted that true religion is primarily rooted in the affections, not in reason. He wrote the famous Treatise on Religious Affections to prove his point, and in the treatise he reveals his own deep feelings of religious devotion.

Edwards, who wrote at age thirteen an essay on spiders, always was interested in scientific matters and saw no warfare between religion and science. He read and appreciated the works of Sir Isaac Newton, and felt that good theology and good science would support and complement each other, since both were involved in the quest for truth. In writing the narrative of the New England revivals, Edwards tried to be as empirical and objectively analytical as any physicist or chemist.

After twenty-three years as pastor at Northampton, Edwards was dismissed from his post in 1750. The congregation was enraged at Edwards’ insistence that only persons who had made a profession of faith could be admitted to the Lord’s Supper. Fifty years earlier, Edwards’ grandfather Solomon Stoddard had opened the Lord’s Supper at Northampton to all who would come. The people at Northampton were determined not to have the privilege revoked, so they asked Edwards to leave.

From 1743 on, Edwards was in frequent correspondence with several Scottish ministers, all evangelical Calvinists like himself. Edwards discussed theology with his correspondents and kept them apprised on the revivals in New England. His Scottish friends helped spread Edwards’ fame in Great Britain. When Edwards was ousted from his Northampton pulpit, his Scottish friends suggested that he emigrate to Scotland and serve a Presbyterian church there.

Edwards never completed his History of the Work of Redemption, a massive theological treatise in the form of a history. To prepare himself for the task, he read every historical work he could lay his hands on. He planned to trace the workings of God from Creation to his own day. The groundwork for the treatise, a series of lectures given in 1739, was published in Scotland in 1774 and in America in 1786.

Copyright © 1985 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine. Click here for reprint information on Christian History.

History

Edwards’ Theology

Richard Lovelace

Puritanism Meets a New Age

In this series

Jonathan Edwards may be the greatest American theologian and philosopher—and perhaps also the greatest mind—America has yet produced. Edwards’ theological genius lay in his ability to summarize effectively the main thrusts of the Reformation and Puritanism and yet not merely to reiterate these, but to apply them to crucial problems in his own century.

Edwards’ theology is rooted in Calvinism. Many of his major works are simply consistent applications of Calvin’s teaching on God’s grace and sovereignty. Edwards is undoubtedly the most powerful theologian writing in the Reformed tradition before the twentieth century.

But the sources of his thinking range far beyond Calvinism. He was influenced by various currents of thought in the seventeenth century. Some of these, like Cambridge Platonism and the philosophy of John Locke, utterly contradict one another, and seem far removed from Reformation thought. And Edwards’ theology makes considerable use of reason and natural theology. But above all else Edwards was nurtured by Puritan spiritual theology. In many ways, he is the Johann Sebastian Bach of Puritanism, perfecting and summarizing this movement’s emphasis on Christian experience at a time when it was out of fashion.

Confronting a Dead Orthodoxy

Edwards applied his theological synthesis in confronting two critical problems in the eighteenth century. One of these crises was internal: the loss of spiritual power within the Puritan renewal movement. Another crisis lay both within the church and around it: the developing climate of humanistic rationalism, the secular drift of Western culture. Edwards’ great achievement was the creation of a theology which confronted both of these crises head-on, opposing a humanist Enlightenment in society with an evangelical awakening in the church.

Edwards’ theology was forged in the flames of the Awakening. When he took over his grandfather’s congregation in Northampton, he found it in a condition of sleepwalking formalism, typical of New England’s spiritual decline. From 1650 on, the Puritan laity had been drifting away from “the power of godliness” which had characterized the first generation. They could still give correct answers to the catechism, but their hearts were fixed not on God, but on land and trade.

Edwards’ remedy for the church was aimed at a form of the same disease that was assaulting the culture: the darkening and disabling of the mind through indwelling sin. This affliction was invisible to the intellectual leaders of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They had pinned all their hopes on the powers of human reason set free from superstition, and had thus compounded the problem by relying on the darkened mind for light.

The Puritans had applied Luther’s and Calvin’s understanding of total depravity to the religious understanding. They were dissatisfied even with Calvinist orthodoxy if it was merely “notional” in character—that is, simply the product of learning or conditioning. For the Puritans, orthodox doctrine had to be accompanied by repentance personal trust in Christ, and the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit awakening and illuminating the heart. Head and heart were expected to function together in the Spirit-led life.

Edwards’ development of Calvin’s emphasis on the work of the Spirit was simply the summation of the Puritan attack on dead orthodoxy. In stressing the need for the illumination of biblical truth by “a divine and supernatural light,” Edwards used John Locke’s philosophy of mind more as a storehouse of convenient metaphors than as a theological source. He would not have attributed the awakening impact of his sermons to any rhetoric of sensation, but to the Spirit’s penetration beneath the surface convictions of human reason to awaken “a sense of the heart” focused on the glory of the divine nature and the excellence of Christ.

Confronting the Enlightenment

Edwards’ religious psychology was enriched by the Puritan emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit, but it was also set against the oversimplified categories of Enlightenment psychology. He opposed the effort to divide human nature into separate compartments of mind, will, and emotion, and insisted that all of these faculties are rooted in the heart, the center of human personality. Thus he believed that what we think is inevitably the product of the set of our wills, and that this in turn results from the basic direction of our hearts’ desires.

Edwards took for granted that all our actions spring from our desires. Either we delight in the living God and seek to serve and obey him, or we are captive to desires which are set on lesser goods. His great work on Freedom of the Will is thus not an abstract Calvinist treatise. It is a grappling with the concept that we are free to do whatever we want, but that we will never want to do God’s will without a vision of his divine nature imparted by the Spirit

English rationalists had tried to build an ethical system rooted in self-interest. Adam Smith’s economics expresses this approach: individual self-interest can be pursued with a clear conscience because it tends inevitably toward the good of the whole. But Edwards insists that true virtue can only arise out of a heart which has been spiritually transformed so that it sees God, and seeks his will and the public good rather than private interests.

Apart from this regenerating vision, Edwards sees human nature trapped in its own semi-conscious rebellion against God, expressing hatred toward him in every act. Enlightenment rationalists thought they were conducting a disinterested search for truth. Edwards told them they were evading the real God by choosing to believe in a more manageable deity.

In a comparatively few sermons, he used the rhetoric of hellfire, which Puritans shared with the Counter-Reformation, to drive home the sense of guilt, and give a compassionate call to repentance. But this was not a prevailing theme in Edwards’ theology, since he spoke more of God’s love than of the fires of hell. We only remember “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” because it is such a good example of its genre, and because it was useful to later critics who wanted to “defend” humanity from Puritanism.

A God-Centered Universe

The themes which Edwards prefers to develop are those connected with God’s glory and his grace. Edwards’ universe, like his theology, is relentlessly God-centered. All things proceed from the infinite God, glorious in his divine beauty and excellence. God’s love is poured out on his creation, and yet his own worth is so immeasurably great that his object in creating the world can only have been to exhibit his glory. All theories of salvation which call attention to human works (Roman Catholicism) or human ability (Arminian Protestantism) only detract from the grandeur of his love revealed to us in Jesus Christ, and made real in our hearts only by the illumination of the Spirit.

Enlightenment rationalism had sought to disconnect the world from God’s immediate control. Edwards had learned much from the scientific genius of Isaac Newton, but his theology was a radical attack on the clockwork universe, governed by immanent natural laws, which Newtonian physics seemed to postulate.

The philosophical framework Edwards adopted for this theological attack was a form of panentheism (the concept that all creation has no independent existence from God, but is sustained as an emanation from his being). Today most Christians still think in terms of a universe which God has set in motion and placed under the control of inherent natural laws, although it is still believed that God may intervene and upset those laws if he chooses to work a miracle. Edwards, on the other hand, believed that God’s providence was literally the binding force of atoms—that the universe would collapse and disappear unless God sustained its existence from one moment to the next. For Edwards, the world has no momentum which can sustain it apart from God, and he is in immediate control of every event from moment to moment.

With this view of the universe, Edwards was, in a sense, ahead of his time. His view seems to anticipate the post-Newtonian physics of the twentieth century, in which all matter is ultimately seen in terms of interacting fields of energy, and the forces governing these are rather mysterious. But as usual, Edwards’ view was grounded in Scripture, which affirms that Christ is “upholding all things by his word of power” (Heb. 1:3, RSV), and that “in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Edwards’ thinking, like his universe was relentlessly God-centered.

Edwards’ theology was also, being in the Reformation tradition, centered on Christ. He has given us matchless statements on the work of Christ (“Justification by Faith”) and on his person (“The Excellency of Christ”). Examining the passage in Revelation 5 in which Christ is presented first as a lion and then as a lamb, Edwards develops the thesis that “There is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ.” This conjunction is dialectical in character: Christ combines infinite glory and greatest humility, majesty and meekness, obedience and dominion, sovereignty and resignation, self-sufficiency and trust in God. The resulting sermon, as Edwards’ biographer Perry Miller has said, is a theological masterpiece.

Though Edwards did not produce any summary work of systematic theology, he was surely a systematic thinker. In his notebooks we can trace the growth of his major themes over years of thought, and even specific works like Freedom of the Will and God’s Chief End in Creating the World. Edwards seems to have felt that his whole literary production would ultimately fit together in a summa which he called “A Rational Account of the Main Doctrines of the Christian Religion,” which would be designed to show “how all arts and sciences, the more they are perfected, the more they issue in divinity.”

Theology and Awakening

The strength of Edwards’ theology was that it responded to contemporary occasions of crisis, rather than simply reiterating a party line adopted in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. Edwards was delighted when the Great Awakening in America seemed to be producing a renaissance of Christian experience. When the Awakening developed problems, however, he became a relentless critic, warning against extremes of emotion and sensationalism.

He began by explaining and defending the Awakening—first in A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, which reported what happened in his congregation in 1734, and later in Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (1741). In Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England (1742), however, he gave equal space to a critique of spiritual pride and theological aberrations which had developed during the revival. Finally, in the Treatise on Religious Affections (1746) he focused on one of the oldest Puritan themes—the distinction between “common grace” experiences of the unregenerate and true conversion. In the treatise he set out a rigorous analysis of the differences between carnal religiosity, which evokes a great deal of commotion, and true spirituality, which touches the heart with the vision of God’s excellence, and frees it from self- centeredness. In all these works Edwards defended the role of the emotions in the life of faith. While Charles Chauncy and other liberal critics sneered at the intense emotions generated by the Awakening, Edwards affirmed again and again that reason and emotion both have their place in the Christian life. Edwards admitted that the Awakening had produced some bizarre experiences, but insisted that these did not discredit revivalism or an intensely felt piety.

During the course of the Awakening, Edwards developed the distinctive eschatological outlook which motivated and directed American evangelicalism for the century. Up to this point, American Puritans had preferred classical premillennialism to the amillennial outlook of the Reformers. Sensing the profound impact spiritual awakening made on the church, and could make on a society, Edwards became convinced that the postmillennial outlook of Daniel Whitby was true to Scripture. His view of the future is set out in the sermons on “The History of Redemption,” and in the “Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement,” which sought to promote concerted prayer for worldwide spiritual awakening.

The future Edwards was aiming toward was one in which the entire visible church was spiritually renewed and unified, while all false Christianity (both Romanism and Protestant rationalism) was overthrown. The result of this awakening in the church would be a transformed culture, and “universal peace and a good understanding among the nations of the world … united in one amiable society.” Movement toward this goal would not be instantaneous; it would come in a long series of alternating declines and outpourings of the Spirit, energizing the church for new assaults on the powers of darkness, until these were cast down, and all the earth was “filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord” (Hab. 2:14 RSV). Those who believed strongly in this goal, like Samuel Hopkins, Timothy Dwight, Lyman Beecher, and Charles Finney, were strongly motivated to attack cultural evil and unify the church to evangelize and transform society.

Losing the Vision

American evangelicalism abandoned these goals at the end of the ninteenth century, opting for a pessimistic image of the future. Only the Social Gospel retained the Edwardsean vision in a secularized form, forgetting Edwards’ clear vision of the depth and power of evil, which could only be attenuated by an extraordinary presence of the Spirit. In America in the twentieth century, both evangelicals and liberals have expected ordinary graces and aimed at pedestrian goals.

Today a later generation is finding new relevance in Edwards’ vision of the scope of Christian mission. Once again we are being called to “explicit union in extraordinary prayer for spiritual awakening and world evangelization” (to quote the 1984 Lausanne Prayer Conference’s citation of Edwards). At such a time, we can hope that Christian activists will read Edwards to see the depth of spiritual renewal he expected as a prerequisite for transforming the church and the surrounding culture. And we can hope that they will also catch the vision of a theology which offers radical opposition to the basic principles of secular thought.

Richard Lovelace is professor of church history at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the author of Dynamics of Spirituality and Homosexuality: What Should Christians Do About It?

Copyright © 1985 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine.Click here for reprint information on Christian History.

History

Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening: From the Publisher

This is our fourth issue this year and completes our first year as a quarterly publication. Four other issues appeared as an “occasional” publication. Thus, we now have published eight issues.

We still have no paid or fulltime staff and management, and administration is done on a volunteer basis. We are most thankful to those who have worked long and hard to make this magazine possible.

We are also indebted to you readers who take the time to write and give us your suggestions. Several future issues are now in process as a direct response to reader recommendations.

When we first started, a dedicated Christian young person, a college graduate, asked with a straight face: “Is there enough material available to keep on publishing in the future?” No joke. Perhaps you can appreciate our actual dilemma—what do we choose to extract from the seemingly inexhaustible mine of resources.

Jonathan Edwards is the first American to be treated in a full issue. The selection needs no justification. You will want to read more Edwards after reading this issue. The Banner of Truth Trust (Box 621, Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013) has published The Works of Jonathan Edwards in two thick volumes of very small print. The strain on the eyes is more than compensated by the 2000 pages of food for the mind and heart. They have other Edwards volumes in more comfortable print including his works on the revival and love.

You will recall from our Zwingli issue that a decisive point in the Reformation came at the Colloquy of Marburg in 1529 when Zwingli and Luther agreed on all points of doctrine except the Lord’s Supper and so went their separate ways. The Lord’s Supper was also the issue when Edwards’ congregation dismissed him as pastor at Northampton, Massachusetts. They would not accept his position that unbelievers should not be admitted to the Lord’s table.

Edwards’ farewell sermon is a classic. He commented to his flock:

“As you would seek the future prosperity of this society, it is of vast importance that you should avoid contention.

“A contentious people will be a miserable people. The contentions which have been among you, since I first became your pastor, have been one of the greatest burdens I have labored under in the course of my ministry—not only the contentions you have had with me, but those which you have had with one another, about your lands and other concerns—because I knew that contention, heat of spirit, evil speaking, and things of the like nature, were directly contrary to the spirit of Christianity, and did in a peculiar manner, tend to drive away God’s Spirit from a people, and to render all means of grace ineffectual, as well as destroy a people’s outward comfort and welfare.

“Let me therefore earnestly exhort you as you would seek your own future good, hereafter to watch against a contentious spirit. ‘If you would see good days, seek peace, and ensue it’ (I Peter 3:10–11). Let the late contention about the terms of Christian communion, as it has been the greatest, be the last. I would, now as I am preaching my farewell sermon, say to you, as the apostle to the Corinthians, 2 Cor. 13:11 ‘Finally brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God oft love and peace shall be with you.’ ”

Copyright © 1985 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine. Click here for reprint information on Christian History.

History

Jonathan Edward’s World: Christian History Timeline

Edwards lived in an era of dramatic social and intellectual change. Technological advances in manufacturing changed social life, especially in England. Enlightenment thought was beginning to influence the theology of America, emphasizing reason and slighting the traditional Christian view of man’s nature. Deism was popular among intellectuals in Europe and America, and some thinkers were ready to dispense with the supernatural altogether. However, working within a framework of biblical faith, Edwards did not reach the conclusion—as many persons did—that man’s reason would lead him to do the good.

Edwards worked creatively within the Calvinist tradition, believing that a return to orthodoxy would result in a great revival in America. Faced on the one hand with the rising tide of rationalism and on the other hand with religious revivals that often dispensed with reason altogether, Edwards tried to steer a middle course and maintain a balance of reason and emotion, head and heart in the Christian life.

Jonathan Edwards

1703 Jonathan Edwards born in East Windsor, Connecticut

1716 Admitted to Yale

1720 Graduates from Yale and studies there for the ministry

1722 Serves as pastor of a New York Presbyterian church for eight months

1724 Elected a tutor at Yale

1726 Called to Northampton church as assistant minister to grandfather Solomon Stoddard.

1727 Marriage to Sarah Pierrepont

1729 Death of Solomon Stoddard

1731 Delivers Public Lecture at First Church, Boston

1734 Beginning of Great Awakening in Northampton

1740 Whitefield briefly joins Edwards in revival preaching

1741 Preaches sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” at Enfield

1742 Writes Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion

1746 Writes A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections

1747 Death of David Brainerd at Edwards’ home

1748 Beginning of dissension in Edwards’ church

1750 Farewell Sermon at Northampton

1751 Settles in Stockbridge as pastor to settlers and missionary to Indians

1754 Writes Freedom of the Will

1755 Writes Nature of True Virtue

1757 Chosen president of College of New Jersy (Princeton)

1758 Inaugurated president at Princeton

1758 Dies of smallpox March 22

World Events

1701 Thomas Bray, representative of Bishop of London, organizes Society for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts;

1701 Collegiate School (later called Yale) founded

1702 Anne Queen of England (to 1714) Queen Anne’s War (colonial phase of War of Spanish Succession, concluded by Treaty of Utrecht, 1713)

1702 Cotton Mather writes Magnalia Christi Americana, ecclesiastical history of New England

1703 John Wesley born

1704 Death of English philosopher John Locke, a major influence on Edwards Weekly Review, first American newspaper, published in Boston

1707 Act of Union unites England and Scotland under name Great Britain

1707 Isaac Watts’ Hymns and Spiritual Songs alters course of English hymnody

1709 First mass emigration of Germans to America (Pennsylvania)

1709 Piano invented

1710 Bishop George Berkeley’s Principles of Human Knowledge

1711 Steele and Addison publish The Spectator, gentleman’s newspaper with commentary on news, literature, and art

1712 Last execution for witchcraft in England

1712 Newcomen steam pump, new aid to coal mining

1713 Treaty of Utrecht ends War of Spanish Succession

1714 German philosopher Liebniz’ Monadology, a rebuttal to mechanistic views of man

1714 George I, first Hanoverian King of England (to 1727)

1715 Death of Louis XIV of France. Succeeded by great-grandson

1717 Inoculation against smallpox introduced into England by Lady Mary Wortley Montague

1719 Protestant dissenters tolerated in Ireland

1719 Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe

1721 Czar Peter the Great of Russia subordinates church to state, replaces Patriarch with Holy Synod

1721 Robert Walpole is Britain’s first Prime Minister (to 1742)

1722 Herrnhut founded as Moravian settlement in Saxony by Count von Zinzendorf

1723 Christianity banned in China

1723 Death of architect Christopher Wren, designer of St. Paul’s cathedral

1726 Gilbert Tennent leads revival in New Jersey

1726 Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels

1727 Death of Isaac Newton, whose work Edwards admired

1727 George II King of England (to 1760)

1729 North and South Carolina created as crown colonies

1731 Expulsion of Protestants from Saltzburg. Many emigrate to America

1732 Birth of George Washington

1732 Georgia established as colony under James Oglethorpe

1732 First edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack published by Benjamin Franklin

1733 J.S. Bach’s B-Minor Mass

1733 John Kay invents flying shuttle used in textile mills

1735 Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae, outlining his system of taxonomy of plants

1735 Freedom of the press established in New England by Zenger case

1736 Witchcraft statutes repealed in England

1736 Joseph Butler’s Analogy of Religion written as rebuttal to Deism

1738 John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience, leading to the Methodist Revival

1739 War of Jenkins’ Ear between England and Spain (to 1742)

1740 Frederick the Great reigns as King of Prussia (to 1786)

1740 Samual Richardson’s Pamela, sometimes regarded as first modern English novel

1741 American Presbyterians split over issue of revivalism

1742 First performance of Handel’s Messiah

1742 Jews expelled from Russia

1744 First Methodist General Conference

1744 King George’s War (colonial phase of War of Austrian Succession, ended in 1748)

1744 Painter and engraver William Hogarth’s illustrations for Marriage a la Mode

1746 College of New Jersey (Princeton) founded

1747 Actor David Garrik becomes manager of Drury Lane Theatre

1747 Samuel Johnson begins publication of his Dictionary of the English Language

1748 Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws

1749 Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones

1751 Currency Act restricts issuance of paper money in New England

1751 First volume of French Encyclopedia, published as a monument to reason

1754 French and Indian War (to 1763)

1755 David Hume’s Natural History of Religion, denying supernaturalism in religion

1755 Lisbon earthquake kills 30,000 people

1756 Birth of Mozart

1759 Quebec falls to the British

1759 Voltaire’s Candide

Copyright © 1985 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History magazine. Click here for reprint information on Christian History.

Pastors

SHOOTING ECCLESIASTICAL ELEPHANTS

Robert L. Randall

Before creating such classics as 1984 and Animal Farm, George Orwell was a policeman in the dusty village of Moulmein in Lower Burma. Once an elephant temporarily went berserk and tramped about wildly. The villagers ran for the authorities, who happened to be Orwell on duty alone. As he walked, rifle in hand, to where the beast was last sighted, thousands fell in behind him—clamorous, festive, anticipating the ripe spectacle of an elephant shoot.

Orwell found, however, a quiet animal who now seemed intent on nothing more than grazing. “I did not want to shoot the elephant,” he wrote. “I watched him beating his bunch of grass against his knees, with that preoccupied grandmotherly air that elephants have. It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him. … At that moment, with the crowd watching me, I was not afraid in the ordinary sense, as I would have been if I had been alone. A white man mustn’t be frightened in front of ‘natives’; and so, in general, he isn’t frightened. The sole thought in my mind was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse. . . . And if that happened it was quite probable that some of them would laugh. That would never do. There was only one alternative. I shoved the cartridges into the magazine and lay down on the road to get a better aim.”

When someone is angry at us, this at least indicates we are still considered significant. To be laughed at, however, to suffer another’s discounting snicker, to have others deal with us in an amused, patronizing manner—these blows to our worth leave us barren and diminished. For us, as for Orwell, that will never do.

So it happens that elephants of many kinds are shot in the desperate effort to avoid the humiliation of someone’s scoffing laughter.

We ministers feel the eyes of the “natives” upon us, whether they be the congregation, the board, or a long-time church secretary. We are sensitive to potential derision. This might indicate weak self-esteem, or it may reflect a healthy protectiveness of our emotional integrity. Whatever the case, it is disturbing to witness ministers shooting ecclesiastical elephants in a desperate attempt to avoid some form of diminution.

Although there are many potential targets, the most common is the former pastor.

Dispatching gentle giants

When previous ministers are idealized and honored, their successors often labor under the fearful expectation they will be found wanting by the natives—discounted, humored, merely tolerated. One pastor felt so threatened by such a possibility that he shot at his predecessor during the first council meeting: “In six months I’ll erase the memory of your former pastor!” Such confrontive grandiosity seeks to squelch dismissing affronts even before they arise.

Others may shoot their predecessors only after enduring much frustration, and only then with covert aim. One pastor, who outwardly maintained his composure during a year of being called by the former pastor’s name, quietly began to dismantle successful programs the former pastor had initiated. You don’t need an elephant gun to dispose of an ecclesiastical elephant; there are many ways to avoid anticipated or fantasized smirks. If we must be seen as strong, if we fear depreciating laughter, then we become vulnerable to the inner impulse to destroy ecclesiastical elephants, even if they are gentle giants.

Killing rampaging beasts

What about former pastors who “tramped about wildly” causing chaos and pain as Orwell’s elephant did? A successor may feel pressured to shoot the ecclesiastical beast to please angry church natives. Indeed, some congregations call pastors not only to rectify past damages but also to join in their dia tribes. Such a pastor is protected from the group’s derision only by merging with them, even when it feels inappropriate.

In such a situation it is especially tempting to blast away at the former pastor to cover up one’s own lack of organizational ability or inadequate leadership capacities. By presenting a horrendous scene of prior mismanagement, the new pastor postpones being found wanting. Yet such self-protecting marksmanship may well ricochet. Angry natives once encouraged are hard to placate and may rampage in the future themselves.

In later years, Orwell looked back on this event from the vantage point of maturity and emotional distance. Killing the elephant, he saw, was an impulsive action, born from the gut rather than the head. Feeling had dominated his thinking. Careful analysis rather than impulsive avoidance might have found more than one alternative. Perhaps he could have spared the elephant and saved face.

We who are prone to snipe at ecclesiastical elephants for self-maintaining reasons also need to remember we are worth more than derisive laughter could ever take away. Protecting and enhancing that worth is a lifelong project, not something achieved through momentary reactions.

Copyright © 1985 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

MOTIVATION FOR THE LONG HAUL

Roger Thompson

So send I you to labor unrewarded,

To serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown,

To bear rebuke, to suffer scorn and scoffing,

So send I you to toil for me alone.

As much as we might admire the courage of that hymn, we ought to question its biblical realism. To labor alone, without reward or encouragement, is more the theology of the High Plains drifter than the biblical Christian. Jesus, Paul, Titus, Timothy, Elijah, Moses, Joshua—to name a few—needed support. They found it in their common life with others of the same vision.

Examining the New Testament, it becomes obvious that God designed the church to insure a context of support. Yes, there are exceptions, and some callings are more lonely and difficult than others, but loneliness and futility are not the earmarks of the Holy Spirit’s power through us. What makes us think we can maintain a high level of motivation all alone when God did not design either individuals or the church for that purpose?

When planning to launch a ministry, either in the local church or overseas, we do well to ask: Who supports me? Who has affirmed my gift for this ministry? Who has urged me to go in this direction ? Who is willing to go with me? Who will guard me against myself?

The fastest way to burn out is to tackle a tough task alone. Though you may survive the gauntlet, rarely will vibrancy or creativity remain intact.

The following are some practical building blocks from which to construct a motivation foundation.

1. Invest in an affirmative outlook. Like love, motivation needs to be given away before it can be received. Practice giving confidence and support to those around you. Begin with your family. Too often, especially with our children, we develop a degenerative spiral of griping and fault finding. This is cancerous to the freedom of the Spirit. Far from motivation, this produces the “exasperation” in children mentioned in Ephesians 6. Nor do radiant wives or respected husbands come from a context riddled with criticism. Break this cycle, whether in the family or in the ministry, by catching people doing something right and rewarding them for it. Invest in an affirmative outlook, and the greatest educational force known to humanity—imitation—will be unleashed.

2. Fuel the fire with like-minded people. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov. 27:17). There is something gregarious about human beings who are excited about something. They form clubs: T-bird clubs, motorcycle clubs, cross-stitch clubs, chess clubs, computer clubs, photography clubs, ad infinitum. When motivated by an idea or project, people publish newsletters, form societies, and write books. They do it for the most frivolous causes—as perennial as a suntan, as trendy as a Cabbage Patch. The point is. God has designed us to seek out like-minded people and share our experiences. For the greatest cause on earth—the gospel—have you become known and supported by a smallgroup, a fellowship of pastors, a periodic meeting of colleagues? Have you participated in a timely seminar, attended a retreat, or formed a ministry team?

Ministry was never meant to be sustained on the sheer abundance of its content. Dumping more data on weary Christian workers does not encourage but defeats them. What is usually needed is the sharpening challenge of another colleague. In the context of cohorts, we can sustain ourselves through the “flat” times and learn from others’ failures and successes. Experience may be the best teacher, but it is also the slowest and most severe. What we gain from like-minded friends is not just truth but fuel for the journey.

3. Clear up conflicts quickly. Nothing is more destructive to drive and purpose than the grit and friction of conflict. The most consuming mental quagmire is an unresolved personal problem. Conflict saps energy, stifles freedom, and undermines motivation. Deal with conflict quickly, especially if it involves you personally, by repentance or forgiveness, so freedom can return to your life.

4. Be alert to deficit motivators. Be careful that your own enterprise is not being fueled by the wrong motivation. Guilt is a deficit motivator—it fuels a hundred-yard dash but not a marathon. The same is true of anger. Though God may instill righteous anger for a time, it too runs us into oxygen debt if it does not yield to biblical motivation. The anger of man does not bring about the righteousness of God. Beware of a crusading spirit on a single issue, which may leave you wasted and gasping. Fear is a close cousin to guilt and anger. Fear of failure is not sufficient reason to take on difficult tasks long-term. Face your inadequacies and avoid trying to prove to the watching world that you are omnicompetent.

5. Get your hands on front-line issues. Involvement in corporate and private prayer is front-line spiritual warfare. So is personally sharing our faith with a nonbelieving friend. Nothing fuels our lives like direct involvement in the basic spiritual issues. Stay close to evangelism as a lifelong endeavor. Keep your hands in the reproductive process of making disciples. Remember that the kingdom of God is in the hearts of men and women, and stay close to that noble work.

Copyright © 1985 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

ON USING PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH

Russ Reid

Some years ago, I went through the most excruciating crisis of my life. A sudden, wrenching divorce, after twenty-three years of marriage and four children, left me angry, guilty, lonely, and confused.

In the midst of this, I found a new church in which to worship and asked the pastor for anonymity. I just wanted to sit and listen for a while. This caring pastor and his people honored my request, accepted me, ministered to me, and asked for nothing in return.

For years I had worked with media, marketing, and fund raising. From the church’s point of view, I was a prime candidate to become a committee workhorse. Instead, I became an object of the love and care of a group of God’s people.

Finally, as healing progressed I joined the church and gradually became more actively involved. Today, I have a part in the daily life of that church. But each Sunday as I enter that sanctuary, I realize my value to that group of people is based on who I am, not what I can do.

This experience confirmed a suspicion I’ve held for a long time: The best Christian service is a by-product of being loved, accepted, and cared for by a fellowship of believers. Church involvement that grows spontaneously from the balm of healing has a more durable foundation than any programmed activity.

Many churches, formally or informally, conduct a sort of “skills inventory” of each new member. When a carpenter joins the church, he is automatically slated for the building committee. An educator is asked to teach Sunday school. An accountant is invited to get involved in the financial planning.

Some churches even approach this systematically—with questionnaires, forms, and so forth. Now, with the microcomputer, any church can easily compile a talent data base and select the right person for the right job in seconds.

In today’s society, the worth of an individual is closely tied to his or her vocation. Ask anyone on the street, “What are you?” People aren’t likely to say “a mother,” “a husband,” “a Christian,” “a concerned citizen,” or “an American”; they will name their trade or profession. When we arbitrarily assign these people to similar responsibilities in the church, we imply—whether we mean to or not—that their value to the church lies in direct relationship to their talents.

The questions we need to ask are: What does the church member believe he or she is called to do? Does he want to teach because he has something to share? Will she head the hospitality committee because she wants to return the affirmation she receives from the church? Will he count it as genuine service to stand in the parking lot and point last-minute worshipers toward empty spaces? Will she enjoy doing the publicity as a fulfillment of her calling?

Admittedly, it’s difficult at times to determine who genuinely wants to do what. A “calling” is hard to build into the data base of a computer-matching program. But unless what we ask our lay people to do meets their needs as well as the church’s needs, their service will be short-lived—or done with less and less enthusiasm and integrity.

Almost every church has a few members who find their place of service in the community. They’ve been called to serve in local government, civic leadership, or a trade union. And while they often rub shoulders and trade ideas with the movers and shakers of society, this doesn’t raise them to a higher level in the sight of God. It simply means they’ve been assigned a place of service outside the walls of the sanctuary or the Christian education building.

These people pose a problem for many pastors, however, who, with a normal proprietary interest, would like to put them to work in the programs of the church. Frank Alton, minister of mission at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, admits that “while we try to tell people they are doing God’s work through their work in the world, on occasion we find ourselves saying or thinking, I don’t know why that person isn’t giving more time to church work.”

Richard E. Halverson, chaplain of the U.S. Senate, tells about a very active church member, a dentist, he knew when associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. On one visit, while Dick’s mouth was filled with dental paraphernalia, the dentist revealed that he had been asked to become president of the local school board, and what did the pastor think of that? Unable to blurt out his first negative response, Dick had time to think about his answer.

“The Lord began to deal with me,” he says. “This man was very active in the church, but I could quickly see that one less-active member out of a church of more than eight thousand people wouldn’t hurt. Then I thought. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every school board in America had such a man as president? By the time I could talk again, I had a different answer.”

Dick Halverson adds that he learned a tremendous lesson from that. “The way I tended to think, we should pull all the godly people out of the world and put them to work in the church. Of course, if you did that, you’d have a godless culture. The job of the church is to equip people to be godly influences in every walk of life. That’s what Christ meant when he talked about salt and light and good seed.”

Some people have gifts suited to equipping other people to be godly influences in the world; others are more suited themselves for such involvement. Call them worldly Christians or whatever you choose, these people need the ministry of a pastor, the support of a congregation, and someone to encourage them to stay out there serving God in the community while others are active in the church committee meetings. I believe that, if this happens, you won’t be able to keep those people from giving some of their time and talents to the body of believers that nurtures them.

On the other side of the coin, many Christian workers need release on occasion—simply for a break. They need to back off before they burn out. In many areas of life we recognize the need for periodic rests—on Sundays, vacations, sabbaticals. So, in the work of the church, at times we need to stop and do nothing but worship and drink from the cool cup of fellowship.

When we try and sit out a season, however, we often have to endure the “slings and arrows” of the busy people. “Why aren’t you up in the choir? We need you.” “But who will lead the junior high youth group?” “How can we ever get anyone to take your place?”

This is where an understanding pastor can encourage a harried church member to rest, and help him or her—and the church—feel good about it. In due time, the Christian who is feeding on the Word and celebrating with the community of faith will return to a place of service better equipped to do the job.

I’m probably giving more of my time and resources to my church than I ever have. But the important thing is that it comes out of love, not because someone twisted my arm. The Lord gave me a community of faith when I. needed it most. Now, when the phone rings and the voice at the other end says, “Russ, we need some help,” I’m ready to respond.

Copyright © 1985 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

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